CN expected to sweeten offer for Kansas City Southern

Canadian National and Kansas City Southern logos

MONTREAL — Canadian National is expected to sweeten its offer to acquire Kansas City Southern, the Wall Street Journal reported today. CN would, at a minimum, pick up the tab for the $700 million breakup fee that KCS would owe Canadian Pacific for backing out of their friendly $29 billion deal, the newspaper said, citing […]

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Locomotive model designations explained

Passenger train passes under signal bridge between parked automobiles

Locomotive builders use model designations to differentiate between products, describing major features found on them. Often, these model designations will be used by the railroads who purchase them, or they will be shortened or modified to conform to space limitations on a computer system, uniform naming schemes, or to identify features that are important to […]

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U.S. rail traffic remains well above 2020 levels

Table showing weekly AAR rail traffic statistics

WASHINGTON — U.S. rail freight traffic continues to far outpace 2020 levels, when traffic was depressed by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and remains stable by week-to-week measures in 2021. Statistics from the Association of American Railroads for the week ending May 8 show U.S. railroads moved 236,019 carloads, a 27.6% increase over […]

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Digest: CSX acquires chemical trucking firm Quality Carriers

CSX logo

CSX acquires Quality Carriers, North America’s largest bulk chemical trucking firm CSX Corp. will acquire Quality Carriers, North America’s largest truck transporter of bulk liquid chemicals, in a deal announced Wednesday morning. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Quality Carriers operates a truck fleet with about 2,500 drivers and has a network of more […]

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Minnesota group unveils repainted Milwaukee Road E9

Maroon and orange diesel locomotive

MINNEAPOLIS — The Friends of the 261 has unveiled a new “retro” paint scheme for Milwaukee Road E9A 32A. The E unit, acquired by the Friends in 2019, is painted orange and maroon to fit with the majority of the Friends passenger fleet. Since Milwaukee Road E9s were only painted Union Pacific yellow, the group […]

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Digest: Engineering work advances Lac-Mégantic bypass preparations

Map of Lac-Megantic Bypass

Transport Canada says engineering work is done for Lac-Mégantic bypass, on target for 2023 completion Transport Canada reports additional engineering work has been completed on the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, bypass project and that the project still should be done by 2023. The engineering work will allow relocation of rail operations to the Lac-Mégantic business park, as […]

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