Opinion

RAILWAY AGE, SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: The question “Does it pencil?” is a term used by real estate investors when analyzing a building or property project from a financial perspective. Quoting from a recent New York Times article: “A project that pencils is one that makes financial sense ... When developers say something pencils, they are saying that whatever they want…

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, linked farms with markets, aided development of towns and cities and enabled our industrial revolution. Modernity is less aglow about railroads. There remain few sufficiently long of tooth to recall…

FINANCIAL EDGE, RAILWAY AGE SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE: Nothing warms a jaded rail equipment columnist more than having an article planned out only to see the headlines grabbed by something so tantalizing that the entire idea has to be scrapped in favor of the more topical event. It happens more often than you may think. It’s a Yogi Berra moment—deja vu…

I did a double take a year ago when an Amtrak press release with this headline hit my inbox: “Texas Central and Amtrak Seek to Explore High-Speed Rail Service Opportunities between Dallas and Houston.” Come again? A lot of people, yours truly included, thought this project died deep in the heart of Texas, probably on Calvin House’s dude ranch. Texas…

In this installment of the Port of Long Beach's Supply Chain Insight video series, POLB Chief Operating Officer Dr. Noel Hacegaba speaks with Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) President and CEO Joni Casey.

Our rapidly warming planet has been sending us all repeated signs that the unrelenting accumulation of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) surrounding the Earth must be reversed. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is doing its share to fulfill the Biden Administration’s climate priorities, making Climate and Sustainability one of its Strategic Goals. And the Administration has made reducing carbon emissions a…

When Congress authorized federal funds for transit operations in late 2020 and early 2021 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that particular aid for the nation’s transit providers was meant to be temporary; a response to the steep ridership declines and consequent declines in revenue suffered by transit agencies around the nation, from the major systems I have examined…

We’re always on the lookout for good news and last week we highlighted the strong recent improvement in BNSF terminal dwell. And with dual lockouts at CN and CPKC, we were curious to what extent the shutdown of Canadian operations impacted their U.S. operations. BNSF terminal dwell was down again last week, and we’ve now seen sequential improvements in 16…

Editor's Note: The following is a testimony that will be submitted by Adriene Bailey, Partner with Oliver Wyman, in a hearing before the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on Sept. 16-17, 2024. Introduction I would first like to thank the Surface Transportation Board members for providing me with the opportunity to speak here today. I am Adriene Brooks Bailey, a Partner…

I now complete my “tour around the country” to find out how major transit providers are faring in their efforts to keep going, despite the deficits those agencies will face when the COVID-19 relief money runs out. Congress authorized it in the wake of the steep ridership declines caused by the virus. We return to the Northeast to examine the…

At the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of the characters mentioned how great the transit in Los Angeles was. Of course, the story was set in 1947, when Pacific Electric’s Red Cars and LADOT’s Yellow Cars provided streetcar service to plenty of places, not only in L.A. itself, but also throughout Southern California. The streetcar network that had…

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 back-to-work order and mandate that the dispute be settled through binding arbitration regardless of whether labor or management wish a third party to write terms of a new labor contract.…

On Aug. 20, 2024, The New York Times reported that Amtrak’s recent operational difficulties are the result of poorly maintained infrastructure supporting Northeast Corridor train services. In July, Bloomberg published an opinion piece entitled, “Amtrak’s Failures Are Wired into the System.” Old (variable tension) catenary and supporting components are the culprit. The Bloomberg story reveals a startling fact: “The Connect…

Much has been written about the alleged downfall of San Francisco and the Bay Area in general. When I visited in June to catch up on rail transit extensions in California that had started service during the five years since I last visited there, I did not find evidence of a city in its death throes, as some media claimed.…

As my constituents in Upstate New York and Americans across the nation face a historic affordability crisis, conditions are set to get a lot worse if the California Air Resources Board (CARB) succeeds in getting authorization from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban locomotives from operating in California beginning in 2030 unless they are “zero-emission.”    As a House Transportation…

This summer, I have been examining the effects on transit and its riders that we can expect when the federal funding for operations that was enacted as part of the COVID-19 relief effort runs out. That is about to happen to some transit agencies, and it will come relatively soon everywhere. We have looked at the major providers in the…

The “Second Battle of Mobile” is over. It ended in a victory for Amtrak, the officials and advocates who fought for the coming Gulf Coast trains, and the riders who will have a slightly expanded rail mobility network starting next year. It was sheer happenstance that I was in New Orleans when I learned about the Mobile City Council’s surprisingly…

This summer, the Railway Supply Institute (RSI) hosted Innovation in Rail, a one-day event on Capitol Hill focused on rail technology, the regulatory environment, and the economic contributions made by the rail supply industry. With so many great minds in one room, we had to ask: What excites you about the future of our industry? What does good collaboration really look…

FINANCIAL EDGE, RAILWAY AGE AUGUST 2024 ISSUE: It’s the dog days of summer. Most of the country is sweltering under extraordinary heat (it was 127 degrees on July 5 in Death Valley), extreme rain (Hurricane Beryl dropped six inches of rain in one day at Houston’s major airports and knocked power out to 3 million Texans) or both. As the…

RAILWAY AGE, AUGUST 2024 ISSUE: Chicago Union Station is a busy place. Trains come and go throughout the day, from early morning until after midnight. Most of those trains are operated (directly or under contract) by Metra, Chicagoland’s regional rail agency that serves suburban towns in Illinois, but not in Indiana. Amtrak controls the station and has an operating presence…