Railway Age November 2020

N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 0

W W W. R A I LWAYA G E .C O M

AILWAY GE S E R V I N G T H E R A I LWAY I N D U S T R Y S I N C E 1 8 5 6

FIRST Katie Farmer, BNSF’s Incoming Chief Executive

WOMEN IN RAIL

Making Inroads, Making a Difference

SAFETY DOESN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT System Safety, a Value-Added Business Driver

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August 2017 // Railway Age 1

“Whatever you are, be a good one.”

—Abraham Lincoln One in a million, with more to follow.

Progress Rail congratulates BNSF’s Kathryn Farmer as she becomes the first female CEO to lead a major American railroad — but not the last.

That’s more than good. That’s Progress.

+1 800-476-8769 • progressrail.com •

@progressrail •

@Progress_Rail

AILWAY GE

February 2020 NOVEMBER 2020

30

Norfolk Southern

FEATURES

10

First: Katie Farmer, BNSF

18

Women in Rail

Q&A with First Woman CEO

Our Fourth-Annual Honorees

30

Steady as She Goes

36

Tech Talent Shortage

Cindy Sanborn: New COO at NS

Preparing for the Next Generation

40

Greater Component Visibility

44

No Longer Atypical

48

System Safety

53

Keeping Ballast Intact

58

Tall Order

Supporting Safe, Efficient Operations

CN Autonomous Track Inspection

A Value-Added Business Driver

Railroad Maintenance Strategies

DEPARTMENTS 4 6 8 61 61 62 62 63

Industry Indicators Industry Outlook Market People Events

COLUMNS 2 64

From the Editor Financial Edge

Professional Directory Classified Advertising Index ON THE COVER: BNSF Incoming President and CEO Katie Farmer Photo: BNSF

Metrolinx Drives GTHA Transit

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November 2020 // Railway Age 1

FROM THE EDITOR 1992, A Watershed Year, For Many

1

992 was a watershed year for me. That’s when, at the tender age of 32 years and roughly 8 months, I joined Railway Age as Assistant Editor under Luther S. Miller, who had joined the publication in 1958 and had been, since 1966, in the post I have held for the past 20 years.

Luther was five years older (65) than I am now. He was my colleague, mentor and friend until he died at 90 a few years ago.

Seems hard to believe (except for the hair).

Where has the time gone? (Don’t we all say that at some point in our lives, like when our children are grown? My sons are 21.)

1992 was also a watershed year for Kathryn M. Farmer, a 22-year-old Texas Christian University M.J. Neely School of Business graduate holding a Bachelor of Business Administration degree who had just joined the Burlington Northern’s management trainee program.

But more important, 1992 was a watershed year for the North American railroad industry, because Katie, as she likes to be called, built a solid railroading career that touched just about every discipline in our close-to-200-year-old industry.

Katie now has attained a milestone: leadership (as of Jan. 1) of a Class I railroad, BNSF. She is the first woman to do this.

Hopefully, she will be the first of several with the title of President and CEO (though there are only seven available positions, maybe fewer if there’s a second round of consolidations in the far future).

Some would say what Katie did is difficult for a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry. Not so, at least

not any more. In this issue, our Fourth Annual “Women in Rail,” there are no fewer than four feature stories about, or written by, women. And that’s not counting our Executive Editor, Marybeth Luczak, who returned to the Railway Age fold after far too long an absence.

Luther and I hired Marybeth, fresh out of Syracuse University Samuel I. Newhouse School of Journalism, in 1997. But that’s another story, for another time. Suffice to say if you don’t know her, you should, or you will, soon.

The same can be said for the women spotlighted in this issue, railroaders like Katie Farmer (p. 10), Cindy Sanborn (p.

30), the more than two-dozen Women in Rail and Honorable Mentions (p. 18), and 2019 honoree Joan Smemoe, who has the byline on p. 36.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Katie: “What attracted me to the rail industry back then and what’s true today is the importance of what the rail industry does and the relevancy. The railroad is really the backbone of the U.S. economy, and I liked that aspect ... We make a difference, and that’s because of our employees—the hardworking men and women at BNSF. “On a personal note, I have a son who is a senior in college and a daughter who is a freshman in college, and as they think about their careers and what they want to do, doing something that makes a difference is a big draw.”

That says it all. Congratulations, Katie.

Well said, and well done.

WILLIAM C. VANTUONO Editor-in-Chief

Railway Age, descended from the American Rail-Road Journal (1832) and the Western Railroad Gazette (1856) and published under its present name since 1876, is indexed by the Business Periodicals Index and the Engineering Index Service. Name registered in U.S. Patent Office and Trade Mark Office in Canada. Now indexed in ABI/Inform.

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Industry Indicators AAR: ‘GENERALLY GETTING BETTER’ TO ‘ALREADY PRETTY GOOD’ “U.S. rail volumes in September ranged from ‘generally getting better’ to ‘already pretty good,’” the Association of American Railroads noted last month. “On the ‘already pretty good’ side, average weekly U.S. intermodal originations in September were 284,777 units. That’s the fourth-most for any month in history and up 7.1% over September 2019, intermodal’s biggest monthly percentage gain since December 2016. In Q32020, intermodal was up 2.9%, much better than the 12.6% decline in Q2. Recent intermodal gains are largely a function of surging imports, especially from Asia, as firms restock inventories and prepare for the holiday season. U.S. rail carloads are in the ‘generally getting better’ category.”

Railroad employment, Class I linehaul carriers, SEPTEMBER 2020 (% change from SEPTEMBER 2019)

TRAFFIC ORIGINATED CARLOADS

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

BY COMMODITY

47,037 (-17.65%)

Grain Farm Products excl. Grain Grain Mill Products Food Products Chemicals Petroleum & Petroleum Products Coal Primary Forest Products Lumber & Wood Products Pulp & Paper Products Metallic Ores Coke Primary Metal Products Iron & Steel Scrap Motor Vehicles & Parts Crushed Stone, Sand & Gravel Nonmetallic Minerals Stone, Clay & Glass Products Waste & Nonferrous Scrap All Other Carloads

Executives, Officials and Staff Assistants

TOTAL U.S. CARLOADS

TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 118,123 % CHANGE FROM SEPTEMBER 2019: -13.69%

Transportation (train and engine)

Five WEEKS ENDING october 3, 2020 SEPT. ’20

SEPT. ’19

% CHANGE

118,212 3,882 43,878 30,303 150,915 52,233 299,518 4,854 16,093 25,887 25,028 14,419 38,716 18,535 81,606 89,082 18,402 39,930 18,168 29,885

92,507 3,864 41,900 30,172 159,819 60,062 394,918 5,787 15,824 26,742 31,259 16,415 40,652 16,514 79,646 112,624 21,242 41,568 17,260 30,680

27.8% 0.5% 4.7% 0.4% -5.6% -13.0% -24.2% -16.1% 1.7% -3.2% -19.9% -12.2% -4.8% 12.2% 2.5% -20.9% -13.4% -3.9% 5.3% -2.6%

1,119,546

1,239,455

-9.7%

7,445 (-2.36%)

CANADIAN RAILROADS

Professional and Administrative

TOTAL CANADIAN CARLOADS

400,378

401,321

-0.2%

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RR

1,519,924

1,640,776

-7.4%

10,317 (-6.63%)

Maintenance-of-Way and Structures

29,444 (-6.48%)

Maintenance of Equipment and Stores

18,859 (-21.81%)

Transportation (other than train & engine)

5,021 (-8.28%)

Source: Surface Transportation Board

CLASS I EMPLOYMENT STEADY-STATE LOW Figures released by the STB show Class I total railroad employment decreased nearly 14% in September 2020, measured against September 2019, and is still the lowest since 2012. The double impacts of COVID-19 and a recession that actually predates the pandemic has stifled economic activity, and the impact on rail employment has been significant. Across the industry, headcount drops occurred in all employment categories, with Maintenance of Equipment and Stores dropping more than 21% and Transportation (train and engine) falling nearly 18%.

4 Railway Age // November 2020

Intermodal

Five WEEKS ENDING october 3, 2020

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

BY COMMODITY

SEPT. ’20

SEPT. ’19

% CHANGE

Trailers Containers TOTAL UNITS

117,961 1,305,922

102,225

1,423,883

1,227,307 1,329,532

15.4% 6.4% 7.1%

0 372,182 372,182

0 361,637 361,637

— 2.9% 2.9%

117,961 1,678,104

102,225 1,588,944

15.4% 5.6%

1,796,065

1,691,169

6.2%

CANADIAN RAILROADS Trailers Containers TOTAL UNITS

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RR Trailers Containers

TOTAL COMBINED UNITS

Source: Rail Time Indicators, Association of American Railroads

railwayage.com

BEFORE YOU INVEST IN ANOTHER AIR BRAKE CONTROL VALVE,

TOTAL U.S./Canadian CARLOADS, SEPT. 2020 VS. SEPT. 2019

1,519,924 SEPTEMBER 2020

STOP & CONSIDER:

1,640,776 SEPTEMBER 2019

Short Line And Regional Traffic Index CARLOADS

BY COMMODITY Chemicals Coal Crushed Stone, Sand & Gravel Food & Kindred Products Grain Grain Mill Products Lumber & Wood Products Metallic Ores Metals & Products Motor Vehicles & Equipment Nonmetallic Minerals Petroleum Products Pulp, Paper & Allied Products Stone, Clay & Glass Products Trailers / Containers Waste & Scrap Materials All Other Carloads

ORIGINATED SEPT. ’20

ORIGINATED SEPT. ’19

% CHANGE

50,844 15,670 16,959 10,856 27,272 7,728 9,121 2,495 15,626 10,506 1,312 2,169 17,671 15,067 41,903 9,949 69,997

48,489 16,709 26,778 10,289 24,611 7,351 8,969 2,484 18,238 10,831 2,189 2,007 17,902 14,373 42,993 9,513 75,793

4.9% -6.2% -36.7% 5.5% 10.8% 5.1% 1.7% 0.4% -14.3% -3.0% -40.1% 8.1% -1.3% 4.8% -2.5% 4.6% -7.6%

Copyright © 2020 All rights reserved.

TOTAL U.S. Carloads and intermodal units, 2011-2020

(in millions, year-to-date through SEPTEMBER 2020, SIX-WEEK MOVING AVERAGE)

Always Improving:

The DB-60’s advanced composites boost performance, resist vibration, and reduce car weight.

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visit www.NYAB.com or initiate a conversation with NYAB Sr. Product Line Manager Vince Moore at Vincent.Moore@nyab.com or 315.786.5271.

748 Starbuck Avenue, Watertown, New York 13601 315.786.5200 | www.nyab.com railwayage.com

November 2020 // Railway Age 5

Industry Outlook

Monitoring North America’s Rail Pulse Norfolk Southern, Genesee & Wyoming, Watco Companies, GATX Corp. and TrinityRail are developing a telematics platform for railcars to provide real-time car location and condition/health monitoring data. Called “Rail Pulse,” it will help shippers, car owners/lessors and railroads better manage consists, incidents and maintenance. Rollout is expected by yearend 2022.

Aims of the “neutral, open-architecture, industry-wide railcar telematics platform” are to “facilitate and accelerate the adoption of GPS and other telematics technology across the North American railcar fleet” for safety, and to “transform rail shipping,” the partners said. (The platform will also ensure the “security of proprietary car-owner data.”)

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, through its Department of Transportation (PennDOT), recently received a Fiscal Year 2020 Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant from the U.S. DOT for the project. The Commonwealth, along with the railroad and railcar partners that collectively own 20% of the North American railcar fleet, will provide additional investment.

Early phases of Rail Pulse will incorporate hand brake and impact data. As the platform evolves, it will include data from 6 Railway Age // November 2020

onboard bearing temperature and wheel impact detection sensors. Data will also be captured to support “real-time tracklevel visibility,” such as whether doors or hatches are open, whether the car is loaded or partially loaded, and other key performance metrics.

“While this platform and resulting services are in the early stages of development, we believe these capabilities are a key factor in improving the rail industry’s competitive position relative to other modes of transportation longer term,” Trinity CEO and President Jean Savage said of Rail Pulse during a recent thirdquarter earnings meeting. She noted the company has been “developing the analytics and infrastructure to support the addition of telematics on railcars and [has] partnered with other leading rail service providers” to create the new platform.

“Rail Pulse is another example of how the freight rail industry is using advanced technology to enhance safety and service to shippers,” PennDOT Deputy Secretary for Multimodal Transportation Jennie Granger said. “PennDOT is proud of the strong partnership we have with the freight rail industry, and we look forward to this platform being implemented throughout the North American railcar fleet.”

The Federal Railroad Administration last month published its Final Rule revising regulations governing minimum safety requirements for railroad track.

FRA’s changes include allowing inspection of rail using continuous rail testing; allowing use of flange-bearing frogs in crossing diamonds; relaxing guard check gage limits on heavy-point frogs used in Class 5 track; removing an inspectionmethod exception for high-density commuter lines; and other miscellaneous revisions. Overall, the revisions will benefit track owners, railroads and the public by reducing unnecessary costs and incentivizing innovation, while improving rail safety, the agency said.

Beginning in 2015, the Track Safety Standards (TSS) Working Group of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) met to “consider specific improvements to TSS . . . designed to enhance rail safety by improving track inspection methods, frequency, and documentation.” On Dec. 31, 2019, FRA published an NPRM informed by the RSAC’s recommendations and FRA’s own review and analysis of the TSS. FRA proposed to amend subparts A, D, F and G of the TSS to: (1) allow for continuous rail testing, (2) incorporate longstanding waivers related to track frogs, (3) remove the exception for high-density commuter lines from certain track inspection method requirements, and (4) incorporate several consensus-based RSAC recommendations.

For a more in-depth discussion, see the NPRM (84 FR 72526).

FRA “analyzed the economic impact of this rule over a 10-year period and estimated its costs and cost savings. If railroad track owners choose to take advantage of the cost savings from this rule, they will incur additional labor costs associated with continuous rail testing.

These costs are voluntary because railroad track owners will only incur them if they choose to operate continuous rail testing vehicles.” railwayage.com

GATX

FRA Publishes Track Safety, Rail Integrity Final Rule

Market NCTD: More Power on Order

WORLDWIDE

NORTH AMERICA

SHIFT2RAIL (S2R) has signed two agreements to promote international cooperation in research and innovation.

One is with the CANADIAN URBAN TRANSIT RESEARCH & INNOVATION CONSORTIUM (CUTRIC). The other is with the PERMANENT SECRETARIAT OF THE TRANSPORT COMMUNITY, an international organization formed in October 2017 comprising the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.

SALCO PRODUCTS is now the exclusive distributor of the Single-Bolt Manway rail tank car system from BAIER™ RAIL, a division of BAIER MARINE CO., INC. With its single-bolt design, the system is said to outperform traditional manway products, which have a drop-bolt design and can be “leak-prone and labor-intensive,” according to Baier Rail. The ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN RAILROADS has approved the Single-Bolt Manway, and more than 500 covers have been installed. Salco designs, manufactures, assembles and distributes a variety of plastic and metal products used in tank cars, hopper cars and plant process equipment. With headquarters in Lemont, Ill., Salco’s Sales and Distribution facility is in Houston, Tex. FREIGHTCAR AMERICA now owns 100% of CASTAÑOS MEXICO, where all of its future railcar manufacturing is expected to be based by February 2021. It has completed the acquisition of the remaining 50% of its joint-venture partnership with FASEMEX (FABRICACIONES Y SERVICIOS DE MÉXICO). As a partner,

8 Railway Age // November 2020

FreightCar America invested more than $35 million in Castaños, which currently has two production lines. In September, FreightCar America announced it had signed a letter of intent and was engaged in negotiations to acquire the remaining 50% ownership. Last month, the company secured asset-based financing to complete the deal. Jesus Gil, an owner of Fasemex, is General Manager of Castaños. He will also serve as Vice President of Operations for FreightCar America and join the Board of Directors. Gil has 30 years of manufacturing experience, primarily in the railcar industry. FreightCar America has also entered a new $40 million secured term loan credit agreement with a global investment management firm to “drive its growth strategy,” including expansion of the Castaños production line. It is subject to stockholder approval. “We exit a prolonged period when our business was hampered by high costs, sustained losses and a generally challenged competitive position,” President and CEO Jim Meyer said. “We now enter a new chapter, where our business will be supported by a single new production facility designed specific to our needs, a highly experienced and cost competitive workforce, and a significantly enhanced competitive profile.” railwayage.com

Siemens

California’s North County Transit District (NCTD) has ordered two additional Siemens Charger locomotives for its COASTER regional/commuter rail service. They bring the order total to nine, completing NCTD’s efforts to convert its current fleet to more efficient, lower-emission diesel-electric units. The Chargers are powered by Cummins QSK95 4,400-hp Tier 4 engines. They will operate between Oceanside and San Diego. NCTD purchased the Siemens Chargers as part of a multi-state procurement with the California and Illinois Departments of Transportation awarded in 2014.

SIT AND LISTEN William C. Vantuono Railway Age

Bill Wilson

Railway Track & Structures

Railway Age, Railway Track & Structures and International Railway Journal have teamed to offer our Rail Group On Air podcast series. The podcasts, available on Apple Music, Google Play and SoundCloud, tackle the latest issues and important projects in the rail industry. Listen to the railway leaders who make the news.

Kevin Smith

International Railway Journal

Podcasts are available on Apple Music, Google Play and SoundCloud

FIRST

“We know how to do hard,” says Farmer, whose railroad recovered from last year’s flooding in the Midwest and is on the rebound from the pandemic.

Katie Farmer joined Burlington Northern’s management training program in 1992. In January, she becomes BNSF President and CEO—the first woman at a Class I to hold that title.

BY MAR MARYBETH LUCZAK, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

10 Railway Age // November 2020

BNSF

E

ngaging with employees, customers, short lines and the communities BNSF serves: For Kathryn M. “Katie” Farmer, it’s about listening and involving, and inclusion.

That approach will remain key to her leadership when she takes over the top spot in 2021—and works to ensure the railroad continues to evolve through the pandemic and into the future.

Soon after news broke Sept. 14 that Farmer had “broken the glass ceiling” as the first woman ever named chief executive of a Class I, Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono contacted her and BNSF executives to offer congratulations.

He noted: “This is historic. Encouraging.

Positive. Significant.”

Farmer knows the railroad inside and out. She’s held leadership positions in every major function of the company, starting as a management trainee at predecessor Burlington Northern in 1992.

On Sept. 22, nearly 30 years later, she celebrated the 25th anniversary of BN’s 1995 merger with Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway as Executive Vice President Operations.

On Jan. 1, Farmer takes over as President and CEO of BNSF from the retiring Carl R. Ice, a mentor, along with former Executive Chairman Matthew K. Rose, who retired in 2019. She will oversee the 32,500 routemile network that spans 28 states and three Canadian provinces for parent company Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., and lead the Board of Directors.

Among Farmer’s priorities: driving productivity and delivering the kind of service customers have come to expect; modeling the way for communication across the railroad and ensuring that connections continue to be made with all the constituencies it touches; and supporting employees—some 36,000—so they, too, can reach their full potential by taking advantage of the professional development opportunities she was afforded.

Farmer is looking forward to working with her team to shape the legacy of BNSF, she told Railway Age. It’s about helping the company and the workforce, railroaders who “know how to do hard,” thrive for the next 25 years and beyond. railwayage.com

WOMEN IN RAIL RAILWAY AGE: What prompted you to go into railroading?

KATIE FARMER: I am a proud graduate of Texas Christian University (TCU) here in Fort Worth, and I learned about an opportunity for an internship with what was then the BN. I was awarded the internship working in the engineering department [between my junior and senior year], and that began what is now a 28-year career.

What attracted me to the rail industry back then and what’s true today is the importance of what the rail industry does and the relevancy. The railroad is really the backbone of the U.S. economy, and I liked that aspect. Through the pandemic,

“BNSF employees should expect to be treated with dignity and respect.

That is foundational.

Diversity and inclusion is foundational to what we do. It’s a part of our recruiting efforts. It is not only foundational to what we do; it’s really been key to our success.” we have seen that with great clarity.

BNSF has delivered critical PPE [personal protective equipment] to the front lines; we’ve helped restock the shelves. We make a difference, and that’s because of our employees—the hard-working men and women at BNSF. On a personal note, I have a son who is a senior in college and a daughter who is a freshman in college, and as they think about their careers and what they want to

do, doing something that makes a difference is a big draw.

RA: How can you, as a leader, encourage more people to consider a career in railroading? And how do you retain talent?

KF: It’s about helping more people to see the importance of railroading. I work hard to do that. As an example, I talk to college students several times a year. Oftentimes, they’re really surprised to learn what it is that we do and the impact that we have on the economy and the day-to-day things that they might take for granted.

What I tell them is if you look back to our predecessor history—170 years—we’re as relevant and as important today as we were then. So I think that’s a big draw and will help to encourage people to want to join our railroad.

As far as retention, we focus on that a lot at BNSF. It is about creating an environment that talented people want to come and work in. When you combine talented people who enjoy what they do, like the environment they work in, and feel like they’re making a difference, then typically we find that those are the folks who want to make a career out of railroading.

RA: How will you approach diversity— not only within the company, but also through recruitment?

KF: BNSF employees should expect to be treated with dignity and respect. That is foundational. Diversity and inclusion is foundational to what we do. It’s a part of our recruiting efforts. It is not only foundational to what we do; it’s really been key to our success.

We absolutely, through our recruiting efforts, are looking to bring in talented employees, who bring a diversity of background and experiences to the railroad.

We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve been able to attract really talented folks. We also know that all of this is a journey, and we want to continue to make an impact.

Among the things we share with folks when we’re recruiting is that we provide mentoring programs. We have business resource groups and diversity councils.

Those don’t just exist in Fort Worth; they exist across our system. We have 36,000 employees across the country, so we focus on giving them resources; and through November 2020 // Railway Age 11

WOMEN IN RAIL recruiting efforts, they can feel comfortable that when they come to work for the railroad, we’re creating a network and connection for them.

We make it personal because retention is personal. You don’t often hear people say in an exit interview that they left because of money. People leave because they don’t feel a connection, and so that’s what we focus on at BNSF. RA: How will you keep communication open and engage with employees, customers, short line connections and the communities BNSF serves?

KF: Communication is one of the five key tenets of our leadership model. We train our leaders every year on this model.

If you look at the description of that key tenet, the first thing it says is: Listen and involve. It’s engrained in our culture, and it’s an expectation that as leaders, we will do this with our employees, we will do it with our customers, and we’ll do it with the communities we serve.

“Retention is personal. You don’t often hear people say in an exit interview that they left because of money. People leave because they don’t feel a connection, and so that’s what we focus on at BNSF.” We have a pretty robust communication package. We have an app, BNSF Connect,

to give employees important information they need. As a part of that, often we have communication from the CEO. [For our customers and short line community], we send out an advisory every other Friday; we try to be as transparent as possible with information about the health of our network and what customers can expect to see. We talk about expansion projects we’re working on—anything that can help our customers and help us integrate more closely into their supply chain. We also do numerous customer symposiums.

With that said, the most important communication that we need to focus on is the day-to-day communication that happens between, for example, our commercial folks and a customer—again, back to listening, understanding what our customers need. It’s the communication that happens between our frontline supervisors. As they’re doing a safety briefing, how does that frontline supervisor make safety personal for that employee?

And that’s what, as a leader, I need to

Congratulations

to Katie Farmer on being named BNSF President and Chief Executive Officer, from your friends at Watco.

watcocompanies.com

12 Railway Age // November 2020

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WVCO WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE

KATIE FARMER FOR BEING NAMED THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT AND CEO OF BNSF. CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR TRULY HISTORIC ACHIEVEMENT!

WE TOUGHEN THE BACKBONE OF TRANSPORTATION. Class 1 railroad networks do the heavy hauling—we help them deliver.

WVCO creates tough solutions that extend the service life of crossties and structures to minimize track downtime.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, WVCO RAILROAD SOLUTIONS GET GOING. WVCORAILROAD.COM | 541-484-9621 | SALES@WVCORAILROAD.COM

WOMEN IN RAIL continue to model the way on, because what our customers tell us is that we differentiate ourselves in the industry by the way we communicate and interact, both with each other and with our customers.

RA: What are your thoughts about PSR (Precision Scheduled Railroading)?

KF: Well, let me start by saying that I don’t like to comment on other railroads’ operating philosophies. But what I can tell you is how we think about our railroad and our operating philosophy.

We are tied very closely to the industrial and consumer economies, and if you look back over time, there have been peaks and valleys in volumes. What we believe at BNSF is we have to have a bias for growth.

That means we position ourselves to be f lexible enough that when we have opportunities for growth, we capture them.

To do that, you have to have a competitive cost structure. So we have a relentless focus on efficiency, productivity, and having that competitive cost structure.

In unprecedented times, an unprecedented achievement:

Congratulations to BNSF’s Katie Farmer on becoming the first woman CEO of a Class I railroad.

On behalf of everyone at our 27 connecting railroads, Genesee & Wyoming wishes Katie every success and looks forward to strengthening our partnership of more than 300,000 annual carloads interchanged.

BC

Olympia Bismarck

Salem

Augusta

Madison

Hartford

Cheyenne

Salt Lake City

Denver

Topeka

Carson City

KS VA

Richmond

Nashville

Raleigh

Santa Fe

Oklahoma City

Little Rock

Columbia Atlanta

Phoenix

Charleston

Jackson

Montgomery

Baton Rouge Austin

www.gwrr.com 14 Railway Age // November 2020

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BNSF

BNSF G&W

WOMEN IN RAIL And when you have a competitive cost structure and a focus on growth, you have a great opportunity to have a return that justifies investment in capacity. And when you invest in capacity, it positions you to be able to say “yes” to customers.

That’s our business model. We want to be able to say “yes” to customers.

RA: As service recovers in a postCOVID-19 world, where are the opportunities for BNSF? KF: In the depth of the pandemic, we were loading about 150,000 units a week.

Fast-forward, we are now [early October] in the 200,000-unit-a-week range. What has helped lead us out has been our consumer products business—our domestic intermodal, our international intermodal and automotive business. We have seen volume increase quickly. Over-the-road capacity has tightened. There is a restocking going on in the supply chain, so we are helping to refill the distribution centers.

Something that we were seeing in this

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country before the pandemic was the move from bricks-and-mortar to online retailing; we have seen that accelerate as we’ve moved through the pandemic. We’re excited about that. We think that is a great fit for our railroad. We have the largest intermodal network in the world—the fastest, most consistent network—and that’s a great match for what our customers need. Working closely with the large retailers, the steamship companies, the trucking companies, we believe that’s going to be a great mutual opportunity. Parcel shipments, truckload shipments, anything in our consumer products business will continue to be strong through the balance of the year.

That hasn’t been the case across the board for us as far as those kind of peaklike volumes. In our industrial products business, we have seen a more gradual increase. Anything tied to energy has really struggled to rebound; for us, that’s sand for fracking, any kind of petroleum products. Anything related to construction or

housing, we have seen a nice increase. So it’s kind of a mixed bag.

The agricultural commodities side was probably the part of our business that was least impacted by the pandemic; so we have seen strong volume.

We would anticipate, moving into the fourth quarter, that we will see a strong export program, and that will continue to be a mainstay for BNSF. Finally, coal. We saw a structural decline that was happening prior to the pandemic.

Unfortunately, we saw reduced demand for electricity and low natural gas prices, and while we, at the railroad, were happy to see a mild winter, that didn’t bode well for coal. Those volumes have stabilized now coming out of the pandemic, but they were certainly impacted by the shutdown.

RA: Going forward, where do you stand in terms of capital investments in assets and infrastructure?

KF: We want to continue to invest in places where it helps us to be able to say

November 2020 // Railway Age 15

WOMEN IN RAIL “yes” to our customers, as well as it helps with the efficiency and productivity of our railroad and drives improved service and ease of doing business for our customers.

That’s our long-term perspective. In the short term, we have to work to match our resources with the demands—our locomotives, our track, our terminal capacity, our workforce.

One of the things that we are consistent about and that BNSF has demonstrated over a long period of time is the commitment to investing in the integrity of our infrastructure. So even through periods when volumes have been lower, we have continued to maintain that part of our capital plan.

This year, we have a capital plan that’s around $3 billion. We’ll spend about $2.4 billion of that on infrastructure.

The challenge for us is when we look at projects, we can’t look at capital on a one-year timeline; we have to look at it with more of a 5- to 10-year lens. Even in a period like this year where volumes

are lower, we’re involved in multi-year expansion projects. We think it’s the right thing to do—again, to position ourselves to be able to say “yes” in the future for customers.

An example of a project that improves service for customers along with consistency and efficiency for the network is a fourth main track that we in-serviced in Winslow, Ariz., earlier this year. The value is that Winslow is a crew-change point on our Southern Transcon. It allows us to be able to handle different profiles of freight, meaning we can handle grain trains, high-speed intermodal trains, all through the terminal, and make crewchanges, do inspections, without impacting the velocity for any of our customers.

Why we’re particularly excited is we now have that kind of capability at every one of our crew-change locations across the Southern Transcon.

RA: What other projects are on the horizon?

KF: We believe that we will continue

Congratulations

KATIE FARMER On your recent promotion to President & CEO of BNSF and for becoming the first woman to lead a Class 1 railroad.

BNSF

herzog.com •

16 Railway Age // November 2020

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WOMEN IN RAIL to see growth in the parcel business, the truckload business, international business, so we will continue to invest in our network for that. We are in the process of adding additional main track along our Transcon—50 miles. More than 99% of our Transcon is double-tracked today.

This project will give us not only additional capacity, but it will give us additional recoverability in our network; so when we have service interruptions, this gives us additional capabilities to run around interruptions and deliver the kind of service that our customers require.

RA: BNSF has embraced advanced technology in preventative equipment maintenance, for example. (See Railway Age’s September feature, “You Can Fix What You Can’t See.”) Where do you see this technology expanding?

KF: When we look at technology, we look at it through the lens of: Does it improve safety for our employees, the communities we serve or the freight we move? Does

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it improve asset utilization? And does it generate either ease of doing business or improved capacity and service for our customers? That’s how we start as we think about where we make capital investment.

An example is our use of machine vision systems to look at wheels as they move across our system. Every day, we get 750,000 images. We now have artificial intelligence that can quickly sort through all of those images and detect where there’s an issue. [If] there’s an issue, it sends an alarm to a mechanical desk in our network operations center that’s manned 24 by 7.

[Mechanical] employees diagnose what they’re seeing and they’ll make a call as to whether we need to stop the train immediately.

We are going to continue to look at where we can roll that out across our system for additional equipment components.

But as great as the data and artificial intelligence is, it takes really good people to understand what to do with it. And I think that’s important because you get

a lot of data, and what we need is our talented people who know how to railroad and know what to do with the information to really make an impact and make it actionable.

RA: What has been your greatest accomplishment at BNSF? KF: I want my greatest accomplishment to be ensuring that every BNSF employee has the opportunity to develop to their full potential and to have the resources and the opportunities that I’ve been afforded through my career. Our culture at BNSF is a culture that is focused on development, it’s focused on giving people resources to meet their full potential, and I am a product of that culture. I feel incredibly blessed that I am now in a position to ensure that happens for our employees well into the future.

(This story has been edited for length; listen to the Rail Group On Air Podcast for the entire interview.)

November 2020 // Railway Age 17

Women In Rail

WOMEN IN RAIL The fourth-annual Railway Age Women in Rail awards recognize not only a continued commitment to service in the historically male-dominated freight, transit, government and supplier sectors, but also a demonstration of leadership, collaboration and innovation on the job and in the community. These 24 visionaries, selected from a field of more than 60 strong nominations, are from all levels of North American railroading.

And these motivated, results-driven women are making an impact— for themselves, their peers, their companies and the rail industry.

18 Railway Age // November 2020

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Shutterstock/

BY MARYBETH LUCZAK, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Women In Rail JUDGES

BARBARA WILSON

KELLYANNE GALLAGHER

RailUSA, LLC

Executive Director, Commuter Rail Coalition

At RailUSA, a short line holding company that acquires and operates North American freight railroads, Wilson provides strategic leadership and is responsible for implementing longrange goals, strategies, plans and policies. Prior to joining RailUSA in 2019, she was President of Wells Fargo Rail, the rail equipment operating leasing subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank. She led business growth by acquiring three industry competitors to build the largest railcar leasing business in North America. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Boston College and an MBA from Babson College.

Gallagher is a public transportation policy professional and a strategic advisor to industry leaders. With more than 20 years serving across industry sectors, in 2019 Gallagher founded the Commuter Rail Coalition, where she is shaping policy and driving the agenda of the association, which serves as the singular voice of the commuter rail industry. Previously, Gallagher was a member of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s senior leadership team, which she joined after 16 years with the American Public Transportation Association.

RHEA ADAMA

BRIDGETTE BEATO

Assistant Vice-President Procurement

Founder and CEO

President and CFO

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KAG Strategic Advisory

Canadian Pacific

Lumenor Consulting Group

Adama pulled together a previously disbanded procurement group in two years. During the pandemic, she led her team to source 30,000 face coverings (two per employee) in four hours, and mailed them in less than three.

Among her strengths: leading and learning by questioning and identifying ways to approach gaps. As GM Locomotive Shops, she improved the metrics of an already well-run organization. Adama developed her expert staff, maintained high expectations—and delivered.

Beato’s organizational change management experience is among the reasons the safety and operations projects her certified DBE/ WBE/SBE firm handles succeed, from implementing enterprise asset management at NYMTA to improving maintenance tracking and reporting at MARTA. Beato is active in the Women’s Transportation Seminar; APTA; and International Council for Systems Engineers, where she is helping to create a standard approach to managing COVID-19 for transit.

November 2020 // Railway Age 19

Women In Rail

ANN D. BEGEMAN

DEBORAH BITTNER

RUTH BROWN

Chairman

Head of Transportation and PTC Systems

Regional Engineer, Structures Norfolk Southern (Women in Rail honorable mention 2018)

Surface Transportation Board

CSX

Begeman helped draft the ICC Termination Act of 1995, leading to STB’s formation. Before joining STB in 2011, she spent 20-plus years garnering transportation policy experience in roles such as Republican Staff Director and Deputy Staff Director for the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Designated STB Chair in 2018, she led the effort to reform rail rates in a transparent, equitable way by creating a task force to propose solutions, which she implemented.

Bittner is responsible for developing and deploying systems for rail safety and operating efficiency, from customer service to dispatching technology. Integral to CSX’s leadership in PTC development, she helped shape the PTC infrastructure that enabled Class I’s to adopt compatible technologies and meet federal implementation deadlines. At CSX, the project integrated 1,800 locomotives, 423 radio towers and 4,400 trackside communication units, and centralized control center technology systems.

LORA CHEATUM

JENNIFER COYNE

Senior Vice President, HR Kansas City Southern (Women in Rail Honorable Mention 2017)

The highest-ranking woman on the executive team, Cheatum ensures KCS leverages the talents of 8,000 employees (U.S. and Mexico) and allows their voices to be heard. She worked with the CEO to develop KCS’ Vision, Values and Culture; sponsored a global HR system; instituted a rotational career development program; and modifies policies to align with governmental rules during the pandemic. She serves on boards to cultivate interest in railroad careers and support breast cancer awareness.

20 Railway Age // November 2020

Global Additive Manufacturing Leader

Brown has advanced quickly in 12 years at NS. She spent five in the field as Bridge Supervisor and Assistant Division Engineer Bridges. As the only woman managing men conducting bridgework, she earned respect with her expertise and leadership. She has overseen large and small bridge projects; handled emergencies; and taken on additional roles at Women in NS and AREMA, as subcommittee chair of Technical Committee 15, Steel Structures.

STEPHANIE DAVIES

Executive Vice President, GO Expansion,

Wabtec

Capital Projects Group Metrolinx

Coyne hired and leads the team that built the Additive Manufacturing portfolio, which includes three global facilities. In 2019, 1,250plus prototypes were made and Wabtec used metallic 3D printed parts in the production of rolling stock. Coyne, who holds five patents, was the co-inventor of and project leader for a locomotive adhesion technology now deployed at all Class I’s. She also led efforts to improve battery system reliability. She serves as a mentor/industry advisor for college students.

Davies is accountable for delivering $11 billion in capital investment for GO Transit, including corridor expansion, new stations and station improvements. She leads a team of 250 on projects, ensuring the consideration of operational, customer and community impacts. Davies works effectively with external stakeholders and fosters relationships with staff, peers and leadership, fueling the momentum needed for GO Expansion. She co-sponsors the new Women in CPG Employee Resource Group.

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Rhea Adama Assistant Vice-President, Procurement

Congratulations to CP’s Rhea Adama and all of the outstanding recipients of the 2020 Women in Rail award.

At CP, we believe our differences make us stronger. That is why we embrace a culture of diversity and inclusiveness that leads to exceptional results.

cpr.ca/careers

Women In Rail

CLARELLE DEGRAFFE

JANET DRYSDALE

SARAH E. FEINBERG

Director of Rail Transit

Vice President, Financial Planning

MTA New York City Transit

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey General Manager, PATH

A 30-year Port Authority veteran and civil engineer by training, DeGraffe is the first woman to serve as PATH’s GM. She leads the $1 billion PATH Improvement Plan to upgrade trains and stations, streamline train service, and improve customer service. Her work overseeing capital program implementation has included the ongoing project to replace equipment and rebuild tunnels that were damaged during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, as well as completion of the remaining phases of CBTC.

Interim President

CN

Throughout six years, three CN CEOs have relied on Drysdale’s expertise in investor relations, business development, mergers/acquisitions, ESG and other critical financial planning.

In her role, Drysdale has shaped the vision for CN’s broader, more forward-looking agenda.

She is on the Advisory Board of the National Research Council of Canada, Automotive & Surface Transportation Research Centre, and was recognized as best IRO among all publicly traded large-cap Canadian companies.

Feinberg, a former Federal Railroad Administrator, assumed her role in March, at the pandemic’s start. Under her swift leadership, NYCT has spearheaded efforts to clean all vehicles and stations, including during unprecedented subway closures, and properly equip personnel with PPE; she is working to assure riders of system safety and reliability.

Undaunted, Feinberg instituted a freeze on out-of-state travel and employee use of MTA vehicles for private trips and travel to work.

“When you combine people who enjoy what they do, like the environment they work in, and feel like they’re making a difference, then typically we find that those are the folks who want to make a career out of railroading.”

— Katie Farmer, BNSF incoming President and CEO

22 Railway Age // November 2020

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Celebrating our heritage and the values that make us BNSF.

bnsf.com

Women In Rail

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

JOCELYN GABRYNOWICZ HILL

Director of Applications Engineering

ROHINI GANESAN

ELIZABETH (BETH) GREENE

Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail)

Railinc Corp.

Urban Rail Signalling, Thales Canada

Gabrynowicz Hill plays an integral role in establishing and maintaining key stakeholder relationships. She has led high-profile transactions, such as the cleanup of Richmond Industrial Track in Philadelphia. She also secured $42 million in grants for capital infrastructure investment. Among the supported projects: improving Delray Interlocking (Detroit) fluidity and New York Metropolitan Freight Area capacity. She became a certified conductor in 2019 to better understand this key function.

Ganesan is essential to Railinc’s efforts to build out its infrastructure and provide applications addressing asset management/health for industry stakeholders. She has a penchant for creating IT solutions to address customer pain points. In 2019, she facilitated 300-plus successful project/product releases. She has provided tech leadership for the Location Management and Gateway Operations Services programs and a PTC initiative. Also, her guidance led to Railinc’s shift to cloud computing.

For five years, Greene, the first Urban Rail Signalling communications lead, has emphasized the technology’s importance to the public, government and stakeholders. Among her efforts: working with NYCT on article, video and press release communications for a pilot of Next Generation Train Control using UltraWideband; managing the Thales Global Urban Rail Signalling Showroom opening (Toronto); and handling communications for North American employees during the pandemic.

CSX IS POWERED TO PERFORM.

Communications Manager

CSX provides comprehensive freight transportation solutions with an unyielding focus on safety and reliability. We bring cost-effective service to core eastern markets and diverse offerings to meet your supply chain needs.

We are innovators, relationship builders, and logistics experts who go the distance to ensure a great customer experience. Backed by a record of strong performance, CSX’s forward-thinking railroaders are taking customers to new levels of efficiency and growth – moving your shipments with greater ease, speed, and sustainability. When you need a transportation partner that delivers, CSX is powered to perform.

COUNTONCSX.COM

24 CSXT-000235_RailwayAgeAdNov2020_7x4.85_RsG.indd Railway Age // November 2020 1

railwayage.com 10/26/20 11:52 AM

CONGRATULATIONS TO KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN’S

Lora Cheatum on being honored as one of Railway Age’s Women in Rail

kcsouthern.com

Women In Rail

VERONIQUE (RONNIE) HAKIM National Transit and Rail Market Sector Leader HNTB Corp.

Whether it’s negotiating contracts, overcoming political issues or handling budgets, Hakim gathers data, talks with experts and forms recommendations. This approach has succeeded over 33 years—from Managing Director, New York MTA and EVP/General Counsel, MTA Capital Construction to Executive Director, NJ Transit. At HNTB, Hakim has collaborated on strategic planning and the firm’s response to demands for social justice.

CAROLYN HAYWARD-WILLIAMS

Director, Office of Railroad Systems and Technology, Office of Safety Federal Railroad Administration

Hayward-Williams joined FRA in 2017 and inherited the PTC Division. She put in place processes for providing regulatory/technical guidance to help industry meet statutory deadlines for PTC implementation. Three months prior to the final deadline (Dec. 31, 2020), all but two of the 41 railroads required to be compliant were ready or on track. She received the U.S. DOT’s highest honorary award for her work.

SARA JOHNSON

General Manager, Montana Division BNSF Railway

During her 17 years at BNSF, Johnson has become the railroad’s first female GM; played a significant role in BNSF’s petition to FRA for a waiver that ultimately increased the distance for which coal, grain, taconite and intermodal trains can travel before undergoing intermediate Mechanical inspection, providing a model for the industry; and was instrumental in growing market share through unit train strategies. Johnson’s “people” focus continually allows her to earn trust and respect.

CONGRATULATIONS to Lisa Matta for being named among the Railway Age 2020 Women in Rail for her accomplishments in the rail industry.

Lisa Matta

Wi-Tronix VP of Product Management www.Wi-Tronix.com 26 Railway Age // November 2020

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Women In Rail

KRISTIN LEESE

LISA MATTA

EILEEN REILLY

Director Business Improvements

Founder and VP Product Management

Founder and CEO

Engineering, Amtrak

Wi-Tronix LLC (Women in Rail honorable mention 2018)

Global Train Services LLC

Leese’s 10-year Amtrak career has included leading a team to test electronic train approach warning systems, magnetic inter-track barriers and watchmen platforms. She was responsible for planning, coordination and execution of the reconstruction of a 1000 LF concrete block tie station track at Penn Station New York. At track 10, work was completed ahead of schedule, within budget and without injury/ incident, and her team developed procedures for use in subsequent renewals at the station.

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Matta has been at the forefront of locomotive onboard technology for 16 years. Wi-Tronix’s IoT platform integrates data acquisition with AI, video analytics and machine learning.

Matta, named in five patents, is instrumental in spearheading the design, development, test and launch of new software and products. She cultivates student engineering skills through the Society of Women Engineers and STEAM youth organization Destination Imagination.

A 30-year railroad industry veteran, Reilly was a member of the FRA Rail Safety Advisory Committee that created 49 CFR 236, Subpart H and Subpart I. She was a PTC forerunner, participating in initial train control system research in the 1990s, and she led the Alaska Railroad through its implementation of PTC. Reilly is currently working with BNSF, tech companies and the U.S. government to improve satellite positioning (GNSS) for the rail industry.

November 2020 // Railway Age 27

Women In Rail

LESLIE RICHARDS

RENAY J. ROBISON

CHRISTINE TORRIJAS DEARING

General Manager

AVP Real Estate and Development

Chief Financial Officer, South Shore Line

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

RailPros

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District

Richards has a public- and private-sector background in strategic planning and management of transportation projects, including as PennDOT Secretary. She is committed to finding common ground and engaging communities. She took on her current role in January, leading SEPTA through the pandemic and focusing on meeting the region’s changing needs and preparing for future demands through “SEPTA–Move Better Together.”

28 Railway Age // November 2020

Robison has been involved in real estate and economic development for more than 25 years and has extensive experience pursuing federal, state and local funding. She oversees RailPros’ real estate and development services in the national railroad market, including contract preparation/management and acquisition/ property sales. She is Real Estate Section Chair of the American Railway Development Association, and helped bring together railroads for an annual Utilities Roundtable.

Dearing has been instrumental in SSL’s pursuit of double track between Michigan City and Gary, Ind., and a new corridor between Chicago and Dyer, Ind. She has effectively balanced revenue challenges and subsidies in 2020, and helped negotiate an innovative trackage rights agreement with Metra. NICTD and SSL have received the Excellence In Accuracy In Financial Reporting Award from the Governmental Finance Officers of America.

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Women In Rail HONORABLE MENTIONS • Sonia Bot, Chief Executive, The BOT Consulting Group Inc. • Catherine (Cat) Dobbs, Senior Environmental Project Manager, HDR KELLE WILLIAMS

Senior Director of Railroad Real Estate OmniTRAX

As the head of the Railroad Real Estate group, Williams has doubled revenues in four years by improving processes and building/training a formidable team. She leads the company’s GIS project, a central element of the OmniTRAX Property Engineering Network that provides users with track, milepost, locomotive and weather data. Among the challenges she’s successfully faced with her team: During OPEN’s development, they spent hundreds of hours ensuring system data was accurate.

• Jeannie Kwon, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, NJ Transit • Carole Morey, AVP, Capital Program Cost Management, Environment, Design and Construction, CN

• Julie Eddy, Assistant Vice President - West District, G&W Northern Region Railroads, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services, Inc.

• Martita Mullen, Assistant Chief North, Track, CN

• Jennifer Guillette, General Manager, Operations and Maintenance, Bombardier Transportation

• Kim Schwab, AVP Comp, HR Digital and Talent Acquisition, Kansas City Southern

• Lori Katzman, Senior Project Manager, Engineering, HNTB Corp.

• Larisse Nana-Kouadjo, Manager, Rail and Transit Canada, WSP Canada Inc.

• Stephanie So Hyun Park, Acting Assistant Division Engineer, Engr. Maint. East NY Track, Amtrak

Duane Morris joins in congratulating Jocelyn Gabrynowicz Hill General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) on being named one of the 2020 Women in Rail by Railway Age For more information, please contact: Sharon L. Caffrey, Co-chair, Trial Practice Group 215.979.1180 | SLCaffrey@duanemorris.com Phil Cha, Partner 856.874.4253 | pcha@duanemorris.com Jeffrey S. Pollack, Partner 215.979.1299 | jspollack@duanemorris.com www.duanemorris.com Duane Morris LLP – A Delaware limited liability partnership

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November 2020 // Railway Age 29

WOMEN IN RAIL

STEADY AS

SHE

GOES Cindy Sanborn brings more than 30 years of experience at two Class I’s to Norfolk Southern.

BY DAVID C. LESTER, MANAGING EDITOR, RAILWAY TRACK & STRUCTURES 30 30 Railway RailwayAge Age // // November November2020 2020

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Norfolk Southern

C

indy Sanborn, a seasoned railroader who Norfolk Southern Chairman, President and CEO Jim Squires described as “one of the freight rail industry’s leading operations experts,” became the railroad’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer on Sept. 1, 2020. Mike Wheeler, Sanborn’s predecessor, retired on Oct. 1, 2020, after a 35-year career at the railroad.

Before coming to Norfolk Southern, Sanborn spent 30 years in operating positions at CSX, culminating in service as the EVP and COO of the Jacksonvillebased railroad. She left the company in 2017. She joined Union Pacific in 2018 as Regional Vice President Transportation Western Region, then was promoted to Vice President Network Planning, overseeing all activities in UP’s Northern Region. Sanborn holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Emory University and an MBA from the University of Miami.

In his announcement of Sanborn joining NS, Squires said, “When we began the search for our next chief operating officer, we looked for an experienced executive who could lead our operations and build on our successful implementation of Precision Scheduled Railroading.”

Sanborn comes from a railroad family.

Her father was the legendary Richard Sanborn (1936-1989). “Mr. Sanborn was only 52 when he died,” the Journal of Commerce wrote in a February 1989 obituary. “He had been chief executive of Conrail for only six weeks. [Sanborn] spent a lifetime preparing to head up a major railroad, working his way into top management positions at Seaboard Coast Line Industries, Inc. and CSX Corp., and then going to Conrail [in March 1988] when it appeared that he was no longer in line for the top spot at CSX. [Sanborn] patiently waited nearly a year at Conrail for the legendary L. Stanley Crane to retire, so he could pick up the reins. Few railroad men were better prepared to operate a major transportation company.

Few were better suited to lead. Mr. Sanborn was intelligent, knowledgeable, patient, and considerate of others, especially those he managed.”

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WOMEN IN RAIL “I knew Cindy when she was just cubbing at Rocky Mount, N.C., as an assistant trainmaster,” recalls Doug Riddell, the retired Amtrak locomotive engineer and company photographer who hired on initially as a switchman at the Seaboard Coast Line in 1977. “She is a wonderful railroader. Cindy came out on her nights off as a new assistant trainmaster and got qualified running Amtrak’s Silver Meteor between Rocky Mount and Florence, and went through engineer training at Cumberland. She’s the real thing. Her mom met her dad while working in passenger services, and she’s just as proud of her mom’s role as her dad’s. She’s amazed at how few

“The first item I think about each morning is safety.

Did anything happen overnight?

Are we doing everything we can to keep the railroad safe? I also think about how we can improve our efficiency in serving our customers.” people remember her dad and once told me that a lot of people don’t even make the connection.”

Railway Age recently had the opportunity to talk with Sanborn about her new role at NS, her work with Hunter Harrison while at CSX, and other topics related to her career thus far.

RA: As Chief Operating Officer, what is the number one item you think/worry about at the beginning of each day?

Sanborn: The first item I think about each morning is safety. Did anything

happen overnight? Are we doing everything we can to keep the railroad safe?

I also think about how we can improve our efficiency in serving our customers.

We’re trying to stay competitive in the transportation space, and our efficiency is crucial. I’ve found that some of the efficiency measures here are slightly different, and they help us maintain internal and external focus. We’re trying to be competitive in the transportation space, and our efficiency is crucial.

RA: How do you compare running operations of Eastern roads (CSX and NS) with doing so at Union Pacific?

Sanborn: I look at it from two perspectives. First, the people were the same at UP as they were at CSX. If I closed my eyes and just focused on the issues under discussion, I could have been at either railroad. Second, the scale of operations at UP and BNSF is much larger than those at NS and CSX. At UP, though, there was a lot of heavy motive power in use because of grades. And, we often had to deal with snow. If we received four inches of snow over 72 hours, that was manageable. Yet, if we received four inches of snow in 24 hours, that was a problem. We also had to deal with avalanche warnings, wind warnings and fires. Mother Nature often dictated how well we could run the railroad.

RA: What was it like working with Hunter Harrison?

Sanborn: Hunter and I had a mutually respectful relationship. Hunter was into all of the details, which made it difficult to determine where I fit in. I learned a lot from him, and he taught by storytelling. I’m a better operating person, having seen things through his eyes. He was very intense and focused. Working with Hunter was a useful experience and was one of those situations where you have to go where life takes you.

RA: When you joined NS, did anything about the company surprise you?

Sanborn: During my time at CSX, I worked closely with many people at NS, and I knew a lot of folks here. I knew Mike Wheeler for a long time when we worked at Conrail together. I’ve been November 2020 // Railway Age 31

WOMEN IN RAIL “Railroading is a vital industry for the U.S. economy, and there is a lot of opportunity for promotion into many different areas. One learns about the railroad business and the businesses you are serving.” of arrival, and removing costs from the operation. I bring my experience and ideas from other railroads to my job here.

We have a very energetic, focused team that is willing and able to move forward.

RA: Do you think today’s railroad

Norfolk Southern

impressed with the progress made on the efficiency side at NS—dwell time, train speed, switching cars within six hours

32 Railway Age // November 2020

railwayage.com

Jennifer Coyne

Wabtec congratulates Jennifer Coyne Global Additive Manufacturing Leader

on being honored by Railway Age as one of 2020’s Top Women in Rail WabtecCorp.com RailwayAge_WomenInRail_JenCoyne_10.19.2020.indd 1

10/23/2020 3:17:02 PM

WOMEN IN RAIL do your job, the benefits will come your way. My jobs over the years were opportunities, not things for which I had to apply.

industry continues to offer good opportunities for college graduates, along with high school graduates?

Sanborn: Absolutely! Railroading is a vital industry for the U.S. economy, and there is a lot of opportunity for promotion into many different areas. In many

positions, one learns about the railroad business and the businesses you are serving. Many customers have complex operations, which must be clearly understood to provide them with the service they need and expect. At NS and the other Class I roads, if you work hard and

RA: When you travel aboard inspection trips, what do you look for? What can you see and evaluate?

Sanborn: There are many things.

We evaluate the track charts for the line and look at things stacked on the rightof-way that need removal (e.g., bundles of old ties). We evaluate the quality and completeness of signage along the road, the ride quality of the track, and look at trouble spots where slides occur. We also look at crossing gates to ensure that they’re working, the freight trains we meet and what they’re carrying, and the various locomotives on these trains. We also check to see if any trains are sitting on the road, finding out why and looking at local yards and the cars in them. These trips are like rolling staff meetings, and they are comprehensive experiences.

“Empowering Clients with Innovative Solutions”

CONGRATULATIONS to Lumenor’s Bridgette Beato

Norfolk Southern

and all of the other outstanding candidates for being selected as one of the 2020 Women in Rail winners!”

CERTIFIED DBE, WBE AND SBE FIRM | WWW.LUMENORCONSULTING.COM 1 2020 34 Halfpage_Lumenor_V2.indd Railway Age // November

10/29/20 10:12 AM railwayage.com

Congratulations Ronnie Hakim and Lori Katzman

on being honored among Railway Age’s Women in Rail.

Thank you for your leadership in advancing public transportation and mobility across the country.

WINNER Ronnie Hakim

National Transit/Rail Market Sector Leader

HONORABLE MENTION Lori Katzman

Senior Project Manager Engineer

hntb.com

WOMEN IN RAIL

HOW WE CAN MEET THE

TECH TALENT SHORTAGE 36 Railway Age // November 2020

railwayage.com

WOMEN IN RAIL The industry is making progress, bringing more women into tech, training the next generation, and showing younger girls that anything is possible. BY JOAN SMEMOE, CIO, RAILINC

Photo of Joan Smemoe courtesy of Railinc

W

ith technology supporting more of the economy and our daily lives, the need for skilled workers in software development, architecture and other tech-focused fields grows exponentially. It is difficult, however, for most tech companies to find the talent they need.

One approach that can help address the shortage of these skilled workers, while also promoting equality and opportunity, is to create better pathways for women to work in technology.

As a technology company that supports the railroad industry, we have worked hard at Railinc to bring more women into tech and promote those who succeed into leadership roles. Our company is based in the Research Triangle area in North Carolina—a notoriously competitive place for companies to recruit and retain tech talent. But, we’ve been able to meet our talent needs in two ways.

First, as a tech company that is aligned with a unique industry, we are able to appeal to potential employees with our ability to really get things done. Railroads are the backbone of the U.S. economy.

The work our software engineers and developers do at Railinc won’t end up being research that sits on the shelf.

We are tasked with solving big challenges, we move aggressively to develop the solutions, and we put them into production. For tech employees coming from large, bureaucratic companies, or those focused on small scope products or solutions, our goals, approach, and outcomes are different and incredibly attractive.

Second, we are laser-focused on finding the best talent for our open positions and perfecting our search and hiring processes. This may sound like common sense, but it takes commitment to put railwayage.com

the right people and processes in place to ensure talent selection is equitable and successful.

In 2019, The Economist reported: “Women hold just 25% of jobs in computing and leave the tech and engineering sectors at twice the rate of men.”

At Railinc, we’re proud of the fact that women make up 28% of our workforce and fill 25% of management positions.

Two of Railinc’s top IT positions and two

“I encourage female senior leaders on my team to mentor their junior female colleagues, and I am active in mentoring women throughout the company.” of Railinc’s executive team positions are held by women.

These numbers track with the trends the rail industry is seeing overall with female workers and managers. One of the most recent high-profile successes came in September when BNSF named Kathryn Farmer as its President and CEO—making her the first woman to lead a Class I railroad in North America.

When I joined Railinc in 2006, I was

a seasoned senior software engineer, but had no background in rail. I immediately immersed myself into railroading. Railinc rewarded my efforts. I rose through the ranks, and I’m now the company’s CIO. In my 14 years with Railinc, I’ve been joined by many other talented women, and the entire company is proud of our accomplishments to improve gender diversity among our workforce, including: • The number of female employees at Railinc has increased by 72% over the past 10 years.

• One in four senior or managerial positions is held by a female employee.

• Railinc has increased its population of women of color working at the company by 150% over the past 10 years.

Not everyone comes to us ready to move into an executive role—and that’s not a bad thing. Employees who are hired at entry level jobs and work their way up are valuable resources. They learn the company from the inside-out and make for more knowledgeable leaders and executives.

That’s why it’s important to have a strong onboarding program that includes internships or apprenticeships, and most important—mentorships.

I encourage female senior leaders on my team to mentor their junior female colleagues, and I am active in mentoring women throughout the company.

More than 20% of all employees begin their Railinc careers in the Customer Support Center (CSC)—where they work with individual customers who have a problem or need. Then, they move on to positions such as product development manager, business analyst, software developer, and solutions engineer.

A few years ago, I met a new CSC employee who had recently graduated with a degree in computer science. She was uncertain of her ability to take on November 2020 // Railway Age 37

technology work and hesitant to follow that path out of CSC. I worked with her over a period of months, helping to build her self confidence and encouraging her to put her training to use. She ended up being hired out of CSC as an associate software developer and has become a thriving, successful member of our team.

When I mentor younger workers, I tell them the best way to prove themselves is to show their ability to execute, develop good ideas, and demonstrate technical competency. This is especially true for women entering tech, where they have been historically under-represented.

But while mentoring is a strong lever for helping women in tech succeed, we need to do more to encourage women to train for and enter the field.

I’ve found that women who chose to go into tech are often strong in logic and math and have a healthy balance of humility and self-confidence. Additionally, I’ve found my female engineers also are very empathetic, good listeners, pay strict attention to detail and are full of creativity. These are really important traits in our field, where we often have heated debates or are brainstorming how to solve complex issues. Having these intelligent, strong women brings in different perspectives and allows us to arrive at the best solutions.

38 Railway Age // November 2020

With a shortage of tech workers, why isn’t more being done to encourage and prepare women to join the field?

As employers, we need to start outreach early on at schools and job fairs.

Instead of advertising single jobs, illustrate the career path available both at the company and in the industry. Set up paid internships. Have formalized mentoring where veteran employees are matched with new hires. Put images of women working in recruitment and marketing materials to illustrate a commitment to gender diversity.

Senior leaders also should look for possibilities in their professional community. In the local CIO peer groups I belong to I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to support getting more women into tech or to recruit talented women for Railinc.

These approaches will help to bring more tech workers into the talent pool and do a great deal to promote equality in the technology industry, which has traditionally struggled with that achievement. Equally important, however, is what happens at our companies once we hire talented women onto our teams.

Creating a culture of diversity and inclusion is important. Supporting employees through mentoring and clearly identified career paths will help them to succeed.

Research done by LinkedIn shows that tech has one of the highest turnover rates of any industry. In an article for the Harvard Business Review, managers at Facebook said they tracked why people were leaving their company. They found out most left when their job wasn’t enjoyable, their strengths weren’t being used, or they weren’t growing in their careers.

Recruiting female and other employees is only half the battle—we need to ensure they understand the value they are providing and support them as they work to grow, develop their skills, and build a career.

The tech talent shortage is not an insurmountable challenge. It will take commitment from those of us in the industry who have the power to promote and enact change.

I know we are not resting on our accomplishments to date at Railinc, because there is still so much work to be done.

But, I’m confident that we will continue to make progress, bringing more women into tech, training the next generation, and showing younger girls that whether it’s CIO, founder, developer, engineer, or CEO—for them, anything is possible in this industry.

Joan Smemoe is CIO of Railinc, based in Cary, North Carolina, and was a 2019 Railway Age “Women in Rail” honoree. railwayage.com

Norfolk Southern

WOMEN IN RAIL

COMPONENT TRACKING

GREATER VISIBILITY

BY GREGG PHILLIPS, PRODUCT MANAGER, COMMERCIAL ANALYTICS AND REPORTING, RAILINC

40 Railway Age // November 2020

a major impact on safety—these components have been the first focus of industry technology developers.

The North American railcar f leet has traditionally been maintained under regulations and processes that relied on historic component performance across very broad railcar categories.

For example, freight car wheels have needed to be inspected visually each time a car arrives at a staffed maintenance facility. With the advent of the Equipment Health Management System (EHMS) more than a dozen years ago, the industry developed rules and repair processes for sensor-based component inspection systems that significantly enhanced traditional visual inspection processes.

These rules and processes effectively prevent most undesirable incidents, even though most wheels would not experience a catastrophic failure until long after the required inspection and removal thresholds.

THE NEXT SAFETY FRONTIER The industry is now developing applications that promise even safer and more efficient operations.

These advances started in 2013 with the inauguration of the Comprehensive Equipment Performance Monitoring (CEPM) program, now known as the Component Tracking program. It is a multi-phase, multi-year initiative to create an industry process and related railwayage.com

Railinc

I

dentifying railcar components and tracking their health is critical to the safe and efficient operation of North America’s freight railroads. In an industry with about 1.6 million revenue-earning cars, annual equipment maintenance spending might approach $2 billion. The benefits of more efficient component tracking and equipment-health analysis are potentially significant.

The application of advanced technology is providing greater visibility into the condition of critical components, including wheels, axles, bearings, truck systems and draft systems. Because they account for the highest level of railcar maintenance and replacement costs—and have

COMPONENT TRACKING couplers; wheelsets; and pressure relief valves. Once Component Tracking was well established, industry planners recognized that the association of individual components with unique serial numbers would have benefits beyond improved tracking. Having this data would open the way to observing a car and its components as it moved across the network, deriving useful information including how many miles it had accumulated, how many ton-miles, how many empty and loaded miles, and more. It was believed this information could also provide valuable insights into how components were performing under specific conditions, leading to predictive analysis about when components would be likely to wear out or fail.

How digital railcar component analysis supports safe, efficient operations. technology tools for capturing railcar equipment component data.

Component Tracking allows manufacturers to register their components in Umler®, which is maintained by Railinc, the railroad industry’s source of critical railcar and locomotive data. When those registered railcar components are installed on a railcar—i.e., when they become associated with one another— Umler users can report that association via the component registry.

Because Railinc tracks both components and equipment, this allows near real-time information for rail equipment users. Examples of components tracked include slack adjusters; brake valve control systems; side frames, bolsters and railwayage.com

RECOGNIZING A BETTER FUTURE This promised a revolution in how railcar safety and the component life cycle could be managed in the future.

The failure of wheel components, in particular, can cause derailments with the potential for environmental impacts, property damage, and even loss of life. Though the rail industry’s safety performance has been consistently improving for decades, industry leaders place strong emphasis on continued improvement.

(Since 1980, the U.S. railroad derailment rate has declined from 8.98 derailments per million train miles, to 1.63 in 2014, an 82% reduction, according to Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 98 [2017] 1–9, published by Elsevier.)

Performance data derived from Component Tracking was seen as a single source of potential reliability improvements, including: • Condition-based maintenance criteria to improve or replace simple time-based inspection.

• Improved component manufacturing processes.

• Reduced catastrophic component failures.

Much of this work was undertaken by the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Technical Service Group’s Wheel, Axles, Bearings & Lubrication (WABL) Committee. The components under its purview generate the highest operating costs on most railcars.

Gregg Phillips, Railinc

FIRST STEP: IMPROVED COMPONENT DESIGN AND TESTING Given that component reliability is critical, it made sense to look first at how technology could be applied to the initial design and testing of new components.

The WABL Committee provides critical oversight of this process. Manufacturers must submit their designs to WABL when they want to introduce new wheel, axle or bearing designs. Following WABL’s evaluation of the proposed design’s compliance with engineering and materials specifications, the committee determines whether a new component may be placed into limited test service.

With WABL’s initial conditional approval, suppliers of new wheel designs, for example, are allowed to manufacture and place an allotment of 32,000 wheels into service.

Under the traditional process, the wheel supplier would provide updates to WABL about how the new wheels are performing.

To do this required coordination between a number of parties. The supplier would need to negotiate the installation of the wheels with car manufacturers and/or owners, arrange for their installation by wheel shops, and work with railroads to track the wheels in service.

Tracking the cars in service was complex.

The supplier had to pull together reports from a number of information sources to demonstrate if most wheels were performing well and provide specific information about any exceptions. This data was subject to the realities of real-world operations in which some wheels would accumulate mileage at different rates, would operate under different conditions (including tonnage and weather), and be affected by other variables that could only be approximated. Following November 2020 // Railway Age 41

COMPONENT TRACKING the development of Component Tracking, the WABL Committee opened discussions with Railinc to determine if a better system could be implemented by leveraging the standard and more complete data now being generated in the field.

REINVENTING NOT THE WHEEL, BUT THE PROCESS Railinc went to work and developed products that would provide more accurate wheel performance data much faster than the previous—largely manual—practices could.

In the most basic application, suppliers are provided access to data that tracks mileage accumulated by a manufacturer’s population of components, showing the installation date, mileage and removal date (if applicable).

Additional information can also be provided with Railinc’s Component Performance Analyses product, including tonnage carried, impact conditions from wayside detectors, maintenance records, and causes of failure.

With near-real-time data, the accumulation of the first 200,000 miles of service would be immediately known for each wheel, as well as the equipment with which it is associated and the geographic location and current handling road of the equipment.

This is where manufacturers can benefit from significant reductions in time spent identifying, locating and removing specific components. With the data immediately available from Railinc, all this information, plus the condition of targeted components,

their destination, and convenient opportunities for their removal from service can be determined without additional research.

This has made it possible to promptly move to the next stage in the approval process— the capture and removal of 32 wheels from service for ultrasonic inspection. Any metallurgical flaws are then analyzed.

Based on all this data, a decision can quickly be made by the WABL Committee to approve operation of the wheels for an additional 100,000 miles. Following that, 16 wheels are captured and tested. If the results are positive, the committee is able to grant unconditional approval, which allows the supplier to start unlimited wheel manufacturing to meet market demands.

This process, which was once difficult to manage and which could take years to complete, has now been greatly simplified.

Newly designed wheels, incorporating stateof-the-art manufacturing techniques, can now be introduced faster at much lower cost, while meeting all industry and regulatory safety requirements.

Plus, this success opened the way to develop new applications that provide ongoing near-real-time component monitoring and analysis. These advanced systems are generating even greater efficiencies and safer operations of railcars in regular service.

MOVING FROM APPROVALS TO OPERATIONS Railcar owners and railroads are applying

many of the lessons learned in the component approval process to deploy technology-aided monitoring of component performance in daily operations and to utilize the generated data for predictive analytics. These analytics are making it possible to identify component degradations earlier than ever. Repair or replacement of defective components can be made before failures occur. Moreover, component users can evolve from rigid inspection, maintenance and repair schedules to more effective component condition management that both improves safety and helps increase operating efficiency.

The same data acquisition and analysis tools used in the component manufacturing approval process are now being deployed via a suite of Railinc applications designed to help users improve inspection, repair and replacement of railcar components.

These applications include the following: • Inbound Equipment Health Reporting (IEHR) is being used by short line and regional railroads as well as Class I’s to support improved management and handling of interchange equipment that might require maintenance or repair upon arrival. IEHR scans industry systems to consolidate, analyze, and present actionable and prioritized information that helps railroad mechanical, transportation, and customer service departments make timely and correct repairs.

• Fleet Health Reporting enables proactive management of equipment maintenance by railcar owners. Fleet Health Reporting

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www.ltk.com 42 Railway Age // November 2020

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COMPONENT TRACKING analyzes large amounts of industry data to present actionable, prioritized equipment health status information.

• Online Equipment Health Reporting (OEHR) helps railroads reduce the risk of service disruptions and safety-related incidents by providing predictive electronic inspections of equipment currently on their property. OEHR uses the most timely and accurate equipment health data, characteristics, and movement data available.

The digital analysis advances that have been made during the past decade have already produced greater visibility into railcar component service history and condition across much of the North American railcar fleet. Now, this information is being used to flag specific components for maintenance or repair, reducing the need for broad directives covering larger fleets of cars, most of which are not affected by issues with only a few pieces of equipment.

Enough data and experience have been accumulated with these systems that industry leaders can start to develop more accurate predictive maintenance and repair models that will both further improve safety and make operations more efficient. In an industry that seeks to avoid in-service component failures, the development of this technology continues to be a top priority.

RANGER BEARINGS CASE STUDY Introducing a new component in the North American railcar market isn’t easy, and for good reason.

Railcars carry virtually every type of freight—from food to fuel—and on each trip they operate hundreds or thousands of miles, empty or loaded with heavy freight, with environmental conditions that range from blizzards to desert heat. Most important, every railcar component must meet rigorous standards to protect the safety of train crews, communities and others who encounter the equipment along the way.

That’s why the introduction of new or modified components involves a rigorous qualification process.

A provider of wheel bearings since 2014, Ranger Bearings is committed to meeting the highest industry standards. According to company President Dan Conway, recent technology innovations by the railroad industry have greatly improved the process for introducing new and modified components. railwayage.com

Ranger Bearings President Dan Conway

“Prior to the development of digital analysis by North America’s railroads,” he says, “the introduction of new wheelset components required manufacturers to coordinate test service with a daunting number of railcar owners, repair shops, railroads and others.”

He credits past success under this manual process to the cooperative attitude of parties willing to help railcar component manufacturers introduce improved products. Still, Ranger Bearings and other manufacturers had to engage in complex, careful and intense communications when introducing new or modified components.

An example is Ranger Bearings’ Universal Backing Ring (UBR), which protects against axle and bearing contamination and fits on axles of varying diameters.

The AAR WABL Committee oversees the design, testing and monitoring of new components. So, it was the starting place for Ranger Bearings when it decided to introduce an improved UBR. “Our first interaction with WABL,” Conway says, “was that we provide design specifications and results of initial static testing of the new UBR. Once they approved those results, we were allowed to place 32,000 in service. Then the committee required that we trace every single one of those UBRs as they accumulated mileage.”

This is where the industry’s advances in digital component tracing proved its value to Conway.

“At this point, we started working with Railinc to provide real-time data as the UBRs experienced in service conditions,” he says. “They provided voluminous amounts of information that allowed us to analyze the overall performance of our new product and—most importantly—to understand the cause of any individual failures.”

This is important because it allowed

Ranger and WABL to see how many set-outs might be the result of flaws in the new UBRs, and how many set-outs might be due to factors such as wheel failures, flooding, and other issues that had nothing to do with the integrity of the UBRs themselves.

These results showed that Ranger’s new UBRs are performing well, and the data came to Conway and his team efficiently.

Gone was the need to contact the various car owners, shops, railroads, and a multitude of others who were previously needed to provide reports, many of which were less than complete. This greatly reduced the number of phone calls, emails and field visits that used to be necessary.

“As we manufactured the initial UBRs,” Conway says, “we simply applied barcodes which were used to create an association with the wheelsets to which they were applied.

From that point forward, we really didn’t have to coordinate anything to track them.

We simply needed to request that Railinc start tracking. They secured permission from the car owners to provide data about our UBRs, and the data started flowing in.”

“Railinc’s support and professionalism is great and allowed us to provide better information to WABL than was previously possible,” he says.

The result is a tracking and approval process for new components that is both streamlined and improved.

Now, Ranger Bearings is integrating this process into the ongoing tracking and analysis of components that have their final WABL approval and operate in regular service.

“It has made a great impression with our customers and partners,” Conway says.

He cites his experience with a Class I railroad, to which he has provided complete and accurate data on a group of 140,000 bearings, including the percentage of railcar set-outs related to Ranger products.

“That percentage was very, very low, and it gave the railroad confidence that they could count on us to support reliable operations,” he says.

“We know that the support being provided

by Railinc will help us introduce new products, and better service existing products in the future,” Conway says. “That gives us and our partners greater peace of mind as we continue to provide products that are critical to the reliable and safe operations of freight railroads.”

November 2020 // Railway Age 43

TRACK INSPECTION

CN’s Autonomous Track Inspection Program (ATIP) uses railcars equipped with sensors and artificial intelligence that automatically scan and analyze tracks while operating in revenue-service freight trains. BY MATT ALDERTON, FOR BENTLEY SYSTEMS

D

espite the dramatic nature of railroad accidents, conveying goods and passengers by rail is the safest form of ground transportation when compared with other modes. Railway owner-operators are continually finding and implementing new safety innovations that could help prevent accidents and disruptions to service.

44 Railway Age // November 2020

According to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data, there were more than 18,000 train accidents in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Though major ones are rare within the scope of MGTs (million gross ton-miles) and train-miles operated, they can impact the economy.

“Rail is the backbone of our supply chain, so major accidents, though few and far between, have huge economic impacts

in terms of safety and reliability,” said Dan Vogen, Vice President of Road and Rail Asset Management at engineering software company Bentley Systems. Vogen has worked with transportation agencies for the past 27 years, focusing on asset inventory, operation, maintenance, analytics, and oversize/overweight permitting automation. Additionally, he works with global development and implementation teams railwayage.com

TRACK INSPECTION

NO LONGER

CN/Bentley Systems

ATYPICAL in the U.S., Europe and Asia, supporting transportation asset management systems worldwide. He earned a Master of Science degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

While human error is the most common cause of train accidents, track defects are a close second, comprising more than 25% of all incidents, according to FRA. Fortunately, technology is giving railroads new ways to find such defects by measuring track geometry and detecting rail flaws more quickly, more often, more thoroughly and more precisely than was previously possible. The resulting data can help railways detect track defects before they become serious enough to cause a service disruption. railwayage.com

New technologies are now available that vastly improve inspection procedures, which were mostly done manually.

“Today, track maintenance is performed by highly trained professionals who use many different tools to visually inspect the tracks,” explained Rahim Karmali, Chief of Advanced Products and Technologies at Bentley Systems user CN. “The problem is: In order to do inspections, we still have to put people on equipment, on the tracks.”

That means that rail operators sometimes have to strike a delicate balance between safety and uninterrupted service, the former of which CN would never compromise on.

“We operate more than 20,000 routemiles of track across North America in

Canada and the United States. We touch three coasts—the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico—and our trains need to arrive on time in order to meet the demands of the U.S. and Canadian economies,” Karmali noted. “Putting people on the tracks to do inspections is akin to adding more vehicles on a busy highway during rush hour to inspect the pavement; it takes time and occupies network capacity.”

According to Karmali, the key to maximizing safety and performance is automation: using innovative and dependable technology rather than relying solely on people. In 2019, CN conceived its Autonomous Track Inspection Program (ATIP) to bring such innovations to life. Encompassing eight autonomous inspection vehicles— solar-powered railcars equipped with sensors and artificial intelligence that automatically scan and analyze tracks as they traverse them while operating in revenue-service freight trains—CN is on track to inspect 100% of its core network by the end of 2020.

“Placing advanced technology that’s capable of autonomously measuring track conditions on trains that already are moving across our network preserves existing capacity,” Karmali said. (Editor’s Note: Technology like ATIP has the potential to replace regular manual inspections required by FRA and Transport Canada. At this point, regulators, particularly those at FRA’s Research, Development & Technology arm, have been evaluating advanced technologies. It is hoped that rulemakings will be issued permitting such inspection procedures. —William C. Vantuono) Autonomous technology improves and systemizes inspections, according to Bentley, whose data analytics and reality modeling software, AssetWise Digital Twin Services, helps CN exploit the data it collects by creating 3D digital replicas of its system with which to visualize, analyze and simulate maintenance needs and outcomes.

Consider, for example, the onboard sensors on CN’s ATIP railcars: Lasers measure track geometry with millimeter precision. Machine vision looks for missing or damaged components (e.g., rail cracks, loose joint bars, bad welds, missing fasteners, bad ties, etc.). Cross-plane LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) offers a 3D view of the right-of-way that reveals November 2020 // Railway Age 45

TRACK INSPECTION

Recognize the inspection car livery?

It’s patterned after a safety vest!

Dan Vogen

Bentley Systems 46 Railway Age // November 2020

that the only practical way to process it is with AI. To that end, forward-thinking railroads like CN are developing machine learning algorithms that use track measurements alongside variables like weather and tonnage to forecast maintenance needs before problems actually develop. On a single CN test corridor between Chicago and New Orleans (the former Illinois Central main line), for example, combining autonomous inspection with AI and machine learning has helped CN reduce track defects by as much as 90%.

“If we deal with data intelligently, it can help us identify changes and trends that we can share with CN for them to act on,” Vogen said.

And act CN does: When a potential safety problem is found, CN’s cloud-based ATIP system uses a wireless link to send a notification in near real time to track maintenance employees, who receive a diagnosis and GPS coordinates so they can address it. Simultaneously, machine learning algorithms digest the data in ways that help them forecast similar issues.

“In some cases, we’re collecting 20 gigabytes of data per mile. All that becomes part of our corporate memory, which allows us to track minor changes in the railway and gives us the ability to predict conditions before they occur, keeping our railroad even safer,” Karmali said. “Through the use of AI and big data, we’re transforming

our team from ‘finders’ to ‘fixers.’”

Therein lies the promise of autonomous rail inspection: Time, resources and manpower that used to be consumed by assessing track conditions can be devoted, instead, to actually improving them. The advantages of this paradigm shift will be far reaching, benefiting the rail industry as a whole. “Utilizing tools like Bentley’s platform helps us determine exactly where we need to go and exactly what we need to do,” Karmali said. “We can visualize data and make effective decisions in response to it … It’s extremely powerful, and it’s already improving both the safety of our network and its capacity.”

Rahim Karmali CN

railwayage.com

CN/Bentley Systems

encroachments that may impede operations. Ground-penetrating radar scrutinizes the track subgrade for its drainage properties. Ultrasonic sensors reveal internal rail flaws that cannot be detected with the human eye. Replacing hi-rail inspection vehicles that cover the entire system a few times a year with ATIP-equipped railcars that can inspect track as often as they’re operating in revenue trains creates virtually continuous inspection.

“Because these vehicles collect 10, 20, 30 or 40 very detailed types of measurements for every single foot that they travel, the amount of data we have now is huge,” said Bentley’s Vogen. In fact, the volume of data is so large

STAY IN GEAR WITH RAIL GROUP NEWS RAIL GROUP NEWS brings you a daily round-up of news stories from Railway Age, RT&S, and IRJ. This email newsletter offers North American and global news and analysis of the freight and passenger markets. From developments in rail technology, operations, and strategic planning to legislative issues and engineering news, we’ve got you covered.

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ROUND-UP

RAILW

SYSTEM SAFETY

PART 2, SYSTEM SAFETY AS A VALUE-ADDED BUSINESS DRIVER

BY SONIA BOT AND TONY ZENGA

48 Railway Age // November 2020

railwayage.com

Union Pacific

SYSTEM SAFETY

SYSTEM SAFETY (ETC); and AI (artificial intelligence)-based automation such as expanding autonomous inspection to include predictive analytics for track data. How do we know that these solutions and systems are safe and that there are no lurking issues? How do we know that the integration of multiple components from vendors, partners, and even from within meet safety objectives? How do we know if safety integrity is preserved after a change is made? How do we shift the paradigm where safety moves from a cost center to a value-added business driver?

In Part 1 (RA, October 2020), we made the case for system safety as the necessary discipline for railroads to embed as they move forward in innovating and advancing in the 21st century.

In Part 2, we step through proven guiding principles, how they can be applied to embedding system safety, and resulting paradigm shifts; all with the goal of improving safety performance and opening up new opportunities for revenue streams.

I

ndustry 4.0 (also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution) is a reality. Railroads, including their partners in the transportation supply chain, are at the beginning of their journey to establishing true end-to-end digital continuity. For example: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT); Positive Train Control (PTC) and Enhanced Train Control railwayage.com

EMBEDDING SYSTEM SAFETY: GUIDING PRINCIPLES Implementing a comprehensive safety program that meets the new demands of autonomous systems can be perceived as a daunting and risky proposition, especially when breaking new ground. However, by systematically embedding system safety using some tried-and-true guiding principles, the implementation risk is reduced, time to value realization is accelerated, safety performance is improved, and capability maturity grows at a healthy and sustainable pace.

These guiding principles focus on rewarding an entrepreneurial culture, exercising business rigor and relevancy, forging productive partnerships, safeguarding end-to-end f low, and fostering a learning organization. If these sound familiar, they were also applied to “PSR 2.0” (Bot & Orr, see Railway Age June/ July/August 2020 series on PSR, The Next Generation). Long before this, we’ve been using and maturing them in our work in high-technology and related industries (products, services, transportation, manufacturing and operations).

Innovation and sound business practices are at the core of these guiding

principles. They support the 21st century focus of differentiating and innovating, and not just improving, which was true for the 20th century.

Globally, movement toward a designbased economy is well under way across all major and emerging industries.

Companies must become more like “design shops” to be competitive, not just the design of widgets but design of the overall business.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN ACTION Let’s apply each of these guiding principles to the system safety practice.

Rewarding an entrepreneurial culture: Confronted with the urgency and speed of change driven by the latest wave of the digital age, and more specifically on the rising stake and paradigm shift for safety, an entrepreneurial approach to system safety is an effective way to accomplish this shift.

Promoting traits like creativity and controlled risk-taking require effective talent management, especially when the traits of effective safety personnel or safety investigators are not the same as entrepreneurial safety program managers. Managers become less administrative and more like orchestrators who encourage cross-collaboration across functional teams. They evaluate their employees against their contribution to the organization’s mission and focus on matching qualified people with the right work. They create cross-fertilization that sparks ingenuity for mitigating safety-related risks to determine optimum mitigation strategies among project stakeholders.

It may be necessary to develop novel safety approaches and establish responsive feedback loops for staff to contribute to strategic-level initiatives. Safety organizations should consider reassessing their operating concepts to ensure they allow for adaptability in an ever-progressing environment of system complexity.

Constantly re-examining decisions (for example, policy, financial, strategic) and pivoting accordingly, because of changing circumstances, keeps a tight focus on reducing delivery and performance risk and in doing the right thing. All of this is done systematically and with discipline.

Exercise business rigor and relevancy: November 2020 // Railway Age 49

SYSTEM SAFETY Safety is a table stakes requirement for a railroad to meet its business objectives, obligations and product/service offerings.

When precisely fitting services to markets, or automating processes and solutions, the system safety planning and approach must be tailored for the application with measurable results upfront, and not as an afterthought. The safety business case must include a multi-dimensional business assessment with clear definitions of strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.

An unsafe work environment, product/ service or system will have dire consequences on the business and ecosystem.

It is not a matter of “if ” an incident will happen, but more “when” and “how often” it would happen. As part of the evolution, safety can be leveraged as a value-added business driver and become less of a business cost center. Safety features, or their derivatives, can become monetizable product and service offerings for customers.

Forge productive partnerships: Because of the complexities and scalability introduced in the digital world of system of systems or system integration, no one person or group or company can attack system safety alone. Within a corporation, this is a multi-disciplinary effort across the corporation end-to-end, requiring productive partnerships to be established. Highly specialized talent, not necessarily part of the current talent pool, is required, for both the initial stages and the longer term.

In the short term, the surest, fastest and most sustainable approach is to bring in a small tiger-team of elite professionals to assess, architect, setup and assist in implementing system safety best practices and solutions to problems. In the process, employees learn and mature their capabilities through expert example.

Furthermore, more emphasis can be placed on developing more productive and collaborative partnerships with the players in the transportation ecosystem (for example, other railroads, air, ports, trucking, pipeline, subsystem suppliers, customers) to pursue creative approaches to system safety challenges and act as force multipliers for governmental agencies that do not have the resources 50 Railway Age // November 2020

to investigate every potential system safety issue.

Safeguard end-to-end flow: By its very nature, system safety requires an endto-end system view, where the system can comprise technology components, processes and people, and scale within and across organizations, companies, ecosystems, and supply chains.

Typical areas of safety vulnerabilities include integration points of technology components and interfaces, handoffs between parties, and balancing supply chain implications at first- and last-mile terminals. One needs to follow and address the (potential) hazard stepby-step from its point of origin and through the cascading web within which it impacts.

Foster a learning organization: As the system safety discipline is being embedded into the organization, company and ecosystem, it is important to develop learning mechanisms that allow the adoption and execution of safety best practices.

A continuous mastery and improvement mindset is required system-wide; along with supporting tools and structures.

Learning elements come from all areas (for example, crisis, disruption, success) and are augmented with leadership rotations through and within the ecosystem (for example, inter-disciplinary people exchange, skills investment, enterprisewide mobilization to engage and build the leadership cohort). This requires fully committed, aligned, disciplined, transformational and experienced leadership.

SHIFTING THE PARADIGM Safety improvement efforts do not go far enough, and in some cases, failures are socially accepted within the walls of the industry. Industry 4.0 brings an opportunity to turn this around, which in turn is demanding a paradigm shift in the industry. Here are some examples as they relate to system safety.

From standalone systems to integrated system of systems: Through the intervention of the Department of Transportation (DOT), Positive Train Control (PTC) in the U.S. was mandated as a high-technology means to address unresolved historic safety issues, in particular for some types of train collisions and derailments.

Similarly, Transport Canada (TC) is assessing solutions, known as Enhanced Train Control (ETC), while learning and evolving from the PTC experience in the U.S. These initiatives pave the path for more autonomous operations that address the historic safety issues and are enabled by technology and big data. This introduces the requirement to work within a system of systems context as supported by our methods. Standalone systems, which are the norm for traditional approaches, are no longer sufficient.

From fragmented and incomplete to fully connected and traceable hazard mitigations end-to-end: Digitization and automation in railroading would demand that each project implementation would include a system safety/hazard assessment at all levels (that is, system of systems, system, sub-system, unit). It would also demand the same for interoperability and interworking across the ecosystem.

The mechanisms, tools and platform in our system safety approach make a seemingly daunting task manageable and productive.

Meanwhile, with the traditional approaches, one would be hard-pressed to find a cohesive and traceable hazard log with end-to-end hazard mitigations and verifications within and across interworking railroads, let alone tied together through all the system levels. How does a railroad know that what they receive from suppliers is safe in their railroad, not to mention when they interoperate with other railroads? Goodwill committee efforts do not scale for this size of problem under the current approaches.

In the end, a missing safety-related function, such as failing brakes at the unit level, negatively impacts all stakeholders. It does not solely affect the originator of the problem such as the supplier that may have delivered the functional capability, or the mechanical group that may not have been notified of actions required to mitigate the safety concern, or the transportation group that insisted on running trains at the risk of proactive testing and maintenance, or the train operator that stretched the environmental limits for operating the system; all stakeholders in the ecosystem are impacted to varying degrees. railwayage.com

SYSTEM SAFETY From Big Bang delivery to rapid valueadded delivery cycles: Technology, big data and automation have enormous potential in the rail industry. The industry can no longer afford (money and time to implement) high risk Big Bang delivery as typically done in traditional approaches, including the various introductions of PSR in the early-adopter Class I’s.

Our approach supports an Entrepreneurial Time-to-Market delivery methodology that is low risk, nimble, delivers value in progressive increments and aligns with modern approaches used by new entrant competitors. The system safety value propositions and methodology are embedded into the delivery framework.

It is structured to be more inclusive of all stakeholders within an organization and across the transportation ecosystem. It is scalable.

From isolated brute force to progressively interconnected system maturation focus: Railroads must still resolve longstanding human factors safety issues such as lack of adherence to policies and rules. Our system safety methodology is systematic and relentless with its approach to cultural and capability development across organizations and across the ecosystem.

We make it a point to practically understand current maturity levels and progressively build up to its target levels.

We utilize the Pareto principle as a starting point, recognizing that 80% of problems arise from 20% of their causes (unless there is solid data indicating otherwise), and it applies business precision methods for prioritization. With traditional approaches, focus is typically on individual departments or organizations within a railroad, and in several cases unnecessary large-scale “rip and replace” strategies are used; plus there is no consideration for the rest of the transportation ecosystem.

From a cost center to a valueadded business driver: The traditional approaches view safety as a business cost center. It costs money and reputation to clean up accidents or close calls.

Meanwhile, our system safety approach enables the paradigm shift toward safety being a value-added business driver.

Rather than investing heavily on processes railwayage.com

and systems to clean up from mishaps and accidents, let’s proactively build systems, solutions, products and services with value-added safety and reliability features upfront, where they even can generate new revenue streams.

With safer operations, the need for investing in processes and systems for cleaning up decreases, with time and resources freed up for innovative and entrepreneurial endeavors. Innovative safety-based solutions can be patented, where the patents can be monetized (for example, revenue streams from licensing, sale or litigation)—a potentially lucrative business model as proven over the past decade in many industries embracing technology-based innovation.

Furthermore, in our experience, which includes statistically correlated data of our results, process waste is reduced by 20% to 80%. The level of improvement depends on cultural and capability maturity at the beginning of the transformation or change effort.

Industry 4.0 demands a shift in traditional paradigms for safety in railroading. System safety engineering is at the core. When driven by the proven guiding principles, a railroad, including its partners, can effectively launch and progressively mature its system safety practice. As an added bonus, system safety becomes a mechanism for creating new revenue streams.

STAY TUNED In Part 3 (December issue), we will discuss three often neglected or poorly understood aspects of system safety practices. Mastering these is key for a system safety program to achieve its potential and influence the maturation of the organization’s safety culture.

Listen to the Rail Group On Air Podcast: Interview with Sonia Bot and Tony Zenga on “Safety Doesn’t Happen by Accident: The Coming of Age of System Safety, Part 2: System Safety as a Value-Added Business Driver.”

This article is based on the novella-sized white paper, “System Safety as a Value-Added Business Driver: The Evolution of Railroading in the Eras of Technology and Innovation.” (Bot & Zenga, July 2020).

Sonia Bot, chief executive of The BOT Consulting Group Inc., has played key roles in the inception and delivery of several strategic businesses and Sonia Bot transformations in technology, media and telecommunications companies worldwide.

By utilizing methodologies in entrepreneurship, business precision, Lean Six Sigma, systems and process engineering, and organizational behavior, she’s enabled organizations to deliver breakthrough results along with providing them a foundation to continue to excel. She was instrumental in PTC implementation on CN’s U.S. lines. Her approaches on the evolution of railroading and transportation are game changers that drive innovation and competitive advantage for adopters in a changing industry. Sonia can be reached at sdbot@botgroupinc.com.

Tony Zenga, owner of CMTIGroup Inc., is an accomplished specialty engineering consultant with international experience in Tony Zenga operational reliability and safety for mission critical systems. He has played key roles in the implementation of system safety engineering programs for aerospace, defense, high-tech, mass transit and rail infrastructure projects worldwide. By leveraging on his design and development experience of large-scale safetycritical systems, combined with his systems engineering knowledge, he enables organizations to deploy their systems safely into field operation. As advisor to CN, he was instrumental in the development of the PTC system safety engineering safety case and the creation of the system safety engineering discipline. Tony can be reached at tzenga@cmtigroup.com.

November 2020 // Railway Age 51

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With 25,000+ ballast gates sold worldwide, Miner AggreGate sets the standard, delivering proven reliability and innovative flexibility. Our new Stand-Alone Solar Powered Electric AggreGate—complete with its own car-mounted work lights for night ballasting—enables independent operation of individual cars anywhere within the ballast train. This boosts MOW agility and efficiency by eliminating the need for grouping manual and automatic cars. An optional remote wireless control system allows for specific car and gate selection for up to 1000 cars. Standard electric, air-powered and manual models are also available.

The Leader in Innovation and Technology. Simple.

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LEFT: Accessible gate controllers and battery banks ensure smooth operations and efficient maintenance.

MIDDLE: Car-mounted solar panels keep the battery banks charged and ready for stand-alone ballast operations.

RIGHT: Miner’s stand-alone LED lighting system enables safer night operations.

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TechnologyFocus Focus --M/W M/W Technology

Redesigned in 2019, Knox Kershaw’s KBR 925 Ballast Regulator operates on all track types.

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BALLAST MAINTENANCE

DELIVERED Optimizing costs and work windows and continuing R&D are among suppliers’ latest efforts to keep ballast in good repair.

Knox Kershaw

W

BY MARYBETH LUCZAK, EXECUTIVE EDITOR

hile most aspects of railroading have not been immune from the effects of COVID-19— namely, a drop in business—many railroads have been “working smart” and thinking ahead, taking advantage of lower traffic levels to get a jump on maintenance-of-way projects, before work windows re-tighten when operations return to pre-pandemic levels. State-ofgood-repair and other projects are continuing, and railroads are using a variety of highproduction, high-tech-driven track machines to perform the work. Ballast programs are among the most important of these.

OmniTRAX, for example, “is planning for explosive railcar volume growth and is preparing a comprehensive plan of general M/W across our rail lines in anticipation,” says Senior Vice President of Engineering Anthony Cox, who adds that the company is completing new engineering for more than 80 miles of track on the Georgia-Florida Railway—taking it from excepted status to FRA Class 2 status.

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“The focus of the effort is making each railroad even safer and improving performance for our shippers and Class I partners by optimizing the care of the track and rest of the rail property, and by using analytics to predict, schedule and execute our maintenance programs.”

OmniTRAX typically lays down about 5,000 tons of ballast per year to ensure safe operations. For 2021, it has planned track hardening projects for the 509-mile Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railway—replacing 40,000 ties and more than 2,000 tons of ballast, plus surfacing—and the 31-mile Panhandle Northern Railroad in Texas—13,000 new ties and 1,000 tons of ballast, plus surfacing.

Kansas City Southern reports that it is planning undercutting, tie distribution, out-offace surfacing projects and capacity projects for 2021. As well, it is working to upgrade some of its current ballast M/W fleet to “enhance its utilization and functionality.”

Railway Age contacted Balfour Beatty, Custom Truck & Equipment, Herzog, Knox Kershaw Inc., Loram/GREX, Miner, Mitchell Equipment Corp., Montana Hydraulics LLC,

Plasser American, Progress Rail and Railmetrics to find out about market conditions for their products and services, what customers are asking for, and what’s new in the pipeline or in R&D. Ontario Trap Rock, a ballast supplier, also weighed in.

BALFOUR BEATTY Engaging with customers is key, says Steve Atherton, Divisional Manager Track Solutions, so service providers and suppliers “can make certain of where they’re heading.” And many, he notes, are focusing now on budget optimization, which means they need a better understanding of asset conditions to ensure proper investment. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology, for instance, is “coming into its own” because of it, he points out.

Atherton says Balfour Beatty is also looking at using a combination of technologies that includes GPR data to help railroads determine more accurately how much ballast is needed for replacement and how much can be reclaimed via its fleet on production undercutters, for example.

November 2020 // Railway Age 53

Technology Focus - M/W CUSTOM TRUCK & EQUIPMENT For ballast maintenance, customers often request the Spec 760: Hi-Rail Rotary Dumps, says Patrick Brown, Sales and Service Coordinator, Rail. The Spec 760 features a 14-foot, 12-cubic-yard elliptical dump body that uses a 180-degree rotating turntable and telescopic hoist to achieve its rotary function. If selected as an option, the dump bed may be operated via radio remote control, which effectively “streamlines the operation of the 760 and optimizes the operator’s track-time,” he notes.

Many of the company’s other offerings— hi-rail SUVs or service trucks, for instance— are often used as ancillary vehicles. The X2 Model is the latest iteration of Custom Truck & Equipment’s railcar mover, which can pull gondolas, railcars or ballast carts.

HERZOG Herzog’s fleet of specialized on-track equipment serves railroads from initial right-of-way assessment to final track bed stabilization.

“As freight traffic slowed in Q2 and Q3 of this year, the railroads caught up on a lot of their track maintenance work,” Vice President of Ballast Operations and Railcar Leasing Ryan Crawford says. “Our ballast crews took advantage of the longer work windows and really maximized productivity.”

Looking ahead, “an increase in utilization looks promising once 2021 budgets are complete and projects are released,” he adds.

“Even without additional track and time, our equipment excels under operating models that maximize asset utilization, such as Precision Scheduled Railroading.”

Herzog’s newest iteration of its LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Truck offers enhanced right-of-way inspection. Traveling

at track speed, this hi-rail vehicle can replace manual track surveys over long distances.

“The new LiDAR Truck can traverse more miles and collect more data in one work window, as it can continue surveying over crossings, bridges and switches without stopping,” Crawford says. “We can deliver data to the customer quicker than ever.”

After a LiDAR survey, railroads can view a detailed ballast profile and prioritize areas of concern using reports that highlight hotspots, inch lift profiles or dead rock areas, for example. That data can then be “loaded onto one of Herzog’s patented GPS ballast trains to dump rock onto track shoulders and centers at precise locations according to the survey’s specified quantities and GPS coordinates.”

Herzog’s Automated Conveyor Train allows railroads to unload at a rate of 2,000 tons of ballast per hour in areas for washouts, new construction or stockpiling. It can distribute material in curves with one operator.

KNOX KERSHAW INC. Customers today are looking for “improved diagnostics, advanced technology, and

machines that reduce the number of workers on the ground,” says President and COO George Pugh.

The company’s KBR 925 Ballast Regulator, which was redesigned in 2019, is for ballast work on all types of track. “Superb visibility, especially the wing areas, makes it the ideal machine for final profiling,” Knox Kershaw says. Among the upgrades for 2020 are steel tubing for hydraulic lines in the main frame, a repositioned hydraulic tank for added frontend weight with a 130-gallon capacity, and a doubled fuel capacity of 220 gallons. In addition, its Danfoss PLUS+1® System includes a 12-inch color touch screen monitor to display machine functions and diagnostics and help operators optimize productivity.

In R&D, Knox Kershaw is currently working on a new Plate Layer, Plate Shifter and fully redesigned Tie Crane, Pugh reports.

LORAM/GREX As a result of the pandemic, services in the freight rail sector have “seen some softening,” Loram/GREX tells Railway Age. “The reduction in rail traffic has prompted some

Herzog’s Automated Conveyor Train can discharge ballast 50 feet from the track center.

QTrack® is our embedded ballastless track system, which offers a unique shape and adapted stiffness characteristics for reducing ground-borne noise.

54 Design.indd Railway Age // November 2020 1

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Herzog

Mitigate your noise & vibration

Technology Focus - M/W customers to reduce maintenance spending, while others are taking the increase in track availability to maintain or increase work windows. Overall business has held better than forecasts from earlier in the year.”

On the transit side, there has been “a larger slowdown in ballast and grade work, but not as much as originally forecast. In the early days of the pandemic, some machine startups were delayed as transit ridership dropped off almost completely. As spring turned to summer, deferred maintenance plans still required completion and business picked up to typical summer/fall machine utilization.”

The company anticipates “a strong close of the year” for both sectors.

Loram says it provides “the right equipment to resolve root-cause problems that are creating accelerated ballast and grade degradation,” and takes a “holistic approach to track maintenance planning by utilizing GPR, LiDAR, geometry car and other data points to understand the full scope of issues in tracks.”

On the equipment side, customers continue to ask for faster, more efficient machines, the

railwayage.com

company says. It is developing equipment— like the MHC60 Material Handling Car—to increase productivity, and reinvesting in and upgrading existing equipment.

Loram is also investing in R&D. “In addition to the effort that is always applied to developing new equipment and features for our ballast and grading product lines, we are also investigating better ways to aggregate and post-process data that both Loram and the railroads are collecting,” the company reports.

MINER Miner, which offers AggreGate ballasting systems, says there has been a growing interest in “night ballasting and using our solarcharged lighting system.”

This stand-alone lighting system uses solar panels to store energy for powering LED work lights at night. It is available with standard electric, air-powered and manual AggreGates, and as a retrofit option for existing cars.

The solar-powered, electric-battery-operated stand-alone AggreGate enables independent operation of the car from anywhere

within the ballast train, says Miner.

The company is now fulfilling a 375-car order that features the AggreGate with standalone lighting. (The LED flat-panel arrays are affixed to the railcar undercarriage.) The first cars began rolling off FreightCar America’s production line in mid-August. Delivery is expected to wrap up by year-end.

According to Miner, the AggreGate can effectively ballast the gauge and field sides of rail independently or simultaneously. Large guillotine-style door openings are designed to stop ballast flow with minimum effort, the company adds, making it easy to shut off ballast at switches, crossovers and bridges.

Engineered as a fabricated and completely assembled unit, and available in both weld-on and bolt-on models, the AggreGate can be applied to new or existing hopper cars.

MITCHELL EQUIPMENT CORP. “Inquiries for our products have been strong, especially in the area of our Hydraulic Drive Rail Gear, which we offer for hydraulic track excavators,” says President Estel L. Lovitt, Jr.

November 2020 // Railway Age 55

Technology Focus - M/W “We are also developing a Hydraulic Drive System for Wheeled Excavators that will have our Out & Down Outriggers system installed that can reach over third-rail found on transit systems. The big advantage of this machine will be its good approach and departure angles for getting on/off rail without a crossing and its ability to provide full stability when working over the side. This machine will also be able to use our Tamper Attachment.”

According to Lovitt, a Wheeled Excavator Railcar Mover/Material handler is now in the testing phase. The advantage, he says, “is with our Weight Transfer Couplers; we can develop more tractive effort for pulling railcars while handling materials.” Also in development: hydraulic drive systems for “very large track hydraulic excavators and RT cranes that normally cannot travel on rail.”

MONTANA HYDRAULICS LLC For Montana Hydraulics, the market for field services remains strong, and “interest in our ballast car components—center mounted plow, hydraulic side dump system, ballast

56 Railway Age // November 2020

car sliding tarp system and our new ballast gate—has been very high recently,” says owner Della Ehlke. “No sales in the pipeline yet, but the interest in products seems to be rebounding. Our longer-term outlook for field services and ballast car products is very positive.” Customers, Ehlke adds, are asking for “anything and everything that keeps their ballast cars in service and productively dumping rock, with an explicit focus on safety.” Another need: upgrading manual ballast cars to automated systems.

Early this year, the first group of 10 Montana Hydraulics Bobcat ballast car tarping systems began operating. They help prevent moisture from getting into loads of ballast and freezing, thus allowing ballast unloading in winter, Ehlke says. The company’s newest product is the BDS Ballast Gate, which offers “substantial” clearance, so a conveyor can be placed underneath for stockpiling and transloading.

ONTARIO TRAP ROCK Regional Sales Manager, U.S. Operations Bill Sanders reports that Class I ballast volume

has fallen more than 50%, while regional and switching volume has been consistent. This is due, in part, to PSR as well as the pandemic, which has taken a toll on spending with freight traffic down, he says.

For 2021, the company anticipates volumes to be “relatively flat,” with more short-term work for Class I project-specific needs, such as new sidings.

PLASSER AMERICAN Plasser offers several ballast-cleaning machines. These include the RM80, a “workhorse” that undercuts and cleans plain track as well as switches, and highcapacity double screening units.

The company’s PBR2005 Ballast Profiling machine can plow, profile and broom in one pass. The shoulder plows’ design allows the machine to “reach out and pull in ballast, which was previously beyond the reach of conventional ballast regulators,” Plasser says. The PBR2005DB, it adds, is “ideally suited to work behind two-tie tampers where it can easily keep up with the tamper

railwayage.com

Technology Focus - M/W in a ‘one pass’ operation.”

The Plasser Ballast Distribution System can profile, pick up excess and unload ballast where it is needed at any location, including switches and road crossings, in one pass, according to the company. In addition, the BDS100/200 “continues to be the ideal machine to accompany our high-speed 09-3X tampers or multiple tampers working together.”

Plasser’s MFS Hopper Conveyor series of cars are available in various sizes, and additional cars can be coupled together to increase capacity. These cars can be used with Undercutter and Shoulder Cleaners for loading waste material or carrying new ballast and to add storage capacity to the BDS100/200 system.

PROGRESS RAIL “The demand for freight rail products has been impacted” during most of 2020, says Vice President of Maintenance-of-Way Operations Mark Wuenstel. “However, it is picking up for North America and appears strong for international.”

What are customers looking for? They are

“constantly seeking ways to do more with less,” he says, and want a collaborative partner providing “automated solutions that aid in safely preventing or reducing potential issues from happening, while increasing overall productivity.” That’s why Progress Rail, in conjunction with parent company Caterpillar, is working on technology advancements for its M/W equipment.

“By developing safety enhancements,” Wuenstel says, “we can help add to the operator’s confidence—making it easier to avoid potential damage to the machine and lessening the risk of safety hazards for those working with and around the equipment.” Progress Rail also offers retrofit kits to upgrade technology on M/W fleets “for an extended productive life cycle and enhanced safe operation.”

As for R&D, Wuenstel says, “Progress Rail continuously works with customers to consider innovative ways to improve the design of our legacy machines. Additionally, we are developing new products that will streamline and optimize M/W machine use.”

RAILMETRICS At Railmetrics, the LRAIL railway inspection sensor system has been drawing interest from railway operators and private inspection service providers serving the freight and transit sectors, due to its “multifunctional and compact aspect,” Principal Consultant Richard Fox-Ivey says.

And with track time always at a premium, he adds, “our customers are looking for sensor solutions that go beyond basic geometry measurements and provide additional capabilities, such as tie grading and fastener inspection all in the same pass.”

On the R&D side, Railmetrics will soon start its fourth Federal Railroad Administration-funded project related to the development of track condition change detection technology.

“The work combines high-speed 3D laser scanning and artificial intelligence to detect subtle yet important changes in track conditions over time, before maintenance or safety thresholds are met, in order to spot potential future problems,” Fox-Ivey says.

Innovation that Drives Performance 

Ground Penetrating Radar, LiDAR and vision based trackbed condition assessment



High performance production undercutting



Switch / spot undercutting



Yard cleaning



Autonomous track geometry measurement



Automated vision-based track inspection

For more information, contact: rail@balfourbeattyus.com | (904) 370-7160

railwayage.com

www.balfourbeattyus.com

November 2020 // Railway Age 57

TALL ORDER Through Metrolinx, the GTHA is investing billions of transit dollars in one of Canada’s fastestgrowing regions.

BY WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

58 Railway Age // November 2020

L

ight rail/streetcars, rapid transit, regional/commuter rail: Canada’s GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) in Ontario Province has it all, and under the auspices of Metrolinx, has been aggressively investing billions in new builds and expansion.

Metrolinx is now under the leadership of President and CEO Phil Verster, a South Africa native and global rail industry veteran who came to Canada after having managed train operations and infrastructure builds and management for passenger rail systems in England, Scotland and Ireland. An engineer by training, Verster holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering and a Master’s of Engineering, both from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, as well as an MBA from the University of Newcastle Business School and an LLM Post Graduate Diploma (Commercial Law) from the University of Northumbria, both in the U.K. Phil Verster began his career in the electricity sector in his native South Africa. From 2001 to 2003, he was Depot Manager and Production Director for a U.K. division of Bombardier Rail. In 2003, he moved from the supplier side to passenger rail operations at Southeastern Trains. He then spent five years at Irish Rail, where he served in different roles, including Deputy CEO. In 2011, Verster joined Britain’s Network Rail, where he was Managing Director, London North East and East Midlands Route. He is credited with having “pioneered a new approach to structured continuous improvement that delivered improved safety and train performance as well as an enhanced passenger experience.” Verster then ran Scotland’s ScotRail passenger rail service from 2015 to 2017. In early 2017, he served as Managing Director of Network Rail’s East West Railway.

Verster was drawn to Canada and Metrolinx because he relishes challenge, he said during Railway Age’s Oct. 27 “Rail Insights Canada” virtual conference. The agency, which in size and scope of activities can be compared to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority but has a rather different approach to capital projects—namely, P3s—works with federal, provincial and municipal partners, the private sector and other stakeholders “to railwayage.com

William C. Vantuono

PASSENGER RAIL FOCUS: GTHA

PASSENGER RAIL FOCUS: GTHA create an integrated transportation system that would support a higher quality of life, a more prosperous economy and a healthier environment.” The agency has embarked upon its 2041 Regional Transportation Plan, described as “the largest transportation investment in Ontario’s history and one of the largest in North America.”

“By 2041, more than 10 million people will live in the region—comparable to Paris or London,” Metrolinx notes. “We continue working toward delivering an integrated, regional transportation system with a mix of buses, streetcars, light rail, heavy rail and subways that will serve the needs of residents and businesses for years to come.”

“The really exciting thing about Canada I found after I joined was how enthusiastic communities, especially those in the GTHA, are about transit, which is such a huge economic enabler,” Verster said. Through the P3 process, of which there are several iterations, massive projects can take less time to attain revenue service and have a greater chance of coming in within budget. Verster

Ontario’s first new LRT commenced public operation on June 21, 2019, in the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo. The LRT operates under the brand name of ION. It was built under a 30-year P3 DBFOM (design-build-finance-operate-maintain) agreement with an overall contractor, Grandlinq. Subcontractors included Plenary Group, Meridian Infrastructure, Aecon and Kiewit. Keolis Grandlinq LP is the operating and maintenance contractor. The Waterloo Region owns the system, including all infrastructure and vehicles; sets fares and service levels; collects fares; and provides customer service.

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November 2020 // Railway Age 59

PASSENGER RAIL FOCUS: GTHA

The Mobilinx consortium, consisting of Hitachi Rail, Astaldi Canada Enterprises Inc., Salini-Impregilo S.p.A., John Laing Investments Limited, Transdev North America, Inc. and Amico Concessions Inc. and Bot Engineering & Construction Ltd., last year signed a C$4.6 billion DBFOM contract with Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx for the Hurontario LRT. The contract value includes approximately C$2.1 billion in total capital construction costs.

1_2pgHorzWrkStTraining2019.qxp_Layout 1 7/17/19 10:00 AM Page 1

believes in the “carrot approach,” as opposed to the “stick approach,” where the consortiums that provide the designing, engineering, construction, financing, operation and maintenance are provided with incentives that will help ensure a profitable venture.

Do politics get in the way of transit progress in Canada? Of course—what public transportation program in any part of the world isn’t political to some extent? Canada is not immune from political meddling (think of the late, eccentric Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug, currently Premier of Ontario, both of whom were/are decidedly anti-rail-transit, or at least anti-light rail).

But egocentric characters who don’t appear to focus on the greater good like the Ford brothers are anomalies in a region, indeed a nation, that is willing to make the investments and create the long-term plans that support rail transit and the economic, social and environmental benefits it brings.

Canadians, it is said, are deeply concerned with sustainability, not only for themselves, but generations to come.

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railwayage.com

People / Events MERRITT CANFIELD 20/20 Foresight

HIGH PROFILE: Merritt Canfield has joined 20/20 Foresight Executive Search as Managing Director in the company’s Chicago headquarters. Canfield brings more than 20 years of executive search experience to her new role, including placing C-suite and executive-level positions in Fortune 500 companies, railroads, and rail equipment, finance, manufacturing and legal firms. Her specialized expertise will help to expand 20/20 Foresight’s service specialties to include a focus on the rail industry, the company said. In 2013, Canfield joined Edna Rice Executive Recruiters, a global firm specializing in multiple disciplines in passenger and freight rail. There she served as a rail industry executive search leader and advisor, working with Fortune 500, investors and investment firms, private equity firms, boards of directors, and other public and private companies in all specialties in the industry. In 2019, with a surge of activity in short line and regional railroads mergers and acquisitions, Canfield placed multiple C-suite and executive roles for numerous investment and private equity firms. Canfield was a featured speaker at the 2018 American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association Finance & Administration and General Counsel Symposium and Railway Age’s Rail Insights 2019 conference.

November 17-18, 2020

TRB NATIONAL TRANSIT SAFETY AND SECURITY CONFERENCE/APTA MID-YEAR SAFETY AND SECURITY SEMINAR, A VIRTUAL EVENT TRB’s National Transit Safety and Security Conference and APTA’s Mid-Year Safety and Security Seminar will include presentations on successful outcomes and lessons learned from safety and security policy and procedure modifications and technology pilots and deployments. It will also include presentations on actionable one-world transit and passenger rail safety and security research findings.

To register: https://trb.secureplatform.com/a/page/transitsafety.

W

abtec named Nicole Theophilus as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, succeeding Scott Wahlstrom, who retired. Theophilus will be responsible for leading its global HR organization, including talent management, leadership development and learning, and compensation and benefits. With more than 20 years of experience, Theophilus has served as Chief Human Resource Officer at ConAgra as well as West Corp. While at ConAgra, she focused on the consolidation of multiple independently operating business units; at West, she was “instrumental in driving a large-scale, complex cultural transformation,” the company noted. “Niki’s robust experience in coaching, organizational and talent management will help catapult Wabtec to the next level, fueling continued growth,” Wabtec President and CEO Rafael Santana said.

Transportation veteran Gregory A. Kelly became President and CEO of STV Inc. on Oct. 26. Based in New York City, Kelly is responsible for helping STV achieve “its short- and long-term strategic goals with an emphasis on performance, business development, technology and human capital.” Kelly served previously as CEO of Heritage Construction + Materials, a provider of asphalt products, aggregates and construction services in the Midwest. Prior

railwayage.com

to that role, he was President and CEO of WSP USA, where he led a team of nearly 10,000 planners, engineers, scientists, and construction and program managers on major infrastructure projects for governments, public agencies, and private companies around the world. Jason Mumford has joined STV as Vice President and Planning Director in the Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Division. He will lead STV’s planning group in the Mid-Atlantic region and assist in growing the firm’s transit and rail planning practice nationally.

After two years as Union Pacific Chief Operating Officer, Jim Vena will become a Senior Advisor at the end of the year. Eric Gehringer is succeeding him and will become Executive Vice President-Operations on Jan. 1. Vena joined UP in January 2019, coming out of retirement to lead operations and the implementation of Unified Plan 2020, the railroad’s version of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). He spent 40 years at CN before retiring in June 2016 as Executive Vice President and COO. Gehringer is a 15-year veteran of UP, serving most recently as Senior Vice President-Transportation. He started in Engineering, and ultimately headed up the Engineering and Mechanical department.

In his new role, Gehringer will lead the railroad’s Operating functions.

december 16, 2020

2020 BIG DATA IN RAILROAD MAINTENANCE PLANNING VIRTUAL CONFERENCE Presented by the University of Delaware Newark Campus, the 2020 Big Data in Railroad Maintenance Planning Conference is intended to expand on previous years’ conferences and introduce new and emerging analysis techniques, and to show how they can be applied to the large volume of inspection data collected by railways to improve their planning of the critical capital and maintenance programs. But due to the ongoing coronavirus issues, the 2020 Conference will be held virtually. This was not an easy decision, but the University of Delaware has cancelled all on-campus conferences and meetings in the interest of health and safety. The conference organizers and sponsors hope that you will join us in the virtual mode.

Contact Dr. Allan Zarembski (dramz@ udel.edu) for more information.

November 2020 // Railway Age 61

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62 Railway Age // November 2020

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Legal Notice The Connecticut Department of Transportation will be conducting its annual prequalification of professional consultant firms who desire to provide services for the 2021 calendar year. Additional information can be obtained at: www.ct.gov/dot/business/consultant/selection Submittals must be hand delivered by 3:00 pm on November 16, 2020 or postmarked by this date and received by November 19th. No submittals will be accepted after these dates.

Connecticut Department of Transportation An EO/AA/ADA Employer

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Ad Index COMPANY

PHONE #

FAX #

URL/EMAIL ADDRESS

PAGE #

312-922-4516

312-922-4597

kskibinski@amstedrail.com

27

BALFOUR BEATTY

888-250-5746

904-378-7298

info@bbri.com

57

BNSF

817-867-6250

media@bnsf.com

23

CANADIAN PACIFIC

415-640-6129

Jeremy_Berry@cpr.ca

21

AMSTED RAIL GROUP

CN

39

888-888-5909

CONRAIL CSX CORPORATION

904-359-3200

G&W

203-202-8900

203-656-1092

www.conrail.com

26,29

csx.com

24

corpcomm@gwrr.com

14

HERZOG RAILROAD SERVICES INC

816-385-8233

jhansen@herzog.com

16,55

HNTB CORPORATION

212-594-9717

rhakim@hntb.com

35

jnee@hubersuhner.com

59

dcarlson@kcsouthern.com

25

HUBER + SUHNER KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN

802-764-4332

802-878-9880

816-983-1372

KNOX KERSHAW INC

334-387-5669

334-387-4554

knox@knoxkershaw.com

56

LTK ENGINEERING SERVICES

215-641-8826

215-542-7676

NCornell@ltk.com

42

www.lumenorconsulting.com

34

LUMENOR CONSULTING GROUP

404-918-9078

MINER ENTERPRISES

630-232-3000

630-232-3055

sales@minerent.com

52

315-786-543

315-786-5676

Janice.Pfeil@nyab.com

5

219-874-4221

219 872 5841

amber.kettring@nictd.com

16

NEW YORK AIR BRAKE NICTO-SOUTH SHORE LINE NORFOLK SOUTHERN

28

OMNITRAX

303-398-4539

PANDROL USA, L.P.

800-221-CLIP

856-467-2994

PROGRESS RAIL A CATERPILLER CO

256-505-6402

256-505-6051

RAILINC

jslagle@omnitrax.com

29 54

info@progressrail.com

C2

877-724-5462

csc@railinc.com

22

RAILPROS, INC.

682-223-6897

www.railpros.com

32

RAILWAY EDUCATIONAL BUREAU

402-346-4300

402-346-1783

bbrundige@sb-reb.com

60,C3

R.J CORMAN RAILROAD GROUP

800-611-7245

859-885-7804

www.rjcorman.com

15

SALCO PRODUCTS INC

630-685-4661

630-783-2590

sales@salcoproducts.com

3

TRAINYARD TECH LLC

724-443-8881

cra2@zooninternet.net

17

TRINITY RAIL

800-631-4420

trinityrail.com

C4

www.WabtecCorp.com

33

773-254-1110

WABTEC

412-825-1000

WI-TRONIX LLC

630-679-9927

630-679-9954

jessica.sawyer@wi-tronix.com

26

541-484-9621

541-484-1987

wvcorailroadsolutions@wilvaco.com

13

WVCO RAILROAD SOLUTIONS

The Advertisers Index is an editorial feature maintained for the convenience of readers. It is not part of the advertiser contract and Railway Age assumes no responsibility for the correctness.

railwayage.com

November 2020 // Railway Age 63

Financial Edge Staggers, Loadings and the Election

T

he 2020 U.S. Presidential election may be the most unique in modern times. Paper ballots came into use in the early 19th century; the modern lever-pull voting machine in the late 19th century; and push cards (until the infamous “hanging chad”) were used until 2000. Cue the pandemic: In the 2020 election, mail-in ballots were expected to account for at least 80 million votes—more than half the total number of votes expected.

Interesting factoids to be sure, but the relevance for North American rail rests more on the outcome of the election.

What would a win for the incumbent mean? Contrarily, what would a change in Administration mean?

First, let’s set the table. The election season times in nicely with the 40th anniversary of the Staggers Rail Act, which partially deregulated the U.S. rail industry. On the anniversary, continued support for Staggers poured in across a variety of sources. A friend forwarded a piece by Steve Forbes from Fox Business, and the AAR posted a letter signed by more than 1,000 “local and nationwide leaders” (including Forbes). The message was clear: Staggers improved rail service in the U.S., saved the railroads from imminent collapse, and paved the way for a market-based, deregulated system.

As a part of the “celebration” for the anniversary of Staggers, there were plenty of opinions about its shortcomings, but generally, like the agreement itself, there was widespread support. (Staggers originally passed with 95% congressional support.) The other constant theme in the discussions: avoiding the potential for railroad reregulation.

Back to the election. “Financial Edge” spills plenty of ink on the role of railroads in the U.S. and on whether they should grow their franchises or serve their shareholders (a duopoly of opportunity and obligation whose aims do not always dovetail). It is easy to hypothesize that moving from a Republican to a Democratic Administration (and possibly a Democratic House and Senate) will yield bigger 64 Railway Age // November 2020

government, a less business-friendly environment, and the possibility that North American rail finds its way onto a pile of industries brought back under the blanket of government oversight.

The theoretical premises behind the idea of reregulation run contrary to the business principles of many of the companies suggesting that reregulation is needed. Reregulation involves common rail-related complaints about freight (and tariff) rates and premiums paid by captive shippers. These accusations of anti-competitive behavior, price controls and leveraging scale to control competition sound eerily similar to accusations being levied against Google by the Justice Department in its anti-trust case.

The argument from Google’s perspective is essentially the defense of the free market. No one forces an individual to use Google even if it is a mobile device’s default browser. The same can be said about railroads and shippers: “Although my track is outside your facility, if you don’t like my rates, call a truck.”

That type of thinking is exactly what drives the industry crazy. Wall Street celebrates the cult of OR, railroad companies are worth more than ever (see last month’s Railroad Financial Desk Book—“ICYMI: FOMO Comes to the World of Rail”), inf lation-adjusted freight rates are lower than they were since right after Staggers, and railroads are earning their cost of capital. With all due respect and sympathy to rail customers who feel unfairly treated (and may well be) by a railroad, and to those who want the railroads to focus on increasing loads, market penetration and freight volumes no matter what the impact on OR or EBIDTA ratios, the government is not equipped to handle the reregulation of the railroads. No matter who is in the White House, reregulation is really an unlikely outcome.

Government generally is a lousy overseer of business and often trades on unfulfilled promises of success. (Tracking coal loadings, anyone?) The positive impact of deregulation on the aerospace,

No matter who is in the White House come jan. 20, 2021, reregulation of the U.S. rail industry is really an unlikely outcome.” telecom and railroad industries generally supports that statement. All three are better off without government oversight of each industry’s businesses (a discussion of government oversight over safety will have to wait for another column), and these industries are healthier without full government oversight. What rail customers might really want right now is not reregulation, but even further deregulation of the railroads to offer more price transparency/competition and the commoditization of rail operations.

Sorry to disappoint you, but no matter which lever you pulled, or mail-in box you checked on your ballot on Nov. 3, that is unlikely as well. For U.S. rail (really for all of North America), the current perceived successes will outweigh the negatives.

Let’s talk again when Staggers reaches 50.

Got questions? Set them free at dnahass@ railfin.com.

DAVID NAHASS President Railroad Financial Corp. railwayage.com

We’re current, are you? FRA Regulations Mechanical Department Regulations

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Part Title 210 Railroad Noise Emission Compliance Regulations Updated 4-15-19.

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218 Railroad Operating Practices - Blue Flag Rule Updated 7-31-19.

221 Rear End Marking Device-passenger, commuter/freight trains Updated 7-31-19.

223 Safety Glazing Standards Updated 7-31-19.

224 Reflectorization of Rail Freight Rolling Stock Updated 7-31-19.

225 Railroad Accidents/Incidents Updated 7-31-19.

229 Locomotive Safety Standards Updated 7-31-19.

231 Safety Appliance Standards Updated 7-31-19.

232 Brake System Safety Standards Updated 7-31-19.

49 CFR Part 213. Final Rule: Rail Integrity and Track Safety Standards. FRA is revising its regulations governing the minimum safety requirements for railroad track. The changes include allowing inspection of rail using continuous rail testing; allowing the use of flange-bearing frogs in crossing diamonds; relaxing the guard check gage limits on heavy-point frogs used in Class 5 track; removing an inspection-method exception for high-density commuter lines; and other miscellaneous revisions. Overall, the revisions will benefit track owners, railroads, and the public by reducing unnecessary costs and incentivizing innovation, while improving rail safety.

DATES: This final rule was effective October 7, 2020.

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Part 240–Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Engineers This book affects locomotive engineers, trainers and supervisors. The rule is largely based on recommendations made by an advisory committee comprised of rail industry and labor representatives. This final rule will clarify the decertification process; clarify when certified locomotive engineers are required to operate service vehicles; and address the concern that some designated supervisors of locomotive engineers are insufficiently qualified to properly supervise, train, or test locomotive engineers. 162 pages. Spiral bound. Updated 7-31-19

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A NEW ERA

TrinityRail would like to congratulate Kathryn Farmer on her promotion as the next President and CEO of BNSF Railway.