April 6, 2023 | AAR Freight Trends, Headlines, PSR
(Source: Railway Age, April 5, 2023) U.S. rail traffic in March 2023 dropped from the same month last year—down 7.6% or 192,349 carloads and intermodal units, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported April 5. This follows February’s 5.2% drop from the...
April 3, 2023 | Headlines, PSR, Railroad Safety
(Source: ProPublica, April 3, 2023) Driven by the efficiency goals of precision scheduled railroading, companies are forgoing long-held safety precautions, such as assembling trains to distribute weight and risk or taking the proper time to inspect them. Instead,...
April 3, 2023 | Derailment, East Palestine-NS, Headlines, NS, PSR
(Source: New York Times, April 3, 2023) “It’s profit over everything, not just safety,” Mark Wallace, First Vice President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said in reference to the entire rail industry. “It’s profit over customer service. It’s...
March 31, 2023 | AAR Freight Trends, Headlines, PSR
(Source: Association of American Railroads press release, March 29, 2023) WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending March 25, 2023. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 469,958...
March 30, 2023 | Headlines, PSR
(Source: Reuters, March 29, 2023) Beware the company, or industry, with a one-track mind. General Electric had one for years, consumed by Six Sigma, whose gospel the U.S. conglomerate helped spread to boardrooms far and wide. At Kraft Heinz, the cost-saving dogma was...
March 30, 2023 | AAR Freight Trends, Headlines, PSR
(Source: Railway Age, March 29, 2023) For the week ending March 25, 2023, U.S. rail traffic fell 7.5% from the prior-year period, pulled down by both carloads (dipping 0.2%) and intermodal volume (declining 13.9%), according to the Association of American Railroads...
March 30, 2023 | BNSF, Coal, Headlines, PSR
(Source: Wyoming Public Media, March 29, 2023) A state lawmaker is criticizing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway for what he says is a failure of the railroad to meet contractual terms for coal shipments from the state. This comes as critics claim the...
March 28, 2023 | Derailment, East Palestine-NS, Headlines, PSR
(Source: National Public Radio, March 23, 2023) It’s one of the biggest trends to shape the railroad industry in more than a century – precision scheduled railroading, or PSR. It’s a business model that’s propelled railroad companies to...
March 23, 2023 | AAR Freight Trends, Headlines, PSR
(Source: Railway Age, March 22, 2023) U.S. rail traffic for the week ending March 18 (Week 11) dipped 9.4% from the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported March 22. U.S. Class I railroads hauled a total of 453,500 carloads and...
March 22, 2023 | 2-man Crews, Derailment, East Palestine-NS, Headlines, NS, Paid Sick Leave, PSR
(Source: Supply Chain Dive, March 21, 2023) At an investor’s conference last December, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw made a somewhat surprising announcement for the rail industry: The company would look beyond short-term profits to rebuild service and invest in...
