Blanchard Railroad Week in Review, First Quarter 2006

The Railroad Week in Review:
First Quarter 2006

Current Issues

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Week Ending 1/6/2006
The Year of the Railroad Marketer. A primer on mix. The lessons to be learned from the One Train Railroad (OTRR). RailAmerica sells Colorado RR to Permian Basin Group. Comments on how to get into the shortline business. One man's shortline outlook for 2006.
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Week Ending 1/13/2006
MWARS meets in Chicago. RMI gains new subscribers, WIR cites new needs. Incremental pricing redux. More on getting into the shortline business. RailConnect Week 52 and CY 2006 shortline car counts.
Week ending 1/20/2006
UP kicks off Earnings Season with a great story. Koraleski positively bubbles with enthusiasm. GWR leads, RRA lags RMI year-year end shortline car counts from RMI. Steve Friedland weighs in on the matter of shortline and Class I interchange car counts. WNYP extension bodes well for all.
Week Ending 1/27/2006
Earnings summaries for BNSF, CSX, CN and NS. Charts comparing financial and operating results.
Week Ending 2/3/2006
Results for CP, KCS. Jim Cramer touts Trinity Industries for their rail car business. Barron's On-Line says companies that extract stuff from the ground and do something useful with it are on a roll. Jim Valentine on the impact of the threatened closure of WV coal mines will affect CSX and NS.
Week Ending 2/10/2006
Watco signs on with Greenbrier Mgt Services for back office tasks. CN buys three Alberta rail lines from RRA. Class I 2005 revenues up 13% yoy on 2% more revenue units. RRA issues cautious guidance for 2006. Commodities Corner.
Week Ending 2/17/2006
A discourse on diesel fuel price outlooks and the link with railroad fuel surcharges. RailAmerica and GWR earnings reports and outlooks encouraging. Beginning a thread on how shortlines manage car movements on their own lines.
Week Ending 2/24/2006
CSX hosts another highly successful Short Line Workshop as more than 200 souls from shortlines and CSX gather in Jax. Forest Products out of the Woods for 2006? Two shortlines, a shipper and BNSF mix it up in Lubbock, creating an opportunity to put the RIWG to work again. GWR and RRA Jan revenue units.
Week Ending 3/3/2006
Further feedback from the CSX Short Line Workshop. Trends in Class I railroad stock prices. A brief survey of the four publicly-traded car builders' financials, stock prices and outlook. Comparing car-counting methodology at RMI and Railinc.
Week Ending 3/10/2006
Letter from AAR President Ed Hamberger on what faces the industry and what you can do to help. Del Monte downgraded and implications for rails. Survey of recent trends for car builders. The relationships between and among double-digit Class I revenue, middling volume increase, and much faster expense increases. Fuel futures? Continuing the thread about shortline car counts. AAR revenue units YTD tell us something about the boxcar market.
Week Ending 3/17/2006
UP ups estimates, stock gaps up, pulls everybody else up too. Week 10 carloads great for IM, not so great for merch carloads. GWR stock splits 3:2 providing a split-adjusted double since last May. Feb carloads up 21% with acquisitions, same-store off a point. RRA Feb carloads slip 2.8% with acquisitions, same-store off 1.2%. RMI RailConnect shortline carload index up 2% for Feb.Livonia Avon & Lakeville wins a biggie, DM&E gets lots of good ink in March 2006 Fortune magazine. FreghtCar America gaps up with rails.
Week Ending 3/24/2006
A discourse on paper barriers. See where you come out and let me know. MMA names John Schultz VP Transportation. Larry the K takes the other side of the DM&E story.
Week Ending 3/31/2006
BNSF has double-tracked all but 53 miles of the ex-ATSF transcon. Beginning a series on how serious BNSF is about velocity. A railroad investment professional says the industry can do better promoting its positives. More on paper barriers. Another shortline success story.

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Laura Blanchard, email preferred lblanchard@rblanchard.com