GLG News by Railcar Market Experts (EU)

Other Class I and II railroad involvement in the use of EJ&E tracks

As railroads have seen their traffic volumes surge over the past several years, they have found that their networks, most of which were originally laid out in the 19th century, aren't well suited to 21st century traffic patterns. As a result, all of the major North American railroads are investing heavily...

Canadian National CEO Hunter Harrison has long been frustrated by the delays and costs of getting rail freight through Chicago. Those concerns have been magnified by CN's development of business out of the new container port at Prince Rupert, B.C., much of which is destined for Chicago or Memphis. Harrison...

Railroads, both large and small, have managed to keep raising freight rates each year, even as some of their traffic segments have suffered declines in loadings and ton miles. Although the data is still incomplete, it does not look as if the rate increases are to blame for these traffic losses. Moreover,...

    The anticipated export of Eastern U.S. coal in 2008 and 2009 will need to be sourced in great extent from the Powder River Basin (PRB).  This is in addition to the new coal plants coming on in 2008 and 2009 using PRB coal. The discussion below provides a forecast on...

    The global coal availability and price has provided the opportunity for U.S. Eastern coals to be placed in export to Europe.  This has dramatically increased Eastern coal prices.  This provides an opportunity for Western Powder River Basin (PRB) coals.

    The increase in coal prices will obviously increase the electricity generating costs at a coal plant exposed to these price increases.  The impact to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and their potential margins is understood.  Regulated utilities, on the other hand,...

    The global coal availability and subsequent coal price explosion has provided a great benefit to Eastern U.S. coal producers.  The Western U.S. coals may not be able to appreciably directly-participate in the export surge.

Carl Icahn’s purchase of a 9.5% stake in Greenbrier Cos. seems to imply that he intends to pursue a merger between American Railcar (ARII), in which he controls a majority of the stock, and Greenbrier, two railcar builders with complimentary design portfolios and railroad business interests. The two...

Southern Company, a southeastern utility which owns and leases a large fleet of railcars, gave Wabtec and order to equip 300 of them with electric brakes. The NS and BNSF railroads had been given approval to operate trains with electric brakes in 2007, after which NS ordered 210 electric brake systems...