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WASHINGTON — There were more questions than answers on Tuesday as federal regulators sought ways to remedy railroad service problems that defy a quick fix because they are rooted in a shortage of train crews. Shippers told the Surface Transportation Board that rail service has deteriorated, with delays mounting as transit times have in some […]
DORCHESTER, S.C. — Norfolk Southern will permanently protect 1,105 acres of coastal wetlands in South Carolina through a conservation easement, the company announced Tuesday. The protected land is home to the Coldwater Branch Stream and Westland Mitigation Bank at Brosnan Forest, the company’s 14,400-acre time and wildlife preserve 35 miles northwest of Charleston at Dorchester. […]
Executives from the big four U.S. railroads — BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific — will take turns in the hot seat next week during two days of Surface Transportation Board hearings on widespread service problems. Federal regulators, fed up with ongoing shipper complaints, will want to know how and when the […]
WASHINGTON — Switching details and conflicting traffic modeling assumptions dominated discussions at the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing into Amtrak plans to launch passenger service between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. The seventh and eighth days of testimony and cross-examination, spread over three weeks, on the dispute over plans for two daily Amtrak round trips precedes […]
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Union Pacific’s plan to begin metering traffic as of today will curtail fertilizer shipments and put crops at risk, a major fertilizer producer says. “The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers,” CF Industries CEO Tony Will said in a statement on Thursday. […]
WASHINGTON — Two days of testimony that made up the second week of the Surface Transportation Board’s hearing on Amtrak Gulf Coast service delved into the intricacies of traffic modeling and its data inputs, and made clear both that Amtrak had no role in that modeling, and that consideration of changes to freight operations were […]
ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern has added three locations to those offering $5,000 starting bonuses for its conductor trainee program. Bonuses are now available for trainees in Bellevue, Ohio; Elkhart, Ind.; and Fort Wayne, Ind., the company said in a press release. The railroad offers similar bonuses at a dozen other “priority locations” announced in February […]
WASHINGTON – Federal regulators on Thursday gave the green light to CSX Transportation’s acquisition of New England regional Pan Am Railways. The Surface Transportation Board’s unanimous, 75-page decision approving the merger becomes effective on May 14. But CSX said it planned to close on the transaction on June 1. Regulators largely agreed with CSX’s arguments […]
WASHINGTON – The trade group representing sugar shippers has told federal regulators that rail service problems have forced some of its members to stop or curtail production of food and beverages. The Sweetener Users Association, which wrote to the Surface Transportation Board on Wednesday, is the latest trade group to complain about poor rail service […]
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific’s request that shippers reduce the number of private freight cars in their pipelines – or face strict quotas starting on Monday – has been met with a mix of understanding and outrage. Some shippers say they understand UP’s need to reduce car inventory to help ease congestion that has slowed […]
WASHINGTON — U.S. weekly rail traffic for April remains slightly below 2021 levels in the latest statistics released by the Association of American Railroads. U.S. rail traffic for the week ending April 9, 2022, was 508,343 carloads and intermodal units, down 1% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending […]
BALTIMORE – The blame for ongoing railroad service problems can’t be placed entirely on cutbacks related to Precision Scheduled Railroading. The pandemic, a surge in freight demand, and a labor shortage were a recipe for disruption all on their own. That’s the message that Peter Swan, associate professor of logistics and operations management at Penn […]
