1/11/2017
Rail News: People
Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. By
Railroad News
Jan
11
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11
1/11/2017
Rail News: Federal Legislation & Regulation
Jan
11
1/11/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
Jan
11
Rail Insider-Progressive Railroading's 16 most-read news stories of 2016. Information For Rail Career Professionals From Progressive Railroading Magazine
Jan
10
The metropolitan planning organization for the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), has chosen the Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam (LAN) consulting firm to carry out a high-speed rail station area planning study for downtown Dallas.
Jan
10
1/10/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
Jan
10
Jan
10
Jan
10
Harsco’s Protran Technology unit, part of the Harsco Rail division, has announced a new sale of safety systems to be implemented in Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD) railway fleet.
Jan
10
1/10/2017
Rail News: High-Speed Rail
Jan
10
1/10/2017
Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad
Jan
10
1/10/2017
Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad
Jan
10
Jan
10
Rail News Home BNSF Railway January 2017 Rail News: BNSF Railway
Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. ByThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Managing EditorFor Class Is, industrial development (id) is key to generating traffic. They continually work with shippers to explore a plant expansion or evaluate transportation options that might involve transloading, all with the intent of increasing volume.The large roads also constantly seek to add new customers and traffic sources by promoting sites along their mainlines for new facilities. The typical selling points: viable rail access, close proximity to interstates, and large tracts of land that can be quickly acquired and developed.BNSF Railway Co. has tried to accelerate ID efforts in recent years to gain as big a business boost as possible, especially of the intermodal variety. From 2011 through 2015, the Class I each year landed more than $1 billion worth of new or expanded facilities along its lines, including $1.2 billion in 2015 and nearly $1.5 billion in 2014. And as of late last month, BNSF was on pace to surpass the $1 billion mark for the sixth-straight year, with about 100 ID projects on the 2016 docket, including several at a fast-growing, footprint-swelling logistics park in Kansas.What by all counts appeared to be another successful year is a testament to the company’s ID approach in the face of 2016’s sluggish economy and murky political climate, says BNSF Assistant Vice President of Economic Development Colby Tanner.“We try to engage with customers and communities. It’s important to see [ID] as a partnership,” he says.By proactively partnering with customers, the railroad can develop transportation solutions that enhance and improve their supply chain, says BNSF Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steve Bobb.“We need to play the role of a trusted adviser that can help guide our customers from the initial identification of a potential development site to its design and its ultimate construction,” he says. “Customer investments — which are key to connecting all types of business supply chains to our rail network — are driven by the confidence our customers have in the transportation services we provide them.”BNSF aims to abide by three tenets to drive ID: collaboration, transparency and responsiveness, says Tanner. That calls for such efforts as assisting states and communities with infrastructure needs, providing detailed information on routing a domestic or international shipment, or quickly compiling a cost estimate on a new industrial siding.The railroad also strives to help potential customers identify optimal rail-served sites for a new facility — an effort boosted in March 2016 by the introduction of a site certification program — and resolve any zoning, permitting or other arising issues.“We want to have an openness with customers, and not dictate to them,” says Tanner. “We try to work through issues collaboratively.”A logistical approachAnother vital component of BNSF’s ID strategy: developing logistics centers and parks. Logistics centers offer direct rail service via manifest or unit trains in multi-customer, multi-commodity business parks that primarily target under-served and end-user markets. For example, BNSF in 2014 opened a $45 million logistics center in Sweetwater, Texas, that provides rail, truck and transload services for agricultural products, sand, pipe and aggregates transported in the crude-oil-rich Permian Basin.A map shows the location of the Class I's three logistics parks and three logistics centers. Source: BNSF Railway Co.
Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. By
Logistics parks are strategically located to serve major markets via BNSF’s intermodal network. Anchored by an intermodal facility, the parks are designed to attract distribution centers, warehouses and light manufacturing plants by offering shippers lower overall transportation costs — including drayage rates — maximized truck turns and supply chain efficiencies.
Logistics parks help attract beneficial cargo owners like Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart, since ID now tends to focus more on consumer products than agricultural and industrial products, says Tanner.
Jan
10
Rail News Home BNSF Railway January 2017 Rail News: BNSF Railway
Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. ByThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , Managing EditorFor Class Is, industrial development (id) is key to generating traffic. They continually work with shippers to explore a plant expansion or evaluate transportation options that might involve transloading, all with the intent of increasing volume.The large roads also constantly seek to add new customers and traffic sources by promoting sites along their mainlines for new facilities. The typical selling points: viable rail access, close proximity to interstates, and large tracts of land that can be quickly acquired and developed.BNSF Railway Co. has tried to accelerate ID efforts in recent years to gain as big a business boost as possible, especially of the intermodal variety. From 2011 through 2015, the Class I each year landed more than $1 billion worth of new or expanded facilities along its lines, including $1.2 billion in 2015 and nearly $1.5 billion in 2014. And as of late last month, BNSF was on pace to surpass the $1 billion mark for the sixth-straight year, with about 100 ID projects on the 2016 docket, including several at a fast-growing, footprint-swelling logistics park in Kansas.What by all counts appeared to be another successful year is a testament to the company’s ID approach in the face of 2016’s sluggish economy and murky political climate, says BNSF Assistant Vice President of Economic Development Colby Tanner.“We try to engage with customers and communities. It’s important to see [ID] as a partnership,” he says.By proactively partnering with customers, the railroad can develop transportation solutions that enhance and improve their supply chain, says BNSF Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Steve Bobb.“We need to play the role of a trusted adviser that can help guide our customers from the initial identification of a potential development site to its design and its ultimate construction,” he says. “Customer investments — which are key to connecting all types of business supply chains to our rail network — are driven by the confidence our customers have in the transportation services we provide them.”BNSF aims to abide by three tenets to drive ID: collaboration, transparency and responsiveness, says Tanner. That calls for such efforts as assisting states and communities with infrastructure needs, providing detailed information on routing a domestic or international shipment, or quickly compiling a cost estimate on a new industrial siding.The railroad also strives to help potential customers identify optimal rail-served sites for a new facility — an effort boosted in March 2016 by the introduction of a site certification program — and resolve any zoning, permitting or other arising issues.“We want to have an openness with customers, and not dictate to them,” says Tanner. “We try to work through issues collaboratively.”A logistical approachAnother vital component of BNSF’s ID strategy: developing logistics centers and parks. Logistics centers offer direct rail service via manifest or unit trains in multi-customer, multi-commodity business parks that primarily target under-served and end-user markets. For example, BNSF in 2014 opened a $45 million logistics center in Sweetwater, Texas, that provides rail, truck and transload services for agricultural products, sand, pipe and aggregates transported in the crude-oil-rich Permian Basin.A map shows the location of the Class I's three logistics parks and three logistics centers. Source: BNSF Railway Co.
Logistics Park Kansas City is anchored by a busy BNSF intermodal terminal.Photo – BNSF Railway Co. By
Logistics parks are strategically located to serve major markets via BNSF’s intermodal network. Anchored by an intermodal facility, the parks are designed to attract distribution centers, warehouses and light manufacturing plants by offering shippers lower overall transportation costs — including drayage rates — maximized truck turns and supply chain efficiencies.
Logistics parks help attract beneficial cargo owners like Amazon, Target and Wal-Mart, since ID now tends to focus more on consumer products than agricultural and industrial products, says Tanner.
Jan
09
1/9/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
Jan
09
1/9/2017
Rail News: Passenger Rail
Jan
09
1/9/2017
Rail News: Rail Industry
Jan
09
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has received a commitment of approximately $1.07 billion in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to support phase one of its Red and Purple Modernization Project.