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A roundup of the week’s most-read rail — intermodal, Class I service, ports, and the bottlenecks in between.
| ● Caution |
FreightWaves Rail · Sept 17, 2026 |
Sub: Class I & Regulatory |
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| Bulletin Orders |
FWRX · No. 09·17 |
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From the desk of Stuart Chirls · Railroads · FreightWaves & Trains.com
Rising fuel prices reaching crisis levels, but … Union Pacific’s fuel surcharge revenue exceeded its reported fuel expense by $91.1 million in the second quarter of 2026 and by $56.4 million for the first half, a gap far larger than those reported by other Class I railroads … That followed a $34.8 million under-recovery in Q1 partly due to UP billing customers two months later rather than matching contemporaneous fuel purchases, Reuters reported … Surcharges are negotiated in contracts but the results have prompted shipper scrutiny over whether it’s recovering fuel volatility or generating margin … the Q2 surcharge added 14 cents/share to earnings …
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| Featured · Class I · Regulatory |
◆ Class I · Regulatory
FreightWaves Rail · Sept 14, 2026
BNSF, CPKC and CSX — all opposed to the proposed $85 billion Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger — filed STB paperwork outlining the trackage rights, terminal access and network conditions they’d seek if the deal is approved, including BNSF’s request for 824 miles of rights over NS’s Chicago-to-Pennsylvania Premier Corridor and CSX’s push for a 50% divestiture of UP’s Kansas City line.
| Caution |
Three rival Class I’s are simultaneously fighting the merger and hedging with contingency demands — a sign the STB faces an unusually crowded, adversarial review process. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
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◆ Ports · Intermodal
FreightWaves Rail · Sept 16, 2026
Rail-bound container dwell time at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex rose to 6.75 days in August (from 6.34 in July) even as truck dwell held steady at 2.95 days, as the ports moved a combined 1.88 million TEUs for the month.
| Caution |
Rising rail dwell against steady truck performance points to inland rail capacity, not the ports themselves, as the pressure point for import flows heading into peak season. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
◆ Intermodal · Volumes
AAR’s weekly rail traffic report showed combined U.S. carloads and intermodal units up 13.8% year over year for the week of Sept. 5, with metallic ores/metals up 26.6% and intermodal volume up 18%; coal was the only declining category, down 5.8%.
| Signal |
A thirteen-percent year-over-year jump keeps 2026 volumes running ahead through 35 weeks, reinforcing that summer’s strength is carrying into fall rather than fading. |
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Read the full bulletin → |
◆ Ports · Intermodal
South Carolina Ports and Norfolk Southern launched daily direct intermodal rail service between Charleston and Huntsville, Alabama on Sept. 11, giving shippers a new inland option into Alabama’s aerospace, defense and automotive manufacturing base.
| Signal |
A new direct lane adds rail capacity into a fast-growing inland manufacturing market, building on the $55 million Inland Port Greer expansion that already lifted throughput capacity 50%. |
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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
223,560
▼ -4.62% w/w
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6-Mo. Average
227,096
▼ -1.6% below avg
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vs. 2025
188,673
▲ +18.5% above 2025
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vs. 2024
183,990
▲ +21.5% above 2024
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● SONAR · Total U.S. Carloads, 12-Month Trend — RTOTC.USA
Weekly total carloads fell to 223,560 this week, down 10,837 cars (-4.62%) — the sharpest weekly pullback in months — and now running about 1.6% below the six-month average of 227,096, snapping a multi-week streak of above-average readings.
● SONAR · Total U.S. Carloads, Year-over-Year Comparison — RTOTC.USA (2023–2026)
Layered against the past three years, 2026’s carload volumes still sit ahead of the comparable year-end points in 2025 (188,673) and 2024 (183,990) — up roughly 18.5% and 21.5% respectively — though this week’s drop narrows the cushion; the 2023 comparison line was again too overlapped with the others to read confidently.
| Caution |
Total carloads dropped sharply week over week and slipped below the six-month average for the first time in weeks — still comfortably ahead of 2024 and 2025, but worth watching for a seasonal turn as fall gets underway. |
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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 rapid-fire tech demos and world-class speakers with the most legendary networking in logistics. Join 1,000+ freight and logistics experts, industry leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators for a definitive look at the year ahead. Come for the insights, stay for the celebration and leave with the connections that will define your 2027.
Register Now → |
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