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Regarding Richard Nance's 'Gun Tech' column featuring the Viridian C5L Micro, I got to thinking about what I would prefer in the heat of the moment. I think I would [...]

The Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA) in Houston is responsible for managing carload traffic and ensuring smooth operations. The yardmaster, Jeremy Thomas, is constantly busy with coordinating trains and communicating with crews. PTRA is a crucial railroad in Houston, serving as a key player in the city's industries and marine terminals. The railroad maintains its tracks well and has an efficient locomotive fleet. It plays a vital role in transporting chemicals, petroleum, and other goods in the region. PTRA operates a complex network of yards and trackage, with the largest being North Yard. The railroad has implemented strategies to reduce congestion and is considering capacity expansion projects for future growth. PTRA takes pride in its operations and has a high customer satisfaction rate. [Extracted from the article]

The article highlights the 125th anniversary of the Georgia Central railroad, a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming, which has experienced growth in traffic, especially from the Port of Savannah. Genesee & Wyoming, also celebrating its 125th anniversary, has expanded globally and focuses on industrial development and increasing carload traffic. The company's short line railroads, including Georgia Central, have seen increased business, facility expansions, and infrastructure upgrades to meet growing demand, with investments in technology like GPS and autonomous container cars for efficiency and customer service. Genesee & Wyoming prioritizes safety, service reliability, and environmental sustainability in its operations. [Extracted from the article]

The James E. Strates Shows carnival train, which has been operating since 1934, has been sidelined since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising rail rates. The train has historically transported midway attractions to fairs along the East Coast, but with smaller fairs and capacity limits, it has become more cost-effective to use trucks instead. The Strates family, who runs the company, is working to reach an agreement with CSX to transport the train to the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York for its 100th anniversary. However, the future of the carnival train remains uncertain. [Extracted from the article]

YOU COULD CALL CANADIAN NATIONAL a lopsided railroad. For 15 years it's been the fastest growing of the big six railroads in North America. But most of the growth has [...]

TEXAS, AS ANY TEXAN WILL TELL YOU, is unlike any other state in the union. You could say the same thing about railroading in Texas. Can you name another state [...]

RAFAEL SANTANA BECAME president and CEO of Wabtec July 1, after the historic merger earlier in 2019 with GE Transportation, where he had been CEO. TRAINS spoke with Santana about [...]

The article discusses the cooperation between Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railways in British Columbia's Directional Running Zone (DRZ). Despite being competitors, the two railways have been sharing tracks in the DRZ for 24 years, contributing to Canada's trade-based economy. The DRZ has become a high-capacity route that handles bulk and merchandise traffic, as well as international container business. The railways play a crucial role in transporting goods to and from the port of Vancouver, which is experiencing growth in trade with Asia. The article also mentions the challenges posed by Vancouver's rugged canyons, including slides, avalanches, wildfires, heavy rainfall, and flooding. Both CN and CP are taking proactive measures to prevent and respond to these challenges and increase their capacity to handle growing freight volumes. [Extracted from the article]

Three startup companies, Parallel Systems, Intramotev, and Glid, are working on developing autonomous, battery-electric, self-propelled freight cars to disrupt the rail industry. Their goal is to target short-haul freight where trucks dominate and railroads are not competitive. By adding autonomy to rail transportation, they hope to shift more freight from highways to zero-emissions rail service, benefiting the environment, traffic, and safety. While there are challenges and skeptics, such as technology, safety, regulations, labor unions, and public acceptance, the companies believe that their autonomous systems will ultimately lead to growth in rail employment. The article discusses the innovations of Damoa, Intramotev, and Parallel, highlighting their unique approaches and potential to improve efficiency in the rail industry. [Extracted from the article]

TRY TO IMAGINE 16,132 freight trains, each with 75 cars, just simply vanishing. It seems implausible, right? Yet that's precisely the amount of merchandise traffic that CSX Transportation and Norfolk [...]

ANALYST ANTHONY B. HATCH has been covering railroads since 1985. After 14 years on Wall Street, Hatch founded his New York-based consulting firm in 1998. ABH Consulting provides railroad and [...]

Wabtec, a company in the railroad industry, believes that hydrogen is the future fuel for locomotives due to its zero greenhouse gas emissions. Although currently more expensive than diesel fuel, the production of hydrogen is expected to increase, making it a viable alternative by 2030. Wabtec aims to match its hydrogen locomotive research with the planned pace of hydrogen production in North America, with hopes of fielding its first hydrogen prototype in 2027. The article discusses the need for a change in mindset and a focus on factors beyond locomotive power, such as triplets, trailing tonnage, and topography. It also highlights ongoing projects and partnerships, emphasizing the importance of investment, cooperation, and research and development to make hydrogen a safe and usable fuel for the industry. [Extracted from the article]

The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern (EJ&E) railroad is an important asset for Canadian National (CN) in Chicago. CN's acquisition of the EJ&E in 2009 has allowed them to control their operations in the city and improve transit times for their freights. The EJ&E route, particularly the JB Tower in West Chicago, is crucial for CN's operations and has helped reduce congestion-related delays. CN now plans to fully utilize this advantage with their new cross-border intermodal service and interline service to and from Atlanta. This acquisition has positioned CN as a key player in cross-border intermodal service and has contributed to significant growth in traffic. [Extracted from the article]

Nothing says 'NAFTA Railway' quite like a Kansas City Southern stack train crawling across the International Railway Bridge at Laredo, Texas, with a consist that includes a block of Canadian [...]

Canadian Pacific Railway was the industry's dog back in 2011. Take away its 2007 acquisition of regional Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, and for five years CP's revenue had been sinking. [...]

EACH DAY, Florida East Coast Railway does the impossible: It loads its own containers on double-stack cars at Jacksonville, Fla., and then launches them to Miami, just 351 miles to [...]

A century ago, New York Harbor was teeming with carfloats that shuttled railcars between New Jersey and New York City. Even as late as 1964 a dozen railroads still floated [...]

Schneider said its move to UP was motivated by the unique BNSF-J.B. Hunt revenue-sharing relationship that dates all the way back to the business-car handshake between then-Santa Fe President Michael Haverty and J.B. Hunt in 1989. CSX Transportation is Schneider's rail partner in the East, and UP and CSX offer more steel-wheel interchange in Chicago than BNSF and CSX. UP'S TRIPLE THREAT To jumpstart its domestic intermodal growth, UP could not have found a better customer than Schneider, the third largest asset-based truckload intermodal provider behind J.B. Hunt and Hub Group. A Union Pacific trackage-rights Z train, including Schneider and Swift containers formerly handled by BNSF, passes through Fort Madison, Iowa, on BNSF on April 17, 2023. [Extracted from the article]

An operating ratio is a strange thing. It is the only financial statistic that you can see in action every day. That's particularly been the case over the past decade, [...]

The NJ Transit of the 1990s was a standard-bearer of U.S. commuter rail operations. Growing ridership and strong on-time performance helped earn an American Public Transportation Association award for outstanding [...]

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Norfolk Southern (NS) for allegedly violating federal rules that give passenger trains priority over freight traffic. The lawsuit claims that NS regularly fails to prioritize Amtrak's Crescent, resulting in delays and negative impacts on passengers and Amtrak's financial performance. Amtrak data shows that only 57% of Crescent passengers arrived on time last year, below the federal standard of 80%. Some industry observers speculate that politics may have played a role in singling out NS for the lawsuit. The lawsuit aims to enforce Amtrak's right of preference and improve on-time performance. [Extracted from the article]

Norfolk Southern has emerged victorious in a proxy battle against activist investor Ancora Holdings, with three of Ancora's seven director candidates being elected to the NS board. While shareholders expressed a desire for change, they also voted to give CEO Alan Shaw and his team more time to implement their "better way" strategy. The proxy battle highlighted concerns about NS's financial and operational performance, including its safety record and response to a hazardous materials derailment. NS has made commitments to improve its operating ratio and work with the new board members to deliver results. [Extracted from the article]

RAILROAD TRENDS COME AND GO. In the 1980s, newly deregulated railroads shed trackage, merged, and figured out how to survive in a competitive marketplace. In the 1990s, railroad CEOs built [...]

AS RAILROADS ADOPTING Precision Scheduled Railroading lay off employees, close yards, and store locomotives and freight cars, executives insist the changes are not a way for the industry to merely [...]