A southbound CN freight passes the former Soo Line station in Waukesha, Wis., in 2012. Brian Schmidt Q How did Canadian National end up operating the former Soo Line route through Wisconsin. I thought the Soo was affiliated with Canadian Pacific. – Kirk Gobain, Dodge City, Kan. A The Soo Line acquired the Milwaukee Road […]
Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data Bill Stephens/ Class I railroad data The Class I railroad average operating ratio rose slightly in 2018 — the first increase in a decade — as congestion-related costs and an accounting rules change pushed the closely watched efficiency metric up at four of the seven big systems. CSX Transportation […]
Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel Canadian Pacific MIAMI — Canadian Pacific CEO Keith Creel is cheering the industry’s embrace of the Precision Scheduled Railroad operating model touted by his mentor, the late E. Hunter Harrison. “I want them all to do it … I think it’s the right way to run the business,” Creel told […]
CHICAGO – The Coast Starlight isn’t the only Amtrak train making news this week. On Sunday afternoon, a Canadian Pacific freight train derailed east of Tomah, Wis., The eastbound Empire Builder had been running more than seven hours late, but would have passed the scene of the derailment had it been on time. Consequently, it […]
A screen image capture of the cover of a report studying reverse commuting on Chicago’s Metra. Metra CHICAGO — A March 4 launch date has been scheduled for the start of new reverse-commute service on Metra’s Milwaukee District North Line, officials have announced. The new service is intended to provide improved outbound transportation from Chicago’s […]
VANCOVER, B.C. — Canadian National intends to double-track 2.5 miles of the Burrard Inlet rail corridor serving south shore port facilities in Vancouver to aid in a short-term increase in port capacity. “The Port of Vancouver is the busiest global trade export gateway of Canada and we must make the most of the existing limited […]
Canadian National power leads a westbound empty oil unit train through River Forest, Ill., on the Union Pacific on Aug. 25, 2018. TRAINS: David Lassen EDMONTON, Alberta — The government of Alberta has reached a $3.7-billion deal with Canadian National and Canadian Pacific to haul landlocked crude oil out of the province. The government will […]
Harsh winter weather — from extreme cold in the Midwest and Canada to record-breaking snowfall in the Pacific Northwest and flooding along the Mississippi River — is a major culprit in the decline of rail traffic this year, executives said this week. Rail traffic in North America had a strong final three months of 2018, […]
Jim Squires, NS CEO Norfolk Southern NORFOLK, Va. — It would be an understatement to say that Norfolk Southern’s views on Precision Scheduled Railroading have evolved. In November 2015, Jim Squires had been chief executive for barely six months when the wolf — dressed as Canadian Pacific CEO E. Hunter Harrison — came banging on […]
Police investigate the grade crossing accident in Brookfield, Wis., that left the automobile driver dead Monday. Cate Kratville-Wrinn BROOKFIELD, Wis. — A 70-year-old man died Monday when he drove his SUV into the path of Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder passenger train, according to police reports. The accident happened at 4:15 p.m. at Brookfield Road adjacent […]
Paul D. Schneider train-watching at Fullerton, Calif. David Styffe LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Railroading has lost one of its most versatile and accomplished storytellers. Paul D. Schneider, 64, died peacefully on Feb. 15, 2019, at the Rehabilitation Center on La Brea, in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Fairfax, where he had been living for several […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern is taking a two-pronged approach to operational changes as it adopts Precision Scheduled Railroading. First, it’s redesigning local service from scratch using a process that it has dubbed clean-sheeting. Second, NS will begin making systemwide operating changes that affect road trains once the first round of clean-sheeting is completed in June. […]
