Railway Age

Union Pacific said it will announce succession plans later.

There is an article in Railway Age about how rail cybersecurity company Cylus and industrial technology provider Moxa have integrated their systems to let rail operators run Cylus One cybersecurity software directly on Moxa V-Series onboard computers.

The approach is intended to provide asset visibility, vulnerability management, and threat detection without requiring a separate security appliance, additional cabinet space, or added power consumption.

The company said Moxa's computers are already certified for railway environments and widely deployed across rolling stock and wayside networks.

No one aboard the train was injured.

The collision remains under investigation.

In container logistics news, there is an article in Railway Age about how major port expansion projects in Georgia and Pennsylvania are set to add substantial cargo capacity and improve inland freight connections.

The Georgia Ports Authority received federal approval for a two point three billion dollar Savannah container terminal that will add three point five million TEUs of annual capacity and help increase the Port of Savannah's total capacity to twelve million TEUs.

BNSF, CPKC, CSX, and shipper associations have nevertheless raised concerns about potential rate and service impacts.

In industry news, there is an article in Railway Age about how the National Transportation Safety Board determined that inadequate Norfolk Southern procedures for repairing, testing, and coordinating work on a spring switch caused a July 18, 2025 derailment in Illinois.

An eastbound NS train derailed 24 cars and struck a stationary westbound NS train, releasing hazardous materials and injuring two employees.

Investigators found a gap switch point following maintenance and concluded poor coordination between NS track and signal departments prevented verification of the switch's mechanical integrity.

This is your CN Press Clipping Summary for Thursday, October 15, 2026.

In corporate news, there is an article in Railway Age announcing the 27 recipients of its 2026 Women in Rail Awards, marking the program's 10th anniversary.

The awards recognize women across freight, passenger rail, government, and supply sectors for leadership, innovation, vision, and community service.

CN Senior Director, Supply Chain Operations Helen Genoway is among the honorees.

Other recipients represent organizations including CSX, Norfolk Southern, B&SF Railway, Union Pacific, CPKC, Amtrak, Alstom, and several passenger rail agencies.

Judges Barbara Ward Wilson and Catherine Rinaldi highlighted the growing depth and diversity of female leadership across the industry.

The honorees will be featured in Railway Age's November 2026 issue and recognized at the Railway Age RT&S Women in Rail Conference in 2027.

In Eastern News, there is an article about how Greater Napanee Council unanimously supported an amended proposal from Hydrostore to expand its planned Quinte Energy Storage Center from 500 megawatts to 650 megawatts, providing 5,200 megawatt hours of storage.

Fink described short lines as the first and last mile of the rail network and emphasized grade crossing safety as a major Federal Railroad Administration priority.

There is an article in Railway Age about how the 1980 Staggers Rail Act transformed United States freight rail, but produced consequences that industry discussions often overlook.

The article notes major gains since deregulation, including lower average rail rates, approximately $840 billion in private capital investment, improved returns, declining accident rates, and higher revenue ton miles.

It contrasts those results with a sharp contraction in class of one route mileage and employment.

The program is intended to help rail professionals apply AI to safety, reliability, efficiency, and asset management.

Participants in the first course will receive professional development hours and a certificate of completion.

There is an article in Railway Age about how Norfolk Southern is using artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, and digital inspection technologies to improve safety, infrastructure monitoring, and customer service.

Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer Anil Bhat discussed digital inspection portals, LIDAR, digital twins, and the automated track geometry measurement system, which uses locomotives to continuously assess track conditions.

[upbeat music] Well, welcome to this edition of Rail Group On Air.

This is the podcast series brought to you by Railway Age, Railway Track and Structures, and International Railway Journal.

I'm William C. Vantuono, I'm editor-in-chief of Railway Age.

My guest, uh, for this session is Anil Bhatt, who is Executive Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer at Norfolk Southern.

We're gonna talk about technology, uh, advanced technology, and, uh, Anil and his team have been, um, leading the company's digital transformation, and of course, that's something that's, um, that's a top of mind at everybody in our industry today.

One of our technical conferences.

No, I appreciate that, and thanks for, um, you know, really spending the time, and I look forward to...

You know, I've been follower of Railway Age since I came in out here, and I continue to be impressed by some of the, some of the material you put out out there, and, and I hope this helps, uh, the audience as well as, um, you know, making sure that how technology is enabling railroads in general, uh, becomes more and more clear for the, for, for the population out there.

Revenue adequacy measures whether a railroad earns at least the industry's cost of capital and remains closely watched because shippers have argued that regulators should limit rates charged to captive customers once a railroad reaches that benchmark.

There is an article in Railway Age Online about how T.D. Cowan's third quarter 2026 research found stronger rail pricing and broad-based volume momentum, while shipper confidence and business growth expectations weakened.

Rail pricing expectations for the next six to 12 months rose to 4.4%, above the five-year average of 3.7%, as higher trucking and fuel costs improved rail's competitive position.

About 32% of intermodal and carload shippers reported shifting volume to rail, up from 20% in the previous quarter.

More than 800 parties plan to participate in Surface Transportation Board proceedings, with comments due November 18th.

There is an article in Railway Age where transportation consultant Bob Granatelli questions the commercial assumptions supporting Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern's projection that their merger would shift about 2.14 million truckloads to rail annually and save shippers approximately $3.5 billion.

Granatelli argues that sophisticated economic modeling cannot establish whether specific freight is suitable for rail.

He highlights the use of broad commodity and county level data, saying transportation buyers must instead identify the exact product, origin and destination facilities, rail access, equipment requirements, service needs and reasons freight currently moves by truck.

Through the first 39 weeks of 2026, combined U.S. traffic was up 3.5%, Across North America, weekly combined volume increased 4.4%, and year-to-date traffic rose 3.1%.

Canadian railroads handled 92,532 carloads, down 0.8%, and 73,192 intermodal units, up 0.7%, while cumulative Canadian traffic remained 1.3% above the comparable 2025 period.

There is a third article this time in Railway Age about how North American rail volumes continued to grow overall in week 39 of 2026.

United States railroads handled 529,712 carloads and intermodal units, up 5.1% year over year, including a 2.4% rise in carloads and a 7.4% increase in intermodal traffic.

Grimes called on the Surface Transportation Board to remove restrictions that limit short line interchange options and establish a reasonable service standard to protect shippers and smaller railroads.

In Railway Age, there is an article about that, examines George Avery Grimes filing with the Surface Transportation Board concerning the proposed Union Pacific Norfolk Southern transaction and its potential effects on short line railroads.

Grimes argues that a combined system could have direct or indirect influence over more than 90% of its connected short lines and at least 60% of the broader short line industry.

He describes the ability of class one railroads to exert influence across related short line holdings as leverage at a distance.

But we should, uh, you know, help, uh, folks do that if they want to.

In Railway Age, Jonathan McDonald suggests that a national railroad infrastructure bank, among other reforms, would allow private companies to build lines at their own risk and would create the conditions necessary to build out a national high-speed railway network quickly.

This was in Railway Age.

Um, yeah, I, uh, basically, I think this is opposite of what Rick Carnes said, and so I think it's an interesting kind of juxtaposition.

Um, allowing, uh, an infrastructure bank setting up so that private companies could build lines.