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Efforts by national freight rail carriers to increase efficiency are having the opposite effect, a union official said July 12. Demoralized workers are leaving the industry, causing delays and damage to the national supply chain, said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.

The White House is monitoring labor talks in the logistics industry as unions representing 115,000 rail workers and 22,000 West Coast dockworkers negotiate fresh contracts, but won’t get directly involved in either bargaining process now, its supply chain envoy said.

American Trucking Associations called on federal elected leaders to ensure ongoing freight rail workforce negotiations avoid disrupting key aspects of the nation’s supply chain.

Major railroads, including Union Pacific Corp. and BNSF Railway Co., and their unions remain at an impasse after a government board ended efforts to mediate a settlement, a move that will likely force President Joe Biden’s administration to intervene and prevent a strike that could cripple an already-strained U.S. supply chain.

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico is highlighting its support for proposals that would route an international rail line through its Santa Teresa port of entry, capitalizing on Mexico’s unease with disruptions along the Texas portion of the U.S. border with Mexico.

A wrinkle has emerged in the yearlong, multibillion-dollar battle between rival railroad giants Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. over which of the Class I railroads will own and operate the smaller, but strategically important, freight carrier Kansas City Southern.

Labor unions representing about 100,000 U.S. railroad workers say contract negotiations have broken down after more than two years of talks with several carriers.

LOS ANGELES — Thieves have been raiding cargo containers aboard trains nearing downtown Los Angeles for months, taking packages belonging to people across the U.S. and leaving the tracks blanketed with discarded boxes.

The Jan. 4 announcement appears to be a significant step in that direction. According to the governor’s office, the overall concept calls for $231.6 million in investment in rail projects “to upgrade economic development infrastructure in central and southern Alabama.”

Federal officials, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and a host of other stakeholders said expansion of the 126-year-old, 1.7-mile Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore is long overdue.