Opinion

On July 30, Amtrak announced it was planning to tarnish the Silver Star, the train that has traveled between New York and Florida since 1939. It will throw its venerable…

CSX President and CEO Joe Hinrichs got the wheels turning in late August when his railroad took labor negotiations out of national handling through the National Carriers Conference Committee (NCCC)…

Anthony Taravella has proven that when it comes to chasing your dreams, it’s better late than never.

The Muni family is proud to introduce two of its newest cable car grips: Chanelle Smith and Annie Washington.

We adjust our third-quarter 2024 estimates for the U.S. railroads to reflect volumes quarter-to-date (QTD), mix headwinds and diesel tailwinds. Our TD Cowen rail survey offers a slightly negative read…

Boxcars hold a special place in my unlikely vision for freight railroads’ future. I say “unlikely” because I do not think many other railroad people share this vision, but Railway…

Covering the railroads for a long time does strange things to a person. We were glued to The Weather Channel, with Hurricane Helene’s Category 4 track resulting in a direct…

At the NEARS (North East Association of Rail Shippers) Fall 2024 Conference in Pittsburgh, a leading IMC (intermodal marketing company) panelist sees a 99% chance of a week-long East Coast…

The landmark Surface Transportation Board (STB) hearing on U.S. freight rail industry growth, at which I was privileged to be one of the speakers, was a unique opportunity to listen…

When I started in this business in 1992, Bob Matthews ran the Railway Progress Institute (which years later merged with the Railway Supply Association into today’s Railway Supply Institute). Bob…

For economists, optimism is unnatural. Thus, as I digested the STB hearings on rail growth, I became increasingly uncomfortable with my buoyancy. As creepy as it sounds, the hearings left…

STB’s two-day hearing on Sept. 16 and 17 provided a good moment to reflect on the freight railroad industry’s prospects. The hearing entitled “Growth in the Freight Rail Industry” (Ex…

I’m writing to reflect on recent stories and reports about train length—and to share some facts about railroading, stats about length and safety, and the specific actions Union Pacific has…

Sept. 16, 1974, was a banner day in the history of the Bay Area. On this day, 50 years ago, BART’s Transbay Tube opened for passenger service.

In 1982, the Buy America Act was passed as a provision of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, requiring mass-transit projects—be it rail, highway, or rapid transit—to purchase certain materials for…

It’s not every day you get to tour the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad Steam Shop, much less ride in the cab of Big Boy No. 4014, but four Operating Department…

We’ve apparently been in a freight recession for two years now, but rail intermodal is having a strong growth year, aided by an easy comp against 2023, which was the…

I’ll start with a brief discussion about the comparative fuel efficiency of heavy-duty (HD) trucks and freight railroads in the United States. We’ll then have a six-question quiz (for you,…

Over the summer now ending, I have examined the situation now faced by eight of the largest transit systems in the United States, all of which include significant rail networks…

FROM THE EDITOR, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Don’t box me in here, because I usually try to think outside the box for this column. How many boxes can you…