OMAHA, Neb. — BNSF Railway’s first-quarter profit sank as volume fell in all four of the railroad’s business groups. BNSF’s pre-tax earnings declined 8.8%, to $1.6 billion, as revenue increased 1.9%, to $5.8 billion, BNSF’s parent, Berkshire Hathaway, reported on Saturday. The railroad’s operating ratio was 68.4%, a 3.8-point increase from a year ago, as […]
VICTORVILLE, Calif. — Officials in Victorville have terminated longstanding plans to build an intermodal facility, which have become outdated with BNSF Railway’s plan to build its $1.5 billion Barstow International Gateway. The Victorville Daily Press reports that Victorville’s city council last week dissolved an agreement to develop the Southern California Logistics Rail Authority, approved by […]
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is seeking a regulation which would require two-person crews for trains operating within the state, calling it a “commonsense, necessary measure” for the safety of communities and crew members. Kelly, a Democrat, said in a press release that she has directed the state’s Department of Transportation to propose […]
KINGSTON, Ontario — Six cars of a Canadian National train carrying hazardous materials derailed Friday in Kingston, Ontario, leading to a small chemical leak and collapsing a portion of a bridge, the CBC reports. No members of the train’s three-person crew were injured. Two tanks cars of the 12-car train ended up in Little Cataraqui […]
WASHINGTON – Union Pacific has asked a federal court to overturn the Surface Transportation Board’s approval of the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern merger. In a petition for review filed on Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, UP said the STB’s March 15 decision exceeded the board’s authority and […]
WASHINGTON – Tony the Tiger along with Snap, Crackle, and Pop are asking for a seat at the table so that they can have a say in the dispute over Amtrak’s plans to halt freight service to local customers in Pennsylvania for six weeks during a trackwork project. Kellogg Co. says that losing freight service […]
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. – BNSF Railway has resumed freight service on the ex-Santa Fe “Surf Line” between Los Angeles and San Diego past the site of a landslide in San Clemente, the Los Angeles Times reported. BNSF began running two to four trains a day through the area at speeds of 10 to 15 mph, […]
CALGARY, Alberta — CPKC and metallurgical coal producer Teck Resources have reached a new multi-year contract that includes a first-of-its-kind pilot program that will use CPKC’s home-built hydrogen fuel-cell locomotives in coal train service. The pilot program, which will be jointly developed by CPKC and Teck, will begin next year, the companies announced today. “In […]
CHICAGO — Canadian National, which led the big Class I railroads in volume growth over the past decade, expects to keep it up over the next three years. CN believes it will add as many as 900,000 annual new carloads and intermodal containers to its system by 2026, which translates into 5% volume growth per […]
CHICAGO — Canadian National executives on Wednesday dissected the long-train strategy that the railway has cast aside in favor of an operating plan where sticking to schedule is gospel. “The plan is sacred” was a phrase CN officials used multiple times during the railway’s investor day presentations. “You have this phrase around here … ‘the […]
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A bill seeking to introduce a broad range of rail regulations in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment easily advanced out of a Pennsylvania House committee on Wednesday, despite concerns voiced by some members that the matter is one for federal, not state, action. PennLive.com reports that House Bill 1028 […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. freight rail traffic in April was down 6% from the same month in 2022, a slight improvement over the previous month, according to statistics from the Association of American Railroads. Traffic for the week ending April 29 was also down compared to a year earlier, showing a drop of 4.9% The figures […]
