Author: William C. Vantuono

With Railway Age since 1992, William C. Vantuono has broadened and deepened the magazine's coverage of the technological revolution that is so swiftly changing the industry. He has also strengthened Railway Age’s leadership position in industry affairs with the conferences he conducts, among them Next-Generation Train Control, Light Rail, and Rail Insights. He is the author or co-author or editor of several books, among them All About Railroading; John Armstrong’s The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does; Railway Age’s Comprehensive Railroad Dictionary; and Planning, Engineering, and Operating Light Rail, With Applications in New Jersey.

Railcar orders, backlog soar: KeyBanc

Freight car order, delivery and backlog statistics for 2Q18 show that orders increased sequentially to 23,788 cars from 10,348 in 1Q18, the largest quarterly figure since 4Q14. Carbuilders delivered 13,071 units in the quarter, nearly identical to 1Q18’s 13,098. The backlog stands at 65,161 railcars, up 18% from 1Q18’s 55,216 cars; this implies “a net cancellation of 772 railcars, consisting primarily of gondolas and medium-cube covered hoppers,” according to analysis conducted by KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Dump those plastic pellets, fast!

A new video from Miner Enterprises demonstrating the “simple, reliable and proven features” of its Double Groove pneumatic gate for unloading plastics uses computer-generated imagery to provide an inside-out look at the Double Groove’s advanced features.

Conceptualize and analyze design options

Bentley Systems’ OpenRail ConceptStation allows users to “conceptualize and analyze design options for rail and transit in a matter of minutes, not days. Rapidly create conceptual track designs, including rail geometry, electrification, tunnels, and bridges, while ensuring design principles.”

STV launches a “boring” journey

STV, engineer of record and principal design firm for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Purple Line Project, will shortly begin to witness two state-of-the-art tunnel boring machines (TBMs) at work on the project’s 2.6-mile-long Section 2 extension.

Shipper survey “positive” for railroads: Cowen

The results of Cowen and Company’s 2Q18 Rail Shipper Survey “are positive for the railroads,” according to Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl. With anticipated rate increases of 4.7% over the next 6-12 months, up from 3.8% in Cowen’s 1Q18 survey—the second-highest sequential increase in this survey’s history—market share “is moving from the highway to the rails and may pick up in the second half of the year if rail service improves.”

Railcar demand “net neutral”: Cowen survey

The results of Cowen and Company’s 2Q18 Rail Equipment Survey “are mixed and largely neutral on the balance,” reports Cowen analyst Matt Elkott. “Shippers’ level of certainty about ordering railcars increased, but order sizes decreased.”

Cowen report: So, how’s our competition doing?

Is trucking as good as it gets? “June was great for truckers, and the start of July has been just as good,” says Cowen and Co. Managing Director and Railway Age Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl. “It remains a strong trucking market, and capacity is extremely tight. That being said, things can continue going well, but we question just how much better it can get.”

U.S. intermodal registers double-digit gain

U.S. weekly intermodal volume rose 12% to 244,679 containers and trailers for the week ending July 7, 2018 compared with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on July 11. Carloads for the week were 240,514, up 5.4% compared with the same week in 2017. Total U.S. weekly rail traffic rose 8.6% to 485,193 carloads and intermodal units.

AAR, ACC, API to Trump: Kill the tariffs—before they kill us

In July 11, 2018 commentary published in the Washington Examiner, AAR President and CEO Ed Hamberger teamed with American Chemistry Council President and CEO Cal Dooley and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard to point out the inherent folly of President Donald Trump’s planned imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum, which would almost certainly cause a simmering trade war with vital economic partners to boil out of control, killing jobs and flushing U.S. economic security into the sewer.

GE rolls out first Ukraine TE33A

GE Transportation and Ukrainian Railways on July 9 marked the first GE Evolution Series TE33A locomotive to be built as part of a framework agreement signed in early 2018. It is the first of 30 locomotives that are being built this year in support of the railroad’s effort to upgrade its fleet. “Items of exploration” under the framework agreement include additional locomotives over 10 years, modernization of locomotives in the railway’s legacy fleet, as well as long-term maintenance services.