rail shippers

What are stakeholders in the freight rail space keeping an eye on in 2024? Here’s a starter list.

The U.S. freight rail industry got schooled in 2023 on issues including the three R’s: rail safety, reciprocal switching and relationships.

Intermodal rail can and should be a competitive transportation mode, provided that short-line railroads play a part and more investments go into developing intermodal hubs and insightful data sets, according to a report commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund.

In light of the numerous comments that the Surface Transportation Board received on its proposed reciprocal switching rule, the board has extended a deadline for additional feedback by two weeks.

Executives with CSX, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern at recent investor conferences listed some of the ways they expect to improve rail service.

After serving one five-year term on the Surface Transportation Board, Chairman Marty Oberman has decided against seeking reappointment.

Dozens of industry stakeholders, from individual Class I railroads to multiple shipper groups to the trade unions, offered their input on what’s wrong and what’s right about the Surface Transportation Board’s proposed rulemaking on reciprocal switching.

Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito want the Surface Transportation Board to “move swiftly” on reciprocal switching.

Rail shippers largely welcome a reciprocal switching rule proposed last week by the Surface Transportation Board, but some wish it did more to incentivize rail competition.

Regulatory policy expert Rosyln Layton says it’s dangerous to have the Surface Transportation Board lay the grounds for defining how rail service should look under the common carrier obligation.

After years of wrangling over the issue, the Surface Transportation Board has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on reciprocal switching that will seek to define the service parameters where a switching action could take place.

Rail service for the 2023-2024 crop year in Canada is expected to be smooth — provided that weather conditions and unforeseen global events cooperate.

An anticipated decrease in grain exports and increase in domestic biofuels production could change U.S. freight railroads’ capacity needs in the coming years.

In a 3-2 vote, the Surface Transportation Board denied BNSF’s request to halt an order compelling the railway to ship 1 million more tons of Montana coal should it reach the capacity to do so.

BNSF wants a court to throw out an order from the Surface Transportation Board that BNSF ship more export coal on behalf of Navajo Transitional Energy Co.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine wants President Joe Biden to declare East Palestine a disaster area, while Norfolk Southern calls for rail car owners associated with the Feb. 3 derailment to help pay cleanup costs.

The Reliable Rail Service Act would charge the Surface Transportation Board to provide more clarity on the freight railroads’ common carrier obligation.

The Surface Transportation Board has ordered BNSF to meet the Navajo Transitional Energy Company’s request for more coal trains.

A research note from investment firm Cowen predicts reciprocal switching will hurt U.S. Class I railroads financially.

Technology might not be the only thing causing the freight rail industry to pivot. The industry’s relationships with its workforce and its customers might also be transitioning, suggested some speakers at the North American Rail Shippers conference.

How industry stakeholders are responding to efforts to legislate rail safety reforms was one of the themes percolating at the recent North American Rail Shippers annual conference.

Surface Transportation Board Chair Marty Oberman at a national rail shippers conference urged the railroads to increase their employee levels as a way to improve rail service.

Rail service may have improved but that shouldn’t relieve the Surface Transportation Board from pursuing shipper-friendly regulatory reforms, shippers say.

A hearing held by the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on freight rail supply chain challenges focused on a range of topics.

Union Pacific, BNSF and Norfolk Southern need to go further in improving rail service, according to a Surface Transportation Board decision requiring the railroads to submit service performance reports.

Rail service for chemical and agricultural shippers has gotten better, but further improvements could be made, according to two reports.

The partnership between both companies will help companies that might need to comply with additional safety regulations down the road, the head of IntelliTrans told FreightWaves.

Shippers and others weigh in on the Surface Transportation Board approving the railroad merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern.

A roundup of recent news items from Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, Amtrak and the Surface Transportation Board.

Fallout from Ohio train derailment calls to mind disasters from years past.

In this fireside chat for Global Supply Chain Week, FreightWaves’ rail and intermodal market expert Mike Baudendistel talks with Herman Haksteen, president of the Private Railcar Food and Beverage Association, about rail service issues and the rail car leasing market.

A rail shipper analyzed SEC filings and found four institutional investors own about 20% of three Class I railroads and classify themselves as passive.

Rail shippers see Transport Canada’s amendments to collect more freight rail data as a good start, but they maintain that more can be done.

Eight U.S. representatives from Iowa and Minnesota want the Surface Transportation Board to require Union Pacific to fix service issues and lift weather-related embargoes in the region.

Massachusetts-based RailState, founded by two rail industry veterans, seeks to provide customers with insights on where trains are located and a line segment’s performance over time.

Four Class I railroads have asked the Surface Transportation Board and U.S. appeals courts to review an order that seeks to resolve small rate disputes through voluntary arbitration.

The Surface Transportation Board wants Union Pacific to address service hiccups at California’s Foster Farms. Also, CN reports rail traffic controllers have ratified a new collective agreement.

An active Surface Transportation Board and ongoing issues to fully restore rail network capacity are among the issues that industry stakeholders are eyeing in the new year.

Rail service, an active Surface Transportation Board and continued M&A activity were among 2022’s news highlights.

The STB has rendered decisions on two rules aimed at helping the railroads and shippers resolve small rate disputes.

US Freight Railroads are the Best Rail Network Since the Staggers Act of 1980

The unions and the freight railroads must repair their relationship and collaborate on improving service if the industry wants to thrive and take more market share, observers told FreightWaves.

Stakeholders are processing their responses to federal actions this week to avert a potential economy-crippling rail strike.

If a prolonged rail worker strike happens, expect cross-border commodities such as cars, auto parts and Mexican beer to be bogged down.

President Joe Biden is compelling Congress to intervene if there is a rail strike — and hinting that both sides should accept the labor agreement as it stands.

In a letter sent Monday to legislative leaders, trade groups warn of a financial disaster should a railroad strike occur on Dec. 9.

Is a rail strike imminent? Here are five things that might help you understand how we got here.

The Surface Transportation Board wants to know why Union Pacific has been issuing hundreds of embargoes since 2018.

The American Chemistry Council says a rail strike lasting a month or longer could significantly damage the U.S. economy.

Agricultural shippers urge Congress to take action to prevent a rail strike while Canadian Pacific has a banner month for moving grain in October.

Federal board wants four Class I railroads to continue submitting rail service data that shows how service is improving.

Concerns that not all of the unions will agree to ratify their labor agreements have caused rail shippers and other transportation industry stakeholders to push President Joe Biden to act.

Freight railroads and climate change

Promoting competition, Laredo’s rail conversion potential and passenger rail in Louisiana were among the themes explored in the second half of the seven-day hearing proceeding on the CP-KCS merger.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin has introduced the Reliable Rail Service Act in response to calls from shippers’ groups and the unions to help restore the nation’s rail network capacity.

Just because a labor agreement is in sight between the railroads and the unions, that doesn’t mean rail service will instantly improve, shippers told FreightWaves.

The Association of American Railroads estimates that a nationwide strike could cost about $2 billion each day, while shippers groups rally Congress to intervene in the event a strike seems imminent.

The American Chemistry Council says freight rail service still leaves much to be desired, despite the railroads’ efforts to improve.

The Surface Transportation Board wants to know how the seven Class I railroads expect to meet demand for rail service during the harvest season running from September into the new year.

A Democrat-backed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives addresses rail service concerns raised during recent hearings by the House transportation committee.

Data from June reflects how rail service challenges persist into summer. Meanwhile, higher headcount levels and macroeconomic uncertainties await the rails for the remainder of this year.

Congressmen back calls from fertilizer and agricultural products shippers to improve freight rail service, plus news about a new federal grant program to eliminate railroad crossings and updates on CN and Canadian Pacific.

Amid soaring inflation and supply chain crunches, the United States’ key rail regulator has been mired in political antics.

BNSF’s brief embargo aims to reduce Southern California network congestion, which the railway partly blamed on bad weather.

Foster Poultry Farms asked STB last week to order UP to improve rail service to two poultry processing plants in California. The board agreed to that request.

The Surface Transportation Board wants BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific to submit additional information on their rail service recovery plans after finding that the initial plan submissions “were perfunctory” and lacked detail.

AskWaves defines what the common carrier obligation is and why the concept has garnered attention lately.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wants the Surface Transportation Board to take action to address service delays and congestion on the freight rail network.

A U.S. federal appeals court ruled that four Class I railroads must bear the burden on what internal documents can be excluded from two lawsuits about fuel surcharges and price fixing activity in the early 2000s.

The Surface Transportation Board wants Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX and Norfolk Southern to provide service recovery plans following reports and testimony about deteriorating rail service.

A hearing at the Surface Transportation Board raised hard questions that could influence the trajectory of the freight rail industry.

The Surface Transportation Board wants ‘act on its own initiative’ to modify rules governing its response to service emergencies

The Sweeteners Users Association asks federal regulators to address rail service issues, plus news from Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern and Commtrex.

Illinois-based CF Industries says UP’s plan would hamper CF Industries’ ability to deliver fertilizer during the spring application season.

If UP and customers can’t reduce the number of active railcars on the network, the railroad may temporarily resort to metering.

The letter sent by the National Grain and Feed Association to regulators about subpar rail service is finding support among other rail industry stakeholders.

The Class I railroads say they have been trying to improve service, which has deteriorated amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But the Surface Transportation Board questions whether headcount reductions come into play.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wants the Surface Transportation Board to move forward with proceedings that would address rail service for grain and agricultural products shippers.

The National Grain and Feed Association is asking the Surface Transportation Board to compel three Class I railroads to provide weekly and annual service updates.

The board held a two-day hearing on reciprocal switching to help it determine how it should move forward.

Congress should fund the Surface Transportation Board, agreed panelists at a U.S. House hearing on the board’s funding reauthorization. But they disagree on what STB’s role should be in regulating the freight railroads.

The American Chemistry Council chats with FreightWaves about why government leaders should keep transportation issues at the forefront of policymaking, especially in light of anticipated growth in production of chemicals.

From capital investments to competitive access, issues that CSX has brought before the Surface Transportation Board reflect concerns facing the freight rail industry as a whole.

Several rail shippers had asked the Surface Transportation Board to temporarily suspend a proceeding on a voluntary arbitration program for small rate disputes, but the board denied that request.

Economist Steve Pociask opines on why he thinks the Surface Transportation Board should tread carefully when deciding how to proceed with the issue of reciprocal switching.

The Surface Transportation Board is advancing two rulemakings on small rate disputes concurrently to determine how best to address such disputes. The railroads prefer one rulemaking while shippers prefer another.

STB has allowed agri-food shipper Sanimax to proceed in its complaint against Union Pacific over service issues.

Industry observers grapple with the complexities of implementing reciprocal switching on U.S. rail networks.

The agency is seeking comments from freight railroads on whether it should collect data pertaining to first- and last-mile movements.

As fall harvest nears, grain shippers and freight railroads are taking steps to ensure network fluidity for export-bound grain trains in and out of the Pacific Northwest.

Both Canada and the U.S. have provisions that allow for reciprocal switching, or interswitching. But rail shippers’ ability to participate in the program differs in the two countries.

SMART-TD must negotiate with Class I railroads on train crew size; Rail Customer Coalition calls on STB to take up reciprocal switching; ASLRRA praises progress on infrastructure bill; and Canadian Pacific urges KCS shareholders to vote against the proposed CN-KCS merger.

President Joe Biden’s order last week calls upon the Surface Transportation Board to examine hot topics among rail shippers, including reciprocal switching. The challenge will be balancing the wants and needs of shippers and the freight railroads.

Canadian Pacific and CN note the end of the public comment period for CN’s proposed voting trust, which would be used to acquire Kansas City Southern. But in order for regulators to review the voting trust application, the Surface Transportation Board may need to clarify further the parameters for gauging whether a rail merger is in the public interest, some stakeholders say.

The American Chemistry Council wants the Surface Transportation Board to look into whether operational changes and cost cutting exacerbated the rail service issues that chemicals shippers have been having in the first half of this year.

A trio of shippers groups, CN, Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific offer their takes on whether the voting trust associated with the proposed CN-KCS merger is or isn’t in the public interest.

The rail regulatory body sent several letters to Class I railroad heads last week, asking them to provide plans on how they expect to handle workforce and equipment in light of broader supply chain disruptions and anticipated service demand post-pandemic.

The Surface Transportation Board has determined that a waiver that exempted Kansas City Southern from post-2001 merger rules governing rail mergers applies in the proposed merger between KCS and Canadian Pacific.