Rail News

Owners of North America’s rail equipment fleets are betting the thriving intermodal market will maintain its growth pace, placing orders for new equipment with hard-hit railcar manufacturers.

German railroad company Deutsche Bahn said it will spend $525 million on new rail cars, locomotives and cargo facilities across Europe in 2010 to keep pace with rising freight traffic.

A wide-ranging increase in railcar loadings lifted volume in the bulk commodities and equipment categories of rail traffic to their highest levels this year.

Kansas City Southern, the smallest of the North American Class I carriers, predicts second-half 2010 revenue growth of nearly 20 percent and says its rail lines have "fully recovered" from the impact

Major North American railroads racked up big intermodal numbers for the third straight week in the week ending Aug. 28 and set a new 2010 high in train loadings of containers and trailers.

North America's small railroads saw freight traffic for the week ending Aug. 28 rise to the highest level since late April, continuing a volume rebound that began in July.

Gulf & Ohio Railways, Inc. (G&O), headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., intends to acquire South Carolina’s Lancaster & Chester Railway Co. (L&C), the two have announced.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Aug.

Norfolk Southern Railway says it will cut greenhouse gas emissions in its operations 10 percent by 2014 from 2009 levels through fuel-saving technology and efficiency improvements.

The Congressional Budget Office is drawing the attention of transportation policy experts with an upbeat estimate that the nation’s Highway Trust Fund should be able to cover its projected spending ne

France's state-owned railway SNCF returned to profit in the first half of 2010, helped by a recovery in freight traffic and logistics.

Rail equipment suppliers L.B. Foster and Portec Rail Products said they agreed to extend to Dec.

Major North American railroads increased their loadings in recent weeks of key raw materials as well as some finished goods related to manufacturing activity.

Major U.S. railroads set a new 2010 peak for intermodal shipments in the week ending Aug. 21, the second straight week of new highs in container and trailer loadings.

North American short line and regional railroads are reporting freight traffic gains on the rise since mid-summer, a contrast to the wave of weak economic reports on housing and other activity for Jul

Railcar and barge builder Greenbrier Companies took orders valued at $130 million to build new railcars and modify older ones, mostly to meet still-growing demand for high capacity domestic intermodal

Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods rose 0.3 percent in July but only because of a 76 percent jump in sales of commercial aircraft, the Commerce Department said.

The Federal Railroad Administration plans to issue revamped guidance to freight railroads in the next month or so to address rail executives' concerns over requirements they could face when accepting

The Port of North Dakota on Monday shipped its first container load of agricultural commodities to international markets.

The Department of Transportation is starting to push out the first of nearly $17.6 million in a multi-layered stimulus grant for upgrades of some Appalachian freight short line railroads, by nailing d

Rail industry products supplier Wabtec completed its planned acquisition of electronic instrument maker Bach-Simpson from Global Railway Industries for about $13 million.

Railroads and shipper activists are trying to make sure their issues are on the table when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill after their August break, especially because the legislators have a lot on t

Just when North American intermodal cargo handlers were getting used to the idea that domestic rail-truck combination moves might catch up to ship-to-train international business, this year’s se

One year after he became chairman of the Surface Transportation Board that regulates economic issues between railroads and shippers, Daniel R.

At a time when freight traffic was slowing and worries spreading about a slowdown in the U.S.

The Department of Transportation's payouts of stimulus checks to states for work on roads, bridges and other projects reached $17.134 billion as of Aug.

Norfolk Southern Railway completed in and around Front Royal, Va., a series of state- and company-funded construction projects, which will boost speeds for its double-stack intermodal trains moving al

A rebound in U.S. rail freight volume pushed intermodal loads to their highest level of 2010 during the week ending Aug. 14.

USA Truck is rebounding from the recession and expanding its fast-growing intermodal business. The dry-van truckload carrier said Aug.

In a followup to the Department of Transportation’s earlier allocation of $8 billion in stimulus grants for faster and expanded inter-city passenger rail service, the DOT said it has taken 77 ai

Duisburg, the world’s largest inland port, boosted first-half container traffic by 29 percent from a year ago, almost double the growth at Europe’s top box hubs Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Rail and construction product supplier L.B. Foster is extending to the end of this month its tender offer to buy all outstanding common shares of Portec Rail Products.

The rail freight industry may be humming, and intermodal may be too tight for comfort, but North American railcar equipment suppliers are mostly holding on until customers need them again.

A return to profitability is helping to sway cautious Wall Street analysts that Pacer International’s strategic shift from a wholesale middleman service to a company focused on moving containers

Surging international cargoes were the biggest driver in the second quarter for rail hauls of intermodal containers and trailers, said the Intermodal Association of North America.

State-owned rail operator Container Corporation of India announced the launch of train services between the ports of Jawaharlal Nehru (Nhava Sheva), Mundra and Pipavav.

Users of railcars pulled another 5,808 out of storage in July from sidings and rail yards across North America, the strongest drawdown since April when freight traffic was stronger.

Regional and short line railroad operator Patriot Rail reached an agreement in principle with paper manufacturer and forest products supplier Weyerhaeuser to buy six small rail lines the shipper has i

The lull in rail freight volume growth might have ended last month, as seasonally adjusted U.S.

BNSF Railway posted a $603 million net income for the second quarter, up 49.3 percent from a year earlier as revenue rose 23.5 percent to $4.094 billion.