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 […]
Railroad: Union Pacific
Chicago-St. Louis trains begin 110-mph running
CHICAGO — Starting today, Amtrak’s Lincoln Service trains will begin operating at 110-mph maximum speeds over Union Pacific’s former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio speedway between Laraway Road, south of Joliet, Ill., and the Alton, Ill., Amtrak station. Shortened schedules will be established at a later time “to ensure everything on the system is running properly […]
CN, UP, and Ferromex tighten new Canada-Mexico intermodal schedules (updated)
MONTREAL — Canadian National, Union Pacific, and Ferromex have significantly tightened the schedules for the new intermodal service they will launch on May 15 to link Canada and Detroit with Mexico. The changes to the Falcon Premium service, announced in customer advisories on Monday, take 40 hours out of the Detroit-Monterrey transit time and trim […]
STB requires BNSF, NS, and UP to continue to provide detailed service progress reports
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators will require BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific to continue to provide biweekly service progress reports through the end of the year. The Surface Transportation Board, in a decision released today, said the three systems had not yet made enough progress toward the operations, service, and employment goals they had […]
Union Pacific dramatically scales back use of congestion-related embargoes
WASHINGTON — Union Pacific has significantly reduced its use of congestion-related embargoes, which last year drew scrutiny from the Surface Transportation Board and scorn from shippers. UP dramatically increased its use of embargoes last year, when it issued the vast majority of Class I railroad embargoes in order to prevent its local yards from clogging […]
New CPKC Chicago-Mexico intermodal service to debut May 11
CALGARY, Alberta — CPKC’s first new service — a pair of intermodal trains linking Chicago and Mexico — will launch on May 11, carrying containers from new customers Schneider and Knight-Swift. Daily hotshots 180 and 181 will link Chicago with Laredo, Texas; Monterrey, Mexico; and Mexico City. With third-day service to Laredo, fourth-day to Monterrey, […]
CPKC adds second major intermodal customer for new Chicago-Mexico service
CALGARY, Alberta — Knight-Swift will shift its U.S.-Mexico intermodal traffic from Union Pacific to CPKC’s new single-line route beginning in May. CPKC and Knight-Swift announced their multi-year agreement today, just four days after Schneider said it would move its U.S.-Mexico intermodal business from UP to CPKC in May under a similar agreement. “This agreement creates […]
UP train derailed in Kansas grade-crossing accident
YATES CENTER, Kan. — Five locomotives and approximately 24 cars of a Union Pacific train derailed Monday morning after a grade-crossing accident with a tractor-trailer truck, a railroad spokesman told KOAM-TV. The train’s crew was not injured, UP said. The truck driver was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Woodson County Sheriff Jeffrey McCullough. The […]
CN joins UP and Ferromex for new cross-border intermodal service
MONTREAL — Canadian National, Union Pacific, and Ferromex will launch new intermodal service next month linking Canada and Detroit with Mexico, the railroads announced today (Monday, April 24). The Falcon Premium service will connect a dozen CN terminals with the Ferromex terminals in Monterrey and Silao via the Eagle Pass, Texas, gateway. CN and UP […]
Management incentives at CSX, NS, and UP shift toward service and growth
The publicly traded U.S. Class I railroads are putting more of an emphasis on service and volume growth in the annual incentive plans they offer to their executives. It’s a clear sign, analysts say, that the railroads are shifting into growth mode after years spent concentrating on reducing their operating ratios in a quest for […]
NTSB issues report on 2021 maintenance worker fatality in Texas
WASHINGTON — The use of a piece of maintenance-of-way equipment to move steel grating panels, with an attachment not designed for that purpose, was the probable cause of a September 2021 fatality involving a contract worker on the Union Pacific near Castroville, Texas, according to a National Transportation Safety Board accident report issued Thursday. The […]
Derailments down on Union Pacific despite use of longer trains
OMAHA, Neb. – Union Pacific’s reportable train derailment rate improved 10% during the first quarter, executives said today while defending the safety record of long trains. “We continue to make great strides on safety,” Eric Gehringer, executive vice president of operations, told investors and analysts on the railroad’s earnings call on Thursday. UP’s goal remains […]