Wabtec delivers 1,000th Tier 4 locomotive
Wabtec Corp. recently celebrated the delivery to CN of the 1,000th Evolution Series Tier 4 locomotive at its plant in Fort Worth, Tex, a former GE Transportation facility.
Breaking News
Trinity: Strong 1Q2019 growth
Trinity Industries on April 25 announced its first-quarter 2019 earnings results, which “show a strong improvement and continued growth of the owned/leased railcar portfolio, progress toward its goal of balance sheet optimization and a continued focus of returning capital to shareholders.”
CSX’s Van Tassel honored with environmental award
The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has named CSX Transportation’s Gary Van Tassel II the 2019 John H. Chafee Environmental Excellence Award winner.
OmniTRAX, STE unveil KLW Tier 4 locomotive
OmniTRAX, Inc. and the Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad (STE) recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new environmentally friendly locomotive at the STE depot in San Juaquin, Calif.
APTA to host Get on Board Day
On April 25, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and its members will celebrate the inaugural national Get on Board Day.
Petroleum, coal stay hot
As has been the case for the past couple of weeks, three of the 10 carload commodity groups posted a year-over-year increase while all other traffic suffered, according to figures released on April 24 by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) for the week ended April 20.
LRW accepting Connie Sumara Scholarship applications
The League of Railway Women (LRW) announced April 24 that it is accepting applications for the Connie Sumara Memorial Scholarship.
Engineering changes at Norfolk Southern
Norfolk Southern is restructuring its Engineering Department as chief Phil Merilli retires, promoting two company veterans.
Newman promoted to Amtrak EVP, Planning & Strategy
Amtrak recently announced that Dennis Newman has been appointed Executive Vice President, Planning & Strategy, and he will be “responsible for corporate planning and strategy, schedule and consist planning, Amtrak’s services and host railroad groups, and the company’s participation in the Gateway Program.”
RSI opens nominations for board members
The Railway Supply Institute (RSI) announced April 23 that it is soliciting nominations for executives from member companies to fill three spots on its board of directors for a term beginning in January 2020.
Opinion
PSR: Short-term gains, but at what cost?
Much is being made in the railroad industry and transportation media about the Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) wildfire sweeping from coast to coast. Proponents of PSR will tell you that it will prove to be the industry’s savior. But it also begs the following question: Just what does the industry need to be saved from?
Adapt or die: Railroads must embrace advanced technologies
Advancements in the logistics industry over the past ten years have been vast, especially in over-the-road shipping modes with shippers utilizing 3PLs at record levels for domestic transportation management. The move toward partnering with logistics service providers has allowed shippers to use the power of modern technology to increase visibility and track product movements throughout their supply chains with greater efficiency than ever before. Unfortunately, rail has not seen advancement at the same pace, leaving shippers with the perception that rail carriers are behind the times.
Good news is sometimes slow in coming
What’s the Good News? At least one large Class I freight railroad has finally codified some meaningful fatigue countermeasure provisions with its train operating employees, in an actual written agreement. And, yes, that is Good News, although it has been very slow in coming.
Repeat actions don’t produce different outcomes
Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson and his chief deputy, Stephen Gardner, have proposed eliminating the company’s interregional trains in favor of a scattering of discontiguous, higher frequency short corridors connecting nearby city pairs. But this reflects a deep misapprehension of the performance of the company’s three primary business groups, and a surprising emphasis on minimizing the returns on investment of the company’s capital resources.
Part 2 of 6: Politicians Wrangle as Costs Climb
The original Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) Project started with a semblance of consensus but ended its 15-year life in controversy. Its replacement, Gateway, was proposed in February 2011, and has been surrounded by controversy for the entire eight years of its life, so far. The politicians and planners who are pushing the program consider it inevitable, just as they considered the now-defunct ARC Project inevitable almost until the day it was killed in 2010.