WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE APRIL 2025 ISSUE: As the dust settles following a tendentious Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) superintendency of Amit Bose, stakeholders await a successor—presumably, White House nominee David…

Will the President of the United States this week or next fire one or both of the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) two Democratic members? Will Democrats Karen J. Hedlund and…

The reason we stay in school, pursue advanced degrees, merge and acquire competitors is to increase market power. The former two are celebrated by society, the latter two often derided…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE, MARCH 2025 ISSUE: Amidst the societal chaos midst the societal chaos unleashed on official Washington by POTUS 47, a point of light is his choice of…

Elon Musk, POTUS 47’s First Pal and sometimes favorite Elmo when not mistaken for the real POTUS, suggested March 5 that Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) be privatized.

News Item: The President issued an Executive Order Feb. 18 asserting direct control of independent (from the Executive Branch) federal agencies, including the National Mediation Board (NMB, which administers the…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE FEBRUARY 2025 ISSUE: If you’re unaware that President Jimmy Carter, who died Dec. 29 at age 100, was instrumental in preserving private-sector railroading, blame it on…

Republican Patrick J. Fuchs, 36, was designated by the President Jan. 20 as chairperson of the five-member Surface Transportation Board (STB). He succeeds Democrat Robert E. Primus, 55, who was…

Surface Transportation Board Chairperson Robert E. Primus has rung a tocsin, alleging a toxin is skulking about in the rough-and-tumble environment of railroad-shipper relations despite the lawfulness of capitalist acts…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE, JANUARY 2025 ISSUE: He’s a 50-year-old railroad CEO without a private aircraft or opulent corner suite. Although he superintends the only transcontinental railroad, his compensation package is…

Using a late-played and hardball parliamentary maneuver forcing Republican acquiescence despite a warning to Senate Republicans from the President-elect to block the effort, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) won…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE NOVEMBER 2024 ISSUE: In response to an early October economy-jolting dock workers’ strike—now suspended until mid-January—Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) introduced a “Safeguarding Our Supply Chain Act”…

As baseball is a straightforward game—hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball—negotiating wage, benefits and work rules agreements between railroads and their dozen craft-differentiated labor unions is equally…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE OCTOBER 2024 ISSUE: As a Senator in 1938, “Give ‘em Hell” Harry Truman proclaimed, “Rail management can only see straight down the right-of-way as it was…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Much of America’s history and progress is traceable to railroads. They bound together the continental United States, made possible settlement of the West,…

This has been quite a week for railroad labor relations. Failed contract talks between CN, CPKC and Teamsters Rail Canada deteriorated into a management lockout of employees—ended by a government…

An attempt by the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to decide complex maximum freight-rate challenges by choosing one of two suggested remedies—one by the shipper; the other by the railroad—was derailed…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE AUGUST 2024 ISSUE: A heap of chutzpah was served up last month by House Railroad Subcommittee Chairperson Troy Nehls (R-Tex.) at a hearing more masquerade ball…

Please, say it ain’t so, Norfolk Southern. Tell the Justice Department they are looney tunes—that you don’t belong on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for allegedly intentionally and habitually delaying…

NEWS ITEM: Robert E. Primus, named by President Biden in May to succeed Martin J. Oberman as Surface Transportation Board (STB) chairperson, last week scheduled a public hearing in Washington…