Management Archives

November 25, 2014
Class I

UP begins Canada-to-California CBR service

Union Pacific’s Can-Am Corridor linking western Canada with the western U.S. entered a new era on Nov. 24, 2014, when the first unit train of Canadian crude rolled across the international border at Eastport, Idaho, headed for a distribution terminal near Bakersfield, Calif. The 97 loaded tank cars, owned by Phillips 66, were powered by two locomotives on the head end, plus a single distributed power unit on the rear.

November 25, 2014
News

Quebec studies feasibility of open-access iron ore line

With China’s slowing economy depressing iron ore prices, this would seem an inauspicious time to build a third railway from tidewater to the interior wilds of the Labrador Trench. Nonetheless, to keep life in its grand plan to develop its vast north, the Quebec provincial government is contracting Montreal-based Canarail to report on the feasibility of a new 200-mile line from Sept-Iles on the Gulf of St. Lawrence due north to the high-grade ore deposited 200 million years ago when a sea of iron-rich magma burst through a rift in the earth’s crust.

November 20, 2014
Class I

BNSF bumps capex to $6 billion for 2015

BNSF’s planned capital expenditures for 2015 will be $6 billion, another record for a company that, including next year’s amount, will have made more than $50 billion in capital investments since 2000. BNSF also updated its planned capital expenditures for 2014, which now are expected to be $5.5 billion, $400 million more than initial projections.

November 17, 2014
News

Carl Van Dyke wins RAS Distinguished Member Award

The Railway Applications Section (RAS) of INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) has named Carl Van Dyke, president emeritus and founder of MultiModal Applied Systems (now part of Oliver Wyman), recipient of the RAS Distinguished Member Award.

November 14, 2014
Class I

BNSF’s Matt Rose named to ACCCE Board

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014 announced the election of BNSF Railway Executive Chairman Matthew K. Rose ACCCE’s next chairman. James (Jim) J. Jura, CEO and general manager of Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc., was elected vice chairman.

November 13, 2014
Class I

Molitoris, Penne join OnTrackNorthAmerica board

OnTrackNorthAmerica, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is advocating a capitalization strategy “for dramatically increasing rail utilization,” has appointed Jolene Molitoris and Leo Penne to its board of directors.

November 13, 2014
Class I

Thelen creates scholarship fund for Penn State Altoona RTE program

Penn State alumnus Gerhard A. Thelen, who retired in 2013 as Norfolk Southern Vice President, Operations Planning and Support, has created a scholarship fund for Penn State Altoona that will support students enrolled in the college’s Rail Transportation Engineering (RTE) program.

November 11, 2014
Class I

Looking for a good career? Look to the railroads

By year-end 2014, U.S. Class I railroads will have hired 45,000 employees since 2012, including an estimated 9,900 military veterans. Some 17,000 will have been hired this year, far exceeding the projected industry target of 12,000, according to the Association of American Railroads.

November 10, 2014
Rapid Transit

Skanska venture gets LA Purple Line contract

The Skanska joint venture including Traylor Brothers, Inc. and J.F. Shea Construction has been awarded a $1.6 billion design-build contract by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) to extend the Metro Purple Line.

November 06, 2014
Class I

AAR: “An enormous amount of freight”

The Association of American Railroads on Nov. 6, 2014 reported increased U.S. rail traffic for the week ending Nov. 1, 2014, for the month of October 2014, and for the 2014’s first 10 months, with both carload and intermodal volume continuing a steady climb.