U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun the first phase of a truck cargo pre-inspection pilot at the Pacific Highway crossing in Blaine, Wash., adjacent to Surrey, British Columbia.
The new Canadian National-Indiana Rail Road intermodal service to Indianapolis will offer export “matchback” opportunities for steamship lines and shippers when it launches on July 1.
The St. Lawrence Seaway reported cargo shipments from March 22 to May 31 totaled 8.1 million metric tons, down 12 percent compared to the same period in 2012.
Canadian intermodal volume fell 3.3 percent year-over-year in the week ending June 8, following 10 weeks of increases, according to the Association of American Railroads. The two most recent previous weeks showed 20 and 30 percent jumps. Volume also inched down 0.4 percent from the week before to 53,745 trailers and containers.
The Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma in Washington, along with British Columbia’s Port Metro Vancouver, have set collective goals to reduce diesel emissions by 75 percent per ton of cargo by 2015 and by 80 percent by 2020.
The Railway Association of Canada has applauded the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s request for installation of in-cab video cameras and voice recorders in all mainline controlling locomotives in the nation.
Port Saint John in New Brunswick reported its container tonnage in the first five months of 2013 was 220,198 tons, jumping 102 percent from 109,218 tons in the same period in 2012.
Train passengers and the family of one of the three engineers who died in last year’s VIA Rail derailment in Burlington, Ontario, are joining the Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s call for improvements in rail technology.
Following the Canadian government’s disapproval of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling program and subsequent release of a list of products for possible retaliatory tariffs, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has slammed the labeling requirement.
A study by the nation’s Advisory Council on Rail Safety’s Working Group on Locomotive Voice and Video Recorders calls for the voluntary installation of voice and video recording devices on locomotives by railway companies.