Opinion

Shippers expect 3.4% rate increases over the next 6-12 months, up 30bps sequentially and roughly in line with our survey average. Business growth expectations improved while economic confidence stepped down.…

Railroad volume growth has been scarce over the past two years, but it has shown up—primarily in the form of international intermodal—so far in 2024. The chart below consolidates loads…

Midyear Report, Railway Age July 2024 issue: 2024’s tumultuous first half should transition to a calmer period. But then again …

FROM THE EDITOR, RAILWAY AGE JULY 20224 ISSUE: When CSX President and CEO Joe Hinrichs joined us last month for our annual Rail Insights conference, I wanted to take the…

WATCHING WASHINGTON, RAILWAY AGE JULY 2024 ISSUE: Those scorpions in a bottle—the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal,…

The last week of June was an eventful one for New Jersey Transit (NJT) and its riders. On the negative side, service on the portion of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor (NEC)…

For 77 days in 2019, I held the distinction of having ridden every rail transit line in the United States in its entirety. Then two events happened. One was the…

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on June 21, 2024 ordered the Federal Railroad Administration to cease its attempt to limit BNSF’s use of ATI (Automated…

The Federal Railroad Administration released the latest update of its Long-Distance Service Study in mid-June. While there is nothing definitive revealed as far as routes (if any) likely to be…

Union Pacific (UP) is leveraging technology to support safe operations from every viewpoint—on its tracks, inside its locomotives and hundreds of feet off the ground with its drones.

As technology continues to evolve at the speed of light and make access to data increasingly available, how does rail keep pace, especially when it comes to monitoring logistics? Today’s…

The average employee tenure at America’s largest freight railroads is more than double that of comparable industries and occupations, a reflection of the long, rewarding careers that are commonplace at…

Tough May weather in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana plunged Union Pacific’s (UP) network velocity to a five-year low of 22.7 mph in the week ending June 7 and, after a…

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is said to have ordered his men in 1519, just before they undertook their conquest of the Aztec Empire, to burn their own ships anchored offshore…

During a 2013 GATX earnings call, then-CEO Brian Kenney was asked a question about the staggering number of new railcar orders being placed in response to the crude-by-rail/fracking boom. His…

While transit in New York City and the railroads that serve its suburbs on the New York side of the Hudson River seem to be out of the woods for…

Innovation and a strong culture are driving a safer future for freight rail.

Times look bleak for many transit providers at this writing. Reports both for the trade and in popular media have spread the word that transit is in trouble. The federal…

Running a railroad is a complex endeavor. So is running urban rail transit, such as metropolitan-style rail lines (like the New York subways), urban light rail, and modern-style or heritage-style…

Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s Final Spike Anniversary Steam Tour is an historic three-nation round-trip journey that began in Calgary on April 24, 2024 to mark the one-year anniversary of CPKC’s…