Railroads Industry

U.S. rail traffic in July continued to be higher than July 2020, but that growth appeared to be moderating. The U.S. operations of the Class I railroads hauled 1.97 million carloads and intermodal units in July, a 3.8% increase year-over-year. While carload volumes grew 6.6% to 904,670 carloads,...

Amit Mehrotra of Deutsche Bank joined host John Kingston for the Drilling Deep podcast to talk about the just-completed earnings season.  A few companies are on his discussion list: Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA), Old Dominion Freight (NASDAQ: ODFL), and Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU), among others. He...

A Norfolk Southern train carrying new vehicles derailed on Monday in Huntington, Missouri, causing NS to stop train traffic there for over a day. The derailment involved an eastbound NS (NYSE: NSC) train. At just before 1:30 p.m. local time, 48 railcars derailed. No injuries were reported. NS...

Canadian Pacific and CN shattered records for hauling Canadian grain and grain products in the 2020-2021 crop year, which ran from Aug. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021. More efficient network boosted volumes: CP CP (NYSE: CP) hauled 30.62 million metric tons (MMT), the most in its 140-year history, the...

Transport Canada has approved modifications to some of the rules governing freight rail switching operations so that operations are "as safe as possible for railway employees and for people living close to railway lines." The federal agency, working with the rail industry, made some "necessary"...

Four shipper associations want the Surface Transportation Board to allow demurrage charges to be assessed on privately owned railcars as an incentive for freight railroads to move those railcars more efficiently through their networks. North America Freight Car Association (NAFCA),  National Grain...

Union Pacific's Dry Canyon Bridge in Northern California has reopened after damage from wildfires in late June. Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) initially had anticipated that the bridge would reopen in mid-August, but the railroad later moved up the reopening date.  On Monday, UP said the bridge...

Kansas City Southern is firing back at Canadian Pacific's recent efforts to thwart a merger between KCS and CP's rival, CN. KCS (NYSE: KSU) shareholders are holding a special meeting on Aug. 19 to vote on the CN (NYSE: CNI) merger agreement with KCS. Rivals CP and CN are both seeking to acquire...

Expect an April decision on whether federal regulators will allow CSX to acquire New England short line Pan Am Railways, according to the Surface Transportation Board.  The board said Friday that it has accepted a request by CSX (NASDAQ: CSX) to consider CSX's application to acquire Pan Am...

Borderlands is a weekly rundown of developments in the world of United States-Mexico cross-border trucking and trade. This week: More investment, manufacturing jobs for Mexico; new 3,000-acre logistics hub for Texas; TUM Logistics acquires 110 Kenworth tractors; and CBP seizes 6 kilos of DMT en...

Union must include crew size in negotiations An arbitrator has determined that the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Union-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) must resume negotiations over train crew size and staffing, according to the National Railway Labor...

Canadian Pacific has a number of options it can pursue should the regulatory and market environments not be conducive to mergers and acquisitions, executives said during the railway's second-quarter 2021 earnings call on Wednesday.  Besides CP's "unique origin strengths" and shorter lengths of...

A 34% increase in operating revenue, including gains for coal and intermodal, boosted Norfolk Southern's net profit for the second quarter of 2021. NS (NYSE: NSC) reported record second-quarter 2021 net income of $819 million, or $3.28 per diluted share, compared with $392 million, or $1.53 per...

The chair of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has come out against a proposed voting trust that Canadian railway CN (NYSE: CNI) would use to acquire Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU). The objection comes as other House members have expressed support for merger...

June employment levels at the U.S. operations of the Class I railroads were roughly flat with May, growing 0.8% amid a 21% growth in U.S. rail volumes. Headcount at Class I U.S. rail operations totaled 115,931 employees in June, according to data submitted to the Surface Transportation Board. That...