GLG News by Railcar Market Experts (EU)

IANA (Intermodal Association of North America) reported that the first quarter intermodal volume was down 2.4%, almost identical to the decline reported by the AAR several weeks ago. Not surprisingly, the decline in imports was cited as the main reason for the decline, although the losses were partially...

The Surface Transportation Board ruled that the freight rates that the Union Pacific Railroad unilaterally imposed upon Kansas City Power and Light in 2006 for the transportation of their Powder River Coal were in excess of the board’s guidelines for a carrier that had market dominance. Since the STB...

    The recent plunge in SO2 allowance prices may affect the decisions of coal-fired power plant owners.

    The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on February 8, 2009 in favor of the plaintiffs that coal plants could not be removed from the list of mercury sources subject to a Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT) standard and the subsequent movements to require EPA to set...

Trade magazines are usually constrained to write only positive comments about the companies in the industries they cover, since subscriptions and ad revenues are more dependent on goodwill rather than good investigative reporting. In the article reviewed below however, the writer/editor finally fesses...

“growth capital” may really be the result of a railroad’s failure to actively manage their physical plant in a way the ensures capital investment  and disinvestment closely maps to changes in traffic volumes from year to year and from corridor to corridor.

One reason a railroad's replacement cost is higher than its book value is that the company has been harvesting the infrastructure by deferring normal replacement cycles such that the average quality and life remaining of the installed base is much less than what would be expected under...

CEO’s never like to go into lengthy explanations on the dynamics of their industry in explaining a dismal financial performance, but with year to date coal volumes up 4.6%, according to the most recent AAR report, blaming the economy for the problems besetting the company seems more like dodging the...

    All of the various regulations being discussed in the U.S. Congress to slow, stabilize, and then reduce CO2 emissions nationally include some type of cap and trade system.  Each of these programs have a portion of the CO2 emissions allowances being allocated for free to...

    The biggest driver for orders of coal railcars will be the new coal plants coming on line the next few years.  The commentary section below discusses the number of new coal plants presented by FreightCar America on its Q1 2008 conference call versus an updated analysis by...