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Kansas City Southern

Goodwill and Holiday Spirit Runs Kansas City Southern’s Ninth Annual Holiday Express

KANSAS CITY — In its ninth annual run, Kansas City Southern’s Holiday Express train will bring Santa Claus and his elves on 23 dates to 22 communities in eight states throughout the company’s service territory, including Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois. Access to the Holiday Express train is free and open to the public. “Like many companies in North America, the economy has had a significant effect on our business, so we had to think carefully about whether to run the Holiday Express train this year,” said KCS chairman and chief executive officer Michael R. Haverty.

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BNSF

AAR Reports Rail Traffic Continues to Register Gains

WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads today reported that rail traffic continues to register incremental gains on a week-to-week basis, but remains down year over year. Rail carloadings were at their highest level since the week ended Dec. 13, 2008. For the week ended Aug. 29, 2009, U.S. railroads reported originating 285,580 cars, down 16.2 percent compared with the same week in 2008. Regionally, carloadings were down 16 percent in the West and 16.6 percent in the East. Intermodal traffic of 202,553 trailers or containers on U.S. railroads was down 15.6 percent from the same week last year. Container

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BNSF

AAR: Rail Freight Traffic Down in June

WASHINGTON — The Association of American Railroads reported that U.S. railroads originated 1,039,889 carloads of freight in June 2009, down 19.7 percent with 255,668 fewer carloads, compared with June 2008. U.S. intermodal rail traffic – comprising trailers and containers on flat cars that are not included in carload figures – totaled 755,000 units in June 2009, down 18.2 percent compared with the same period last year with 168,031 fewer trailers and containers, the association said. For the first six months of 2009, total U.S. rail carloadings were down 19.5 percent (1,594,411 carloads) to 6,579,294 carloads, while intermodal traffic was down

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Kansas City Southern

Russ, Chunko to Lead Operating Regions at Genesee & Wyoming Inc.

GREENWICH, Conn. — Genesee & Wyoming Inc. announced the promotion of Ronald G. Russ and Andrew T. Chunko to senior vice president. Russ will lead GWI’s Oregon Region, which includes the Portland & Western and Willamette & Pacific railroads. He joined GWI in March 2009 as deputy general manager of the Oregon Region and has more than 30 years of railroad and financial management experience. He was previously executive vice president and chief financial officer with Kansas City Southern. Prior to that, he was a founder, treasurer, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Wisconsin Central Transportation Corp. Chunko

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BNSF

AAR: Rail Freight Traffic Down During Holiday Week

WASHINGTON — Freight traffic on U.S. railroads was down during the holiday week ended December 27 in comparison with the corresponding holiday week last year the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported today. Total volume was estimated at 21.4 billion ton-miles, down 20.1 percent from the same week last year. Intermodal volume totaled 124,061 trailers or containers, down 21.8 percent from last year, with container volume down 21.5 percent and trailer volume down 23.2 percent. Carload freight, which doesn’t include the intermodal data, totaled 200,365 cars for the week, down 21.7 percent from last year. Loadings were down 26.5 percent

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FRA

DOT Signs Agreement with Kansas City Southern Railway to Relieve Freight Congestion at Laredo Border

WASHINGTON — An alternate route for freight rail traffic to and from the United States and Mexico to improve cross-border goods movement is one step closer to reality thanks to an agreement signed this week by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Kansas City Southern Railway, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced today. The East Loop Bypass project proposes a new rail bridge east of Laredo, Texas, continuing across the border and south into Mexico. “Border congestion creates an unnecessary obstacle to efficient trade with our international partners. Providing alternative routes for freight transport is good for the economy

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BNSF

House Approves Rail Safety Bill; Billions to go to Passenger Rail

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives has approved legislation that proponents say will improve the Nation’s intercity passenger rail system and the safety of the nation’s railroads. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 will increase funding for Amtrak over the next five years, require new safety controls on trains that help reduce crashes, allow states to regulate solid waste processing facilities along rail lines and allocate funding for improvements to Washington’s Metro transit system. The legislation sets “an aggressive deadline” of 2015 for implementation of positive train control (PTC)

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BNSF

Hurricane Ike Causes Rail Freight Downturn

WASHINGTON —  Freight traffic on U.S. railroads was off sharply during the week ended September 20 in comparison with the same week last year, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) reported. Much of the decline can be attributed to disruptions caused by Hurricane Ike which struck the Gulf Coast Sept. 13. Total volume was estimated at 32.8 billion ton-miles, down 6.8 percent from the comparable week last year. Carload freight in the week totaled 312,662 cars, off 7.8 percent from last year. Volume was down 10.4 percent in the West and 4.3 percent in the East. Intermodal volume, which is