Thread: US-Mexico International Railway Nears Completion

US-Mexico International Railway Nears Completion

Posted by: Narayan Ammachchi in Americas Economics
3 hours ago


US Ambassador Anthony Wayne posing for a photo beside the US-Mexico railroad.

By Narayan Ammachchi

The West Rail Bypass Bridge that connects the Mexican city of Matamoros with Brownsville, Texas, will be opened to traffic in the next couple of months, according to Mexico’s transport and communications ministry.

Billed as the first international railroad linking Mexico with the United States, the rail crossing is aimed at easing the movement of people and cargo between the North American countries.

Moreover, the bridge should move rail traffic currently flowing through the downtown area of the two cities to the outskirts of the metropolitan area, relieving congestion, preventing accidents and reducing noise and air pollution.

“With more than one billion dollars in goods and services crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every day, rail crossings like this one are critical to economic growth and opportunity on both sides of our border,” said U.S. Ambassador Anthony Wayne.

Mexico and the United States have invested US$74.8 million and $100 million respectively in the project, which also includes the construction of railway yards and terminal buildings as well as an overpass for cars.

Experts say the railroad will create jobs and stimulate the manufacturing industry on both sides of the border, reducing the number of Mexican job seekers crossing into the United States.

In January last year, officials from both the countries also discussed a plan to build a high-speed railway between San Antonio, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. But there have been no reports about the progress of this plan.

In the meantime, Mexico intends to construct a high-speed railway linking Mexico City with Querétaro as part of its plan to develop an industrial corridor.

http://www.nearshoreamericas.com/usm...rs-completion/

US$700mn stretch of Mexico City-Toluca railway awarded

By Business News Americas staff reporter - Friday, December 12, 2014



A consortium led by Caabsa Constructora won a contract to build the third stretch of the Mexico City-Toluca railroad with a bid of 10.4bn pesos (US$704mn).

Ten parties had bid for the work, which involves building an elevated train line. The project is due to break ground this month and is scheduled to be completed by end-2017.

Caabsa's partners in the consortium are Prefabricados y Transportes, Cargo Crane, Grupo Corporativo Amodher, Omega Construcciones Industriales and González Soto y Asociados.

The winning bid was the third lowest. A consortium led by Isolux de México put in an offer of 9.40bn pesos and Sacyr Construcción México one for 10.3bn pesos, according to information published on the federal government's procurement portal, CompraNet.

Other companies that participated in the project – as part of consortiums – included Grupo Promotor de Desarrollo e Infraestructura, Peninsular Compañía Constructora, Operadora CICSA and Tradeco Infraestructura.

In November, a consortium led by Spanish firm CAF won a 13.6bn-peso contract for the provision of trains, rail and communication infrastructure, ticketing facilities and associated services.

Other contracts already awarded are for a 10.1bn-peso civil works project and for a 2.86bn-peso tunnel project.

http://www.bnamericas.com/news/infra...ilway-awarded1

BNSF taps growing U.S.-Mexico intermodal volume with new service

Mark Szakonyi, Associate Managing Editor | Sep 25, 2014 12:10AM EDT

MEXICO CITY — BNSF Railway is bullish about intermodal Mexico-U.S. cross border growth.

The U.S.-based railroad only handles a small amount of intermodal freight that moves between the North American Free Trade Agreement partners, but a new service is aimed at changing that. BNSF launched its first all-rail U.S.-Mexico service in May by partnering with Mexican railroad Ferromex.

The five-days a week service with sixth day morning delivery runs from Chicago on BNSF’s line to its rail yard in El Paso, Texas. Via a steel wheel interchange, or direct rail to rail handoff of intermodal units without a truck move in the middle, cargo is moved to Ferromex’s line running to the inland port of Guanajuato in Silao. The Guanajuato terminal is within 100 highway miles of major Bajio manufacturing hubs at Aguascalientes, Celaya, Leon, Irapuato, Salamanca and Queretaro.

“The commodities (hauled on the service) are a lot of the auto industry inputs going south and manufactured products going north,” Dean Wise, vice president of network strategy at BNSF Railway, said Wednesday at the annual North American Strategy for Competitiveness conference in Mexico City.

In a short interview with JOC.com, Wise joked “it was about time” BNSF got its first all-rail U.S-Mexico service, considering the rapid cross-border rail volume growth. BNSF total rail volume, namely carload traffic, has more than doubled since the signing NAFTA 20 years ago, he said.

The value of U.S-Mexico trade has been steadily growing, driven by increased auto and white goods manufacturing in Mexico, along with demand for U.S. agriculture products and steel. U.S. rail imports from Mexico were up 6.6 percent by value to $21.1 billion in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2013, according to U.S. Department of Transportation. Within the same period, U.S. rail exports to Mexico were up 6.9 percent to $14.4 billion. Total U.S.-Mexico rail trade by value rose 6.7 percent year-over-year in the first half of this year to $35.5 billion.

BNSF handles a small amount of U.S-Mexico cross-border intermodal freight via its El Paso facility, where units are hauled over the border to Juarez, a major center for maquiladoras, or Mexican manufacturers focused on U.S. exports, Wise said. A small amount of intermodal volume is also trucked from BNSF’s Houston terminal to the Kansas City Southern Railway’s Rosenberg terminal. From the KCS facility, shippers can access the only U.S-Mexico cross-border rail network and main driver of intermodal trade. But Wise stressed the Chicago-Baijo service is the railroad’s first true foray into the U.S.-Mexico intermodal market.

While he said BNSF is always considering the possibility of adding new intermodal services, the railroad in the short-term was focused on building volume on the new cross-border service. The intermodal service, along with KCS’s cross-border services, benefits from being able to move goods through border customs checks much faster than via trucking, where drivers can wait hours before having their cargo cleared. BNSF provides cargo manifests to Ferromex and Mexican and U.S. customs in advance, allowing for a faster interchange of freight.

Union Pacific Railroad has also worked to tap growing U.S.-Mexico intermodal volume. Via a partnership with Ferromex, UP late last year launched an intermodal service between Chicago and Monterrey, Mexico. UP’s new $400 million intermodal terminal in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, also enables the railroad to attract freight hauled by truck across the nearby U.S.-Mexico border. KCS, which handles the most cross-border intermodal volume of the North American railroads, saw U.S.-Mexico traffic rise 21 percent year-over-year in the second quarter to 26,500 units.

Wise said he was optimistic about total rail freight volume growth among NAFTA partners, as the trading block has the largest interconnected rail network in the world. Part of that’s possible because three countries use the same rail gauge, meaning the same locomotives and other equipment can be interchanged easily. The lack of a common rail gauge has frustrated efforts in Europe to boost intermodal rail, or containerized rail transport.

NAFTA has also spurred railroads to expand beyond their home countries, Wise said. The signing of free trade agreement helped fuel Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway’s expansion into the U.S. and BNSF’s reach into Canada, he said. NAFTA also enabled KCS to extend its reach into Mexico by acquiring Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana. The Mexican railroad is now known as Kansas City Southern de México.

http://www.joc.com/rail-intermodal/c..._20140925.html

http://www.alipac.us/f19/union-pacif...roject-213268/

Why Bill Gates And Warren Buffett Are Railroad Rivals

• MATTHEW DEBORD

• SEP. 3, 2014, 11:00 AM

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Rival railroad tycoons.

Bill Gates is the richest person in the world. Warren Buffett is number three.

But as Bloomberg's Frederic Tomesco and Thomas Black report, even though both billionaires are philanthropically entwined, when it comes to the old-school realm of investing in North America's railroads, Gates and Buffett part ways.
Tomesco and Black write:

Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) is beating benchmark stock indexes as profits and shipments surge, a boost for Gates, the largest shareholder....
BNSF Railway Co., owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/B), is struggling. North America’s biggest railroad by sales is grappling with slow traffic and is being scrutinized by U.S. regulators for poor service, spurring concern that it risks a permanent loss of some customers.

It seems perfectly logical for Buffett to own a railroad company. His much-lauded investment philosophy hinges on putting money only into businesses he can understand — in terms of operations, products, and, crucially, opportunites.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Perfect for Buffett's portfolio.

The Oracle of Omaha bought BNSF as the U.S. economic recovery was picking up steam. Buffett saw the railway as an idea way to play the bounce-back at a core level: resurgent demand for goods meant that those goods would need to be moved in greater numbers from point A to point B.

For Gates, on the other hand, being a latter-day railway tycoon seems far less in-character. A tech titan owning a big chunk of a business that runs on mid-20th century technology? Well, maybe Gates and his advisors just asked themselves "What Would Warren Do?"

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

What Would Warren Do? He'd buy some of these.
In Gates' case, his railroad stake can be viewed as simply an investment — evidently a timely one — but nothing more than that. Gates isn't running CN.

But Buffett, because Berkshire Hathaway owns BNSF, is effectively running the railroad. He's also responsible for promoting its story, which since he took over the company, has been an uplifting and compelling one — a tale of American comeback, cast in terms that excite the little kid in everyone.

Trains! Who doesn't get a thrill witnessing a long freight train, loaded with America goods bound for American markets and ultimately American customers, rolling through the America landscape?

Getty Images

Ain't that America?

So Buffett has a bit of a problem here. A harsh winter was unkind to BNSF, and as Reuters reported in August, the railway is in something of a rebuilding phase. That doesn't mean Berkshire Hathaway is backing down, however.

Bloomberg and others have noted that Buffett is planning to put $5 billion into BNSF to improve the railroads operations.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Buffett isn't giving up.

SEE ALSO: As Buffett praises his BNSF railroad, customers rail against delays

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-b...#ixzz3PL55kqeq

Our Railroad

Today's BNSF Railway is the product of nearly 400 different railroad lines that merged or were acquired over the course of 160 years.
While many different railroads combined to form BNSF, the people who worked at those railroads shared many traits. The people who built BNSF were — and continue to be — a unique breed, blending the forward-thinking of dreamers with the pragmatism of results-oriented business leaders. This heritage played a central role in settling and growing the American West, and today, BNSF continues to have a significant impact in meeting the needs of shippers and serving the economy.

More BNSF oil trains running through Nebraska as other lines undergo maintenance


BLOOMBERG NEWS
BNSF

Posted: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:00 am

More BNSF oil trains running through Nebraska as other lines undergo maintenance

By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer The Omaha World-Herald

BNSF Railway has in some cases more than quadrupled the number of tank cars routing through Nebraska, as tracks in the Cornhusker State accommodate North Dakota oil traffic diverted from other lines undergoing maintenance.

The Nebraska Emergency Management Agency said in its 2014 emergency response overview that Texas-based BNSF was sending between seven and 14 oil trains carrying more than one million gallons a week through the state in November.

That is up from about three trains per week in June, when the nation’s second-largest freight railroad first disclosed oil volumes as required by the U.S. Transportation Department.

BNSF, employer of 5,000 people in Nebraska, is the rail industry’s crude-by-rail leader, moving eight 100-car trains a day in 2013, up from one such daily train in 2010.

BNSF spokesman Andy Williams said part of the Nebraska increase is because the railroad is diverting traffic from other lines shut for maintenance. Nebraska crude-by-rail volumes might return to earlier levels, Williams said.

The railroad also has modified its Nebraska route, according to NEMA’s annual report, adding Sarpy County to a roster of 11 others disclosed last summer: Dakota, Thurston, Burt, Dodge, Saunders, Cass, Lancaster, Gage, Johnson, Pawnee and Richardson.

Bakken crude, produced in North Dakota and Montana, enters Nebraska near South Sioux City.

The railway, NEMA said, also added an eastern route into Iowa at the border of Cass and Sarpy Counties.

Route maps filed last summer indicated trains departed Nebraska only via Richardson County in southern Nebraska.

Omaha-based Union Pacific Railroad, the largest railway based on operating revenue, operated no oil trains in Nebraska, according to the NEMA report.

BNSF said last week it is allocating $1.6 billion of a 2014 capital budget of $6 billion to its eight-state northern region that includes Bakken oil formations, where a harsh 2014 winter and record grain and oil shipments frustrated farmers who said their crops played second fiddle.

Major projects on the BNSF 2015 budget include installing double track from Minot, North Dakota, to Snowden, Montana; construction between Mandan,
North Dakota and Glendive, Montana; and expanding the terminal at the yard in Dickinson, North Dakota, one of the Bakken’s boom towns.

As BNSF’s spending ramps up, North Dakota drilling rigs are shuttering down. Industry analyst Baker Hughes reported on its website last week that six North Dakota rigs closed a week earlier. The state’s count is down by 12 in the past year, Baker Hughes said.

Many Bakken producers require oil at $40 a barrel to break even, according to industry trade publications.

Oil forecasts are dim for drillers. Investment bank Goldman Sachs last week reduced its six- and 12-month predictions for West Texas Intermediate, to $39 a barrel and $65 a barrel, down from $75 a barrel and $80 a barrel.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude has fallen by more than half in the past year, to about $46 a barrel, as OPEC nations dramatically increased production.

The Bakken formation in North Dakota, which also encompasses parts of Montana and Canada, has been producing about 1.2 million barrels per day, up from almost none six years ago, courtesy of oil prices once in the $100 range that encouraged the expensive drilling methods required to access the tightly trapped underground crude.

Contact the writer: 402-444-3133, russell.hubbard@owh.com

http://www.omaha.com/money/railroads...06a9cd334.html

Tank-car retrofits to drive freight-car repair activity in 2015

---

Mechanical

— by Pat Foran, editor

Given incrementally increasing North American freight-rail traffic volumes, looming tank-car design retrofit requirements, conventional wisdom suggests there will be more, perhaps a lot more, freight-car repair work completed in 2015. But will there be? Most likely, yes, if the sentiments we heard last month from repair market execs and observers are any indication.

Although several freight-car repair company execs declined to discuss the year ahead, citing public disclosure laws, competitive intelligence issues and even political concerns, those who were willing to talk market trends said they expect to be at least as busy as they were in 2014, and probably more so, for the aforementioned reasons.

Among the more bullish are officials at The Greenbrier Cos. Inc. They believe 2015 will be a "robust year" both for tank-car and general freight-car repair work, Vice President of Marketing Tom Jackson said in an email.

For starters, the "extraordinary bad weather" last winter and the corresponding reduction in rail velocity resulted in deferred preventive maintenance programs for many fleets, Jackson said. Completing some of that deferred work could lead to a "stronger general freight-car market in 2015," he added.

Meanwhile, tank-car repair facilities should see a "significant increase in HM-216B demand," Jackson said. A docket published in 2012 by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, HM-216B changed numerous hazardous materials regulations affecting tank-car owners and repair shops.

"This spike [in demand] has been widely forecasted and the tank-car repair market has been preparing for this surge in additional work," Jackson said.

Greenbrier certainly has. In June 2014, the company entered into a joint venture with Watco Cos. LLC to form GBW Railcar Services LLC. GBW owns and operates the combined network of 38 freight-car repair, refurbishment and maintenance shops. GBW's 14 tank-car certified repair facilities have been "staffed up with qualified workers and equipment," Jackson said, adding that GBW also is "making several capital additions" to prepare for the repair work to come during the next few years.

And then there are the soon-to-be-issued USDOT tank-car design standard changes, which are expected to "create a significant surge in tank car modification work for GBW's shops," Jackson said. One result: Many GBW customers are "very interested in reserving shop space to ensure they have their retrofit needs covered," he said.

Officials at Progress Rail Services also believe there'll be a premium on shop space due to a "bubble in scheduled tank-car recertifications," particularly at full-service shops that repair, clean, qualify, paint and line cars, said Senior Vice President Doug Creech in an email.

A Caterpillar company, Progress Rail operates repair facilities in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and provides a range of services — from routine freight-car maintenance and inspection to rebuilding, painting and inspection.

But the "unprecedented" drop in crude oil prices, which could last throughout 2015 and beyond, likely will "reduce some tank-car repair capacity pressure associated with oil-train maintenance and transloading events," Creech said. As a result, it also could ease at least some of the anticipated capacity pressure caused by the pending federal tank-car retrofit requirements, he added.

Meanwhile, general repair capacity needs probably will vary by location and car type this year, with an uptick likely for box-car and specialty hopper repairs, and maintenance remaining flat or slightly declining for unit coal train cars, Creech said. Shop business driven by auto rack recertifications should remain steady, he said.

Bottom line: Progress Rail officials believe the 2015 freight-car repair market "will be stable to improving, with some areas remaining flat or declining slightly and others growing significantly," Creech said.

Other car-repair service providers expect to be busy this year, too. Execs at Road & Rail Services Inc., which specializes in inspecting, servicing and repairing rolling stock in field operations, expect the company's 200 car-repair employees to perform "a lot of work" on multilevel fleets, in particular, as well as on box cars and even some private cars, said President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Brandon.

Road & Rail also provides a range of rail-related services, including plant and terminal operating expertise.

"Our business tends to grow right along with the rail traffic, and 2014 was relatively busy," said Brandon. "Given the traffic trends, we think 2015 will be similar."

Of course, car-repair officials are looking well past this year's trend lines as they chart their respective courses.

"Well-positioned, full-service tank certified repair shops ... with the technical ability to partner with car owners to meet the new federal reliability and safety requirements should be in great demand for the next several years," said Progress Rail's Creech.

To that end, Progress Rail plans to boost capacity in that repair space this year by opening full-service tank-car shops in Raceland, Ky., and Sidney, Neb., Creech said.

http://www.progressiverailroading.co...in-2015--43154

Next comes the passenger trains.
​
http://www.alipac.us/f12/us-mulls-hi...mexico-316950/

West Rail Bridge opens today


MIGUEL ROBERTS/THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
A fence blocks access to the international rail bridge linking Texas and Mexico on Thursday west of Brownsville. Several milestones have been celebrated for the new bridge, but the project has yet to open to rail traffic.


Posted: Thursday, August 6, 2015 11:00 pm
BY TY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER

Finally, the last of U.S. goods shipped into Mexico through downtown Brownsville rolled through town at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, marking the end of a longer than 100-year era of freight traffic through the area.

Commercial rail traffic today will begin flowing through the newly completed West Rail Bridge west of Veterans Memorial High School on Highway 281, bringing a close to a more than century-long tradition of traffic headaches that has plagued Brownsville and Matamoros residents almost since traffic began flowing at the B&M Bridge in 1910.

Cameron County Judge Pete Sepulveda Jr. said he first learned the bridge would be complete today about three weeks ago, but like several scheduled “opening dates” before, there were still kinks to be worked out.

Sepulveda said Mexican counterparts on the other side of the border were making adjustments even up through Thursday morning, even while the last U.S.-bound train was expected to cross through the city that evening.

While he noted the benefits to neighborhoods and commuters in both cities, Sepulveda, who also directs the Cameron County Regional Mobile Authority, focused on the commercial value of the bridge in a statement.

“This is a project that will leave a lasting effect on our community for many years to come,” he said. “Providing this new link to move goods and services more efficiently is going to bring enormous advantages and opportunities to the consumer, the supplier and to markets throughout North America and the world.”

Phone equipment, motor vehicle parts and fuels are some of the goods that will now travel west of town after 15 years of work and initial plans to open the bridge in late 2012.

Issues on both sides of the border, including a kerfuffle over whether the county or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would pay to transport its equipment to the new bridge, delayed the opening several times, even as officials from both countries continued meeting over the Rio Grande to mark milestone’s in its sluggish construction.

tjohnson@brownsvilleherald.com

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/new...52b30baf7.html