Opinion

Commentary

CILTNA 2024 New York Rail Summit Report

Rail professionals were recently treated to the inner workings of railroads in the New York City area. The half-day session, courtesy of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in North America

Commentary
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MxV Rail Opens FAST® Loop Track

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has headquartered rail industry research and test activities in Pueblo, Co., for more than 40 years. Building on this legacy, AAR’s wholly owned subsidiary MxV Rail

Commentary

ZE Power for Short Lines

Since the second half of the 20th century, four-axle diesel-electric switcher locomotives have been used extensively on short lines. The most common are the EMD SW1500 (1,500 hp/1,119 kW), GP9 (1,750 hp/1,305

UP has implemented new policies and enhanced training for craft professionals across its 23-state network. (Caption and Photograph Courtesy of UP)
Commentary

UP Invests in Safety, Launches New Training

Union Pacific (UP) continues making progress toward its goal to be the best in safety, investing in people, enhancing infrastructure, transforming culture and harnessing the transformative power of technology.

Rahul Jalali, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Commentary

NetControl Positions Union Pacific as Technology Trailblazer

Union Pacific made history on Jan. 6, 2024, when we became the first Class I railroad to modernize the “big three” core operating platforms: Positive Train Control (PTC), Computer-Aided Dispatch (CADx) and Transportation Management (NetControl).

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

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

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.),