Rail News

Union Pacific Railroad says its decision to temporarily suspend westbound container flow at its near-dock ICTF yard in Los Angeles-Long Beach is needed to re-establish eastbound-westbound container balance at the facility.

International air freight and last-mile delivery saw the fastest revenue growth in the transportation sector last year, while industrial transportation suffered.

Supply chain disruption is slowing economic growth, but “postponed” demand is expected to reemerge in 2022, keeping US freight capacity tight and transportation pricing high.

Under pressure from investors, Jean-Jacques Ruest is retiring from Canadian National Railway, triggering a search for a successor after the veteran railroad revitalized the railroad’s intermodal network

Union Pacific Railroad will test semi-automated cranes at its Global IV terminal in Chicago next year, hoping the new equipment will improve fluidity through there.

Tiger Cool Express is pursuing the purchase of a shuttered Union Pacific refrigerated warehouse to help develop a new cold chain intermodal hub in the Pacific Northwest.

BNSF Railway said it has moved all ocean containers in Logistics Park Chicago to truck-accessible locations, but truck drivers say that has not solved all the problems they’ve been dealing with since the summer.

Norfolk Southern Railway is experimenting with less-than-carload service to take loads traditionally moved on LTL trucks on boxcars attached to intermodal trains, which has received praise from a top federal official.

Congestion in Vancouver has caused demand for Canadian Pacific’s 53-foot containers to skyrocket and the available supply to become extremely thin.

Norfolk Southern will reopen a closed intermodal terminal in Kentucky in order to handle high volumes of ocean containers coming into the Port of Virginia.

US importers are taking bolder action to guarantee capacity in ways that would have been unimaginable in years past, from chartering ships, embracing transloading, and paying more to secure contracted ocean capacity

Union Pacific Railroad is limiting how many domestic containers it will take out of Chicago, Kansas City, and Memphis to the West Coast to address terminal congestion in its intermodal network.

India’s latest regulatory action puts the spotlight on greater transparency into logistics costs, the subject of protracted and acrimonious debate between transport service providers and cargo interests.

Importers’ failure to return chassis equipment in a timely manner is tying up equipment, causing disruption that has spurred the top US rail regulator to ask whether the railroads have gone too far in paring intermodal networks to please investors.

Norfolk Southern Railway, which expects all chassis subject to a June safety recall to be repaired by next month, will buy more chassis in 2022 to address supply chain congestion.

Canadian National has bowed out of its pursuit of Kansas City Southern, two weeks after US regulators threw up a major roadblock to a proposed deal, clearing the way for Canadian Pacific to apply for regulatory approval for its deal with the US-Mexico railroad.

While container dwell may be up, intermodal volume on the UP network — domestic and international combined — is down 4.6 percent since July 1 from a year ago, according to the Association of American Railroads.

The chairman of the US Surface Transportation Board urged railroads to focus less on serving Wall Street investors and more on serving shippers, employees, and the public interest — or else the agency may have to intervene.

Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel, in a new hardline stance, said his company has been patient long enough with Kansas City Southern and will walk away on Sept. 13 unless it has a deal in place.

The US Surface Transportation Board has rejected Canadian National Railway’s use of a voting trust to acquire Kansas City Southern, setting up a difficult choice for KCS and its shareholders to either stick with CN or re-engage Canadian Pacific Railway in a deal.

CSX has been restricting how many domestic containers can be brought into Bedford Park, Illinois, causing shippers to pay accessorial fees, or consider alternatives such as Norfolk Southern Railway or spot market trucking to get their goods out of Chicago.

US railroads have begun to control the number of containers leaving ports on trains per day to tailor volume to equipment and labor capacity, but some are skeptical this new strategy will resolve the crippling congestion in inland US markets.

High demand on the China-Europe rail route has collided with construction works to increase capacity at the network’s European gateway terminal in Poland, and congestion is growing.

There is little clarity in Shanghai airport’s evolving COVID-19 lockdown situation, with forwarders in China asked not to deliver export cargo to the terminals and airlines suspending inbound shipments.

Block train activity has lately become a hot carrier play as operators active out of India work to deftly manage available capacity in an elevated freight market.

US rail regulators are warning railroads that the industry could end up re-regulated if it doesn’t move to stem inland rail congestion and skyrocketing rates.

BNSF and Norfolk Southern look to spare yard capacity to deal with rising intermodal volumes across their networks.

By transloading railed goods from ocean containers into domestic containers at Ashcroft inland port, Canadian Tire aims to take greater control of its import flows through the Port of Vancouver.

Both of the primary ingredients to the traditional US intermodal peak season — a seasonal increase in demand and an increase in the number of TEU processed — are in question in 2021.

Class I railroads with operations at the largest US inland rail hub, Chicago, are seeing volumes of stored containers swell 200 percent or more, creating congestion across their network.

Union Pacific will start charging Portland-area shippers fees ranging from $500 to $1,000 per domestic container as the railroad deals with higher-than-normal intermodal volumes.

Union Pacific said it expects to repair a container lift at its Houston intermodal yard by mid-week as the region deals with a growing supply of containers and limited truck capacity.

Norfolk Southern is rolling out an incentive program to reward dual moves at two of its busiest intermodal ramps at a time of heavy demand and high volumes.

Intermodal shippers saved record amounts of money in the second quarter, but rate hikes in California, Texas, and Washington will make trucks the cheaper option on transactional loads in the western US going forward.

Intermodal shippers saved record amounts of money in the second quarter, but rate hikes in California, Texas, and Washington will make trucks the cheaper option on transactional loads in the western US going forward.

Union Pacific Railroad has raised domestic intermodal surcharges for a fourth time in 2021 with a $5,000 per container fee on excess contract loads for low-volume shippers in California.

Union Pacific Railroad has raised domestic intermodal surcharges for a fourth time in 2021 with a $5,000 per container fee on excess contract loads for low-volume shippers in California.

Norfolk Southern Railway anticipates domestic intermodal service to return to normal by Labor Day with repairs on 75 percent of recalled chassis completed in August and an influx of leased chassis into the network in September.

Union Pacific has begun a controlled restoration of train service from West Coast ports to the Chicago metropolitan area, hoping a fresh restart will restore terminal fluidity for international intermodal customers.

Union Pacific has begun a controlled restoration of train service from West Coast ports to the Chicago metropolitan area, hoping a fresh restart will restore terminal fluidity for international intermodal customers.