The 2025 Guide to Equipment Leasing, written by Railway Age Financial Editor David Nahass, offers insights on the freight car leasing market, as well as a leasing resource directory. “Lessor-owned railcar fleets remain at high utilization levels greater than 95% as companies leasing railcars are reticent to give them up due to the lack of available replacement inventory and the cost of new/replacement cars, the cost of return maintenance, and the ever-increasing cost of empty freight,” he reports. “This is the fourth-plus year of almost ‘full’ utilization for the operating lessor railcar owners. What started out as an exception to a history of volatility has started to feel like a rule … By this point, the overwhelming majority of the lessor-owned cars should have churned, and their rates are higher than they were pre-pandemic. But the hesitation to return cars and the unwillingness to commit to new cars is creating a new kind of market.”
Inside you’ll also find articles on:
- Telematics. Telematics providers are upbeat, despite sluggish adoption, reports Contributing Editor Joanna Marsh.
- Wheel/rail profile optimization on Wiener Linien’s Vienna Underground Line U6, by Jeff Tuzik.
- Automated rolling stock inspection with wayside and onboard technology, by TTC Operated By ENSCO.
Plus, Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner addresses the Railroad Retirement Board and the Executive Branch directives targeting it. So “politically problematic,” he comments, 10 House Republicans wrote POTUS 47 in April asking he “throttle” them back. “Nowhere is the ‘Don’t Tread on Me!’ slogan more appropriate than to be applied to the various Railroad Retirement programs that are fully funded by railroads and their employees for the exclusive use of rail workers,” Wilner notes. Also, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association President Chuck Baker discusses 45G modernization and the need to secure enough Congressional co-sponsors to include it in tax legislation being prepared by Congress. “We need a hat trick,” he says. Short lines can help.
