Breaking news: In the next few years Amtrak may be privatized, ending up in the portfolio of companies owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Ridiculous, you say? Yes, it is a bit far fetched, so you're going to need to read what...

When traveling by train, I subscribe to the way of thinking that says hit me with the best part of the trip first, while I’m fresh. Later on I’ll be tired, distracted, absorbed in a book, or maybe even sound asleep. Plus, sometimes you...

It has been a while since I’ve seen a movie any more entertaining than the show that New York investor Bill Ackman put on yesterday in Toronto. Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, is in effect challenging the corporate elite of...

A brisk market for export coal masks the fact that the demand for domestic use is as soft as melting butter. There are two reasons. The one you hear about most often is Lisa Jackson. Ms. Jackson is administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency...

Last October, I treated you to getting up with me at 1:30 a.m. until dawn (see “Train Watching Taken to Extremes” ) . The experience was interesting enough to merit repeating this week, when I spent the night in Emporia, Va., on the CSX North...

It’s fun to watch two moving trains meet, particularly when it happens right where you’re standing. Outside the Northeast Corridor and commuter train zones, that’s not easy to pull off. But every so often I do, and today was one such...