Rail News

Mentions of a recession-like environment from top transportation executives and lackluster growth in domestic and international freight volumes are sparking fears that a U.S. freight recession is upon us that could be a harbinger of something even worse: an outright economic recession.

Truck drivers who have been using a secondary access road to reach a major intermodal complex in the Chicago area have been forced to cope with longer turn times, fewer trips and higher costs — and they won’t be seeing any relief any time soon.

Canadian Pacific Railway CEO E. Hunter Harrison said Wednesday he will abandon a proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern Railway if shareholders at the Virginia railroad fail to pressure their board to sit down at the negotiating table with their Canadian counterparts.

Canadian Pacific Railway said Tuesday it plans to submit a resolution asking Norfolk Southern Railway shareholders request their board of directors engage in “good faith discussions” with CP regarding its proposed merger, the newest approach after the Calgary-based company has been rebuffed three times.

Outlook for the Class I rail industry in 2016 varies from cautiously optimistic to downright grim. Even though intermodal service has generally improved, the railroads are finding competition from the trucking sector — for domestic loads and marine containers — as fierce as ever.

The Indian federal government on Wednesday approved a proposal allowing the Ministry of Railways to set up joint ventures with various state government agencies for the development of rail infrastructure projects in the country.

After a tumultuous year that saw a high-profile management shake-up and intermodal volume declines, Hub Group finished 2015 with a strong fourth quarter. Profit jumped double digits in the last three months of 2015 on stronger intermodal and truck brokerage freight volume and recovering rail service, the company said.

In its third white paper defending what has become an increasingly hostile bid for Norfolk Southern Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway detailed its confidence that a tie-up would pass muster with U.S. rail regulators.

Gilbert E. Carmichael, a courtly, silver-haired Mississippian who made a mark in business, politics, and as head of the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration and founder of the University of Denver’s Intermodal Transportation Institute, has died.

CSX Transportation says it remains committed to its planned North Carolina intermodal terminal, even after local and state officials nixed the project’s original construction site outside Raleigh.

China may subsidize up to 50 percent of the containerized rail traffic between it and Russia, according to recent statements from Sergei Kopiev, chairman of Yuzhno Uralsky, one of Russia’s largest transport and logistics operators.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. has finalized the acquisition of CP Carga, the freight and logistics unit of Portugal’s state-owned railway.

Still fighting off an increasingly hostile takeover, Norfolk Southern Railway Wednesday assured shareholders that despite weak carload volume and tumbling intermodal traffic producing a double-digit profit loss, the railroad remains better on its own.

The downturn in global trade coupled with rising operating costs to pull down third fiscal-quarter profits at state-owned intermodal rail operator Container Corporation of India.

Canadian National Railway on Tuesday gave an uncertain but far rosier outlooks for 2016 than most of its North American counterparts after strong international intermodal volume gains helped propel it to a double-digit profit rise.

The potential merger of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways, and the resulting tie-up such consolidation could spur, would shake up the Class I industry — and their shipper customers — to a degree not seen since the Staggers Act of 1980 dramatically reduced the number of major railroads operating in the U.S.

La Spezia Container Terminal in Italy saw its Asia focus continuing to pay off in 2015, with container volume rising 8 percent year-over-year and helping take its parent Contship Italia Group to a throughput of 6.3 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the year.

Shippers across the U.S. can expect delays this week as the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast dig out from Winter Storm Jonas, which dumped two or more feet of snow on a region stretching from West Virginia to New England and created icy road conditions in an even larger area.

With the largest mega-ships now carrying up to 19,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, modern ports need the capability to transport huge volumes of containers in a short period of time to beat congestion and keep shipments moving. This puts strain on existing rail links and increases demand for multiple rail connections and operators to service ports’ hinterland.

Sluggish economic conditions derailed Canadian Pacific Railway’s domestic intermodal success, pulling down traffic 9 percent and contributing to a 29 percent profit decline.

Union Pacific Railroad said high inventories, a decline in premium shipments and sluggish retail sales are pulling down its intermodal volume and revenue from the hauling of containers.

International Container Transshipment Terminal, or Vallarpadam, at India’s Port of Cochin expanded its intermodal freight access earlier this week when state-owned Container Corp. of India introduced a weekly train service connecting the DP World facility with Coimbatore, a major southern India inland point.

Canadian Pacific Railway has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a “collective campaign” spearheaded by other major railroads to block its increasingly hostile stock-and-cash bid for Norfolk Southern Railway.

Chinese investors aren’t scaling back on freight projects in Russia even though both countries’ economies are suffering, according to Russia’s minister of Far East development.

With near-sourcing spurring a Mexican manufacturing boom and a strong dollar kicking U.S. imports into high gear, cross-border trade between the U.S. and Mexico is expected to rocket in 2016.

Freight demand is likely to stay even lower than usual in early 2016, thanks to retail inventories that climbed higher in November and a drop in December retail sales, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Two years since the devastating 2013-14 winter wreaked havoc on U.S. intermodal rail networks, North America’s largest railroads are on the cusp of restoring reliability and speeds to the level shippers once took for granted.

A proposed $272 million CSX Transportation intermodal hub would give shippers using the Port of Wilmington better access to the fast-growing markets of Charlotte, Raleigh and the Research Triangle, along with the entirety of the CSX network.

Canadian Pacific Railway criticized the head of Union Pacific Railroad for pledging to try to stop Class I industry consolidation, pointing out that the U.S. Western railroad became the largest in North America because of numerous mergers and has praised consolidation.

The top executive at the largest U.S. railway said Wednesday he will do everything within his power to prevent further consolidation within the Class I rail industry, the likes of which has been suggested with the proposed tie-up of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways.

Just as Class I railroads announce service has finally recovered to 2013 levels, harsh winter weather is testing their improved train speeds and dwell times.

Shipper spending on surface transportation fell 2.7 percent in December from November and was down 5.2 percent year-over-year, according to the Cass Freight Index.

CSX Transportation forecasts flat intermodal growth in the first quarter, as the loss of international intermodal business to Norfolk Southern Railway is expected to offset domestic volume increases gained from highway conversions and a key customer shifting loads away from its U.S. Eastern rail archrival.

Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways clashed again over a proposed merger, with the former making another case for consolidation and the latter showing off again how it’s boosting efficiency independently by combining operations.

Stubbornly high inventories helped pushed freight volumes down in December, according to the Cass Freight Index, and could become more costly for shippers in 2016.

With weaker carload volume due to lagging industrial and energy sectors and intermodal revenue despite volume growth, CSX Transportation’s release of its fourth quarter earnings Tuesday sent a warning to the Class I industry.

Bill Clement, head of CSX Transportation’s intermodal business, will be leaving the company, as part of a second wave of management changes.

Kerry Logistics Network’s Singapore subsidiary has been awarded the concession to operate inland ports in Yangon and Mandalay, two major commercial cities in Myanmar.

Shovels could be in the ground on Canadian National Railway’s planned $196 million intermodal and logistics hub outside of Toronto as soon as 2017. That is, if a recently submitted environmental impact statement passes muster with Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency.

CSX Transportation and Ports America Chesapeake have signed an agreement handing management of the Port of Baltimore's intermodal container transfer facility to Ports America.