Opinion

ASLRRA PERSPECTIVE, RAILWAY AGE AUGUST 2024 ISSUE: The Surface Transportation Board (STB) will hold a public hearing in September to gather information about recent trends and strategies for growth in…

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…

After Norfolk Southern prevailed in its hard-fought proxy fight victory earlier this year, we wrote that “as Norfolk Southern finally pulls out of the station, leaving its activist detractors shouting…

1994 was a pivotal year for the global supply chain as NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, took effect. It was also when Amazon was founded and the World…

Rebecca Riehl easily blended into the crowd of people on PATH’s Journal Square platform on a recent weekday. It’s not hard for her, as a daily rider herself. But she…

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…

From Rails to Trails by Peter Harnik (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). There is an ongoing war between “rails-to-trails” proponents who covet every rail line and wish it could be…

The Silver Star was once part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s fleet of crack streamlined trains between New York and the South that ran with stainless steel equipment, starting…

Our most recent feature article on transit in the Nation’s Capital appeared in the August 2023 issue of Railway Age. Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono described the politics surrounding the agency…

I noted in my previous report that New Jersey Transit (NJT) will get a reprieve, on account of a new tax on the largest businesses in the State. That tax…

The Supreme Court has recently reshaped one of the fundamental pillars of administrative law—the Chevron doctrine, under which agencies received a level of deference in interpreting ambiguous statutes. This sea…

On July 23, the Rail Subcommittee of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee convened a hearing, “Examining the State of Rail Safety in the Aftermath of the Derailment in East Palestine,…

We heavily scrutinize operating metrics during, and on the back of, the four major public holidays during the year (Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving) due to the…

Friday, Jan. 24, 2020 was a sad day on Girard Avenue in Philadelphia. It was the last day of service for the Presidents’ Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars that had run…

The Class I railroads set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the past 5-10 years, but a review of recent data shows mixed progress at best. Two…

Local training in Memphis—and across CN’s network—focuses on emergency preparedness.

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…

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) have sent identical letters to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Homeland Security Secretary…

On July 9, MARS (Midwest Association of Rail Shippers) celebrated its 100th anniversary with its Annual Summer Meeting at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wisc. The conference opened…

Frank N. Wilner’s Watching Washington article on the infighting between the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and SMART Transportation Division (SMART-TD) offers a stark reminder of our industry’s…