The Railroad Industry Today, News and Resources You Can Use
The railroad industry in North America, and most of the world, is currently experiencing drastically low traffic volumes and reduced revenues due to economic conditions affecting almost every industry around the world. Keep in mind that just about everything you and I purchase, use, consume, at one point in its life, either in raw commodity form or as a near complete or finished product, was transported by rail. Additionally, most imports and exports
travel by rail from source to port and eventually to distributor or end user.
Some areas of the United States are not as affected by the downturn. The coal regions of Wyoming, Montana and the eastern Appalachian region continue to ship large quantities of coal for power generation here in the U. S. or export to other countries. As we enter the end of summer, agricultural shipments will rise as wheat; soybean, corn and other crops are harvested and need to be transported for processing.
While the U.S. Government through various stimulus funding initiatives has or will provide some state transportation departments and rail carriers funding for infrastructure projects. The large, private railroad companies continue to invest their own cash in track and facility improvements. The seven class I railroads, BNSF, CN, CP, CSX, KCS, NS, UP are heavily investing in new intermodal facilities and track projects to gain efficiencies and market share and increase capacity and velocity. Some Local goverments and other operators are expanding port facilities. Some Class I railroads are selling or leasing branch lines to
local interests for new short line railroad operations. All of this is being done now to meet changes in the market as well as meet the demands of the expected upturn in rail traffic in the months and years to come.
As you can see with the snap shot of the industry I provided above, information becomes vital to stay ahead of the competition.
So how can a railroad professional keep up with constantly changing information and opportunities in the railroad industry? Seek current news, press releases, resources and information about the railroad industry daily. I have found several sources for such information, but it can be time consuming to visit each site. One information portal, http://www.usrailroadnews.com does an excellent job of compiling relevant industry information in one location. The site is updated several times a day and seems to break the information shortly after it happens. Small story about a small operation or a Class I update, its all there. I call it the Drudge Report of the railroad industry.
I have found usrailroadnews.com an excellent source for information I can use in my daily business activities. Either as a source for business leads or current information I may use to make an investment in the industry.
travel by rail from source to port and eventually to distributor or end user.
Some areas of the United States are not as affected by the downturn. The coal regions of Wyoming, Montana and the eastern Appalachian region continue to ship large quantities of coal for power generation here in the U. S. or export to other countries. As we enter the end of summer, agricultural shipments will rise as wheat; soybean, corn and other crops are harvested and need to be transported for processing.
While the U.S. Government through various stimulus funding initiatives has or will provide some state transportation departments and rail carriers funding for infrastructure projects. The large, private railroad companies continue to invest their own cash in track and facility improvements. The seven class I railroads, BNSF, CN, CP, CSX, KCS, NS, UP are heavily investing in new intermodal facilities and track projects to gain efficiencies and market share and increase capacity and velocity. Some Local goverments and other operators are expanding port facilities. Some Class I railroads are selling or leasing branch lines to
local interests for new short line railroad operations. All of this is being done now to meet changes in the market as well as meet the demands of the expected upturn in rail traffic in the months and years to come.
As you can see with the snap shot of the industry I provided above, information becomes vital to stay ahead of the competition.
So how can a railroad professional keep up with constantly changing information and opportunities in the railroad industry? Seek current news, press releases, resources and information about the railroad industry daily. I have found several sources for such information, but it can be time consuming to visit each site. One information portal, http://www.usrailroadnews.com does an excellent job of compiling relevant industry information in one location. The site is updated several times a day and seems to break the information shortly after it happens. Small story about a small operation or a Class I update, its all there. I call it the Drudge Report of the railroad industry.
I have found usrailroadnews.com an excellent source for information I can use in my daily business activities. Either as a source for business leads or current information I may use to make an investment in the industry.
