Class I Railroad

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Class I railroad carrier CSX Corp. announced today it has officially completed its acquisition of North Billerica, Mass.-based short-line railroad carrier Pan Am System Inc. and its short-line railroad subsidiaries. CSX officials said that bringing Pan Am into the fold helps in “expanding its reach” into the Northeast.

Kevin Boone, EVP, Sales & Marketing, for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Class I railroad carrier CSX, touched upon various topics relating to the freight rail carload and intermodal sectors at the Northeast Association of Rail Shippers (NEARS) 2021 Fall Conference, which was held in Portland, Maine last week.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Mario Cordero, Executive Director at the Port of Long Beach (POLB), which is known "as one of the world’s premier seaports, a gateway for trans-Pacific trade and a trailblazer in goods movement and environmental stewardship.

On November 25, CN said that it has successfully met the federal requirement to operate PTC on all 35 of its U.S. subdivisions required to be equipped with PTC, meeting these requirements 13 months in advance of the December 2020 deadline. In late October, Union Pacific reported it implemented PTC on 1,113 route miles in the third quarter, which brings its required PTC-operated route miles to 15,791, or 93%, which includes all required passenger train routes.

Late last month, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) made its annual determination of revenue adequacy for United States-based Class I railroads for calendar year 2017. STB said that a railroad is revenue adequate if it achieves a rate of return on net investment equal to at least the current cost of capital for the railroad industry for 2017, which the STB said was 10.04%.

The United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently released data for second quarter 2018 Positive Train Control (PTC) implementation. Based on FRA’s data, a key takeaway is that decent progress is being made, with 15 U.S. railroads having installed 100% of PTC system hardware that needs to be installed for implementation.

Railroad service issues once again have the attention of the Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Board (STB), with STB Acting Chairman Ann Begeman and Vice Chairman Deb Miller penning letters to the top executives at the seven North American Class I railroads, requesting each carrier’s service outlook for both the near term and the rest of 2018.

While the investments are beyond impressive, 2016 capital expenditure investments rolled out by Class I railroads in recent weeks paint a picture of lower annual spending levels compared to past years.

The two largest short line and regional rail operators in North America will become one, with this week’s announcement that Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) will acquire RailAmerica for an all-cash purpose price of $27.50 per share—or roughly $1.39 billion.

Class I railroad carrier Norfolk Southern (NS) said it has rolled out a five year goal to reduce its carbon footprint through fuel-savings technology and improvements in operating efficiencies, as well as lower its greenhouse gas emissions per revenue ton-mile 10 percent by 2014 compared with 2009 emissions.

Class I railroad carrier Norfolk Southern recently announced it has eliminated what it described as a critical choke point on its Crescent Corridor initiative with a reconfigured rail junction near Front Royal, Virginia.