Rail News

As a trucker, Pat Quinn may have felt like a fish out of water at a marine highways conference focused on short-sea shipping.

The Federal Railroad Administration unveiled the government’s first funding pool specifically for the collision avoidance and locomotive remote control systems that U.S.

The U.S. Maritime Administration’s plan to construct marine highways won’t just take pressure off roads.

Electro-Motive Diesel, one of the two largest suppliers of locomotives to the freight industry, cut a ribbon this week on a traction motor maintenance and overhaul facility in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

A surge in chemicals and other industrial cargoes, plus strength in construction materials pushed weekly traffic at small railroads in North America to the highest level in more than a year.

U.S.

OTTAWA — Canadian National Railway is sorry, and it promises to mend its hard-nosed ways with shippers and intermodal partners and will not, in the future, look out only for itself.

North American intermodal service provider Hub Group is buying 2,000 new 53-foot domestic containers for about $19.2 million, which would increase its fleet of those boxes by a third.

Freight traffic moved higher last week at North America’s major railroads, after a sizable decline in the holiday week ahead of Easter.

Rising intermodal volume and truckload improvements boosted revenue 17 percent at J.B. Hunt Transport Services, backing claims of a first-quarter freight recovery.

The Department of Transportation’s chief financial officer became the latest administration official to speak out against raising motor fuel taxes to bolster federal revenue and infrastructure s

For the first time since July 2008, major U.S. railroads in March saw a monthly gain in freight carloadings over the same period a year earlier.

Eastern-U.S.

Railroad officials are engaged in “good” talks in Congress on legislation that would reauthorize the Surface Transportation Board and revamp key rail regulations, said Michael Ward, the ch

Disbursements by the Department of Transportation under the economic stimulus law reached $10.437 billion as of March 31, an increase of about $1 billion from February to pay for projects dominated by

CSX Transportation is sticking with its earlier guidance to see core pricing gains of 4 to 5 percent during 2010 although its first-quarter price gains were at the top of that range.

Globaltrans, Russia's biggest private rail freight operator, said 2009 profit fell 15 percent from a year ago even as traffic hit an all time high in a shrinking market.

Domestic intermodal rail weathered the economic recession better than most transportation modes, and the industry appears now to be on the verge of experiencing unprecedented growth.

Eastern-U.S. railroad CSX Transportation saw first-quarter profit grow 24 percent from a year earlier to $306 million, as it boosted receipts and cut expenses.

Norfolk Southern Railway and Electro-Motive Diesel will run “extensive” tests of biodiesel fuel, monitoring the use of two blends in both linehaul and switcher locomotive units.

Most cargoes on small railroads slid in recent weeks to the lowest volume since the snowstorm-socked period ending Feb. 20, according to RMI’s RailConnect index.

Canadian Pacific Railway reached a tentative agreement with its track workers in Canada.

Freight brokers are studying whether they can help correct a steep imbalance in transportation equipment availability that is hurting efforts of U.S. exporters to get goods to overseas markets.

From one end of the country to the other, shippers of the largest grain crops — soybeans, wheat and especially corn — are gearing up to fill the supply chain needs of late 2010 and 2011.

The Department of Justice lodged a proposed consent decree to resolve a federal claim against Union Pacific Railroad for environmental costs, stemming from a 2004 train crash in Texas that released a

Intermodal loadings by the major North American railroads slowed last week to the weakest levels since snowstorms rocked the freight system in early to mid-February.

Canadian Pacific Railway appointed Edmond L. Harris as executive vice president and chief operations officer, a role in which he earlier served rival Canadian National Railway.

Rail and marine equipment builder Greenbrier says demand recently began to rise for new railcars and barges, along with more used railcars coming into its shops for repairs.

The Maritime Administration’s final rule establishing its Marine Highway program broadens the concept from earlier proposals, in ways that could add more port facilities and types of cargo that

U.S. railroads will be able to tap into a new $50 million government grant program to help install expensive collision avoidance and locomotive control systems.

Railcar and barge manufacturer Greenbrier lost $4.8 million in its fiscal second quarter that ended Feb.

Backers are calling it their “cold train,” a four-day-a-week run of refrigerated intermodal cargoes from the Port of Quincy, Wash., to Chicago that starts moving this week.

CSX Transportation and the United Transportation Union reached a tentative labor deal covering UTU train conductors and yard workers on CSX southern lines.

The Perry County Port Authority, which operates an Ohio River cargo facility at Tell City, Ind., has contracted with a RailAmerica short line to run a port-owned track operation.

The North American short line railroads that report traffic through RMI’s RailConnect index saw volume slide in the week ending March 27 to the lowest in a month although most cargo loadings rem

BNSF Railway and Canadian National Railway signed new track sales accords with large commuter rail operations, in which they sold line and property for over $100 million each but retained some freight

Germany signed a memorandum of understanding promising to support the United Arab Emirates in setting up a high-capacity rail infrastructure.

What a difference a year makes.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to unsnarl a tangle that leaves carriers and cargo owners questioning who should be liable for damages on cargoes shipped from a foreign port.

When it comes to realigning U.S.