Rail News

Freight traffic slid 2.2 percent in the latest week at small North American railroads measured by the RMI RailConnect index.

A purchase of U.S. freight rail giant BNSF Railway by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway could lead Standard & Poor's Ratings Services to upgrade its assessment of BNSF debt.

Pacer International, seeking to settle a contracting issue central to the company’s intermodal business, announced Tuesday it reached a multi-year agreement with Union Pacific Railroad for new r

International short line operator Genesee & Wyoming earned a profit of $21.7 million in the third quarter, just 2 percent higher than in the same period a year ago.

The planned purchase of BNSF Railway by Berkshire Hathaway underscores the value of railroads generally, according to Wall Street analysts.

The Clorox Co. says it will stop using chlorine in its signature bleach product because of growing concerns over the safety and oversight of transporting the product on railroads.

Norfolk Southern Railway and Pennsylvania’s state government will spend $11 million to expand track and parking in the railroad’s Philadelphia Navy Yard intermodal facility.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced Tuesday it will buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad in a transaction worth an estimated $34 billion.

The prices of the kinds of commodities that manufacturers around the world use to make industrial products hit a record high in the week at the end of October, according to the Industrial price Index

A multi-year program to realign Chicago’s commuter and freight rail system issued its largest contract to date, a $10.4 million project that will double the rail capacity through the Stockyards

The U.S. intermodal market remains tough, but two of the industry’s biggest service providers are finding ways to build on their strengths.

The country may be crawling out of the worst recession in decades, and transportation companies along with their customers may be reeling from slack demand and “unsustainable rates,” but you wouldn’t

Five years ago, the U.S.

Transloading volumes at West Coast ports are down, but importers’ interest in transloading is up as companies look to take cost out of their supply chains.

Shippers in the National Industrial Transportation League are firm in wanting an expected rail regulatory reform bill to strip railroads of a limited exemption they enjoy from antitrust laws, said NIT

The chairman of the Surface Transportation Board is filling his remaining top staff job with a lawyer who has represented industrial firms before regulatory agencies, giving him a pair of senior aides

Traffic edged higher for major U.S. railroads in the week ending Oct. 24, as both carloads and intermodal pickups rose from a week earlier, said the Association of American Railroads.

Surface trade with Canada and Mexico in August fell 24.9 percent from August 2008 to $54.3 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Kansas City Southern, smallest of the seven Class I railroads, saw net income fall 47 percent from a year earlier to $25.8 million in the third quarter.

North American short line railroads picked up more loads in the latest week, with gains across a wide range of cargoes, according to RMI’s RailConnect index.

Trinity Industries, largest of North America’s railcar makers and a large supplier of wind energy towers and barges, did half the business it did a year earlier in the third quarter.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s third-quarter profit fell 41.7 percent from a year earlier to $303 million, as rail revenue fell 28.7 percent to $2.063 billion.

Canadian Pacific Railway’s profit of $183 million in the third quarter increased 14 percent from $161 million in 2008.

Canadian National Railway will have to expand its monthly reporting to regulators about its newly acquired short line outside Chicago, as the Surface Transportation Board said the reports must include

An activist rail shippers’ lobbying group pushed back hard against an industry proposal for Congress to make only limited change in laws governing rail competition.

In the push to mingle more passenger trains in the cargo-dominated rail network, U.S. freight railroads got a key show of support from the Obama administration.

The intermodal industry could be facing its biggest shakeup of the decade, as two large intermodal intermediaries and at least two big railroads are reportedly talking about big contracts — ending one

A significant contributor came out of the RMI RailConnect index of short line traffic starting the week of Oct. 17, taking a bite out of several cargo categories.

RailRunner, developer of a container-based intermodal transport system, signed a 10-year agreement under which its products will be manufactured, operated, distributed and sold in India by Kolkata-bas

An advisory panel of railroads and freight shippers that meets regularly with the Surface Transportation Board is urging Congress to adopt cargo switching rules favored by shipper groups, but it bogge

BNSF Railway’s profit of $488 million in the recession-struck third quarter was down 29.8 percent from a year earlier, as revenue fell 26.7 percent to $3.49 billion.

Major U.S. railroads continued to load their trains last week at a pace close to recent levels, in keeping with a freight recovery that is now moving in a narrow volume range.

People who operate airplanes, locomotives, trucks and buses would still be in violation of Department of Transportation rules against drug use if they use marijuana, despite a reported shift by federa

Union Pacific Railroad generated a profit of $517 million in the third quarter, down 26 percent from a year earlier as revenue fell 25 percent to $3.47 billion.

Major infrastructure development is at a standstill in Southern California and other regions because planners are not leveraging the economic, environmental and community benefits of an efficient good

Intermodal marketing company Hub Group reported a $9.8 million profit in the third quarter, down 42 percent from a year earlier as revenue of $389 million fell 24 percent.

Jobs at major U.S. railroads got scarcer from mid-August to mid-September than at any other point in the recession so far.

Canadian National Railway is ordering 70 new high-horsepower locomotives, splitting them evenly between suppliers GE Transportation and Electro-Motive Diesel.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a case that should clarify what laws apply when international shipments are damaged in transit within the United States.

Canadian National Railway’s net income slid 16.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier to $439 million, on an 18 percent drop in revenue to $1.758 billion.