Kansas City Southern

Market Voice Jim Blaze writes about rail intermodal and what is happening to this area of the railroad sector.

Passenger train proposal asks for comment on freight requirements as well.

The railroad said second quarter revenue totaled $714 million, a 5 percent increase from $682 million for the same period in 2018.

Rail volumes were off again for the week ending June 29, 2019 with U.S. railroads reporting a 5.5 percent decline.

Rail union workers are at odds with other members of the freight rail industry over how cross-border rail operations are run at Laredo, Texas.

Autonomous trains might be fully running in remote Australia, but it will take awhile before those kinds of trains will be rolling down the North American countryside.

The transition to e-commerce and anticipated advances in automated trucking are forcing the freight railroads to adapt to supply chains that require railroads to be more responsive and nimble. One way that the railroads are seeking to address this challenge is by hiring executives outside of the railroading community, in the hopes that placing a non-rail executive in a leadership role will help the railroad weather systemic changes within the supply chain.

Railroad market expert Jim Blaze writes about the movement of chemicals by rail and how that sub-set of railroad traffic is profitable and may grow significantly in the near future.

“It’s just a confusing time for all of us in transportation and anybody in manufacturing or business in general to have a really good sense of why we’re seeing this kind of softness,” said CSX chief executive officer Jim Foote.

e railroad industry is “concerned” about a possible disruption of the North American supply chain should the U.S. impose tariffs on imports from Mexico. But for now, the rail industry is taking a wait-and-see stance.

While the degradation was seen across most sectors, the transports are seeing outsized declines.

Only 17 percent of the relationships between the U.S. passenger and freight railroads required to utilize positive train control technology have interoperability, meaning that the host railroad can communicate with a non-host train through the technology, according to data released by the Federal Railroad Administration.

“The board has the authority to define reasonable practices. If you were in our shoes, what would you do?” said Surface Transportation Board vice chairman Patrick Fuchs to a panel representing BNSF, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific.

Rail congestion in regions such as Chicago and Houston may have eased for now, but the railroads will still need to find ways to increase capacity at those busy city locations as the U.S. population grows, Class I railroad executives said at an investor conference this week.

Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) said its first quarter 2019 net profits rose nearly 16 percent amid its ongoing transition to precision scheduled railroading (PSR).

Chemical hazmat shipments figure prominently on newly created committee within U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

Precision scheduled railroading (PSR) could benefit customers and shippers, but its deployment pace and how shippers respond to changes will be key to its success, panelists said today at the North East Association of Rail Shippers conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

U.S. rail volumes fell again last week as rail service issues continue to plague the post-flooding Midwestern landscape.

A Mexican government agency says Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) and two other national rail lines have the opportunity to fix rail rates on certain routes serving much of the country’s industrial production.

The Grain Transport Report, a weekly publication by the Agricultural Marketing Service (a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) released information showing that total export inspections for grain (corn, wheat and soybeans) declined 22 percent from the previous week.

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.

Just a few months after its CEO expressed some skepticism about the practice, the NAFTA-focused rail company will adopt its principles.

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.

Railroad sees more appliance and brown paper freight moving off road transportation to rail.

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.

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

A concern is expressed over a potential lack of investment to get railroads ready for the future.

The debt rating agency sees some drawbacks to the process, but is otherwise strongly in support of the growing trend.

Coverage of three companies were launched with a “buy” rating, while three of them got “hold” ratings.

Marketing executive says reforms to trade deal take uncertainty from local customers.

The class 1 railroad owned by Berkshire Hathaway had the worst OR of any of the class 1 railroads for the second quarter.

Kansas City Southern (KCS) (NYSE: KSU) announced today it has joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). 

Progress is being made on meeting the concerns of the Surface Transportation Board: execs

April 1st promises a surge of HOS violations; Uber pulls out of Southeast Asia; China starts trading oil futures; US Customs looks to upgrade their digital tools; Kansas City Southern hit by new tax bills.