CHICAGO — Remarks from top railroad officials during the most recent round of earnings calls have been encouraging and analysts, without direct ties to railroads, agree. With railroads reporting its weekly performance to the Surface Transportation Board, the numbers don’t lie. As 2025 arrives, railroads have showed improvements to terminal dwell, and train speeds are […]
Welcome to a new year. As we wait to find out what 2025 has in store for us, here’s one final look at our top stories of 2024, as well as a review of previous top stories, to give this year’s events some context. Norfolk Southern ends up in the top spot for the second […]
CUBA, N.D. — No injuries were reported when 17 cars of a Canadian Pacific Kansas City train derailed Monday (Dec. 30, 2024) near the town of Cuba. The derailment occurred just before noon. Barnes County Emergency Manager Jessica Jenrich told KFGO Radio that the cars involved were either empty or carrying sand. Cuba is about […]
As the Chicago-St. Paul, Minn., Borealis surpassed 100,000 riders a little over five months after its May 21, 2024, debut, the train far exceeded the performance that its state sponsors, passenger rail advocates, and Amtrak had suggested would occur. In fact, Borealis’ origins and public acceptance contain elements that should be weighed heavily when decisions […]
WASHINGTON — Class I railroads this week disagreed with Amtrak’s contention that its passenger trains should enjoy absolute and unlimited priority over freight trains. Amtrak, as part of its complaint over Union Pacific’s handling of the Sunset Limited, told the Surface Transportation Board earlier this year that every individual dispatching decision must result in the […]
Since 2019, Union Pacific has been in the steam spotlight with its restored 4-8-8-4 Big Boy No. 4014. In 2024, CPKC stole some of 4014’s thunder with its “Final Spike Tour” using Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 No. 2816. From April to July, No. 2816 operated from Canada through the central U.S. and through Mexico to Mexico […]
OTTAWA, Ontario — Canadian Pacific Kansas City exceeded the allowed revenue for western grain movements by almost Ca$2 million during the 2023-24 crop year, and must pay the overage and a 5% penalty, the Canadian Transportation Agency has determined. In a Dec. 24 decision, the CTA determined that CPKC exceeded the Maximum Revenue Entitlement of […]
CALGARY, Alberta — The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Holiday Train program raised more than Ca$1.75 million and collected more than 130,000 pounds of food for local food banks during its four-week run in the United States and Canada, the railroad said on Monday, Dec. 23. Additionally, the CPKC Holiday Express, which continues a program launched […]
BOSTON BAR, British Columbia — Twelve cars of a CPKC grain train were sent into the Fraser River by a rockslide on Sunday, Dec. 22, CTV News reports. No injuries were reported. A Canadian National spokeswoman told the network that the incident occurred on the CN main line near Boston Bar. CN and CPKC operate […]
CPKC will receive some much-needed motive power help starting next year in the form of a 170-unit order of new locomotives from Wabtec. The railroad has been heavily spending on capacity work across its combined system to support new traffic and motive power has been in short supply to move tonnage across its network. The […]
Several freight rail business developments did not rank among our Top 10 stories of the year — but were still important in the grand scheme of things. They include: New Southeast-Mexico corridor CSX and Canadian Pacific Kansas City on Dec. 1 began service over the former Meridian & Bigbee short line that serves as a […]
CALGARY, Alberta — The $100 million Patrick J. Ottensmeyer International Railway Bridge is officially complete. The second span across the Rio Grande— linking Laredo, Texas, with Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — doubles Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s cross-border capacity because it allows the railway to eliminate the four-hour northbound and southbound directional running windows that created bottlenecks […]
