Rail News

CSX Transportation profit in the first quarter rose 11 percent year-over-year to $442 million, as strong pricing power helped offset weak intermodal volume growth. Revenue in first three months of year was flat at $3 billion compared to the same period a year ago.

BNSF Railway on Thursday trumpeted reports of significantly improved intermodal service and performance metrics since rail service hit new lows last year, thanks to a harsh winter and an unrelenting surge of freight.

Former executives at a defunct refrigerated rail service have filed a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit against BNSF Railway, alleging the railroad’s failing service reliability and shirking of professional commitments drove the company out of business.

Shippers’ diversion of imports to the U.S. East Coast to avoid West Coast port congestion has caused an imbalance in domestic intermodal equipment, spurring Norfolk Southern Railway to implement a $500 surcharge on westbound domestic intermodal shipments interchanged with Union Pacific Railroad.

Fesco Transportation Group’s profit soared 30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, but the weak ruble and lower rail freight rates dragged down the full-year result.

U.S. shippers’ potential shifting of imports from the West Coast to the East Coast would give the major eastern railroads more business, but how much the railroads will actually benefit depends on how much of the cargo is destined for the Midwest.

China’s manufacturing shift inland and rising domestic consumption has created a surge in demand for intermodal rail services unable to be fulfilled because of supply side constraints, according to a just-released World Bank report.

Fierce late winter weather dealt a blow to U.S. railroads’ efforts to restore intermodal rail service to the level shippers enjoyed before the 2013-2014 winter dragged down performance.

The recent installation of the second of two wide-span gantry cranes at its intermodal hub in northwest Ohio, completing a $40 million expansion, is the latest sign of how the hub-and-spoke model of CSX Transportation, which gives shippers more origins and destinations, is paying off.

Signs that the container logjam in Southern California is beginning to break are showing up on the truck spot market, as deconsolidated loads come up for grabs at West Coast warehouses.

If passed, a reintroduced U.S. Senate bill could help shippers gain faster relief from railroads, both in terms of service and rate challenges.

U.S. Senate legislation introduced on Wednesday could allow railroads to expedite construction of intermodal terminals and other projects, providing shippers with more capacity and more reliable service.

China is steadily adding to the rail network linking the mainland with central Asia and Europe, with a large portion of the $130 billion rail development budget for 2014 spent on improving connections in central and western parts of the country.

Canadian National Railway on Tuesday announced plans to build a $196 million intermodal and logistics hub outside of Toronto as its existing terminal serving Canada’s largest urban center nears capacity and regional freight demand builds.

Tightening Chicago drayage capacity is causing rates to spike, as shippers have little choice but to pay for more local trucking to avoid demurrage charges that railroads impose if loads aren’t removed from terminals after two days.

Forwarders are reporting a steady rise in shipper enquiries into the China-Europe rail route from higher value shippers looking for an alternative to expensive and often unreliable air freight and the lengthy ocean shipping.

Rail service during the 2014 soybean harvest in the upper Midwest has been noticeably better than last year, according to the latest survey by the Soy Transportation Coalition.

Anticipating significant growth in freight traffic, the government of India will allow state-owned Railways to create a new arm to provide end-to-end logistics solutions.

Norfolk Southern Railway company president Jim Squires will succeed Wick Moorman as CEO of the fourth largest railway in the U.S. in three months.

BNSF Railway plans to invest $103 million in its Kansas rail operations and an intermodal logistics center southwest of Kansas City.

China’s train to Spain arrived in the city of Yiwu this week after completing the world’s longest rail route, and while the journey has been billed as a “success” by its operator, there is little information on the actual economics of the rail option to Europe.

Genesse & Wyoming has agreed to acquire 95 percent of the shares of Freightliner, the UK’s second largest rail freight company, in a £490 million ($760 million) deal that significantly expands the US rail operator’s European footprint.

North American intermodal volumes plummeted as U.S. West Coast port congestion came to a head last week before union and waterfront officials at last brokered a deal Friday evening.

Shippers can expect domestic intermodal rates to spike within the next month as U.S. West Coast ports regain productivity and shippers rush to move containers long-delayed by labor contract negotiations, an intermodal pricing index provider said Tuesday.

Canadian National Railway late Monday night withdrew its threat to lockout 4,800 union members after the railroad reached a tentative labor agreement with Unifor.

With U.S. West Coast ports on the road to restoring productivity, the two Western railroads are taking steps to handle an expected increase in international intermodal traffic.

Canadian National Railway said it will lock out 4,800 union workers, some of whom are tied to its intermodal services, on Monday night if Unifor doesn’t agree to accept binding arbitration this weekend.

Kansas City Southern Railway’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, who has helped lead the railroad’s successful push into the U.S.-Mexico cross-border market, has been promoted to president.

U.S. intermodal volumes are declining, while Canadian shipments increase, a sign that more shippers are diverting cargo from the U.S. West Coast north to ports in British Columbia.

State-owned intermodal operator Container Corporation of India said it has helped clear out the backlog of import containers destined for Ludhiana that had stacked up at major ports on the west coast over the past few months.

Multimodal logistics operator XPO sees opportunities as well as challenges in the West Coast container pileup, as shippers struggle to move freight inland.

Canadian National Railway intermodal shippers face the prospect of a decrease in service if 4,800 union members walk off the job over a dispute on whether the railroad should pay into its community fund.

Shippers could see truck pricing 'skyrocket' as they scramble to move containers inland once the labor situation at U.S. West Coast ports is resolved, BB&T Capital Markets said.

Neither U.S. West Coast port congestion nor the East Coast winter weather could stop intermodal volume growth in 2014 and they won’t be able to this year either, the Intermodal Association of North America says.

Canadian Pacific Railway and union locomotive engineers and conductors have agreed to enter into binding government arbitration, ending a strike that began Sunday and could have severely crippled U.S. and Canadian supply chains.

CSX Transportation has warned that the strike by more than 3,000 Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive engineers and conductors could affect shipments to and from Canada.

A Teamsters union representing more than 3,000 Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive engineers and conductors walked off the job after failing to reach an agreement by the midnight deadline on Feb. 14.

CSX Transportation’s chief operations officer, Oscar Munoz, has taken on role of president at the railroad from Michael Ward, who will remain CEO and chairman, after the company’s board of directors voted for the changes Wednesday.

A strategic partnership between UTi Worldwide and Changjiu Logistics, the largest independent automotive logistics company in China, will be making good use of the growing rail services linking China and Europe.