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Kansas City Southern continued the red-hot results from railroad freight carriers in the second quarter, with its profit growing 11.9%, slightly beating the consensus analyst forecast.

Freight rail carrier Union Pacific Corp. announced July 20 that profits jumped 19% in the second quarter after CSX Corp. and Canadian Pacific Railway posted strong gains earlier in the week.

CSX Corp. investors who endorsed a massive pay package to bring railroad wunderkind Hunter Harrison on board as CEO are already seeing the payoff. The question is, at what cost?

Intermodal rail and trucking companies are competing to meet the transportation needs of e-commerce businesses while adapting to how these new supply chains differ from those of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers.

All publicly traded freight railroads reported higher profits in the first quarter, led by a strong rebound in coal transportation from the doldrums of recent years and continued improvement in the intermodal sector.

Shippers of bulk freight expect prices to rise on railroads next year, but they could have greater control in contract negotiations because of competition from trucking with intermodal rail, according to a Nov. 16 report from RBC Capital Markets.

A Great Lakes Basin Railroad forecast shows as many as 60 trains riding its rails daily through southern Lake and Porter counties in Indiana by its third year of operations, with that number declining to the low 50s and finally to 22 at the railroad's eastern terminus in LaPorte County.

This year will be another disappointing one for freight rail carriers hauling fewer carloads of coal and natural-gas drilling supplies through southwestern Pennsylvania.

Railroads and shipper groups have sketched their strategy for a potentially historic Surface Transportation Board battle over the future of rail competition, with comments to the agency as well as taking steps to recruit allies.