BNSF and NS may seek trackage rights over KCS as part of CPKC merger

Train with two locomotives and hopper cars on track parallelling street

WASHINGTON – BNSF Railway and Norfolk Southern may both seek trackage rights over Kansas City Southern routes in order to preserve competition as part of the proposed Canadian Pacific-KCS merger. The railroads disclosed their intentions in regulatory filings posted today on the Surface Transportation Board website. The board’s deadline for such responsive applications is Feb. […]

Read More…

MARS Notebook: Meet the new boss

Man in suit and tie speaking

LOMBARD, Ill. — Notes from Wednesday’s appearances by Class I CEOs at the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers Winter Meeting: Meet the new boss New Norfolk Southern President Alan Shaw showed a nice touch of self-deprecating humor in his Wednesday luncheon speech before MARS and the Traffic Club of Chicago, as demonstrated with his description […]

Read More…

New NS president admits problems, promises solutions

Man speaking at conference

LOMBARD, Ill. — Alan Shaw introduced himself to the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers with a statement he clearly would have preferred to avoid. “We don’t have a good product right now,” Shaw said. “That’s unacceptable to me, that’s unacceptable for our employees, and it’s unacceptable to our customers,” continued the new president of Norfolk […]

Read More…

NS, museum team up to save Southern Railway Kentucky storehouse

LUDLOW, Ky. – Norfolk Southern and the Ludlow Heritage Museum have signed a lease agreement to preserve the NS-owned former Southern Railway Ludlow Yard Store House building, the last remaining original structure in Ludlow used by the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway, which was leased to Southern in 1894. The agreement allows museum […]

Read More…

Norfolk & Western passenger trains

a streamlined passenger train

All through January 2022, Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of the Norfolk & Western. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Norfolk & Western passenger trains selected from the image files in Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. This gallery was first published in October 2019. […]

Read More…

Norfolk Southern sets siding, terminal improvements in capital plan

Man with dark hair in sport coat

PHOENIX — Siding extensions and intermodal-terminal upgrades highlight the capacity-improvement aspects of Norfolk Southern’s 2022 capital spending plan, as outlined Thursday by the railroad’s vice president of engineering, Ed Boyle. The railroad has not yet announced its full capital spending plan for 2022, after spending about $1.6 billion in 2021. But plans for infrastructure work […]

Read More…

BNSF Railway leads industry in traffic growth during 2021

orange locomotive and train comes around curve in Wyoming

BNSF Railway led the big six Class I railroads in growth in 2021, a year in which rail volume rebounded from the pandemic-related lows of 2020 yet struggled to overcome kinks in the global supply chain. BNSF’s traffic was up 7.4% for the year, with intermodal surging 8.3% and coal up nearly 11%. CSX Transportation […]

Read More…

Alabama launches new rail projects

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The state of Alabama this week announced the creation of the A-USA Corridor, a proposed $231.6 million program of rail projects to upgrade economic development infrastructure in central and southern Alabama. The first phase of the A-USA Corridor initiative involves a $71.6 million initiative to link the Port of Mobile with the McCalla […]

Read More…

Amtrak, Massachusetts seek conditions on CSX-Pan Am merger

Commuter train at station

WASHINGTON – Amtrak and Massachusetts transportation officials have asked federal regulators to impose conditions that would protect current and future passenger and commuter service in the Bay State as part of CSX Transportation’s proposed acquisition of Pan Am Railways. Their comments were among those filed yesterday, the Surface Transportation Board’s deadline for receiving briefs regarding […]

Read More…

News Wire Top 10, No. 7: Railroad crew shortages

Man in orange vest climbing onto black locomotive

At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Class I railroads furloughed train crews as volume sank at its fastest rate ever. When volume rebounded, crew members were not called back to work at the same rate as traffic returned because railroads were moving their tonnage on fewer but longer trains. Then three things happened […]

Read More…