Prototype News

On April 30, the temperature-controlled logistics company officially broke ground on the new $127 million cold storage facility at Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s (CPKC) IFG Terminal in Kansas City, Mo.

Americold, which first announced plans to develop the facility in February, expects to create nearly 190 new jobs in the region. The new 335,000-square-foot facility in Kansas City is part of a strategic collaboration with CPKC to co-locate Americold warehouse facilities on the Class I’s network.

The two companies first reported their intent to build the first facility in Kansas City, Mo., last June, which will bring together “cold storage and value-added-services with expedited intermodal transportation solutions connecting key U.S. Midwest and Mexico markets.”

The new facility will support CPKC’s Mexico Midwest Express (MMX) service, North America’s only single-line rail service offering for refrigerated shippers between U.S. Midwest markets and Mexico. It will also enable more seamless and efficient service for MMX customers, according to Americold.

Key features include on-site USDA inspections to eliminate border delays; load capacity exceeding 50,000 pounds per container to reduce highway congestion; and a 300-mile service radius supporting regional food flow. Beyond the immediate region, the facility also serves as a strategic consolidation point for longer-haul shipments, including flows from Canada to Mexico, particularly for customers facing border inefficiencies or trucking capacity challenges, the company noted.

“This grand opening marks the realization of a shared vision and what is today a growing strategic collaboration delivering new rail service products to the market,” said CPKC President and CEO Keith Creel. “This facility is the first of many across our unrivaled North American network. By combining Americold with our secure, single-line cross-border service, we have created a new refrigerated supply chain for our customers shipping food and other temperature-controlled products across Canada, the United States and Mexico.”

State and local leaders joined company executives on April 30 to celebrate the company’s new investment in Missouri.

“We are thrilled to break ground on a new cold storage facility in Kansas City,” said Americold CEO George Chappelle. “This facility is the first to be built as part of our strategic collaboration with CPKC. By combining our cold storage capabilities with CPKC’s extensive rail network, Americold is poised to deliver a differentiated offering to support more customers across North America.”

“Today’s groundbreaking for this new facility marks the beginning of a significant collaboration that shows what we can achieve with vision and working together for our customers,” said CPKC President and CEO Keith Creel. “This project is the first of many across our network and, when combined with our unparalleled cross-border service, will build a new refrigerated supply chain for our customers. Just over one year ago here in Kansas City, when we celebrated the creation of CPKC, we talked about the unique economic benefits our unrivaled network would bring to Kansas City, Missouri and beyond. We are seeing that happen today.”

Missouri Partnership worked with several partners to attract Americold to Kansas City, including the City of Kansas City, Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri, KC SmartPort, Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri One Start, Evergy and Spire.

“It is always exciting when a company breaks ground in Missouri, and we are thrilled to officially welcome Americold to Kansas City,” said Missouri Partnership CEO Subash Alias. “Americold is joining more than 20,000 distribution and logistics companies in the state who are benefitting from Missouri’s central location, solid infrastructure, and low business costs. We look forward to watching Americold’s facility take shape and seeing their success unfold here in Missouri.”

“Bringing CPKC’s unrivaled network together with Americold’s cold storage capabilities creates a new refrigerated supply chain that shows what we can achieve together for our customers,” the Class I stated in a LinkedIn post.

The post Americold Celebrates Grand Opening of First Cold Storage Facility at CPKC Terminal (UPDATED, 8/12) appeared first on Railway Age.

With a dedication to recycling and sustainability, the newly converted facility will re-manufacture wheelsets and bearings, according to Progress Rail, which provides a comprehensive suite of rail solutions, including advanced EMD® locomotives and engines, trackwork, fasteners, and signaling systems. The company also delivers specialized services for locomotives and freight cars, aftermarket parts, and recycling operations. In addition, Progress Rail offers rail technologies such as data analytics, train automation, operational optimization, connected asset management, predictive maintenance, asset protection and tracking, and yard planning tools. These technologies, the company says, “empower rail operators to enhance efficiency, safety, and performance across their networks.”

For this expansion, Progress Rail will benefit from the Missouri Works program, a tool that helps companies expand and retain workers by providing access to capital through withholdings or tax credits for job creation. The company may receive assistance from Missouri One Start, a division of the Department of Economic Development. Missouri One Start assists eligible businesses with their recruitment and training needs.

“Our investment in this facility and the local community demonstrates the overall depth of the railroad business in Kansas City and Progress Rail’s commitment to keep our customers rolling with quality freight car parts and services,” said Greg Dalpe, Executive Vice President of Freight Car Services at Progress Rail. “We’re excited to expand our footprint in Kansas City and contribute to the region’s ongoing growth as a national logistics hub.”

Progress Rail expects to begin hiring in September 2025. Interested applicants can view Kansas City job openings, search, and apply here.

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The Tren Maya project is primarily known for its passenger network but also includes a freight line to improve cargo transport across southeastern Mexico, Wi-Tronix noted.

The Mexican government this year is investing $7.15 billion in several passenger projects, as well as in 70 km (43 miles) of freight infrastructure on the Mayan Train network on the Yucatan Peninsula, according to a report late last month by Kevin Smith and William C. Vantuono, chief editors of International Railway Journal and Railway Age, respectively.

“Wi-Tronix will enable the emerging freight line to significantly enhance cargo safety and efficiency to support regional economic development by connecting key logistics hubs and industrial sectors across Mexico,” the supplier said. “It will serve a diverse range of customers, transporting essential goods such as fuel, steel, cement, grains, and automobiles throughout the region.”

According to Wi-Tronix, its suite of technologies will:

• “Achieve up to 15% fuel savings by providing real-time visibility into locomotive performance and identifying inefficiencies in throttle use, idling, and train handling.
• “Accelerate incident resolution and enhance crew accountability through high-definition, 360-degree video capture in a virtual reality-like mode—securely stored and remotely accessible.
• “Strengthen safety compliance and support accident investigations with continuous recording and threshold-based monitoring of speed, braking, throttle, and GPS data aligned with railroad rules.
• “Minimize unscheduled maintenance using predictive diagnostics that detect issues such as engine faults, battery degradation, or overheating before failures occur.
• “Future-proof operations with AI-powered insights that enable automated rule violation detection, engineer behavior coaching, and long-term planning through trend analytics.”

The deployment includes the Violet Edge onboard IoT platform, Wi-Nostix predictive analytics, and integrated video and fuel monitoring capabilities, the supplier reported.

“Our expanding partnership in Mexico reflects a shared commitment to advancing rail safety and innovation,” said Chad Jasmin, Vice President of Sales and Customer Experience at Wi-Tronix. “By equipping Tren Maya’s fleet with AI-powered technologies, we’re not only enhancing real-time visibility and operational reliability today—we’re also building a foundation for long-term growth and smarter, safer rail systems across the region.”

• Mexico Moving on Passenger Rail Revival
• Mexico’s Outgoing President Announces Completion of Mayan Train Project
• Alstom Delivers First Tren Maya Long-Distance Trainset
• Mexico’s Next President Continues Passenger Train Revival
• Jordan, MacGregor Share Their Perspective on Developing Technology in the Rail Space
• ASLRRA Adds Wi-Tronix to Member Discount Program

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According to INDOT, the SRP will lay out Indiana’s vision for the passenger and freight rail system, report existing conditions in the state’s rail system, and identify the highest priority needs for funding within the next several years. While INDOT noted that it does not finance, own, operate, or maintain any rail infrastructure or services, the Highways and Transportation Act of 1977 requires it to prepare a plan.

The plan’s goals, it said, cover:

• “Safety: Help improve and promote the safety of the rail system, as well as raise public awareness of rail safety issues. 
• “Economic Development: Support efforts to better connect Indiana with regional, national, and international markets through new or improved transportation service options. 
• “Transportation Effectiveness: Reduce bottlenecks and maintain rail system in a state of good repair to improve the reliability and efficiency of railroad transportation, resulting in less congestion and fewer infrastructure repairs. 
• “Quality of Life, Environmental, and Social Responsibility: Improve accessibility for all to rail transportation and preserve rail as the most environmentally friendly transportation mode. 
• “Innovation: Encourage Indiana’s railroading practice to be as efficient as technology improvements will allow; so as to contribute as much as possible to the Indiana economy.”

According to INDOT, each week hundreds of trainloads of materials and ingredients arrive in Indiana to supply the steelmaking, automotive, aluminum, food and beverage, and other industries. It noted that in 2022 it would have taken 16.5 million trucks to handle the freight that moved via rail in Indiana, Association of American Railroads’ statics show.

Indiana has a 3,650-mile railroad network (see maps, below). The state’s three Class I railroads (CSX, CN, and Norfolk Southern) have main lines in the state that link multiple consuming and manufacturing regions, including routes from the Midwest to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, routes from the Midwest to the Southern U.S., and from Chicago to Eastern Canada. To efficiently move this traffic, INDOT said, railroad terminals in Elkhart, Gary, and Indianapolis sort thousands of freight cars each day arriving from across the Eastern U.S., and then build outbound trains to send the cars onward to their destinations. 

Indiana also has 39 short lines, providing first-mile and last-mile rail service to hundreds of manufacturing facilities, grain elevators, industrial parks, and other local employers. Rail-served ports are located on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River.

On the passenger side, Indiana includes Amtrak service and NICTD, which operates between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago and the South Bend International Airport in South Bend.

Click here for more information and to submit SRP feedback to the INDOT.

Separately, the Michigan Department of Transportation and North Carolina Department of Transportation are seeking public input on a draft 2026-2030 transportation program and on projects to include in the 2028-2037 transportation plan, respectively.

The post INDOT Developing 2025 State Rail Plan appeared first on Railway Age.

Something equally intriguing may be emerging for regional railroad Wheeling & Lake Erie (W&LE), which, between short interregnums of well-publicized investor focus, has operated inconspicuously, reliably and profitably in the shadow of Class I juggernauts. A new savvy capitalist—FTAI Infrastructure Inc.—is betting big bucks that this normally wallflower model of efficient railroading still has special promise.

The $1 billion-plus purchase of W&LE announced earlier this month adds considerably to FTAI’s already fully loaded balance sheet and must gain Surface Transportation Board approval, but under less stringent standards than apply to Class I railroad transactions. Our focus here, however, is W&LE’s storied past and investor-intended future.

W&LE was twice Railway Age’s Regional Railroad of the Year. Admired still among her charms is 800 miles of track spreading though Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that allow interchanges with CN, CSX, Norfolk Southern and scores of short lines. But that’s readily available information.

The mystery is what FTAI discovered in its due diligence causing it to coo to W&LE, “I heart you.” Think location, location, location, as W&LE operates smack dab in the space of America’s densest network of manufacturers and assemblers—a rich porridge of intermodal traffic. Geography also fed previous investors’ enraptured wants of W&LE.

Among the most famous to be smitten by W&LE was railroad baron Jay Gould’s son, George Jay Gould I, who, by continuing his father’s control of W&LE into the early 20th century, came darn near assembling the nation’s first true transcontinental railroad—a coveted unbroken ribbon of rail operating between Baltimore and San Francisco under unified management. Gould’s stable of railroads that gave heft to his transcon quest also included Denver & Rio Grande, Missouri Pacific, St. Louis-Southwestern, Texas & Pacific, Wabash, and Western Maryland.

But between Pittsburgh and Connellsville, Pa., was a 60-mile gap blocking Gould’s anticipated transcon. The missing piece was tiny Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway (P&WV) that connected with W&LE and seemed ripe for W&LE acquisition on behalf of Gould. But when a severe business downturn occurred in 1907, Gould’s rail empire and transcon dream crumbled. W&LE survived, but it was not until 1990—after W&LE changed hands repeatedly—that W&LE acquired P&WV.

W&LE resurfaced as a belle of the ball in 1931 when entrepreneurial minds collaborated to provide shippers an alternative to the direct single-line service of major railroads Baltimore & Ohio, New York Central, and Pennsylvania between East Coast cities and Chicago and St. Louis.

Eight railroads—W&LE included—thumbed their collective noses at the ongoing Great Depression and Leviathan Class I’s with which they commenced battle. They collaborated to form a competitive steel-wheel on steel-rail expressway they creatively named the Alphabet Route.

It began in Boston on New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H), with cars transferred to Lehigh & Hudson River Railway at Maybrook, N.Y., which interchanged them at Allentown, Pa., with Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), which had originated cars at the Port of New York.

The growing train handed over to Reading Railroad (RDG) at Bound Brook, N.J.—Reading having originated additional cars in Philadelphia. Western Maryland Railroad (WM), which originated traffic at Baltimore, took the growing train from Reading at Shippensburg, Pa., west to Connellsville, Pa., and an interchange with P&WV, which hauled the train to Pittsburgh Junction, Ohio, for interchange with W&LE.

W&LE then moved the train to Bellevue, Ohio, and interchange with New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate Road, NKP), which served both Chicago and St. Louis. The Alphabet Route operated in reverse, eastbound.

The Alphabet Route was Precision Scheduled Railroad on steroids, and it worked.

The acronyms on waybills defined the Alphabet Route: NYNH&H-L&HR-CNJ-RDG-WM-P&WV-W&LE-NKP. And going east, NKP-W&LE-P&WV-WM-RDG-CNJ-L&HR-NYNH&H.

Even though flags of some of the original participants fell, the Alphabet route operated successfully (successor railroads taking the place of those that disappeared) into the early 1980s when mergers and partial economic deregulation reshaped the industry. W&LE never faltered.

Railroad baron and industry maverick Robert R. Young—who in 1929 acquired control of rail holding company Alleghany Corp. from the equally notable Otis and Mantis Van Sweringen brothers—recognized in 1947 that W&LE held a strategic place among Alleghany’s larger holdings, including Chesapeake & Ohio; Erie; Nickel Plate; and Pere Marquette.

As an intermediate step toward the unified transcontinental railroad that eluded Gould and others before him, Young proposed merging those properties—then operating independently—under his unified control. The relatively minuscule, but advantageously located and perennial money-making W&LE again was a pivotal connection.

Nickel Plate’s preferred stockholders scuttled the deal, with the mercurial Young divesting Alleghany of Nickel Plate and W&LE, leading in 1949 to independent Nickel Plate leasing the barely 500-mile long and connecting W&LE. Following Nickel Plate’s 1964 acquisition by Norfolk & Western Railway (N&W), and N&W’s subsequent merger with Southern Railway to create Norfolk Southern, W&LE reemerged independent under new private ownership—and through acquisitions grew in size to today’s some 800 miles.

For investors, railroads are inanimate objects of trade, with buying bulls convinced of better times approaching, and selling bears the opposite. To bullish FTAI Infrastructure, W&LE is as beguiling as found by Gould and Young.

While the featured event being watched these days is a Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern marriage—intended to become the transcon neither George Gould, Robert R. Young or others could effectuate—the so-far unknown intentions of FTAI Infrastructure merit near equal attention. 

A glance down another historical byway reminds us how a former crop of major railroad CEOs giggled at then-Kansas City Southern CEO Mike Haverty for shelling out more than $1 billion for an extensive Mexican track concession. “Mike’s folly” proved no laughing matter to once derisive competitors.

A sensible wager is that FTAI Infrastructure is not intending to be a passive investor; and word from Wall Street is that other infrastructure funds, flush with cash, have eyes on the industry.

Railway Age Capitol Hill Contributing Editor Frank N. Wilner is author of “Railroads & Economic Regulation,” available from Simmons-Boardman Books, 800-228-9670. 

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As I pack for a trip to New Orleans, La., to cover the inaugural run of Amtrak Mardi Gras service between New Orleans and Mobile, I am thinking about state-supported passenger trains and the investments required to get such trains started—and to keep them going. The Amtrak Connects US plan that was announced in April 2021 proposed almost 40 new state-supported routes that would include corridors, as well as routes with only one or two daily frequencies. While the proposal uses 2035 as its planning frontier, we are already in the 52nd month of that 176-month period, which means that nearly 30% of that time has gone by before the first new trains inaugurated under the program start running next week.

Transportation economist and Railway Age Contributing Editor Jim Blaze, who usually covers freight railroads, often talks about Return on Investment (ROI), whether in his writing or in private conversations (with this writer, at least). Most of the freight side of railroading is in the private sector, and most of the passenger side of railroading, including regional “transit railroads” that serve a city, is in the public sector. The ROI calculations are different. The private sector is concerned almost exclusively with how much money the shareholders make, in their capacity as investors. There are other considerations for stakeholders in the public sector, because public investment takes variables other than “profit” into consideration: public needs (mobility in this case), the environment, social equity, and bringing business into the area and improving the business climate generally. The concept is, therefore, broader in the public sector than in the private sector.

Nonetheless, in today’s political reality, the public sector is shrinking, starting with POTUS 47 getting rid of federal employees and cancelling or reducing the services that the federal government has been providing or supporting until now.

In my “2025 Passenger Rail Outlook” article (which ran Jan. 7), I noted that the picture doesn’t look good for state-supported trains and corridors. In the past seven months, recent events have proven that prediction to be accurate.

Texas discontinued its share of funding for the Heartland Flyer between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City for the coming year. Fortunately, the North Texas Council of Governments is willing to pick up the tab for the coming year, so the train got a reprieve. Given today’s political turmoil in the Lone Star State and the likely results that will come out of that mess, the embattled remnant of the historic Santa Fe’s Texas Chief and the Lone Star Limited of the 1970s will continue to occupy the railroad on a year-to-year tenancy, for as long as somebody in Texas helps pay the rent. Further north, the days for local Northstar commuter trains between Minneapolis and half-way to St. Cloud appear to be numbered.

Even California’s massive investment in the middle segment of the California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) project is again in danger of losing its federal support, after losing it during the POTUS 45 era and regaining it during the POTUS 46 (Biden) period. Can California still build the full system that it envisions without help from the feds, or will the state come up with a less-expensive scaled-down project that will still improve intercity mobility in the Golden State? Time will tell.

Essentially everybody cares about the cost-effectiveness of any project, whether it’s proposed in the private sector or in the public sector. This is especially true in the public sector, where taxes pay part or all of the cost; the general public wants as much “bang for the buck” as they can get. The Great Depression period of the 1930s saw the private sector contract severely. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies expanded the public sector with new agencies and many projects to build government-sponsored infrastructure that kept workers busy and were popular with voters, who turned Republicans out of office and gave Democrats resounding landslides.

Today’s political climate is vastly different. POTUS 47’s claims notwithstanding, Republicans did not win the 2024 election by a landslide, but they did well enough to capture the entire government. Many current policies are the opposite of what voters wanted and got in the 1930s and until recently. While getting a new passenger train or transit line going can be a small project, and operating costs are modest compared to construction costs, mega-projects like CAHSR and the Gateway Program in New York City and nearby New Jersey seem to dominate discussions, both public and within the industry.

Ongoing events concerning CAHSR, and possibly concerning the Gateway Program, will reveal much about the cost-effectiveness of projects of that magnitude and scope in today’s economic and political climate. To be sure, there will always (or for the foreseeable future, at least) be plenty of money for highway projects, due to the special political position occupied by the motoring majority, along with all the industries that benefit from the nation’s continually expanding highway system. Highways, however, are beyond our purview.

In a recent commentary, I examined current developments concerning the CAHSR project and asked two questions: Would it have been more cost-effective if California had upgraded the Coast Line and the San Joaquin Line for high-performance passenger trains (110 to 125 mph) rather than pushing for true high-speed rail (HSR)? And would it have made more sense to build a high-performance railroad between Los Angeles and Bakersfield first, rather than putting the money into the Central Valley, where there is already a relatively strong conventional passenger-rail corridor that also requires every passenger to take a long bus ride between its terminal at Bakersfield to the City of Angels, where millions of Californians live?

Considering a growing indifference, and perhaps even a growing antipathy, toward passenger trains and rail transit exhibited by many current holders of power at the national level, the question becomes: Can states afford to allow mega-projects to crowd out smaller projects that could improve mobility on the local level? In other words, could small projects be more cost-effective?

It would not necessarily be prohibitively expensive to start a new corridor-length line. Costs vary from one line to another and from one host railroad to another, but if a state or locality could build and operate a new service without breaking the bank, that could be a useful investment.

There is a novel approach being implemented in Virginia, called Transforming Rail in Virginia. The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) is sponsoring a program to purchase portions of rights-of-way in and near the Old Dominion as a means of expanding the frequencies of passenger services. There are also plans for expanded and new services within the Commonwealth and into North Carolina and Washington, D.C. (A September 2024 report on the real estate acquisition project can be found at https://vapassengerrailauthority.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/VPRA-Real-Estate-Acquisition-Management-Plan.pdf. A November 2024 report ordered by the VPRA and produced by the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia that examined the economic and social impacts of the Transforming Rail in Virginia project can be found at https://lmronline.org/wpcontent/uploads/2024/11/VPRA_report_11_14_24_final.pdf.)

If the purchases are done properly, there would essentially be two adjacent railroads; one privately owned and primarily for freight, and the other publicly owned and primarily for passenger trains, with the flexibility to rent trackage rights to each other, as needed.

Another approach would be for the public entity sponsoring the project (typically a state or subdivision of a state) to keep the improvements it builds to facilitate a new passenger service, rather than giving all the new infrastructure to the host railroad as a gift, especially if the new service does not last long. Alabama strongly opposed the new Mardi Gras service that will bring riders from New Orleans and Mississippi to Mobile, but the City of Mobile ended up helping with the funding. CSX is receiving most of the benefit of new capital funding, because it owns almost all the line (the New Orleans & Mobile, which was later part of the Louisville & Nashville system before CSX took it over). Time will tell how long the line keeps running; it might only last for a few years, although local officials, rider-advocates, and probably plenty of future riders hope it will become permanent and last for many years.

New rail starts, especially at the local level, are not dead. In March, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (the T) in Boston opened South Coast Rail, with trains running between Boston on one end and the historic towns of New Bedford and Fall River on the other. The Y-shaped “line” runs a full span of service, with trains going to and from one of the destination towns and meeting a shuttle train at Taunton (at the junction of the Y) bound for the other destination. New starts or extensions of rail transit and on the “transit railroads” are fewer and further between than they were even a few years ago, but a few still get started every year.

Given current economic and political conditions, there does not appear to be much money available for mega-projects, when less-expensive, smaller-scope projects might allow for several modest, but useful, new starts or extensions. Building a new project and getting trains running, as with South Coast Rail, might help the dual causes of improving mobility while gaining public favor for rail projects.

Roughly 25 years ago, New Jersey Transit proposed a program of projects that were slated to be built by 2020. The plan included new rail and light rail lines around the state, and rider-advocates at the time backed it. None of those projects was ever built, although talk of building them has not faded away. Will there ever be enough money to build many, or any, of the projects? The only answer is that time will tell. New Jerseyans and visitors to the state might get to ride on some of those lines someday, but it won’t be anytime soon. In the meantime, the Gateway Program progresses slowly.

Two-thirds of the grant requests for new starts or expanded capacity now before the Federal Transit Administration are for busway projects; the other third still call for rail improvements. There appears to be no time like the present to start thinking about new ways to get new services going, if they can be done for a modest cost. The upcoming Railway Age and RT&S Light Rail Conference to be held in Pittsburgh at the beginning of October will feature a panel about one such idea: Pop-Up Metro, which would add passenger features to a host railroad’s line, and run passenger services for an experimental period to determine whether or not there will be enough riders to keep the service going long-term. The current plan calls for running cars that previously ran in transit service in London and were later converted for battery operation.

Innovation and creative thinking plus relatively inexpensive operation are key to implementing new service. Efficient construction and operation will make the difference.

The post A New Look at State Investments in Passenger Rail appeared first on Railway Age.

Richmond Pacific Railroad Corp. (RPRC), a division of Levin Richmond Terminal Corp., has recommissioned one of its legacy EMD switcher locomotives as a repowered, EPA Tier 4-compliant unit. Western Rail, Inc. designed and built the unit at its Usk, Wash. facility.

Originally built in January 1982 as EMD MP15DC No. 1370 for the Missouri Pacific, later Union Pacific, the locomotive, renumbered 25, has been modernized with a Cummins QST30 diesel engine, Kato traction alternator and TMV Control Systems electrical gear, and redesignated an MP15CC. The unit is rated at 1,500 hp. Bay Area Air Quality Management District provided grant funding for this project. RPRC noted it initiated the project “to reduce emissions and improve operational efficiency. Western Rail, Inc. was selected for its innovative approach. With this investment, we. continues to lead by example in the short line rail industry, offering efficient, environmentally responsible service to customers throughout the Bay Area.”

No. 25, RPRC’s third Tier 4 locomotive, is one of just eight such switchers currently in operation at railroads of its size in California.

“We’re excited to bring this next-generation locomotive into service as part of our commitment to sustainability and innovation,” said RPRC Director of Operations Jeffery Schwab. “Western Rail has been an exceptional partner throughout the process. Their team demonstrated impressive expertise and attention to detail in this project’s planning and execution.”

“This project is another example of our long-term investment in environmental stewardship and operational excellence,” said Levin Richmond Terminal Corp. CEO Chris Schaeffer. We’re proud to support a rail operation that not only serves the industrial needs of the region but does so with a clear focus on sustainability and future-ready technology.”

Richmond Pacific Railroad Corp. is a Class III serving the Port of Richmond, Calif., and surrounding industrial areas on 10 miles of track. As a division of Levin Richmond Terminal Corp., RPRC specializes in switching, railcar storage and transloading services, connecting 18 local industry customers with Union Pacific’s Martinez Subdivision and BNSF’s Stockton Subdivision. Levin Richmond Terminal Corp. is a multi-commodity marine and rail terminal operator. RPRC was formerly the Parr Terminal Railroad (PRT), incorporated in July 1950 as an S&T (switching & terminal) railroad to take over Parr-Richmond Industrial Corp.’s private railroad.

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According to New York Police Department (NYPD) statistics, robberies are down 16.7%, felony assaults down 9.3%, and grand larcenies down 6%. Notably, there were no burglaries the entire month of July. Average ridership has increased from 3,441,771 in July 2024 to 3,857,298 in July 2025 in that same period. There was less than one crime per million riders committed in the subway system in July 2025. 

These improvements, the agency says, come more than a year after Governor Kathy Hochul and the MTA unveiled a Five Point Plan for Subway Safety, which included increasing police presence in stations and on platforms, installing security cameras in every subway car, implementing bag checks, and deploying SCOUT homeless outreach teams to connect individuals with severe mental illness to treatment and supportive housing, among other initiatives.

Recent security measures also include the expansion of overnight patrols to place two uniformed police officers onboard every subway train from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.; the ongoing installation of protective barriers on platforms; upgrading fare gates and delaying egress at emergency exits to help crack down on fare evasion; and adding LED lighting throughout the system to increase visibility.

Since Jan. 1, 2025, the MTA says it has installed more than 200 additional cameras across 40 subway stations. LED lights have been installed in a total of 362 stations, with all 472 stations expected to be converted by the end of this year. Additionally, platform barriers have been installed at 65 stations with the agency on track to install platform barriers at 100 subway stations across Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx by the end of 2025.

“It’s clear that efforts to increase overnight patrols, deploy thousands more security cameras, and expand mental health outreach are having real positive impacts,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “By working closely with Governor Hochul and the NYPD, we’re making sure the transit system not only is safe but feels safe for our six million daily riders.”

“We’re thrilled with NYPD Commissioner Tisch’s report that last month was the safest July in subway history, excluding the pandemic,” said MTA Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper. “Not only that, [but] transit crime is down year-to-date, led by a drop in overall assaults, even as more riders return to the system.”

In related news, Gov. Hochul on Aug. 10 signed legislation to rename the 110th Street-Central Park North subway station to 110th Street-Malcolm X Plaza and empower the Council of Arts to designate the Harlem Renaissance Cultural District as a region of cultural significance, as the community celebrated the 51st Harlem Week festival.

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Beginning Sept. 3, Union Pacific is expanding its Z train network with a new domestic intermodal service connecting its Inland Empire Intermodal Terminal (IEIT) in Southern California directly with its Global 2 Intermodal Terminal in Chicago.

“Customers will experience up to 20% faster intermodal service compared to current industry offerings between these key locations, with three days’ transit, providing the fastest delivery of time-sensitive freight, significantly boosting intermodal capacity,” UP said. The service will start at five days a week “with the ability to increase with growth, enhancing the seamless connection from the Los Angeles Basin’s most active warehouse district through our IEIT.”

“As we continue expanding IEIT, this service will deliver consistent, reliable and truck-competitive transportation, challenging the norms of over-the-road shipping and competing head-to-head with team driver truck services,” said Union Pacific Executive Vice President Marketing and Sales Kenny Rocker.

Union Pacific’s Z network consists of the railroad’s highest-priority expedited intermodal trains, which primarily handle domestic intermodal traffic, connecting markets like the Los Angeles Basin, Chicago and Kansas City. Construction recently concluded on UP’s new Kansas City Intermodal Terminal. Opened July 16, the facility serves domestic and international containerized shipments of grains, consumer goods, refrigerated products, and auto parts in the Midwest region, and adds capacity to the railroad’s original Kansas City operation. UP held a ribbon-cutting celebration Aug. 7.

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The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is gearing up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the most recognizable locomotive types from the famed Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge: The K-36. 

Ten K-36 2-8-2 locomotives were built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925, and they served as the primary power on the Rio Grande narrow gauge main line well into the 1960s. Of the ten, nine still exist, and eight remain in operating condition, with four at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and five at the C&TS. The only one not to survive into the preservation era was 485, which fell into a turntable pit and was scrapped in 1955. 

The C&TS will host a series of events in Chama, N.M., to celebrate the anniversary from August 13 to August 17. Festivities will begin with an opening ceremony on August 13, followed by walking tours, evening whistle salutes, and even a birthday celebration with cake. Additional tours will take place on August 14, and there will be a parade of steam that evening at 5:30 p.m. There will also be several special freight runs for photographers. While the freight runs are ticketed events, the walking tours, steam parade, and others are free to attend. 

For more information, visit the railroad’s website. 

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Cutting to the chase on the 2027 STB merger decision: On July 30, Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern submitted to the Surface Transportation Board their prefiling notification, which is basically a heads up on their official merger application, expected in three to six months (between Oct. 30, 2025 and Jan. 29, 2026).

Receipt of the application starts a ~15-month STB process, which places a final merger decision by the Board in February, March or April 2027. It’s possible in 14 months if everything runs smoothly; for example, if the merger application is quickly deemed complete and accepted by the Board, rather than sent back to UP and NS with a request for more detail.

As we go through the STB process, every step is going to be written about and overanalyzed to a tortuous degree, particularly regarding the untested enhanced competition requirement within the public-interest test framework of the 2001 Merger Rules. We’ll no doubt get sucked into that morass as well, but today we’re going to get in our time machine, hit the fast forward button past all of that, and step out of the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) the night before the STB Board members vote on the merger in early 2027. What will they be thinking?

By that time, we should have a reconstituted five-member Board, and each member will be under immense pressure to get this decision right. Whether they have an R or D after their name will have little or no bearing on their decision, in our view. The STB is far from an overtly political body.

For the merger to go through, three of the five members will have to vote to irreversibly change the industry structure, from the current UP-BNSF rail duopoly in the West and NS-CSX duopoly in the East, to a nationwide rail duopoly* of UP+NS and BNSF+CSX. Even if BNSF and CSX haven’t filed a merger application of their own by that time, this is the big “downstream effect” the 2001 Merger Rules will require the STB to assume.

Everybody knows the word duopoly is bad, so it’s a case of pick your poison. Is the United States better off with one big rail duopoly vs. the two regional ones we have now? Let’s pretend we’re an STB Board member that voted “yes” to the merger(s) in 2027, and then watched the integrations unfold over subsequent years. Here are the best-case and worst-case scenarios we would be trying to assess:

It’s now 2032 and I really got that decision right. The UP and NS guys were correct, and it was the elimination of the interchanges that finally did the trick in terms of taking on the trucks and unlocking volume growth in this industry. The integrations were relatively smooth, just like they promised, and they can now run coast-to-coast on one set of tracks while customers have one point of contact for sales, customer service and billing, and they’re getting rate quotes dramatically faster. While the railroads are still not easy to do business with vs. truck, they’ve materially closed that gap and it’s as good as it can be. Home run.

Boy, those UP guys really snowed me. Blessing that merger meant I had no choice but to approve the BNSF-CSX one that followed, and we’ve created the two laziest corporations in America. That whole interchange/watershed thing was exaggerated, and after two brutal integrations that blew up service for a year each, these two railroads have simply used the injection in pricing power to further squeeze customers, grow profits and buy back tons of stock. Operating ratios are down in the low-50s, which means they’re turning away business in the 60s and 70s, and volumes remain stagnant as the industry continues to lose relevance in the U.S. economy. The only thing that will save us now is open access.

Maybe some of the language is a bit flamboyant, but you get the point. For the STB members to vote yes, UP and NS must make the case that reality will unfold much closer to the best-case scenario rather that the worst. It’s a brutal decision the Board members will be making, and no amount of research by us or anyone else is going to accurately handicap it. Good luck.

*We’re beating the rails up a bit for being duopolies, but in the interests of fairness this requires some context. They’re invariably compared with trucks, and while it’s possible to have 50 trucking companies competing fiercely for business between New York and Chicago, you’re obviously never going to have 50 railroads due to their expensive and self-funded right-of-way versus trucks running over government-funded interstates. If you have three railroads running between two points that’s about as good as it gets in terms of rail-to-rail competition. When you get down to two you arguably get into the grey zone regarding willingness to compete aggressively, point being that rail duopolies are difficult to avoid and somewhat normal in the absence of some sort of open access structure. We rely on truck vs. rail competition to keep them in check for a lot of their business, but this of course doesn’t help bulk shippers that can’t use truck.

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