Railroad Internet Research Project

LOG125.0001 Edward Bevilacqua

Internet Research Project

The current class I rail carriers that operate in the United States listed on the nationalatlas.gov website are as follows: The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF), CSX Transportation (CSX), Grand Trunk Corporation, which consists of the U.S. operations of Canadian National (CN), including the former Grand Trunk Western (GTW), Illinois Central (IC), and Wisconsin Central. Kansas City Southern (KCS), Norfolk Southern (NS), the former Soo Line (800) owned by Canadian Pacific (CP), Union Pacific (UP). The list here at this site, which seems reputable being a .gov domain, matches the list contained in the lecture notes. Although, Wikipedia.org also lists Amtrak as a Class I railroad that also has trackage in the United States. There are three other Class I railroads with no trackage in the U.S., and they are Via Rail (Canada), Ferromex and Kansas City Southern de Mexico both in Mexico.

The Express Lane, which is still active, is an expedited train service established by Union Pacific and CSX Transportation to transport food products from California and the Pacific Northwest to various destinations across the eastern half of the United States. This accelerated delivery was designed to deliver the perishable goods fast, fresh, and on time. It was introduced in the year 2000 and has moved more than 11 million tons of product with a 98 percent on-time distribution track record from shipper to receiver. The benefits of the Express Lane include significant savings over truck, based on the markets of the rail. Access to more food shippers than any other railroad along with expedited service to the largest consumer markets in the east has also been beneficial features of the Express Lane.

According to a story in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, (www.stltoday.com) there has been resurgence in rail movement and construction over the past four years. After years of decline and spending hardly anything on...