RAILWAY AGE, AUGUST 2020 ISSUE, ANNUAL WINTER PREPAREDNESS REPORT: Winter preparedness is essential for avoiding frozen equipment, malfunctioning cars, service delays or even suspended operations.
Fail to prepare for winter’s harsh conditions and your railroad will be running on ice—literally and figuratively. One railroad that prepares for winter’s onslaught is BNSF, which has some of the most rugged territory in North America.
Marion, Ohio, located in the north-central area of the state, is home to the Marion Industrial Center, a versatile facility ideally suited for owner/operators and investors in Intermodal, Transloading, 3PL (third-party logistics), Automobile Storage and Distribution, and industrial real estate development. Privately owned and operated since 1975, the Center is now available for sale to “owners and operators of logistics and transportation businesses who can utilize it to gain strategic advantage and enhance their overall operations,” according to Cushman & Wakefield’s Managing Director, Whitney Kerr, Jr.
A 58-year veteran of the railroad industry, Vincent “Vin” Terrill, 94, died on June 24 at his home in Manchester, Mass.
Canadian Pacific reaffirmed “its commitment to grow traffic at the Port of Saint John and stimulate economic growth and investment in New Brunswick” at a recent meeting with Premier Blaine Higgs.
MTA Long Island Rail Road President Phil Eng and Chief Innovation Officer Will Fisher describe enhancements to the LIRR’s Train Time® App, which now provides real-time information to customers. “The Route of
Ettore Morelli has been hired as Senior Vice President and National Alternative Delivery Leader for Transportation at WSP USA.
OmniTRAX, an affiliate of The Broe Group, is working with the Calumet Area Industrial Commission (CAIC) to launch its Rail-Ready Sites program at the Chicago Rail Link (CRL). The Rail-Ready Sites program connects customers looking to maximize supply chain performance with rail-served properties.
RAILWAY AGE, AUGUST 2020 ISSUE: Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), as we know it today, is rapidly reaching an inflection point. Escalating trade disruptions, rail strikes, blockades, weather events and the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the urgency to make supply chains more resilient. Weaknesses in international supply chains have been exposed, and escalating domestic transportation turmoil demonstrates the need for end-to-end approaches, standards, solutions, and greater service level accountability and safety. PSR has been applied to some Class I’s and has yet to be applied widely to Class II, Class III, tenant and passenger railroads in North America. This gap represents 40% of North American route-miles.
Amtrak diesel-electric locomotives have worn many liveries over the years since the company was founded in 1971. The latest of these is a variation on the current “Phase VI” scheme that dates to 2002, to be worn by five of the first six ALC-42 Siemens Chargers that will replace the current P40 and P42 “Genesis” fleet on the National Network, including all long-distance and many state-sponsored routes. The sixth unit will be painted to recognize next year’s 50th anniversary of the inauguration of Amtrak service. Amtrak says “a final livery will be unveiled later as part of a fleet-wide plan.”
After the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported on U.S. rail traffic for the week ended Aug. 1, 2020, as well as for July 2020, there appears to be hope in traffic volumes returning to pre-COVID-19 levels.
“Permanent changes in trade flows will likely cause the Port of LA to permanently lose about 15% of its market share to Gulf and East Coast ports, a clear negative for Union Pacific but favorable for CSX, Kansas City Southern and Norfolk Southern. COVID-19 has had as large of an effect as the Great Recession. Peak season expectations were mixed to positive, with retail inventory replenishment likely needed.”
