RAIL

Amtrak restored direct service between Washington and Virginia this week after a nine-day shutdown to rebuild a critical junction beneath the capital. In Mexico, a nationwide truckers’ strike that threatened cross-border freight ended after just one day. The national passenger railroad said on Monday that it had finished replacing the ageing switches and crossovers at A-Interlocking, in the First Street Tunnel just south of Washington Union Station. The junction routes all Am

The battle over Union Pacific Corp.’s proposed takeover of Norfolk Southern Corp. sharpened last week. Executives and farm groups traded opposing claims as both railroads posted record revenue on the back of a strong freight rebound. Union Pacific Chief Executive Officer Jim Vena said he was “99.999 sure” the deal would be approved, describing it as a largely end-to-end combination with few competition concerns. He said more than 500 customers have written in support. The com

Two of the biggest US freight railroads posted record third-quarter results this week. Surging intermodal traffic and higher fuel surcharges more than offset a sharp rise in diesel costs. Union Pacific Corp. said on Thursday that revenue rose 15% to $7.2 billion, driven by a 6% increase in carloads and firmer pricing. Adjusted earnings climbed 15% to 3.53 dollars a share, and intermodal revenue jumped 27%. The railroad’s operating ratio, a key efficiency measure where lower i

The US rail industry began the week with a record round of federal infrastructure grants, while a long-running fight over Chicago’s commuter lines escalated before regulators. The Transportation Department on Monday awarded $2.3 billion to 105 projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program. The winners were chosen from 368 applications that together sought more t

Amtrak will cut direct rail links between Washington and Virginia for nine days from Friday, adding to pressure on the Northeast Corridor. Meanwhile, the nation’s freight railroads posted a sharp jump in weekly volumes. The national passenger railroad will close the A-Interlocking in the First Street Tunnel, just south of Washington Union Station, after service ends on Oct. 16. It will reopen before trains run on the morning of Oct. 26. The interlocking’s switches and crossov

The first of 83 Siemens-built trainsets carried passengers today, the start of the biggest fleet replacement in Amtrak's history. Amtrak's long-awaited Airo trains carried their first paying passengers today on the Amtrak Cascades route, which runs between Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle, Portland and Eugene, Oregon. Two new trainsets entered service on 30 September, covering four daily trips on the corridor. Six more are due by early 2027. A national programme The Pacif

American railroads are getting the volume they have chased for a decade, and discovering they cannot run it at speed. Intermodal traffic has climbed across all four US Class I systems as record diesel prices and firming truckload rates push shippers off the highway. BNSF is up 9.5 per cent, CSX 8.3 per cent, Norfolk Southern 5.1 per cent and Union Pacific 3.3 per cent. Every one of those carriers is simultaneously running its trains slower than it has in years. Intermodal tra

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern have a fortnight to go before the Surface Transportation Board's first public input deadline, and the list of people lining up against America's first transcontinental railroad keeps growing. More than 100 congressional Democrats, led by Representative Valerie Hoyle, have written to the board urging rigorous scrutiny of the merger's effects on jobs, worker rights and safety. Attorneys general from Montana, Iowa, Kansas, Florida, North Dakota

The most consequential railroad deal in a generation cleared a critical procedural hurdle this week, as federal regulators revived their review of Union Pacific's $85 billion takeover of Norfolk Southern, a combination that would create the first true coast-to-coast single-line railroad in United States history. The Surface Transportation Board announced it had lifted the proceeding out of abeyance and set a firm timetable for weighing the merger, after the two carriers submi

Amtrak will suspend rail service between Washington Union Station and Virginia for nine days in October, closing the junction that routes every train heading south out of the capital so crews can replace switches that currently force trains to crawl through at 10 mph. The outage, which Amtrak is calling "Pause for Progress", begins after the last train on Friday 16 October and runs until service resumes on the morning of Monday 26 October. The target is A-Interlocking, the tr

While trucking argues about tariffs and shipping worries about Panama, America's railroads are having the best year almost nobody is talking about. Association of American Railroads data for the week ending 15 August put total US traffic at 525,099 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4 per cent year on year. Through 32 weeks, carloads are up 2.7 per cent and intermodal is up 3.8 per cent, with the combined total 3.3 per cent ahead of 2025. Eight of ten carload categories gain

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern got the news they had been waiting for on Tuesday, wrapped in a warning they had been dreading. The Surface Transportation Board lifted the hold it placed on its review of their $85 billion merger in late May, restarting the process that would create America's first modern coast-to-coast freight railroad and reduce the six remaining Class I carriers to five. The board was quick to stress that resuming the review is not the same as blessing t

The most consequential number in American freight this quarter did not come from a railroad boardroom. It came from shippers voting with their cargo, and the vote was for rail. Railroads hauled a record number of domestic containers in the second quarter, as shippers banked some of the largest savings against trucking in the decade-long history of the Journal of Commerce's Intermodal Savings Index. In the first quarter the average saving of moving a spot-market load by interm

The country's best shot at genuine high-speed rail just cleared a bureaucratic hurdle, and it did so by admitting that America cannot yet build the trains itself. The Federal Railroad Administration moved this week to grant a Buy America waiver for Brightline West, the $12 billion, 218-mile high-speed line under construction between Las Vegas and the edge of the Los Angeles metro area. The waiver would cover trainsets, signal systems, high-speed turnouts and fire-alarm system

For years the argument over railroad service quality was a matter of anecdote and complaint. This year, for the first time, it is a matter of published record, and the record is not flattering. The Surface Transportation Board has begun disclosing standardised service metrics, including on-time arrival accuracy and the reliability of spot-and-pull at customer facilities, making it possible to compare carriers on the same terms. The timing is pointed. It arrives as the Board w

A rule that began with a handful of failed inspections at Texas rail yards is now poised to reshape how trains cross the southern border, and how every US engineer is certified. The Federal Railroad Administration published a proposed rule on 31 July requiring locomotive engineers and conductors to demonstrate English-language proficiency as a condition of certification and recertification. The agency frames it as a safety necessity: US railroad rules, bulletins and emergency

While Washington argues over the biggest rail consolidation in a generation, the Class I railroad standing outside it has just delivered the best quarter in its history. CSX reported record revenue of $3.94bn for the second quarter on 22 July, up 10 per cent year on year. Operating income rose 17 per cent to $1.51bn. Diluted earnings came in at 54 cents a share, up 23 per cent, beating a consensus of 52 cents. Operating margin expanded 240 basis points to 38.3 per cent, from

Monday was the day Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern had circled for months. The Surface Transportation Board, when it accepted the pair's revised application in May, placed the entire proceeding in abeyance and ordered the applicants to hand over supplemental information by 27 July — the last procedural gate before the $85bn transcontinental deal moves toward public comment and environmental review. The railroads arrived at the deadline in better shape than they were a mont

While Washington argues over the biggest rail consolidation in a generation, the Class I railroad standing outside it just delivered the best quarter in its history. CSX reported record revenue of $3.94bn for the second quarter on Wednesday evening, up 10 per cent year on year. Operating income rose 17 per cent to $1.51bn. Diluted earnings came in at 54 cents a share, up 23 per cent, beating a consensus estimate of 52 cents. Operating margin expanded 240 basis points to 38.3

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern face a defining deadline this week, with the two carriers due to hand the Surface Transportation Board the final tranche of supplemental data underpinning their $85 billion bid to build the first US coast-to-coast freight railroad. The board is requiring the applicants to submit supplemental information by July 27, the culmination of a data request the regulator issued when it accepted the revised application in late May. The companies filed