Forty-one projects, and the headlines read seven; the paper on your railroad has an age

THE READS · the desk's analysis: The Read · From the Field: The Other Thirty-Four · The Docket · Field Doctrine: The Age of the Paper

THE WIRE · the week, verified: Intelligence Briefing · On the Labor Front · Regulatory Wire · Transit & High-Speed Rail · Rail & Energy Markets

THE BALLAST · the craft and the code: Field Notes From The Edge · From the Ballast Line · From the SteelWheels.Co Desk · Railroading Quote of the Week

This issue is about tables nobody reads to the end.

On 14 August 2026 Washington announced $5.3 billion for passenger rail, and most of the headlines went to Amtrak's seven projects. Forty-one were selected. From the Field totals the list line by line: what the other thirty-four bought, and the $914 million the Department had and did not award.

The Docket counts the nineteen days left before opposition to the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern application is due at the Board, and reads a smaller file from Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, where a shipper has asked a new owner for rates.

Field Doctrine turns the same habit on the railroad's own paper. Every agreement, restriction and test record has an age, and it takes two dates to fix it.

Below the reads, the week on the Wire, and then the work: two fires in the wheat country and one bottle on the unit, and the Code of Railroading on why listening isn't passive.

Pull up a seat on the point.

↑ Contents

Washington announced $5.3 billion for passenger rail and most of the headlines went to Amtrak's seven projects. Thirty-four others were selected the same day. Here is what the other $2.45 billion actually bought, and the $914 million the Department had and did not award.

I have spent a career on the delivery end of capital programs. The announcement is never the project. The project is a line in a table with a sponsor's name on it, a scope, and a number, and until somebody reads the table nobody knows what was actually bought.

On Friday the fourteenth of August the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the selection of 41 projects in 23 states for $5.3 billion under the Federal-State Partnership program for projects off the Northeast Corridor. FRA published the selections document the same day. The trade covered Amtrak's seven awards. Those seven are real and they are large. They are also seventeen percent of the projects.

So I opened the document and totaled it. $5,319,825,995 awarded across forty-one projects, summing to that figure exactly, with nothing left over. Against that, the Department states it had $6,233,793,580 available and received 103 eligible applications from 78 applicants requesting $11.66 billion.

Which means $913,967,585 was available and was not awarded, $914 million. Fourteen and seven tenths percent of the money, sitting against requests of nearly twice the fund.

Amtrak took $2,871,634,800 across seven projects, anchored by $2,050,000,000 for up to 43 new trainsets, a single line worth 38.5 percent of the entire national program. One correction worth making: the $140,675,200 Charger locomotive overhaul is sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, not by Amtrak. Fold it in and you have overstated Amtrak by nine figures.

That leaves thirty-four projects and $2,448,191,195, call it $2.45 billion. Texas took six of them and $820,239,449, a third of the entire non-Amtrak pot. And the smallest award in the program is $400,000 to the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation for a corridor safety study at Poplar, Montana. Four hundred thousand dollars and two billion fifty million dollars, on the same list, selected the same day, under the same program. The ratio is 5,125 to one.

The number the announcement gave you was $5.3 billion. The number that tells you what the country decided to fix is $2,448,191,195, and it took a spreadsheet and forty minutes to find it.

↑ Contents

FD 36873, Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern control: the Board has kept its calendar. FD 36918, Conshohocken: the buyer has answered, and a shipper has asked for rates.

The Board has not moved the date. On 18 September 2026, in Decision No. 37, the full Board denied the motions, filed by BNSF and CSX among others, asking it to reject the Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern control application without a hearing on the merits, and it repeated the next mark: comments, protests and requests for conditions are due 18 November 2026. The Board wrote that its decision to proceed "does not reflect any determination on the merits." Board Member Kloster concurred separately.

Since then the record has run on discovery. The administrative law judge issued rulings on 1, 8, 16 and 23 October 2026. On 6 October the Board granted leave to three railroads to file descriptions of anticipated responsive applications: the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend, the Great Basin & Northern, and the Iowa Interstate; the same decision accepted, without a motion, a fourth description from the Canton Railroad. On 26 October the Allied Rail Unions and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen entered a protest and opposition statement.

The calendar below is the one the Board set in Decision No. 30 of 18 August 2026, as published in the Federal Register on 20 August.

No hearing date, no close of the record, and no decision date can be computed from the record as it stands.

FD 36918 · Across the Schuylkill. The second file is smaller and closer to the ground. 900 Conshohocken Rail LLC holds an exemption, effective 12 July 2026, to acquire an approximately 11-mile line at Conshohocken, Pennsylvania from Cleveland-Cliffs Railways Inc., doing business as the Upper Merion & Plymouth Railroad. On 31 August Mike Huhn asked the Board to revoke it. He raised concerns that track would be removed for parking tied to a data center planned for the old mill property, and that the buyer lacks rail experience. On 8 October the Board directed the buyer to respond.

It responded on 28 October. The buyer expects to close in November. A related entity is acquiring the former mill site, and some ancillary tracks there are expected to come out. The buyer says that work will not sever or adversely affect the regulated trackage that runs from near the mill across the Schuylkill River to the Norfolk Southern connection. Service will come from the buyer or a contract operator, and it "will not be precluded from providing rail service when needed." It says there would be no basis to consider revocation.

The same day, Plymouth Industrial Center, Inc. told the Board that it opposes any removal of rail infrastructure or end of service on the line, and that on 19 October it delivered a formal request to the buyer for common carrier rates and terms. It asked to be added to the service list. As of 30 October no decision had issued.

↑ Contents

Every railroad keeps a roster of its power, with a date on every unit. The paper it runs on has dates too. Two of them tell you how old it is.

Every property keeps a roster of its power, and every unit on it carries a date. The paper the railroad runs on carries dates too. They are just harder to find.

Start with three kinds of paper. The operating agreement, signed once and read closely never again. The board of restrictions, where a speed limit imposed for one season can still be standing years later. And the testing program, whose record can show that a test was given without showing what it found. Nobody wrote any of them carelessly. Each was someone's answer to a real problem, on the day it was written. The question is whether that day is still the one the railroad is living in.

The paper has an age, and it takes two dates to fix it. The first is the day the item was imposed. The second is the day someone last read it closely, start to finish, against the railroad as it runs now. The gap between those two dates is the age of the paper.

Run it on your own property. Take one agreement, one board of restrictions and one testing program. For each line item, write the date it was imposed and the date it was last read closely. Where you cannot find a date, leave the box blank. A blank is a finding too.

Then read the gaps. The oldest one is not automatically wrong; some paper ages well. It is simply the one nobody now on the property chose. Someone will read it eventually: the owner at renewal, the lender at closing, or counsel at a hearing. Better that the first close reading is yours.

Operators who want the seven questions and the worksheet for their own operating agreement can ask for the Operating Agreement Read at solutions@steelwheels.co.

↑ Contents

capital · $2.3 billion in CRISI selections, 105 projects in 45 states. On 19 October 2026 USDOT announced FRA's selections under the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program: 105 projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia, more than 2,000 miles of track, and over $1.9 billion in non-federal match. Named awards include $43.5 million to the Wheeling & Lake Erie for the Toledo swing bridge over the Maumee River and $218 million to the Wisconsin DOT for Hiawatha West, through Waukesha, Jefferson and Dane counties.
Source: USDOT, 19 October 2026 · https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/golden-age-rail-trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-invests-over-23-billion

capital · $416 million for Florida rail, marked at Cocoa. On 6 October 2026 USDOT marked $416 million in federal funding at Cocoa, Florida: $356 million to the Florida DOT for safety upgrades at 910 grade-crossing locations, and $57 million to the City of Cocoa for a Brightline station, an access road and double track. USDOT counts the $356 million as part of its August package. Florida adds $100 million.
Source: USDOT, 6 October 2026 · https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-department-celebrates-416-million-investment-upgrade-rail

regulatory · Rail export manifests go electronic; enforcement in a year. CBP's final rule on the ACE electronic export manifest for rail cargo took effect 26 October 2026. Rail cargo bound for Canada or Mexico will need an initial electronic filing no later than 24 hours before departure, with the remaining data at least two hours before. CBP begins enforcing on 26 October 2027.
Source: 91 FR 55170, 26 August 2026 · https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2026-17390

operations · CSX traffic 46 percent down for 29 hours. A technology systems outage that began on Tuesday 27 October 2026 left CSX unable to interchange with the other Class I railroads. A CSX spokesperson told News4JAX the outage was not a cyberattack, that no data was breached, and that dispatching and positive train control kept working. RailState, which counts trains with trackside sensors, told Trains that CSX freight traffic ran 46 percent below its 30-day average for 29 hours. On 29 October operations were returning to normal, and CSX told Trains it was interchanging with the other Class I railroads again.
Sources: News4JAX, 28 October 2026 · https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2026/10/28/technology-outage-slows-csx-operations-security-team-rules-out-cyberattack/; Trains, 29 October 2026 · https://www.trains.com/pro/freight/class-i/csx-operations-returning-to-normal-after-technology-systems-outage/

↑ Contents

labor · BLET ratifies on the DM&E. BLET members ratified a five-year agreement with CPKC covering its Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern territory, announced 28 October 2026. The union reports raises for engineers, conductors and brakemen, along with gains on meal allowances, personal-leave flexibility and work rules.
Source: BLET, 28 October 2026 · https://blet.org/news/blet-ratifies-agreement-on-cpkc-dme/

labor · Soo Line conductors ratify; 81 percent voted. SMART-TD conductors on CPKC's Soo Line (GCA 261) ratified a three-year agreement running through 31 December 2027, 75.6 percent in favor, when voting closed on 15 October 2026. It carries retroactive wage increases and a further increase from 1 January 2027.
Source: SMART, 23 October 2026 · https://www.smart-union.org/cpkc-soo-line-members-ratify-new-agreement/

labor · The crafts file in the merger case. On 26 October 2026 the Allied Rail Unions (BMWED, BRS, IAM District 19, TCU and TWU) and the BLET entered a protest and opposition statement in FD 36873, ahead of the Board's 18 November comment date.
Source: STB, Docket No. FD 36873, filing 312736, 26 October 2026

↑ Contents

safety · A waiver asked on the 33-day QMI inspection. CSX Transportation has petitioned FRA for relief from 49 CFR 229.23(b)(2) so that qualified mechanical inspectors would no longer perform the daily inspection once every 33 days on microprocessor-equipped locomotives kept on 184-day periodic cycles. FRA must receive comments by 2 November 2026 (Docket FRA-2026-1684).
Source: 91 FR 56279, 1 September 2026 · https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FRA-2026-1684

regulatory · Track Safety Standards paperwork up for renewal. FRA is taking comment on renewing the information collection behind 49 CFR part 213 (OMB 2130-0010), which it estimates at 234,274 burden hours a year. Comments close 14 December 2026 (Docket FRA-2026-1589).
Source: 91 FR 65291, 14 October 2026 · https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FRA-2026-1589

DEADLINE BOARD     DOCKET           WHAT
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2 November 2026    FRA-2026-1684    CSX QMI waiver comments
13 November 2026   FD 36873         Responsive env. information
18 November 2026   FD 36873         Comments, protests, conditions
30 November 2026   FRA-2026-1585    Risk Reduction ICR comments
30 November 2026   FRA-2026-0039    System Safety ICR comments
3 December 2026    FD 36873         DOJ and USDOT preliminary
14 December 2026   FRA-2026-1589    Track Safety ICR comments
26 October 2027    CBP Dec. 26-15   Rail export manifest enforced

Sources as cited above; FD 36873 dates per Decision No. 30 (91 FR 53927); 30 November rows per 91 FR 68225 and 68226, 29 October 2026.

↑ Contents

capital · $550 million for the S-Line. On 15 October 2026 North Carolina's governor and NCDOT joined FRA in Raleigh to announce $550 million in Federal-State Partnership funding for the S-Line Raleigh to Richmond program, which the state says will cut Raleigh–Richmond travel by more than an hour. NCDOT expects to finish the Durant Road grade-separation bridge in November 2026, with final restoration work in July 2028.
Source: Office of the Governor of North Carolina, 15 October 2026 · https://governor.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2026/10/15/governor-stein-ncdot-secretary-join-federal-railroad-administration-announce-550-million-s-line-rail

↑ Contents

U.S. RAIL TRAFFIC, WEEK ENDING 24 OCTOBER 2026       UNITS     YoY
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Total carloads and intermodal units                538,503   +7.8%
Carloads                                           234,826   +3.6%
Intermodal units                                   303,677  +11.3%
Year to date, carloads (42 weeks)                9,609,543   +2.7%
Year to date, intermodal units                  11,991,641   +4.7%
Year to date, combined                          21,601,184   +3.8%
North America, combined                            739,068   +8.0%

Source: Association of American Railroads, released 28 October 2026 · https://www.aar.org/news/aar-reports-weekly-rail-traffic-for-the-week-ending-october-24-2026/

↑ Contents

Running east out of Wilbur with the stubble down, a feather of smoke in the mirror, and one bottle on the unit.

Running east out of Wilbur with the stubble cut and gone brown on both sides, and I caught it in the mirror. A thin gray feather standing up off the right-of-way behind the power, leaning with the wind, where nothing had been standing a minute before.

The exhaust had been throwing sparks. Everybody knew it.

Wheat country in the dry does not need much. A carbon ember off a stack, a ditch that has not seen rain in months, and the whole slope goes.

I stopped the train. Then I did the thing nobody does, which is back it up, because the fire was behind me and the extinguisher was on the unit and there was no third option. One bottle. One man. Nobody on the radio and nobody coming.

It went out. Beat, smothered, kicked apart, gone. I stood in it long enough to be sure, then went and got my train and took it east.

The second one was near Hanson, and it was worse, because when I went to the rack every bottle on that unit was dead. Empty. Not one of them would have put out a wastebasket. So I stood in dry stubble and watched a fire burn with nothing in my hands, and it burned itself out on bare ground, and I did not leave until it did.

There is no lesson in the first fire that is not also in the second. A man does his duty with whatever somebody else left him. The bottles were somebody's job. The stack was somebody's job. The fire was mine, because I was the one who was there.

That is most of what the work is.

(25Aug26 ©)

↑ Contents

Listening Isn't Passive · The Code of Railroading · Field Notes From The Edge

When people picture a leader, they usually picture someone with answers. Giving direction. Solving problems. Taking control when things start to break down. In railroading that instinct shows up fast, because when time is tight and the operation starts stacking, nobody is looking for a discussion. They are looking for a decision.

So leaders step in. They take over. They solve the problem. And in the moment, it works. But over time something starts to happen: the more a leader solves every problem, the less the crew or the gang learns how to solve them. You don't build capability. You build dependence.

Listening sounds simple. It isn't. It requires the one thing most people in charge struggle with, which is not being the one with the answer.

Listening isn't passive. It is understanding the situation before you try to control it, and giving your people the room to use their own experience and judgment.

Stop listening and you don't just lose input. You lose awareness. Situational awareness. Clarity disappears. And out here, that is where problems fester, mutate, and turn into a costly fiasco that never had to happen.

The result is a crew that knows they can handle it. Not because they were told what to do, but because they figured it out when it counted.

The leader who talks the most understands the least. Know the ground before you move on it.

↑ Contents

When the SITREP has gone to hell and the plan is in the ditch, that is the call I take. Distressed project rescue, terminal and network turnaround, owner's representation, regulatory and docket work. Railroading since 1980, from switching yards and locomotive rebuilds to multimillion-dollar capital programs. I do not work the chart. I work the ballast. The condition on the ground is the only status report that ever told the truth.

"Every night when you reported for duty, he already had a plan. The work was organized, the information was there, and you were set up to succeed—not set up to fail."

Dylan Jones, former brakeman and conductor

Put SWC on your problem: solutions@steelwheels.co · 928-605-7984

↑ Contents

Confound Romance!… And all unseen / Romance brought up the nine-fifteen.

Rudyard Kipling

"The King," collected in The Seven Seas, 1894

↑ Contents

The Manifest.
Found this useful? Forward it to a colleague.
To subscribe: steelwheels.co/manifest

■ Advisory & Engagements
Distressed projects find their way to the field. SteelWheels.Co advises where complex systems meet hard deadlines — rail and structures, rolling stock, marine, power generation: judged at the edge, not from the desk. Inquire: solutions@steelwheels.co

■ SteelWheels.Photography
Unless noted otherwise, every photograph in The Manifest is Frédérick M. St. Simon's, made by a railroader on the property: the crews, the long nights, the railroad doing what it was built to do. SteelWheels.Photography, a SteelWheels.Co company, offers limited-edition fine-art prints, matted and framed to museum standard; licensing for publication, broadcast and commercial use; and commissioned photography and operations documentation on working property.
The Work. The Witness.
simon@steelwheels.photography · 928-605-7984 · steelwheels.photography

SteelWheels.Co • steelwheels.co • solutions@steelwheels.co
Unsubscribe • Manage Preferences • Issue Archive
SteelWheels.Co · US Route 66, Flagstaff, Arizona USA

The intelligence contained in The Manifest is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or operational advice. SteelWheels.Co makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of information sourced from third parties. Market data, stock prices, and commodity figures are provided for general reference only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before acting on any information contained herein. © 2026 SteelWheels.Co. All rights reserved.