Increased use of embargoes ‘a major concern’ for rail regulators
Federal regulators will closely monitor railroads’ use of embargoes following uproar over a major carrier’s move to limit traffic in the upper Midwest.
Surface Transportation Board Chairman Marty Oberman said Thursday that regulators have seen an increasing use of embargoes as a way to control congestion not caused by natural disasters or circumstances out of a railroad’s control.
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Lower consumer prices help slow inflation
Consumer prices that took off last year are starting to flatten out as a wave of rising supply-chain costs starts to retreat. The Wall Street Journal reports the trends on store shelves may be another sign that inflation is starting to turn a corner.
Many companies raised their prices substantially last year to offset higher fuel costs, as well as for ingredients, parts and labor. Now, some of those costs are coming down.
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Future of Union Pacific program testing 1-person crews uncertain
Union Pacific’s efforts to conduct a pilot program testing a one-person train crew configuration is facing an uncertain future.
UP (NYSE: UNP) wants to test out a train crew arrangement in which an engineer is in charge of moving a train while a grounds-based conductor — which UP calls “expeditors” — would respond to potential problems encountered by the train by driving a vehicle to the problem site.
The current arrangement calls for both a train engineer and conductor to be on a Class I freight rail train.
Geopolitical tensions threaten to impact semiconductor supply chains
In August 2022, China fired missiles around the island as part of a ‘drill’, just a day after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. The threat of invasion looms not only over Taiwan, but also poses risks to governments and supply chains around the world. A recent report by Rhodium Group estimates that ‘the global disruption from a Taiwan conflict would put well over two trillion [US] dollars in economic activity at risk, even before factoring in the impact from international sanctions or a military response’.
In the United State’s National Security Strategy, published by the White House in October 2022, it was written: ‘We recognise the importance of the semiconductor supply chain to our competitiveness and our national security, and we are seeking to reinvigorate the semiconductor industry in the United States’.
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