Breaking News

FreightCar America Castaños, Mexico manufacturing facility.

FreightCar America: ‘Solid Results’ for 4Q23; Randall Named New CEO

FreightCar America (FCA) delivered solid results for fourth-quarter 2023 with gross profit up 62% on significant year-over-year margin expansion, President and CEO Jim Meyer said during a March 18 earnings report, also announcing that Chief Operating Officer Nick Randall, effective May 1, 2024, will succeed Meyer as President and CEO and become a member of the company’s Board of Directors.

BART on April 20 will hold a retirement ceremony and final dispatch of its legacy trains that have been in service for more than half a century. The event, “Riding into History: Final Run of the First Fleet,” will take place at Oakland’s MacArthur Station.

Transit Briefs: BART, Denver RTD, Metra, Sound Transit

San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) will fully retire its legacy trains next month and is advancing a systemwide fare gates project. Also, Denver (Colo.) Regional Transit District (RTD) launches an elevator pilot program and joins the White House’s “Challenge to Save Lives from Overdose” initiative; Chicago’s Metra plans a new layover yard near the McHenry County community; and Seattle’s Sound Transit will test new Link LRV (light rail vehicle) seat material.

Betsy Talton-Buck (left), incoming Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, NS; Angie Kolar (center), incoming Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer, NS; and Robin Pol, Managing Director, Trifleet, a GATX Company.
  • News

High Profile: NS, GATX

Norfolk Southern (NS) hires new corporate communications and compliance leaders. Also, Trifleet Leasing Holding B.V. (Trifleet), a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago-based GATX Corporation, promotes a veteran employee to Managing Director.

Class I Briefs: CSX, CN, UP, NS

CSX donates $10,000 to the Red Cross for storm relief efforts. Also, CN and Union Pacific (UP) are recognized by CDP as 2023 Supplier Engagement Leaders; CN sends a “supply chain salute” to MacroSource, LLC for their new facility in Memphis, Tenn.; and Norfolk Southern (NS) honors customer sustainability achievements.

CPKC Stadium opened March 16 for the KC Current, the professional women’s soccer team in Kansas City, Mo. (Screen Grab Courtesy of CPKC via LinkedIn video post)

Now Open: CPKC Stadium, Home of KC Current

One of the first stadiums purpose-built for a women’s professional sports team opened March 16 under the banner of Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), which last fall reported signing a 10-year naming rights agreement with the National Women’s Soccer League’s (NWSL) Kansas City (KC) Current.

STB Denies UP’s Motion to Keep Employment Data Confidential

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) on March 14 announced that it has denied a motion for protective order filed by Union Pacific (UP) to keep certain required, temporary employment data reporting confidential. STB also directs UP to submit public versions of previously submitted data.

Commentary

Bearing Down on Bearings

The bearing related derailment that occurred in East Palestine Feb. 3, 2023 on a Norfolk Southern line was tragic in many ways. Following months of investigation, the NTSB held a hearing on

(San Diego MTS)

Transit Briefs: San Diego MTS, CTA, Tri-Rail, MDOT MTA, AECOM

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) Board approves a $243 million capital budget for transit improvements. Also, the Chicago Transit Authority’s (CTA) new video series addresses rider questions; Tri-Rail’s ridership recovers; the Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA) invites applicants for Red Line Community Advisory Team (CAT); and AECOM publishes a new high-speed rail report.

LeAnna Gutierrez Cumber, Chief Strategy Officer, Herzog
  • M/W

Herzog Hires Chief Strategy Officer

LeAnna Gutierrez Cumber has joined rail and heavy/highway contractor Herzog as Chief Strategy Officer. She will work to expand the St. Joseph, Mo.-based company’s capabilities and reach, including helping customers obtain project financing.

Commentary

BNSF Desperate for an Inflection

The Smokehouse Creek wildfire in Texas, which severed BNSF’s Transcon route on February 27, was the latest in a series of problems that have significantly slowed BNSF’s network and impacted service. After

In August 2021, the STB Office of Environmental Analysis issued a Final EIS for the project, identifying the 88-mile Whitmore Park Alternative as the environmentally preferred route for the Uinta Basin Railway, one of three analyzed. It would extend from two terminus points in northeastern Utah’s Uinta Basin near Myton and Leland Bench to a connection with the existing Union Pacific Provo Subdivision near Kyune (see map above).

Will SCOTUS Review Uinta Basin Railway Case?

Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision that “derailed” the Uinta Basin Railway project, according to Colorado Newsline. The Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) December

The Southern Rail Commission is one of three entities receiving funding through the FRA’s FY 2022-23 Interstate Rail Compacts (IRC) Grant Program to advance passenger rail.

FRA Awards Inaugural IRC Grants

Three entities will share $900,000 in Interstate Rail Compacts (IRC) Grant Program funding from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to help improve and expand passenger rail networks in the Midwest, South and Southeast.

Tom Ellman, CFO, GATX (left); and Shari Hellerman, Head of Investor Relations, GATX (right).
Commentary

GATX Meeting Takeaways From TD Cowen

We spent a day in two Ohio cities with GATX CFO Tom Ellman and Head of Investor Relations Shari Hellerman. Takeaways include: continued strength in North America railcar leasing; growth in India, where GATX constitutes substantially all the private-sector railcar leasing landscape; Europe growth; and a commitment to investing in long-lived, service-intensive assets, an investment grade, and returning excess cash.

Commentary

EC Investigation Follows U.S. Attention to Chinese SOE Threat

The European Commission’s (EC) first-ever in-depth investigation under its new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) has been heard worldwide. Predictably, this high-profile, anticompetitive case was directed at China. CRRC (China Railway Rolling Stock Corp.),