CSX Corp has announced a new eastern and western management structure intended to decentralise operational and support functions. ‘This is a proven model that pushes decision making closer to the day-to-day field operations and eliminates bureaucracy and long-standing silos within our business’, said President & CEO James M Foote. ‘We are making a fundamental shift from a headquarters-centric organisation to one in which all functions are aligned with our core mission to provide the industry’s best transportation product for our customers’, he added.
On August 13 GB Railfreight announced a sale and leaseback deal with Beacon Rail covering 10 Class 60 diesel locomotives. GBRf said this would enable it to haul higher trailing weights on certain routes, and would offer greater efficiency.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev opened the Abşeron Logistics Centre near Baku on August 13. The facility with links to the Baku – Kars – Tbilisi railway and the port has 12 km of railway tracks and import and export customs facilities, with an annual capacity of 3·5 million tonnes.
Vladivostok commercial port operator FESCO and South Korean logistics company Hyundai Glovis have launched a container service using sea transport from Busan to Vladivostok and rail to St Petersburg. The main traffic is car parts for Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus. Transit time is 15 days with a monthly capacity of 500 TEUs.
Network Rail is contributing £750 000 and the Tees Valley Combined Authority £250 000 to fund a study into increasing clearances to enable larger containers to be carried between Northallerton and Eaglescliffe in northeast England. ‘This investment isn’t eye-catching or sexy, but it’s necessary to ensure Teesport is able to keep growing for decades to come’, said Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.
Botswana Railways has signed a contract to provide rail transport services for the Botswana Defence Force.
Containers of non-ferrous metals were carried on KTZ Express’s first monthly freight service from Novoustkamenogorsk in Kazakhstan to the Sea of Marmara port of Derince in Turkey this month, using rail transport and shipping across the Caspian Sea from the port of Kuryk.