Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific are modifying some of the ways they collect demurrage and accessorial charges for some commodities, but some shippers are questioning the modifications.
Union Pacific’s (NYSE: UNP) intermodal rail service saw average speeds sink to a two-year low in the second quarter, with shippers and intermodal marketing companies reporting extensive delays in getting their freight from the railroad. The service hit came during an overall lull for West Coast container imports. And many of the delays were due […]
Maersk’s (Nasdaq OMX: MAER) fight to bring automation to its largest North American marine terminal is getting support from shippers and non-ocean carriers concerned about the impact on the environment and the precedent of government overreach into the future of freight. The world’s biggest shipping line faces a do-over as the Los Angeles Board of […]
Rail volumes were off again for the week ending June 29, 2019 with U.S. railroads reporting a 5.5 percent decline.
Barge grain movements on Mississippi 85 percent lower than a year ago
The legislation comes four years after Washington and California passed laws requiring better preparation for derailments and spills.
Year-to-date U.S. rail volumes fell again amid a loosening truck market, receding floodwaters in the Midwest and overall economic uncertainty.
Flooding impacts, cheap natural gas prices, and trade and economic uncertainty could be factors contributing to a significant slump in weekly U.S. rail volume.
Railroad market expert Jim Blaze writes about the movement of chemicals by rail and how that sub-set of railroad traffic is profitable and may grow significantly in the near future.
“It’s just a confusing time for all of us in transportation and anybody in manufacturing or business in general to have a really good sense of why we’re seeing this kind of softness,” said CSX chief executive officer Jim Foote.
U.S. intermodal volumes fell 5.9 percent in May, while carloads fell 2.1 percent amid economic uneasiness and uncertainties surrounding U.S. trade between Mexico and China.
While the degradation was seen across most sectors, the transports are seeing outsized declines.
Only 17 percent of the relationships between the U.S. passenger and freight railroads required to utilize positive train control technology have interoperability, meaning that the host railroad can communicate with a non-host train through the technology, according to data released by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Total number of trains carrying loads, total number of trains held both increasing as Great Plains flooding washes out tracks.
Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) announced this week it would lay off almost 200 employees in eastern Oregon as part of a series of cuts the railroad is making in order to boost profits. The bulk of the layoffs are taking place at a railyard in the city of Hermiston. The yard will close. Additional layoffs […]
Hundreds of miles of rails still out of service, other assets at risk from flooding by severe storms.
Rail congestion in regions such as Chicago and Houston may have eased for now, but the railroads will still need to find ways to increase capacity at those busy city locations as the U.S. population grows, Class I railroad executives said at an investor conference this week.
Canadian rail volumes rose again year-to-date for the week ended May 11, while U.S. rail volumes continued downward amid U.S. tariff uncertainty and a fuzzy economic picture.
Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) announced which intermodal terminals it would close around Chicago, Illinois, weeks after hinting on its first quarter earnings call that it planned to consolidate operations there. The railroad said on May 2 that the changes are a result of its efforts to “simplify” its supply chain along its intermodal network and […]
Berkshire Hathway (NYSE: BRK) chairman and CEO Warren Buffett said he would be willing to consider some form of precision scheduled railroading (PSR) for western U.S. railroad BNSF, although he didn’t say when or even if BNSF would eventually adopt the operating model. ”We are not above copying anything that is successful, and I think […]
