Today (Feb. 15) marks the first of two days of a Surface Transportation Board hearing on what Railway Age Contributing Editor and practicing intellectual property attorney David Peter Alan calls “The Second Battle of
Two passenger rail organizations are urging the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to “carefully consider” how its proposed reciprocal switching regulations would impact their operations as well as investment.
WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE FEBRUARY 2022 ISSUE: Were a Jeopardy quiz show answer “infrastructure investment” and “transparency,” the question would be, “What can be done to ease supply chain congestion?” To understand its magnitude, imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger struggling to fit into Danny DeVito’s wardrobe.
As the battle between Amtrak and potential host freight railroads CSX and NS over proposed passenger trains between New Orleans and Mobile heats up, CSX has turned up the heat another notch.
Jay Roman in a recent Railway Age article (STB’s Annual Rail Rate Index Study: A Deeper Dive – Railway Age) alleged the new STB rate study was flawed because it did not
The Surface Transportation Board on Jan. 28 issued a decision denying a request from the Association of American Railroads to extend the procedural schedule in Docket No. EP 711 (Sub-No. 1) et al., Reciprocal Switching; regarding the Board’s NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) on reciprocal switching regulations. “All procedural dates remain unchanged, including those for the public hearing beginning on March 15, 2022,” STB said.
Canadian Pacific (CP) President and CEO Keith Creel is calling 2021 a “historic” year for the Class I railroad; during a Jan. 27 earnings report, he highlighted overcoming “significant operating challenges—devastating network outages in B.C. and extreme cold temperatures”—and closing merger partner Kansas City Southern into voting trust.
The newly released STB Annual Rail Rate Index Study (Study) summarizes trends in freight rail rates between 1985 and 2019. The Study shows that inflation-adjusted Real Rail Rates have decreased 27% over the past 34 years. Because Real rail rates are lower now than in 1985, the STB Study may be read by some to imply that current rail rates are reasonable in relation to what they have been historically. Unfortunately, this is not an accurate conclusion, because the historical trend in rates provides an incomplete picture of the change in cost of shipping freight by rail.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) have been allowed to file additional comments with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regarding Amtrak’s application to operate Gulf Coast service.
American Chemistry Council members late last year reported experiencing shipping delays, shortages of raw materials and increased transportation costs—disruptions that “proved costly, with more than one-third of companies reporting additional costs exceeding $20 million over a one-year period,” according to an association survey.
