If there is one thing I’ve learned in my 23 years in the railway supply industry, it’s that we are an optimistic bunch. Deal us a series of hardships and we can always look ahead to better times because those better times have always come.
With all due respect to Denzel Washington and Chris Pine, the railroad stocks may be the things that are unstoppable and not just the exaggerated Hollywood freight train story.
Strong earnings spur railroads to build capacity and productivity. If one word could define the thrust of railroad capital spending on improvements, it would be “growth”—growth in capacity, growth in productivity, growth in service levels, and, not least, growth in customer satisfaction.
Transportation in 2011 will be a casualty in the war between Republicans and Democrats. Transportation projects are expensive and Congress in the past has committed huge sums to highway construction and maintenance, inland waterway development, and airport projects.
Railroads have long acknowledged the benefits offered by rail lubrication. But companies in the friction modifier market are continuing to make advances to help their railroad customers.
Buoyed by recent state-supported extensions of Amtrak service that have proven popular, state rail advocates are clamoring for Amtrak service to be extended to Virginia’s southwestern reaches, including Roanoke, Va., last served by Amtrak’s Hilltopper in 1979.
Pittsburgh, Kan.-based Watco Transportation Services, LLC has announced it is acquiring what it calls “controlling ownership” of Milwaukee-based Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co. (WSOR). Watco’s acquisition adds Wisconsin’s second-largest railroad to it stable of short line and regional properties.
Birmingham Rail & Locomotive Co., Inc. (BR&L) on Tuesday said it had named Brent F. Boggs director of Relay Operations. Boggs will lead business development within the relay rail and OTM markets
TriMet on Tuesday began installing solar panels at the South Terminus of the MAX Green and Yellow lines at SW Jackson Street, near Portland State University (Ore). The agency says that, when completed, the site will be the first solar energy project utilized along TriMet’s 52-mile MAX light rail system.
The nation’s freight railroads have reached settlements with 10 of the 13 major rail unions covering more than 60% of 132,000 employees in the current round of bargaining, but a potential strike
MTA Metro-North Railroad will begin service to the new Fairfield Metro Station on Monday, Dec. 5. Located midway between the Fairfield and Bridgeport stations, Fairfield Metro has 1,400 parking spaces.
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. announced Tuesday that that subsidiary Canadian Pacific Railway Co. is issuing: US$250 million of 4.50% Notes due 2022 and US$250 million of 5.75% Notes due 2042. The transaction is expected to close on Dec.1.
Ansaldo on Tuesday announced that its Honolulu Joint Venture, a consortium comprising Finmeccanica companies Ansaldo STS and AnsaldoBreda, has signed a contract with the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to supply the
Atlanta-based RMI announced the addition of Transload Management andDemurrage Management to its ShipperConnect software platform at the 2011IANA-NITL Conference held recently in Atlanta. “We were delighted with the response to our newest
MTA Metro-North Railroad said Monday it had restored “full train service” on its Port Jervis Line, severed by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene last August. “We have returned to a full schedule of 26 daily trains and 14 trains each weekend day, as indicated in the new November 28 timetable,” Metro-North said on its website.
A Hungarian-Czech joint venture Ganz-Skoda Kozlekedesi has won a tender to supply 31 streetcars to Miskolc, Hungary, according to a spokesperson for the mayor of Miskolc.
Bombardier Transportation on Monday said it has won a contract for propulsion and control equipment in India from Mumbai Railway Vikas Corp. (MRVC) in India. MRVC is a joint venture between the Ministry of Railways and the Government of Maharashtra. On Thanksgiving Day, Bombardier announced its readiness to enable the first mixed European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Level 2 and conventional signaling operation, on the line between Amsterdam and Utrecht in The Netherlands.
U.S. carload freight traffic advanced 1.1% during the week ending Nov. 19, measured against the comparable week in 2010, the Association of American Railroads reported. U.S. intermodal volume did even better, rising 3% for the week compared with a year ago.
BNSF posted a letter on its website Wednesday warning its customers that a strike threat still faces the railroad industry and asking for their help in averting it.
The Surface Transportation Board announced Wednesday that it had awarded an estimated $63 million in reparations and rate reductions to the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative in a decision that grants AEPCO an average rate reduction of 37% over the period 2009-2018.
