MONTREAL — Canadian National’s traffic is accelerating back to normal levels, driven by strong growth in intermodal, grain, lumber, and frac sand traffic. “We are clearly seeing a recovery happening,” Chief Financial Officer Ghislain Houle told an investor conference on Thursday. Last week the railway’s domestic intermodal volume was up 30%, international intermodal gained 19%, […]
CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific executives touted strong domestic intermodal growth during an investor conference today, noting that volumes are now running above pre-pandemic levels. UP’s intermodal traffic is up nearly 8% so far in the third quarter, boosted by double-digit percentage growth in parcel and truckload shipments due to e-commerce and the […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National is working to build what it’s calling “intermodal of the future” by experimenting with terminal improvements and fully integrating the operations and people from its recent trucking-company acquisitions. “We know that in order to compete down the road with the truck, that we have to not only be safer, more efficient […]
MONTREAL — Canadian National is recalling furloughed train crews and pulling locomotives and freight cars out of storage as traffic rebounds. “We are pivoting to recovery,” Chief Financial Officer Ghislain Houle told a webcast on Wednesday, noting strong growth trends in domestic intermodal, Canadian grain, and Canadian coal traffic. Overall, CN’s July traffic was 5% […]
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an unusual joint letter to the chief executives of Class I railroads, the leaders of the Federal Railroad Administration and Surface Transportation Board on Monday urged railroads to ensure they have enough people and equipment available to handle rising freight volumes. The letter notes that regulators have received positive reports about […]
CALGARY, Alberta – Canadian Pacific has hauled more Canadian grain and grain products in the 2019-2020 crop production year than any in its 139-year history. In total, CP moved 29.52 million metric tonnes this crop year, exceeding 2019’s record of 26.77 MMT by 10 percent. “The world depends on Canadian farmers for food and we […]
More Friday morning rail news: CN marks record grain year, releases plan for 2020-21 Canadian National announced completion of a record year for grain movement on Thursday, and said it would dedicate more equipment to the commodity next year as part of its 2020-21 Grain Plain. CN moved more than 30 million metric tons of […]
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation’s earnings dropped sharply in a yo-yo second quarter that included unprecedented declines in traffic volume and revenue, followed by a strong rebound. “Wow. Where do I start in talking about this quarter?” CEO Jim Foote asked in his opening remarks on the railroad’s earnings call Wednesday afternoon. “This was the […]
Still more Monday morning rail news: Dow to sell rail operations to Watco Dow Inc. will sell its rail infrastructure and operations at six sites to Watco for more than $310 million, the chemical giant announced today. The two companies will also enter long-term service agreements to continue to provide service to Dow businesses at […]
Evening rail news in brief for a very busy Monday: Court orders North Dakota pipeline to shut down; crude-by-rail could benefit Crude-by-rail business could see a surge in business following a court ruling that will shut down the largest pipeline serving North Dakota crude production. The New York Times reports the Dakota Access Pipeline must […]
Railroads have gained regulatory approval to haul liquified natural gas in tank cars. Now the questions are how quickly will an LNG market develop and how big will it be? Controversial new federal regulations governing the movement of LNG by rail are scheduled to go into effect next month. Previously LNG shipments required special permits […]
At the time of their merger in 1968, both the Pennsylvania and New York Central had extensive intermodal operations, with PRR using conventional Trailer Train cars in piggyback service and NYC using Flexi-Van equipment in an early form of containerized traffic. Penn Central retained both systems initially, but Flexi-Van traffic gradually declined. By late […]
