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A roundup of the week’s most-read rail — intermodal, Class I service, ports, and the bottlenecks in between.
| ● Clear |
FreightWaves Rail · Aug 20, 2026 |
Sub: Class I & Intermodal |
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| Bulletin Orders |
FWRX · No. 08·20 |
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From the desk of Stuart Chirls · Railroads · FreightWaves & Trains.com
Longtime rail entrepreneur Henry Posner III is leading a group acquiring 50% of the Morristown & Erie Railway, a northern New Jersey short line chartered in 1895 … Posner leads diversified Rail Development Corp., which operates the Iowa Interstate Railroad and carriers in five overseas locations … it will be interesting to see what Posner can develop with the M&E, which serves a handful of local customers, three transload facilities, and connects to Class I carrier Norfolk Southern … the short line is still smarting from the loss to Watco of the Bayway refinery switching contract several years ago.
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◆ Class I · Regulatory
FreightWaves Rail · Aug 20, 2026
The Surface Transportation Board lifted its hold on the proposed $85 billion Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger and adopted a formal review schedule, with final briefs due next May and a decision expected in the second half of 2027.
| Caution |
The STB’s schedule locks in a rigorous review under the tougher 2001 merger rules — shippers should plan for more than a year of continued uncertainty before a final ruling arrives. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
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◆ Intermodal · Cold Chain
FreightWaves Rail · Aug 19, 2026
Americold opened an $80 million temperature-controlled import-export hub at New Brunswick’s Port Saint John, bringing DP World’s port operations and CPKC’s rail network together in a first-of-its-kind cold chain facility as container volumes there have nearly tripled since 2021.
| Signal |
A new multimodal cold-chain gateway on Canada’s East Coast gives temperature-sensitive shippers another option to reach North American markets outside the traditional West Coast ports. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
◆ Intermodal · Capacity
BNSF boosted its Phoenix-to-Dallas/Fort Worth intermodal service to six days a week, cutting transit to just over three days as it looks to convert truck freight to rail ahead of peak season.
| Signal |
More frequent, faster intermodal service between two major Sun Belt markets gives shippers a lower-cost alternative to truck capacity heading into peak. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
◆ Security · Cargo Theft
Five men, including an alleged gunman who fired on a BNSF rail officer during an attempted cargo burglary near Devore, California, were arrested days later after investigators linked a vehicle stop to the shooting.
| Caution |
The armed confrontation is a reminder that cargo theft along Southern California’s rail corridors remains an active, escalating risk despite this week’s arrests. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
◆ Class I · Regulatory
Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern enlisted four former federal antitrust officials to rebut a letter from seven Republican state attorneys general opposing their merger, arguing the opposition amounts to unsupported conjecture.
| Caution |
The dueling legal filings show the regulatory fight over the merger is intensifying, not settling — another sign shippers should expect a contested, drawn-out review. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
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Reading the Rails
Powered by  · Intermodal Dashboard
The week’s total U.S. rail carload volumes, pulled straight from SONAR’s Intermodal Dashboard.
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Total Carloads
233,261
▲ +0.86% w/w
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6-Mo. Average
225,028
▲ +3.7% above avg
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vs. 2025
188,673
▲ +23.7% above 2025
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vs. 2024
183,990
▲ +26.8% above 2024
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● SONAR · Total U.S. Carloads, 12-Month Trend — RTOTC.USA
Weekly total carloads climbed to 233,261 this week, up 1,993 cars (+0.86%) and running about 3.7% above the six-month average of 225,028 — comfortably in the upper half of the past year’s range, well clear of the steep midwinter and early-summer dips.
● SONAR · Total U.S. Carloads, Year-over-Year Comparison — RTOTC.USA (2023–2026)
Layered against the past three years, 2026’s carload volumes (blue) are tracking above the same point in 2025 (188,673) and 2024 (183,990), showing the network moving more freight than in the comparable stretch of the past two years.
| Signal |
Rail volumes are running ahead of both the trailing six-month average and the prior two years at this point in the calendar — a clear-track signal for shippers, though the historical lines show a seasonal falloff typically arrives by Q4, worth watching as volumes head into that stretch. |
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Powered by · Intermodal Dashboard
See the whole rail picture in SONAR
Every figure above is live in SONAR’s Intermodal Dashboard — carloads, container volumes and year-over-year moves, refreshed daily across every mode.
Explore the Intermodal Dashboard → |
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October 27 – 28, 2026 · The Signal, Chattanooga
F3: Future of Freight Festival
FreightWaves’ flagship event blends the latest FreightTech with rapid-fire demos and world-class speakers with the most legendary networking in logistics. Register by August 24th, and enjoy a Buy One, Get One special to bring yourself and a colleague.
Register Now → |
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