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Yesterday, Norfolk Southern Railway announced its locomotive shops in Roanoke, Va., reached 1 million injury-free manhours last month. The facility, which employs about 200 people who perform heavy locomotive maintenance work and overhauls, marked the milestone March 12 after three-and-a-half years without an injury.

The shops achieved the million-hour mark for the first time. The facility has not had a reportable injury since Oct. 9, 2007, according to NS.

“It's a cooperative effort between labor and management that focuses on safety, operating performance and customer service,” said shop manager Chuck Sloan in a prepared statement.

Meanwhile, two shippers recently recognized Union Pacific Railroad’s service performance in 2010. Evergreen Shipping Agency (America) Corp. named UP its 2010 Vendor of the Year and Landstar System Inc. named the Class I its 2010 Intermodal Carrier of the Year.

The Evergreen award recognizes excellence in quality, service and support, and the Landstar award recognizes customer service, damage prevention, and line-haul and door-to-door service performance.

To ensure it continues to provide quality service in the West, UP recently increased train speed between Klamath Falls, Ore., and Perez, Calif., from 10 mph to 25 mph. The Class I spent more than $1.5 million to improve track on the 50-mile corridor by replacing more than 11,000 ties and adding new ballast.