CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Consumers want to purchase new vehicles, and railroads are eager to transport them, but a persistent microchip shortage riddled with pandemic-related setbacks is likely to mean fewer auto sales and subsequently, fewer autorack loads from U.S. auto plants for the balance of 2021. Year-to-date, U.S. railroads have transported more than 490,870 carloads […]
MONTREAL – Canadian National has set March 22 as the date when shareholders will vote on activist investor TCI Fund Management’s proposal to oust CEO JJ Ruest and four members of the railway’s board. TCI, which argues that CN has underperformed financially and operationally in recent years, has agreed to the date of the special shareholder […]
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Two people suffered what were described as “critical burn injuries” after a container on a Union Pacific train caught fire Friday, leading to a temporary halt to traffic on the rail line as well as closure of one direction of adjacent Interstate 10 for about two hours. The Desert Sun newspaper […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation will be in the driver’s seat for rail traffic related to Ford Motor Co.’s massive new electric vehicle and battery plants planned for sites in Tennessee and Kentucky. This week Ford announced it would develop a 3,600-acre mega campus called Blue Oval City northeast of Memphis. The facility will build […]
CLEVELAND — Two major rail unions have begun legal action against Norfolk Southern, saying the railroad has been forcing locomotive engineers to work conductor positions, which is prohibited by their labor agreements with the railroad. The Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Art, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) and Brotherhood of Locomotive […]
MONTREAL – Canadian National has fired back at activist investor TCI Fund Management, which has called for a management shakeup at the railway. CN today said TCI has made numerous “false or misleading” claims about CN’s financial performance and the risks related to the railway’s failed pursuit of Kansas City Southern. CN says TCI has not […]
Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin J. Oberman ruffled some feathers this month when he said railroads’ drive for ever-increasing profits resulted in a loss of market share to trucks over the past 15 years and continues to restrain growth today. Oberman cited STB figures that show a decline in rail traffic between 2006 and 2019 […]
Part two of a look at the U.S. coal industry. CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The COVID-19 pandemic may have shuttered economies and slowed industrial momentum, but a global rebound is helping coal producers refocus their long game on metallurgical coal investment as a broader initiative to diversify the sector. Met coal is a higher-priced coal used […]
WASHINGTON — Reduced intermodal traffic continued to drop weekly U.S. rail volume below 2020 levels, despite an increase in carloads, according to the latest statistics from the Association of American Railroads. For the week ending Sept. 25, U.S. railroads moved 511,713 carloads and intermodal units, down 1.3% from the corresponding week in 2020. That included […]
Automobile boxcar Northern Pacific no. 4914 is a 50-foot, single-sheathed, double-door car built in the late 1930s and shown here in 1940. Note the Dreadnaught end door. Jay Williams collection […]
NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk Southern will reopen its Louisville intermodal terminal to handle international containers from Virginia ports. “With continued strong growth in the Louisville intermodal market, Norfolk Southern is pleased to announce that we will be adding terminal capacity to this growing market through the reopening of our intermodal terminal in Louisville, Ky.,” NS […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CG Railway’s new rail ferry, which plies the Gulf of Mexico between Mobile, Ala., and Coatzacoalcos in Mexico, set a speed and volume record on its maiden 1,912-mile round trip this month. The 590-foot Cherokee departed the Port of Mobile on Sept. 12 with 122 freight cars aboard. It arrived at the […]
