Rail News

Rail supplier Portec Rail Products began selling its fault detection product line in China, expanding sales in that country.

A gigantic snowstorm across the Appalachian region, followed by mishaps that shut down both conveyor belts at a huge coal export terminal, brought 2009 to sour close for rail shipments of export coal.

Railroads and shippers are in a growing dustup over coal dust that could change the way key rail cargo is handled.

Rail freight shippers in the United States have plenty of reason to see 2010 as a time when government actions could fundamentally reshape their industry.

Rail executives, transportation analysts, economists and commodity specialists are looking to the housing market for signs of the direction of lumber shipments, but the market has been sending mixed m

North America’s railroads face challenges in 2010 notably different from those most freight-hauling industries must deal with: how to generate better results after what in many ways was a banner

The future of coal is not what it used to be, and that simple fact can alter the business model for freight railroads.

GE Transportation will deliver 50 new freight locomotives to Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Cosan, with the engines built in the United States and the locomotive structures in Brazil.

Small railroads across North America lost one fourth of their freight volume in 2009, according to the RMI RailConnect index of short lines and regional railroads.

Railcar and barge builder Greenbrier lost $3.2 million in its September-November fiscal first quarter of 2010, less of a decline than its $3.9 million loss a year earlier.

The latest in a series of strong winter storms is disrupting all forms of surface freight transportation, as rivers and rail switches ice up and some Interstate highways have closed at times from heav

The 2009 plunge in bulk U.S.

The two big Canadian Class I railroads suffered a sharper decline in bulk carload traffic in 2009 than U.S.-based major lines, while their drop in intermodal matched the U.S.

Late-year gains in some commodity cargoes and in intermodal business were not enough to let large U.S. rail lines escape double-digit declines in both types of traffic.

Major U.S. railroads hauled fewer intermodal units in 2009 than any time since 2003, meaning the deep recession took six years of growth away from intermodal train traffic.

The ocean port at Everett, Wash., will build a rail spur to expand its freight train operations, largely paid with federal funds for disaster preparations.

The Alaska Railroad won approval from the Surface Transportation Board to build an 80-mile northern extension from the town of North Pole, outside Fairbanks, southeast to Delta Junction, an area now s

Surface trade between the United States and its North American Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and Mexico grew for the fifth consecutive month in October and showed improvement in the rate of dec

The three-member Surface Transportation Board now has Francis P. Mulvey serving as its vice chairman, under an annual rotation. He replaces Charles D. Nottingham in that role.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s large coal loading port terminal is back to normal at Norfolk, Va., and the railroad on Jan. 5 lifted its “force majeure” declaration on coal moves.

The Intermodal Association of North America has named industry leaders Stephen Branscum of BNSF Railway and David Howland of Schneider National as chairman and vice chairman for 2010.

Buffeted by a major winter storm that socked much of the Appalachian coal mining region in the week of Christmas, major U.S.

Chicago’s multi-layered plan to revamp rail connections in the city and region just checked its $13.1 million McCook Connection off its list, improving links between several freight carriers and

It took all of 2009 to get a landmark rail regulatory overhaul bill through the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Trinity Industries, spreading out beyond the troubled rail equipment market, bought highway construction products manufacturer for about $61 million in cash, the railcar maker said Thursday.

The Lamberts Point Coal Terminal, the big Virginia coastal site where Norfolk Southern Railway trains deliver Appalachian coal that can be loaded onto ships for export, should have the first of its tw

Container Corp. of India, the state-owned intermodal logistics provider, will increase its freight charges by about 6 percent, effective Jan. 8, 2010.

Norfolk Southern Railway is telling customers it is keeping in place a “force majeure” declaration for coal deliveries, after absorbing damage to its big ocean terminal for coal loadings o

The U.S. lines of the seven Class I freight railroads cut 1,923 jobs in the month to mid-November, leaving their combined workforce at a new low of 147,097.

FreightCar America named former senior executive Edward Whalen its new president and CEO after Christian Ragot left the company this week under what the railcar manufacturer said was mutual consent.

The Port of Seattle will pay BNSF Railway some $81 million for a 42-mile section of track northeast of the port, ending a long negotiation the port says will keep the line open to freight service.

Pacer International is capping a transformational year for the major intermodal middleman with a sudden change in leadership.

Given the secretive way a rail regulatory overhaul was crafted in the Senate over recent months, it seemed inevitable the landmark bill would emerge late in a jammed legislative calendar and req

South Africa’s state-owned rail freight utility, Transnet Freight Rail, is acquiring 100 diesel electric locomotives from GE Transportation.

Small North American railroads loaded up more railcars with paper products in the week ending Dec. 12 than any time since June 6, according to the RMI RailConnect index.

In a week when many cargoes were down as a heavy winter storm blew across the Midwest, major U.S. railroads had their strongest loadings of scrap materials in three weeks.

GE Transportation, which is one of the two major U.S.

The major lobbying group for the railroad industry said it has “concerns” about pending legislation to beef up the Surface Transportation Board and order major changes in federal regulatio

The negotiations over the past year that led the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to overhaul competition rules in the railroad industry were tougher than those still under way fo

Simply shifting freight from truck to rail won't result in a greener transportation system, transportation analyst Noël Perry said, arguing sustainability efforts should focus on entire supply ch