Rail News

Northern Southern Railway has increased the frequency of its intermodal service to the inland port of Greer, South Carolina, partially reflecting growth at the adjacent BMW plant.

Mexican intermodal volume jumped this week, reaching a high not seen in the last two years, according to the Association of American Railroads, as Mexican shippers increasingly turn to rail to protect their cargo.

Kansas City Southern Railway rode a rebound of container traffic at Lazaro Cardenas port in the third quarter, helping the company hit record revenue in the period.

CSX Transportation expects growth in domestic intermodal for many years ahead, driven in particular by highway-to-rail conversions.

Reefer containers will form a huge part of the cargo carried on the New Silk Way rail network between China and Europe, even though shippers will be forced to counter the extreme temperatures found on the route.

Intermodal shippers using CSX Transportation and Canadian Pacific Railway would see few benefits if the two railroads merged, and could risk a short-term deterioration in service if operations were meshed.

CSX has rebuffed an overture from Canadian Pacific Railway about a merger or acquisition that would reshape North America’s transportation map by creating the continent’s largest rail network.

In the latest step toward possible regulatory action, three U.S. senators have called on the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to implement freight rail reforms as quickly as possible in order to increase rail competition and address shippers’ concerns.

It was not another record high for North American intermodal, but strong intermodal volumes were reported on 13 railroads again this week, adding another chapter to the industry's growth story

Following months of service problems and public hearings, the U.S. Surface Transportation Board will require all Class I railroads to issue weekly performance metrics in areas including train speed, terminal dwell times, train delays and others.

Shippers surveyed by Wolfe Research in August and September expect rates to rise on average 2.6 percent over the next 12 months.

Lufthansa Cargo pilots will stage a 48-hour strike on Wednesday and Thursday, but the German airline said it will have little impact on shippers.

In cooperation with the Chinese government, Russian port logistics company Summa Group plans to complete a $100 million expansion of the Russian port of Zarubino in 2018, offering shippers better access to and from Northeast Asia.

Potential Russian transit blocks and additional European Union sanctions could hurt both ports and railways in Latvia, and cripple the country's economy, Latvia's economy minister said.

A coalition of soybean exporters urged the U.S. freight transportation industry Friday to invest in infrastructure, equipment and process improvements to maintain the role of the American farmer as the world’s preeminent supplier of soybeans.

Canadian intermodal volume growth continues to outpace U.S. intermodal traffic gains, potentially reflecting shippers’ diverting of shipments to western Canadian ports to avoid potential U.S. West Coast labor disruptions.

The Mexican Senate will likely consider rail reform legislation this month, paving the way for the country’s three largest railroads to keep their concessions and preventing any supply chain disruptions caused by proposed legislation that would force them to open their networks to third-parties.

Container port congestion has been a hot topic this year, with issues including late ship arrivals; strikes, or fears of strikes, and their impact; terminal projects; and adverse weather conditions popping up across the world. While some congestion is caused by short-term issues, certain world regions may be at greater risk of persistent congestion in the longer term.

Shippers are getting U.S.-bound cargo more easily through the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert as the surge in imports avoiding the U.S. West Coast due to labor talks subsides with the conclusion of the ocean peak season.

Florida East Coast Railway is preparing for completion of the Port of Miami’s harbor-deepening project in the fourth quarter of 2015 by purchasing new equipment and locomotives and offering expedited services to population centers in the Southeast.

Old Dominion Freight Line is expanding its U.S. intermodal drayage network at ports and inland railheads, strengthening the less-than-truckload carrier's connections with global shippers.

Ocean container carrier Hamburg Sud is opening a sales office in Gandhidham, India, to cater to the needs of its regular ship calls at the growing ports of Mundra and Pipavav.

Chinese President Xi Jingping on Friday invited the strong Spanish construction sector to help build a planned freight line connecting eastern China and Spain.

This week’s intermodal volume was a record high for U.S. railroads, breaking the previous record set the week before, according to the Association of American Railroads, again signaling that the peak season is revving up for intermodal shippers as the ocean peak subsides.

MEXICO CITY — Intermodal rail in Mexico is taking off. The shift of loads from road to rail is driven by several factors including the need to reduce theft as well as growth from the country’s container ports fueled by growing demand from the booming manufacturing sector and burgeoning middle class.

BNSF Railway is bullish about intermodal Mexico-U.S. cross border growth.

A proposed Norfolk Southern Railway intermodal terminal in Elliston, Virginia, faces a much higher price tag than originally estimated, along with the threat of litigation, making its construction less likely

U.S domestic intermodal pricing jumped 5.6 percent week-to-week, or by $115, to $2,169 per unit in the week ending Sept. 22, according to a weighted average for all-in, 53-foot containers door-to-door provided by third-party logistics provider IDS.

The unseasonably cold front that moved through Chicago last weekend provided railroads and shippers a chilly reminder that the rail gridlock seen in winter 2013-2014 could occur again.

The average amount intermodal providers charged customers for shipping a U.S. intermodal unit declined last month on a year-over-year basis, the first time since January 2013.

Florida East Coast Railway has acquired 500 new 53-foot containers and 100 chassis, as well as 50 refrigerated trailers to cater to customers in the perishables market. All of the units will be in service by mid-October.

Class I railroads plan to add locomotives and train crews to their networks in an effort to improve service in the "strongest fall peak in recent years."

Shanghai may be the busiest container port in the world, but almost half the boxes that cross its wharves every year are first carried down the mighty Yangtze River from manufacturing hubs deep inland.

The volume of intermodal units moving on U.S. railroads last week reached a record high for the railroad industry, according to the Association of American Railroads, furthering signs that the peak season is starting for intermodal shippers as the ocean peak recedes.

The percent of import containers arriving at the Los Angeles-Long Beach gateway that were transloaded into domestic containers for onward rail transport into the interior U.S. continued to increase last year and is forecast to continue rising in 2014.

Norfolk Southern Railway doesn’t expect rail service to start getting back to normal levels until the end of March 2015, with most customers not seeing any improvement until November 2014.

Florida East Coast Railway launched at 53-foot domestic container service two weeks ago, giving North Carolina shippers a new option to ship goods to South Florida for either domestic consumption or to transload for export.

BNSF Railway is spending billions of dollars to double-track key segments of its northern tier route, purchase equipment and hire additional crew, but a company executive told grain shippers this week it could take two to three years for the investments to produce all of the results they are looking for.