Rail News

Brazil rail operator MRS Logistica, Tuesday morning began informing thousands of its shipper clients that its operations are up and running following a devastating fire just before Christmas at one of its key terminals.

The refrigerated freight market has experienced some unseasonally high demand this winter, according to DAT Solutions. That comes on top of growing demand for refrigerated, or reefer, equipment in general.

This year, the U.S. transportation industry will receive the first funding from some $205 billion allocated for highway and $48 billion allocated for transit projects, and approximately $10.8 billion in grants for freight projects allocated over the next five years, the largest allocation over the longest period of time in nearly a decade.

U.S. freight rail traffic was down 9.7 percent year-over-year in the week ending Dec. 26 as a double-digit drop in carload traffic offset a 1.6 percent gain in intermodal volume, the Association of American Railroads reported.

Containerized cargo passing through Kazakhstan between Asia and Europe is on track to hit 1.7 million 20-foot equivalent units annually by 2020 after volume through the key hub rocketed 34 percent year-over-year to roughly 47,000 TEUs in 2014, according to the national rail operator.

U.S. domestic intermodal spot rates continue to fall thanks to plentiful capacity aided by mild weather and weak demand, according to third-party logistics provider IDS.

Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd. will indirectly acquire half of Illinois-based Midwest Railcar Corp., making inroads into the increasingly lucrative U.S. freight railcar leasing market.

In an attempt to cope with expected volume growth and improve productivity, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s largest public container handler, has embarked on a plan to build an inland port at Jalna, about 225 miles from the Nhava Sheva harbor.

West Virginia has always been coal country, but a new intermodal terminal in the state’s western corner could help change that, riding on a crest of rising intermodal and declining carload volume.

Canadian Pacific Railway got a lump of coal in its stocking days before Christmas after Norfolk Southern Railway said Wednesday it had rejected a third buyout bid.

Truck traffic on the rail tunnel beneath the English Channel has hit an all-time high this year despite disruptions caused by the migrant crisis at the France port of Calais.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are taking a fresh look at short haul-rail of containers to an inland cluster of distribution centers as a way to combat systemic congestion at the largest North American container gateway.

U.S. and Canadian rail regulators will be getting an earful from shippers on either side of the border if a proposed Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railway merger goes through.

Canadian Pacific Railway said its acquisition of Norfolk Southern Railway would improve fluidity through Chicago, but doubts remain whether a tie would do much to free up bottlenecks at the top U.S. freight hub — even if the deal gives CP control of a key belt railroad in the area.

Transnet National Ports Authority is leading attempts to win road traffic back onto rail in South Africa, a shift it would stand to gain from the most.

Canadian Pacific Railway’s attempt to takeover Norfolk Southern Railway has already raised alarm with a group of Illinois lawmakers and prompted a pointed response from the Canadian railroad.

A proxy war has been all but declared, analysts say, after Canadian Pacific Railway announced Wednesday it had upped its hostile bid for Norfolk Southern Railway by some $3.4 billion.

Brazil rail operator MRS Logistica SA’s expects container volume to rise at least 10 percent year-over-year in 2016 after volume jumped 34 percent during the first 10 months of this year compared to the same period in 2014.

Deutsche Bahn is expected to unveil plans today to trim underperforming rail freight operations as part of a restructuring to restore profitability as it faces its first net loss in over a decade this year.

With expectations that Canadian Pacific Railway is about to launch a proxy fight for control of Norfolk Southern Railway, the Calgary-based railroad’s recent response to an NS white paper is the latest attempt to convince investors to give the deal yet another look at its pitch.

Shipment volumes in the U.S. were flat in November from the previous month, but shipper spending dropped, according to the Cass Freight Index.

Volumes of containerized cargo travelling between China and Europe by rail are growing as operators increase frequencies and state organizations along the route lend their weight to the development of new services.

BNSF Railway is flirting with the idea of a potential CSX Transportation or Norfolk Southern Railway acquisition as Canadian Pacific aims to acquire the latter railroad, potentially setting off a wave of consolidation in the Class I industry.

U.S. lawmakers Thursday voted to overhaul the nation’s main freight rail regulator and give the Surface Transportation Board stronger investigative powers and streamline complaint review processes.

U.S. lawmakers are expected to pass an overhaul of the Surface Transportation Board, giving the nation’s main freight rail regulator more teeth to crackdown on service issues and boost competition in the industry.

Norfolk Southern Railway’s second rejection of a takeover bid from Canadian Pacific has ignited talk of a potential hostile takeover — something the Class I railroad industry has never seen and is unlikely to occur, according to an intermodal analyst.

At least two Class I railroads are cracking down on how long shippers can keep their containers and trailers at intermodal terminals via shorter free-time windows — and one of the railways has hiked storage fees — in an effort to improve network velocity.

Norfolk Southern Railway has rejected an unsolicited takeover bid from Canadian Pacific Railway after the NS board said the $28 billion takeover bid undervalued the company’s stock and the potential regulatory hurdles would threaten business operations.

From a near-meltdown at U.S. West Coast ports to a wave of mergers and acquisitions, with hints of more in the container line industry, 2015 has been full of plenty of surprises.

New intermodal terminals in Australia reflect the more holistic approach toward port capacity and productivity that some observers say will be needed as volumes grow and mega-ships discharge larger and larger loads of cargo.

The value of goods shipped between Mexico and the U.S. continues to climb, while the goods value in U.S.-Canada trade is dropping. Lower fuel prices and the strong U.S. dollar are partly to blame, as well as the surge in Mexican manufacturing aimed at the U.S.

Russia and China plan to spend $3 billion to build two rail corridors aimed at encouraging the movement of containerized freight from the northeastern provinces of China to Russia’s Far-East ports.

A decision on whether BNSF Railway will be allowed to build an intermodal container transfer facility considered crucial to growth at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could be made next spring.

U.S. domestic intermodal spot rates have been falling thanks in large part to loose capacity on major lanes, according to third-party logistics provider IDS. The Indianapolis-based 3PL, though, is warning that trend could easily reverse course if the industry is rocked by another winter as it has been in years past.

The government of Italy has unveiled plans to partially privatize the state rail operator, Ferrovie dello Stato, in 2016.

A new dry port with a capacity of 900,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units will be built in the territory of the Nadezhdinskaya special economic zone in Russia’s Far East Primorye Territory to cope with growing volume.

Transportation stakeholders received something to celebrate this year as 44 percent of the new $500 million round of the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program went to projects dedicated to moving freight.

The Port of Mobile is expanding terminal capacity and building an adjacent $36 million intermodal container transfer facility. The projects, set for completion in 2016, will increase its terminal’s 350,000-TEU capacity to 475,000 TEUs.

The Cass Truckload Linehaul Rate Index and Intermodal Pricing Index show the year-over-year growth in truckload pricing slowing to a crawl, while intermodal pricing falls lower.

Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group, the world’s largest leading logistics and mail communications company since 2008, will share his views on the current and future state of global supply chains on Feb. 28, 2016, at the 16th Annual TPM Conference in Long Beach, California.