Surface Transportation Board (STB) staff recently released a rate reform report with a series of recommendations. Readers should remember that before any of those recommendations become regulations, the Board must conduct rulemakings. This process could extend beyond 2020 and into the next Administration.
The Twin Cities & Western Railroad Co. has promoted Tina Ryberg to Assistant Vice President Administration and Operations, based at the railroad’s headquarters in Glencoe, Minn. Ryberg oversees multiple departments including transportation/operations, maintenance-of-way, mechanical, safety, accounting, human resource, and administration.
The House Ways & Means Committee on June 19 introduced H.R. 3301,the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019. The 45G railroad infrastructure maintenance tax credit is covered in Section 112, which extends 45G to Jan. 1, 2021 and retroactively to Jan. 1, 2018. (45G expired on Dec. 31, 2017.) The bill is expected to be marked up in committee on June 20.
Rail equipment finance veteran Andrew J. Falcone has joined Railroad Financial Corp. as a Vice President, based in Boston.
In an unfortunate sign of the times, U.S. weekly rail traffic has continued its slide, according to figures released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).
Rail industry veteran Theodore W. “Ted” Baun will be joining MUL Railcars, Inc. (MULR), a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Company Limited (MUL), as Chief Commercial Officer, effective July 1. He will be responsible for fleet utilization, revenue generation and customer support operations, as well as “playing an integral role as part of the corporate leadership of MULR in planning and architecting the growth of the platform and the fleet as we drive toward our near-term objective of having a 25,000-car portfolio by the end of 2020,” the company said.
Canadian Pacific (CP) recently announced that it took home the Best Logistics Service Provider – Rail award at the Asian Freight Logistics and Supply Chain Awards (AFLAS) in Hong Kong.
Railroad tank cars transporting TIH (toxic inhalation hazard) substances in Canada will be required to have heads and shells constructed of normalized steel under updated Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations established by Transport Canada. The new rules, which take effect July 2, 2021, are consistent with updated U.S. regulations. Normalized steel undergoes heat treatment that increases its durability and resistance to cracking at low temperatures.
A revolutionary track design to stage and process more trains more efficiently through loading and unloading terminals was recognized at The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Engineering Excellence Awards Gala in Washington, D.C., on May 7, 2019. ACEC’s Grand Award was given to Omaha-based HDR, Inc., for its patent-pending Infinity Loop.
If one looks at recent developments, the Federal Railroad Administration’s withdrawal of the two-person-crew-minimum NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), it may seem “logical” to say the march toward one-person crews is accelerating. However, that may be an illusion.
