STB Chairman Oberman’s information request to the Class I chief executives is “designed to help the Board better understand the magnitude of container congestion, the purpose and effect of storage fees, and whether receivers are afforded relief when they lack the ability to facilitate the release of their containers.”

STB to Class I’s: Terminal Congestion, Demurrage Data, Please

CSX 2Q21: ‘Solid Beat’

Discussing the Railcar Leasing and Management Services Group, Trinity Industries President and CEO Jean Savage said: “There are clear signs of a strengthening recovery as the renewal success rate for the quarter improved to 81%, a level not seen in recent history.”

Trinity ‘Encouraged’ by U.S. Rail Markets’ Continued Recovery

“The Union Pacific team leveraged volume growth, core pricing gains and productivity to produce record quarterly results,” said President and CEO Lance Fritz, noting that those results were achieved “in a challenging environment as our rail network continues to be impacted by supply chain disruptions, particularly in the intermodal space.”

UP: ‘Strong’ 2Q21 Results Amid Supply Chain Disruptions (Updated, Cowen)

Breaking News

Mexican SAT Action Rather Ambiguous

In a July 19 press release, the Government of Mexico, through the Ministries of Energy, Finance and the Tax Administration Service (SAT), made public a list of active and suspended taxpayers on its Importers’ Registry, indicating that the suspensions were made due to several taxpayers apparently not being in full compliance with requirements under its Foreign Trade Rules. Among them were Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM) and Grupo Mexico’s Ferrosur rail freight subsidiary.

The CDOT’s plan includes 21 goals, 84 strategies and hundreds of benchmarks laid out in one- and three-year increments to “chart a course toward building safer streets; reprioritizing transportation projects to increase access to opportunities for residents in historically neglected neighborhoods; and working with CTA and regional transit agencies to expand public transportation access,” among other measures.

Transit Briefs: Chicago DOT, FTA

The Chicago (Ill.) Department of Transportation (CDOT) has released a strategic transportation plan that it’s calling “the nation’s first” urban plan developed in the wake of the pandemic, economic and racial justice crises of 2020. Also, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is now accepting applications for its Outstanding Achievement Award for Excellence in Environmental Document Preparation.

NYMTA: We’re OK for Three Years

After months of warning about dire financial consequences brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on July announced that federal funding will provide financial stability through the first half of 2024, and negate the need for immediate fare increases.

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Opinion

‘Maybe So Sir, But Not Today’

I spent about a half-decade of my railway career working with several intermodal freight logistics luminaries: Marvin Manheim of Northwestern University’s Transportation Center, Penn State Professor of Logistics Kant Rao and Bryan Stone of Intercontainer, with contributions from Rick Hill and Dick Andino, pioneers of ship-to-rail intermodal at APL. These folks and others helped shape my view of moving containers along complex links and nodes among different modes and terminals.

Reciprocal Switching: Complex, Expensive, Time-Consuming (i.e. Mostly a Bad Idea)

Here are a few observations about the often operationally complex competitive rail carload service that many shippers and public advocates would like federal regulators to shove down the throats of the railroads: “reciprocal switching,” or as the Association of American Railroads calls it, “forced access,” a “misguided” method that could, ultimately, undermine the railroads’ ability to reliably serve customers.

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