Opinion

CEO PERSPECTIVES, RAILWAY AGE APRIL 2025 ISSUE: Freight rail remains the backbone of the nation’s transportation system, seamlessly linking industries, businesses and consumers. New analysis from AAR economists transforms abstract…

FROM THE EDITOR, RAILWAY AGE APRIL 2025 ISSUE: It works in London. It works in Stockholm. It works in Singapore. It works in Gothenburg. It works in Milan. Now, it’s…

Leave it to Eric Starks, Chairman of FTR Transportation Intelligence, to cut right to the chase on how POTUS 47’s worldwide tariff torpedoes and retaliatory strikes from “friend and foe…

FINANCIAL EDGE, RAILWAY AGE APRIL 2025 ISSUE: The 39th Rail Equipment Finance Conference, held March 2-5, 2025, reflected an atmosphere of cautious optimism in very uncertain (some say crazy) times,…

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…

On March 23, the New York Daily News ran an editorial about the Gateway Program, which is building new infrastructure in New York City and New Jersey on Amtrak’s Northeast…

Second of a Series: Potential SEPTA Connection Demo. In the first article of this series, posted on March 18, we introduced Pop-Up Metro, a concept that could introduce passenger service…

On Patrice Polite’s first day at PATH in 2009, two things stood out. The first was just how nervous she felt when she reported for duty to the car equipment…

It has been about a year since I called for adaptation (growth) and not decline in our industry. And it seems like that growth message was well received. This industry…

In today’s logistics landscape, supply chain flexibility is critical. Businesses must navigate shifting market demands, infrastructure challenges, and economic fluctuations while keeping transportation costs in check. Norfolk Southern transloading solutions…

We attended the Southwest Association of Rail Shippers 2025 Annual Meeting in Dallas, March 18-19. Macro uncertainty was a clear theme across multiple presentations. Class I’s and short lines attested…

Union Pacific (UP) recently held its inaugural CEO Excellence Awards, honoring 41 employees who made tremendous strides advancing the railroad’s Safety, Service and Operational Excellence strategy. The awards acknowledge many…

The Passenger Rail Advisory Committee (PRAC), formed in fall 2024 under the Surface Transportation Board (STB), is an exciting development for the future of passenger rail in the United States. The…

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…

In this series, we have taken a detailed look at the concept of through-running for regional railroads operated by transit providers and serving a major city, railroads that were formerly…

So far in this series, we examined the concept of through-running for local “transit railroads” that serve a city’s downtown core and the suburban areas that surround it. The idea…

First of a Series: July 17, 2023 was a beautiful sunny summer day in Rockhill Furnace, Pa., a town that is not located anywhere near a passenger train. Huntingdon, on…

In the previous article in this series, we examined plans for through-running between different railroads serving Penn Station, but not a different type of through-running: trains running through Midtown Manhattan…

More women are making their way into the transportation industry – and that’s worth celebrating. During Women’s History Month, we introduce Sandra Romero and Glenda Murrell, two train operators from…

This nation, and most of the world, recently marked five years since much of life as we knew it essentially shut down because of the sudden proliferation of the COVID-19…