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LONG BEACH, Calif. — The impact of scheduled railroading on Canadian National’s intermodal network 15 years ago may show the path CSX Transportation, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific will follow as they embrace the operating model of the late E. Hunter Harrison. CN slashed low-margin services, shut terminals, and shed volume while […]
Association of American Railroads WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Sept. 14, 2019. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 526,734 carloads and intermodal units, down 4.8% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending Sept. 14 were […]
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Trailers will not be disappearing from intermodal trains anytime soon, despite their status as an ever smaller niche in a world dominated by domestic containers that can be double stacked. Trailers enjoyed an intermodal moment in the sun last year, with volume spiking nearly 15% as truckers couldn’t find enough over-the-road […]
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Norfolk Southern will redesign its intermodal network the same way it brought merchandise traffic under the umbrella of Precision Scheduled Railroading: Improve terminal operations first, then make sweeping changes to road trains. Last year, under its shift to Precision Scheduled Railroading, NS began clean-sheeting its yard and local network. Then, on […]
LONG BEACH, Calif. — CSX Transportation is done making major changes to its intermodal network and is poised for growth as it provides much more reliable service, Maryclare Kenney, vice president of intermodal and automotive, told an intermodal conference audience on Monday. In its shift to Precision Scheduled Railroading during the past two years, CSX […]
LONG BEACH, Calif. — A variety of factors, including trade wars, increased truck capacity, and the Class I railroad shift toward Precision Scheduled Railroading — are to blame for this year’s intermodal doldrums. That’s the consensus of a panel of intermodal experts who spoke at the Intermodal Association of North America’s annual Intermodal Expo on […]
A view of the ship-to-rail operations at Savannah, Ga. Georgia Ports Authority, Stephen B. Morton SAVANNAH, Ga. — Rail is a key component in expansion of the Port of Savannah, with new fast service to Chicago and development of new infrastructure. Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority, introduced three-day CSX Transportation and […]
New York Air Brake’s test train. New York Air Brake ATLANTA — One independent railroad professional sees New York Air Brake’s recent automation break through as an incremental step to fully automated railroading. Gary Wolf, principal at Wolf Railway Consulting, tells Trains that New York Air Brake’s Friday announcement that it started a stopped freight […]
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — Officials of truckload and intermodal carrier Schneider National believe Precision Scheduled Railroading can aid their intermodal growth, and are not worried about Walmart and Amazon interacting directly with railroads instead of using intermodal marketing companies like Schneider. Despite a relatively flat intermodal market, Schneider CEO Mark Rourke told the recent 7th […]
View of LEADER controls from engineer’s perspective. NYAB New York Air Brake demonstration train with computer control at Pueblo, Colo., test track. NYAB WATERTOWN, N.Y. — On a test track in Pueblo, Colo., a heavy-haul freight train started and stopped solely under the command of a computer. On Aug. 27, a Positive Train Control-compliant consist […]
Jim Foote, CSX Corp. CEO CSX Transportation DANA POINT, Calif. — CSX Transportation CEO Jim Foote says the sale of the railroad’s Massena Line to Canadian National will generate more traffic growth than if the route linking Syracuse, N.Y., and Montreal were sold to a short line operator. The deal, which was announced last month, […]
WASHINGTON – Hours after New York Air Brake announced that it had run a heavy freight train with no crew on board, union officials dismissed the test as nothing more than an unrealistic experiment. On Friday morning, the company announced that it had operated a 30-car freight train with its LEADER on-board train control and […]
