Railroads continue to play a significant role in North America’s economic infrastructure. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration, the U.S. rail freight network covers almost 140,000 route miles and is generally considered the largest, safest, and most cost-efficient freight system in the world. In addition, says the FRA, the almost $80 billion rail freight industry creates more than 167,000 jobs across the country.
In essence, rail freight companies charge businesses to carry cargo across their network of rails. Their rates are overseen by the Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency that regulates financial aspects of surface transportation. Major railroads in North America include Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National Railway.
Keep up with the latest news, trends and reports concerning rail freight transport here!
Five-year high in growth seen last year thanks to tariff front-loading and tight truck supply, but shippers likely to put brakes on growth this year.
Class 1 railroad warns of slowdown in shipments through major intermodal hubs as tracks crack under severe cold.
Class 1 railroads may have to shorten train lengths and reduce speeds to cope with cold, while drayage supply will also be tight.
ELD impact substantive but short-lived, Hunt, NS executives say.
The still-high operating ratio came in for criticism while management says it will reveal all on February 11.
Hard commodity volumes were mixed, but intermodal and coal are better; pricing is the best in seven years.
The company moved up its operating ratio targets on the back of a strong performance in the early days of precision railroading.
It was a great quarter for the railroad with revenue growth in all its product lines and increases in both operating and net income.
Missing USDA data on wheat stockpiles has traders reacting cautiously.
A company that’s been doing it, a company that says it’s going to be doing it and a company that is being affected by others doing it: that was the theme on three calls about precision railroading.
Business and public policy leaders here have long dreamed of a high speed train connecting the so-called Cascadia Innovation Corridor cities: Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.
$2 billion in capex over the next ten years will nearly double Savannah’s container traffic to 8 million TEUs annually.
Just a few months after its CEO expressed some skepticism about the practice, the NAFTA-focused rail company will adopt its principles.
Intermodal is about half the business. It saw its volumes decline but overall grew its revenue.
The operating ratio—strong enough in the third quarter that it can be argued it was earth-shaking—weakened slightly but was still ahead of the fourth quarter of 2017.
Plus: AVs shrouded in secrecy; Puget Sound congestion relief
A current rail attorney who was with the STB for many years wonders whether it has ever broken free of the changes envisioned by the Staggers Act.
Dry van rates hit air-pocket last month and lose altitude; but other indicators of freight economy still looking up.
Overall import growth mean more freight all around, but high drayage costs and better service bringing more boxes to rail.
The U.S. – China trade war continues to disrupt freight movements into the new year.
After first saying in November that operating ratio for the year would be flat, a strong December has enabled it to tick up slightly.
Jim Vena, protege of vaunted rail executive Hunter Harrison, seen as likely helping boost UP’s move to greater efficiency.
Once dependent on drayage to move boxes to rail, GCT Bayonne now has near-dock rail to speed shipments to U.S. hinterland.
Senate confirmation of Patrick Fuchs and Martin Oberman could be catalyst for STB Chairman Ann Begeman to take action on pending shipper proposals.
Freight lobbyists are banking on leadership changes in the 116th Congress to pave the way for infrastructure financing that stalled during the first half of Trump’s administration.
Locating intermodal assets and identifying which of those assets is available for use is one of the key attributes of Phillips Connect Technologies’ Intermodal Smart Solution.
Plus: The optical communications supply chain, carriers reflag ships ahead of Brexit, and Massachusetts to tackle pot delivery
Project first suggested in 2002 may yet go forward as Port of Baltimore vies for hinterland freight movements.
The charges are growing but there are signs that this lengthy dispute may be coming to an end.
European rail freight is on the move following the development of the German masterplan, which includes provisions for research as well as state aid to operators for track access.
The Washington state port is retooling to handle bigger ships and heavier cargo. The transformation includes a large-scale mixed-use development featuring housing, hotels and office space.
Record $1.5 billion in U.S. DOT grants “rebalance” investments into rural areas.
Railroad to leave Norfolk for Georgian pastures.
Brexit preparations have been thrown into even greater turmoil as conservative members of parliament have triggered a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister.
In partnership with Blume Global… In our view, increased digitization can make drayage markets more transparent and improve asset utilization, making carrier offerings more attractive on both a cost and service basis.
Canadian province tackles stricter driver training and Chinese goods to Europe move along the world’s longest freight route. Plus Uptake takes innovation award and improving truck driving jobs.
Mercitalia, Italy’s largest freight railway company has unveiled ETR 500, a high-speed cargo train that connects Bologna with Naples. Authorities state that this would negate 9,000 truck trips annually, cutting nearly 80% of carbon emissions associated with carrying an equivalent load on road.
Autonomous vehicles policy should go beyond the highways and roads, the rail trade group argues.
Is the economy still healthy? Are people still making things, shipping things, and buying things? According to the railroad car data, the answer is a definitive “Yes.”
Also in the pickup: Morgan Stanley index, and a move back to sailing across the ocean.
In a 45-minute chat at a Credit Suisse conference, Jim Foote insists that it isn’t all about cost-cutting.
Funding aims to keep Port’s market share as more freight moves to intermodal and off the roads.
Also today: going to jail for bogus CDLs; ecommerce driving the Canada Post labor dispute.
After making its first acquisition last year in a quarter-century, the company could be in the market for another one, according to CEO John Roberts.
The decision in favor of Horizon turned on a narrow question of where one of the employees’ case should be heard.
Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group that has dabbled in hundreds of businesses over the years, can now add U.S. commuter train operator to his portfolio.
It took a week to get the tallies, but an early lead turned into an insurmountable deficit.
What happens if vegetables are grown vertically indoors? What happens if oil prices collapse? Those were some of the questions at this Marketwaves18 panel.
Blockchain solutions, improved interfaces, artificial intelligence and a tool for the intermodal business.
The dispute sheds light on the extraordinarily secretive process governing the intermodal agreement.
Rail and truck demand a secondary casualty in trade dispute.
Also in the pickup: better tools for sleep apnea instruments in sleeper berths; does Buffet care about BNSF’ OR?
Norfolk Southern adds info on impending HQ move to Atlanta.
A decrease in coal volumes did not slow a revenue rise at BNSF Railway Company, which posted a 16% increase in operating revenues in the third quarter compared to Q3 2017.
The FreightWaves Research Institute will announce the winners of the Freight.Tech 25 next week at the MarketWaves18 conference at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas.
Propelled by international growth and a strong North American market, Greenbrier anticipates one of its strongest years ever in FY2019.
In this final part of the three-part series, the author looks at what steps need to be taken to successfully implement precision railroading.
Canada’s largest railroad boosts intermodal and refrigerated service offering with acquisition of major trucking company.
Under the terms of the Saudi joint venture, Greenbrier, the second largest freight railcar manufacturer in the U.S., will provide up to $100 million in new railcars, lift equipment and other terminal investments, and will operate intermodal and other freight terminals.
Precision railroading has worked, but consistent success has been elusive.
It was a better quarter for three companies representing different sectors: 3PL, intermodal and truckload.
The Unified Plan 2020 is in place in one corridor, with another to come. So far, UP executives are boasting about its success.
A strong quarter all around, but as predicted, the quarter-to-quarter comparisons are showing signs of being weaker just because the trucking bull market is getting to be a year old.
Although a full reveal of its strategy was not part of the conference call, the discussion of the “clean sheets” program shows that Norfolk Southern has undertaken a review of its operations on its way to how much of the precision railroading model it will adopt.
Crude-by-rail is big growth driver for quarter as rail remains key outlet for Canadian crude.
Also in the pickup: IMO meets with 2020 on the horizon; Rhine levels are causing plants to shut down; C.R. England and its charitable cause
Venture brings together two of the largest names in U.S. frac sand production to provide integrated delivery solution.
The usual signs of an upturn in the trucking sector aren’t there, according to the Wall Street house, and Morgan wonders if a lot of the demand got pushed forward.
SONAR’s Headhaul Index map and the HAUL.JOT Index are both showing that the return to growth in inbound loaded container flow first seen in the Long Beach/LA port is continuing and gathering momentum.
The industry clearly is moving in the direction of precision railroading being the “way to go.” Now it’s time to figure out the possibilities and the hurdles.
Comments by the railroad previously were somewhat vague. But the CEO wasn’t vague in a video to employees.
Railroad sees more appliance and brown paper freight moving off road transportation to rail.
Railroad sees better volumes in energy and other bulk freight, with road-to-rail opportunities coming next year.
The FreightWaves Research Institute has announced the list of 55 voters who will be choosing the inaugural winners of the Freight.Tech 25 awards, and it’s who’s who of freight leaders.
From on-demand trucking to blockchain, loadboards and freight matching, the list of companies bringing innovative technologies to the freight industry is growing by the day, which makes the 100 that have made the cut to be honored by the FreightWaves Research Institute as part of its inaugural Freight.Tech 100 all the more special.
CSX beats estimates as coal volumes post strong gains, but increasing share in intermodal is the railroad’s next plan.
It started with an open nomination period, and after culling through hundreds of submissions, the FreightWaves Research Institute has announced the inaugural Freight.Tech 100 companies.
Arkansas-based motor carrier sees driver wages up 18%, but it aims to recoup those costs through new shipper contracts.
The city hopes to use its role as a landlord to help move truck traffic on to barges and to trains.
In his preview of the railroads’ Q3 earnings reports, Susquehanna’s Bascome Majors set optimistic price targets but warned that P/E valuations are at historically high levels.
Michigan-based asset-light logistics provider aims to boost western U.S. presence with latest acquisition.
Four new inbound truck lanes recently opened at Virginia International Gateway, increasing the capacity at the terminal’s gate complex by 30 percent.
Most of the hit is coming from an arbitration award with BNSF. Its conference call with investors is a change in its normal practice.
Norfolk Southern has control over a small connector railroad in the Hampton Roads port area, and CSX says it is using that control to block CSX from launching significant intermodal service there.
In Today’s Pickup: Michael is headed toward the Gulf, a quote by Hunter Harrison and a not-complimentary look at the job of a truck driver.
Howard Green is best on fights between the serial CEO and his boards, activist investors, and proxy wars, but there’s a lot in the book for railroad buffs who want to know more about Harrison’s signature philosophy, precision scheduled railroading.
Intermodal has attracted more freight thanks to tight truck markets, but growth rates will moderate.
It’s been quite a few weeks in the discussions regarding precision railroading vs. not-precision, for lack of a better term. Also: OPEC pumping strong, Bangkok a growing intermodal hub
Mike Lacey sees some improvement in his relationship with railroads, but it’s coming from a very low point.
Long-serving railroad man led BNSF through acquisition by Berkshire Hathaway.
The debt rating agency sees some drawbacks to the process, but is otherwise strongly in support of the growing trend.
BNSF will use the CSX system to haul intermodal freight from the LA/Long Beach port, and service on the CSX system will be added from the New York/New Jersey port.
Tired truck drivers? That’s a big concern based on a new survey by the National Safety Council that found 97% of transportation employers are worried about employee fatigue.
The depreciating Indian rupee coupled with rising fuel prices have hit the Indian transportation corridor quite hard. The Indian government is now coming up with new regulations and innovative transportation practices to ease pressure.
An annual review of the logistics business gets published; dueling intermodal views; and a startup gets a big chunk of funding.
A response to an earlier piece discussing railroad attendance at IANA’s recent expo and the benefits of precision railroading.
Largest U.S. intermodal rail carrier sees uptick in domestic containers and trailers as trucking capacity remains tight.
The lawsuit asserts that water “poured in through a gap in city levees,” and it says the gap was created by a railway underpass owned by CSX.
The numbers look good but deteriorating service is tarnishing the traditional role of intermodal.
Port aims for new on-dock rail facility to handle increased container throughput and meet clean-air goals.
