Rail News

Reports from New Delhi said train operations were returning to normal Friday following the end of week-long protests by ethnic Gujjars in the state of Rajasthan.

Civil unrest in parts of India is causing rail freight traffic chaos in the country’s busiest northern corridor linking hinterland points around Delhi and major gateway ports on the west coast, including the largest port of Nhava Sheva.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang this week visited Brazil and other South American countries and offered to spend billions of dollars on major infrastructure projects, including in the ports and railroad sectors.

Norfolk Southern has announced changes in management responsibilities in its intermodal department, with expanded roles for Jeffrey S. Heller and Cary G. Booth.

Temporary duties placed on Chinese 53-foot domestic dry containers will be refunded after a U.S. trade commission ruled earlier this week that Chinese manufacturers did not have an unfair advantage over their North American competitors.

German locomotive drivers on Thursday called off their latest strike —the ninth in 10 months – and agreed to refer their dispute with Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway company, to arbitration.

A U.S. trade commission has ruled against making temporary duties permanent on Chinese manufactured 53-foot containers, dealing a blow to the North American manufacturers that accused their Far East competitors of dumping their products in the U.S. market.

Florida East Coast Railway Tuesday unveiled a new online portal that allows the regional railroad’s customers to track freight shipments and equipment across its network.

Grain is moving by rail at a steady pace from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to export terminals in British Columbia’s Vancouver, Prince Rupert, and Thunder Bay.

Alan H. Shaw has been named executive vice president and chief marketing officer by the board of directors of Norfolk Southern Corp., Wick Moorman, chairman and CEO, said today.

U.S. shippers will likely see even higher domestic intermodal rail prices if the International Trade Commission rules against the Chinese manufacturers of 53-foot containers at the end of the month.

U.S. shipment volumes and spending rose in April from March, but were down year-over-year, thanks to tough comparisons with a booming economy in 2014, Cass Information Systems said. The freight payment provider expects more growth ahead.

CSX Transportation unveiled a new intermodal terminal just outside of Montreal Monday, giving the Jackonsville, Fla.-based railway easy access to the Eastern Canadian market.

The German rail freight network is struggling to return to normal as train drivers return to work after a near one week strike that severely disrupted industrial supply chains in Europe’s largest economy.

The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority had a good year in 2014 in terms of the number of containers it handled and the revenue it generated, but if ACTA is going to stay on track for debt servicing, container volume moving through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach must get back to 5 percent annual growth.

German train drivers will continue their strike until Sunday after their union today rejected a proposal from Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway, for an independent mediator to help resolve their dispute.

A week-long strike by German locomotive drivers that is scheduled to run until Sunday could be called off earlier as their union considers calls for an independent mediator to settle the dispute with Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway company.

Rail logistics provider Tiger Cool Express is making strides with equipment purchases and a growing customer base. Its success is all the more impressive given that service from Class I freight railroads experienced a difficult 2014 and continues to struggle. Cool Cargoes spoke with CEO Tom Finkbiner to get his take on where the intermodal rail industry is failing and how and where it can make improvements to better support time- and temperature-sensitive shipments such as fresh produce.

West Coast port congestion hit international shipment volume hard and affected domestic volume during the opening months of 2015, the Intermodal Association of North America said in its latest quarterly analysis.

BNSF Railway’s net first-quarter earnings jumped 44 percent to $1 billion despite West Coast port congestion that pulled down its intermodal volume roughly 5.5 percent in the period.

German locomotive drivers began near week-long strike Monday afternoon that threatens to clog container yards at the country’s leading ports and cause massive disruption to industrial supply chains across Europe’s largest economy.

Europe's largest inland port to grow as ultra-large container ships arrive at north European ports.

Strong growth across multiple segments, especially intermodal, helped India’s Gateway Distriparks Ltd. deliver impressive results in fiscal year 2014-15, which ended March 31.

Norfolk Southern Corp.’s earnings fell 16 percent in the first quarter on weak intermodal volumes and a struggling coal market, the company reported Wednesday.

General Mills will be the first tenant at a tri-modal logistics facility near Manchester, England, set to open next year. The inland port will offer rail, truck and short-sea shipping links.

The Port of Virginia’s efforts to curb congestion took a literal hit Sunday morning after a barge struck a rail bridge, forcing Norfolk Southern Railway to delay five intermodal services and end two.

For a region dismissed not so long ago as a bit of a backwater, where inefficiency, corruption and chronic congestion were the norm, east Africa is beginning to show its mettle.

The Hub Group expects intermodal rail service to keep improving throughout the year but doesn’t expect a return to mid-2013 service levels until at least 2016.

The number of westbound 40-foot equivalent ocean containers available in Chicago and Kansas City surged in early April, another sign the West Coast container logjam has broken and the Chinese New Year reprieve is over.

Union Pacific Railroad on Thursday appeared to downplay the idea that U.S. West Coast port congestion has changed its expectations that a low- single-digit share of cargo might shift to East Coast when the Panama Canal opens next year.

U.S. intermodal volume last week hit the second-highest point ever, potentially signalling an acceleration of cargo backlogged at U.S. West Coast ports moving inland.

Amid investors’ furor over the decline in crude shipments hauled by Canadian Pacific Railway in the first quarter were signs that the railroad’s domestic intermodal push is gaining traction and CP is emboldened to make a stronger play for ocean container business.

Kansas City Southern Railway is scaling back its outlook for intermodal growth this year after service and equipment issues slowed first-quarter growth in domestic and cross-border traffic.

Rail freight transport has ground to a halt across Germany as a strike by locomotive engineers against Deutsche Bahn, the state-owned railway, enters its second day.

Strong volume at Canada’s three largest container ports helped drive Canadian National Railway’s intermodal volume up 14.2 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, another sign of how the railroad’s strategy of supply chain collaboration continues to deliver.

Canadian National Railway on Thursday announced plans to invest US$400 million into infrastructure improvements in its Western Canada feeder rail lines.

Shippers’ frustration with West Coast port congestion might end up delivering more international intermodal volume growth to CSX Transportation over the coming years, but clogged marine terminals on the opposing coast dragged its total intermodal traffic growth to a crawl in the first quarter.

The truck driver shortage was supposed to push freight from the highways to intermodal rail, but now that shortage may be the biggest threat to intermodal growth. Drayage truck drivers are increasingly hard to find, and that hurts intermodal service even when trains run on time, speakers at the NASSTRAC Shippers Conference said.