At TD Cowen, we are lowering our rail estimates ahead of third-quarter earnings reports to reflect a very challenged environment. Leaders in the rail and logistics market who attended our latest Railroad Happy Hour” called the current outlook “bleak,” with growing uncertainty in 2025.
The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Office of Research, Development and Technology (RD&T) recently published four new technical reports that cover a variety of topics, including concrete crossties; the Operational Performance and Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Analysis (OPRAM) software tool; moving block train control systems; and vehicle dynamics simulations.
The Sept. 14 explosion from inside an intermodal container loaded on a railcar at Union Pacific’s (UP) Bailey Yard was contained within hours, allowing yard operations to resume. An investigation is under way.
Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose on Sept. 8 sent a letter to Union Pacific “to express serious concern about specific and significant risk to rail safety.” “Compliance of the rolling stock (freight
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has opened a public docket for its ongoing investigation of the Sept. 8, 2022 accident near Imperial County, Calif., involving a Union Pacific (UP) freight train
Los Angeles, Calif.-based Parallel Systems on Sept. 12 introduced its second-generation autonomous battery-electric freight car, which it plans to pilot test on existing U.S. and international rail networks.
Following a Sept. 1 switching accident, which resulted in the amputation of a crew member’s leg, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has issued a safety bulletin to “remind railroads of the importance of ensuring switching operations are conducted safely.”
Amtrak and Southern Rail Commission (SRC) officials share updates on three passenger rail projects spanning Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Also, New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) continues its school safety education programs; Ottawa’s OC Transpo launches a credit card fare payment system for all buses and O-Train Line 1 stations; and metro Vancouver’s TransLink is conducting a survey to measure regional travel patterns.
Amtrak on Sept. 11 announced that it has awarded two contracts for the Frederick Douglass Tunnel Program in Baltimore, Md. According to the news release, Amtrak has selected Clark Construction/Stacy and Witbeck Joint
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Sept. 7 issued Safety Advisory 2023-04 recommending that railroads use Wheel Impact Load Detectors (WILD) “to properly identify and replace high-impact railcar wheels that could cause significant damage to rails and supporting track structures.”
