Canadian Pacific’s Holiday Train gets under way this week, and the announcement of that fact has generated all sorts of media attention, as you might expect. Canadian Press has a long piece (mirror), and the cross-Canada version is getting local coverage, too (for example, Cochrane and Edmonton, Alberta). It’ll pass through three communities in my [...]
Want to work for the railroad? The Associated Press reports that, thanks to industry growth and boomers retiring, the railroads are on a hiring spree. The pay is good — $40,000 in the first year, for a job that doesn’t require anything beyond a high school diploma; more for an engineer with a few years’ [...]
Railfans might be seen as a nuisance by some, but until September 11 they were probably seen as harmless. Since then, though, they’ve complained about being harassed by overzealous security officers who think that a train nut along a rail line taking photographs is kind of suspicious. Railfans have countered that, far from being a [...]
RailAmerica, the holding company that operates a number of short lines across North America (including, for example, the Ottawa Valley Railway in my neck of the woods; see their system map), has agreed to be taken over by investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC, for nearly $640 million. The deal is worth $1.1 billion when [...]
The German government will partially privatize Deutsche Bahn, the state railway company. In a compromise reached this week between the Social Democratic (SPD) and Christian Democratic (CDU) parties, who share power under a coalition, 49 per cent of DB will be offered as public shares, in stages, beginning in 2008 or 2009. The CDU had [...]
I don’t think that special trains at the holidays are a new thing, but using the trains to raise funds for food banks and charities is a more recent innovation. Both Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern run holiday trains; there may well be others in the same vein. Canadian Pacific’s train is older (it [...]
Fortune has a short article online that discusses the rise in price of railroad stocks in general — the big four have been up 25 per cent since mid-August — and the performance of Norfolk Southern in particular. The article also refers to, and cites anecdotes from, Rush Loving’s book on the recent history of [...]
Norfolk Southern reported third-quarter earnings last week: net income was $416 million, or $1.02 per share; from railway operations, income of $715 million (before interest and taxes, thus the discrepancy) on revenues of $2.4 billion. It was Kansas City Southern‘s turn yesterday: net income of $26.4 million (32ยข/share) on revenues of $415.7 million. Net income [...]
Railroad customers can be a cranky bunch to start with, especially when they feel the railroads are gouging them (for example, when rates are higher if the railroad has a monopoly, but lower if there’s competition). Now customers are complaining about a lack of transparency in fuel surcharges — a fact of life in many [...]
Last week, Canadian Pacific reported third-quarter net income of $168 million ($1.06 per share) on revenues of $1.12 billion, down by $42 million compared with 3Q 2005 due to foreign exchange and a one-time charge. Coal revenues were down sharply — 25 per cent — but everything else was up and more than made up [...]
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