Rail News

For anyone wondering if shippers and cargo carriers could work together toward common goals, the Freight Stakeholders Coalition is a rare example of idealism in public policy.

North American railroads are relatively unique in that they operate on rights-of-way that are generally privately owned.

When the 343 short line railroads that report to RMI’s RailConnect Index said their total loads rose by 2,031 units in the latest week, they may have punched through a low-hanging cloud.

Talks between at least two Senate staffs, representing different committees with separate legislation in the works to alter the freight railroads’ relationships with shippers and communities, co

FTR Associates is forecasting the economy will stabilize in the third quarter, followed by a moderate recovery in 2010 with GDP growth estimated to rise 2.7 percent, data the firm says suggests the wo

If this is the bottom, U.S. railroads are dragging along it with only a small hint at climbing out of the hole.

CN reached settlements on all outstanding charges related to derailments that occurred at Wabamun, Alta. on Aug. 3, 2005 and at Cheakamus, B.C. on Aug. 5, 2005.

In June, BNSF Railway will begin the first of five maintenance-of-way projects in South Dakota.

Some railroads and unions appear to be planning now for the day when business returns and skilled workers are called back from layoffs.

The Obama administration’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal includes more than $250 million in transportation spending cuts, but lawmakers and interest groups won’t let the programs go without a fight.

Canadian National Railway got permission last spring to acquire a suburban Chicago short line, closed the deal early this year and is already running a few trains there.

Despite some lift from intermodal volume, major U.S. railroads by two important measures had their worst week so far this year.

The Obama administration does not favor raising the federal tax on motor vehicle fuels as a way to bolster highway spending accounts, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

The Greenbrier, a West Virginia resort hotel that until May 6 was a money-losing drag on CSX Corp.’s railroad focus, is now cleared by a bankruptcy court for its new owners to try to revive it a

Representatives of Canadian National Railway, CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Railway say they expect agricultural products to be the first to bounce back after the recession.

June could be a key time for Congress to act on rail antitrust legislation and perhaps on changes in how economic regulations enforce competition among carriers, said a top official for an activist ra

Please step away from the antitrust bill, the Association of American Railroads is urging Congress, as the nation’s top freight rail lobbying group calls for a national rail policy review rather

BNSF Railway is putting 25 new-generation locomotives to work in its fleet, using a fresh model from GE Transportation that aims for a type of medium-duty power market in linehaul train moves.

Arnold B. McKinnon, Norfolk Southern’s second chairman, died May 18 in Washington D.C. He was 81.

A bill to strip railroads of a limited antitrust immunity could move to the Senate floor for a vote soon after Congress returns from its upcoming Memorial Day recess.

A study released May 19 by the Consumer Federation of America claims railroads overcharge consumers $3 billion a year as a result of monopoly pricing power.

A bipartisan resolution in the Illinois state senate is pivoting off a controversial rail merger outside Chicago, as it asks President Obama to name a community-minded freight specialist to fill a fed

Pacer International's shift from a $13 million profit in the first quarter to a $177 million loss this year is a strong sign the intermodal landscape itself has shifted.

U.S. industrial output fell 0.5 percent in April from March, leaving it 12.5 percent below April 2008, the Federal Reserve said.

Against a backdrop of falling profits, plunging traffic and rising rail layoffs, Norfolk Southern Railway’s chairman, president and CEO tried to reassure shareholders at the company’s annu

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The massive Southern California international trade economy will decline further in 2009 before registering a modest gain next year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles County Economic D

Canadian National Railway vowed to cut the number of long delays at road crossings caused by train operations over its newly acquired Chicago-area short line, and did just that.

A federal forecast for weak grain output this year could push up commodity prices and spur farmers and grain elevators to release more from their stockpiles to put into railcars for shipment to market

The recession dragged intermodal shipping volume down 16.3 percent in the first quarter, the largest drop ever recorded by the Intermodal Association of North America.

GE Transportation plans to build a $100 million factory to make high-power batteries that it says are a key to putting hybrid-drive power systems into heavy freight locomotives, harbor tug boats and m

CSX Transportation and a major chemical shipper that has led the charge against rail rate increases, E.I.

Electro-Motive Diesel, one of the two U.S. builders of big line-haul locomotives for the rail freight industry, tapped Michael P.

Norfolk Southern last week idled most operations at a Columbus, Ohio facility and will lay off 86 workers there in July.

Large North American railroads are pushing their base pricing steadily higher, even with the worst freight market in decades.

Even with a first-quarter loss on its books and its large Mexico operations in a swine flu hot zone, Kansas City Southern could be in a good spot.

As a measure of how tough the freight rail market is these days, short lines had their best week of 2009 in hauling basic stone and related materials used in heavy construction, yet that category was

The key lawmaker for transportation policies in the House of Representatives lauded President Obama’s budget plan for its unprecedented spending requests for passenger rail systems.

With all the talk about the economy starting to find a bottom to its steep downturn, large railroads are still seeing declines so large that a key industry official is sounding a warning.