Railroad News

1/11/2017    

Rail News: Supplier Spotlight

1/11/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

Caltrain has announced that its board of directors last week approved the agency’s plans to develop a mobile ticketing application.

 

1/11/2017    

Rail News: Labor

1/11/2017    

Rail News: People

1/11/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

1/11/2017    

Rail News: Federal Legislation & Regulation

1/11/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

Rail Insider-Progressive Railroading's 16 most-read news stories of 2016. Information For Rail Career Professionals From Progressive Railroading Magazine

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.

 

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Intermodal

1/10/2017    

Rail News: People

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.

 

1/10/2017    

Rail News: High-Speed Rail

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Union Pacific Railroad

1/10/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

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. By This 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.