Railway Age April 2020

RAILROAD STRONG RESILIENT, RESOURCEFUL, FOCUSED, ESSENTIAL

APRIL 2020

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

RESILIENT, RESOURCEFUL, FOCUSED,

STRONG

In the midst of the greatest public health crisis in modern times, the railway industry, an essential service, continues to do what it does best, moving products and people to where they’re needed most. A committed, motivated work force is helping to keep the economy afloat.

SHORT LINE AND REGIONAL RAILROADS OF THE YEAR

TRRA, Reading & Northern take top honors

AILWAY GE PHOTO BY: BRUCE KELLY

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RAILINC FREIGHT CAR REPORT

August 2017 // Railway Age 2 New cars trending large

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AILWAY GE

February APRIL 2020 2020

12 FEATURES

12

Legislative Report

19

Short Line of the Year

25 28

“Resilient, Resourceful, Focused”

Terminal Railroad Association

Regional of the Year Reading & Northern

SL Honorable Mention Delmarva Central

29

Regional Honorable Mention

30

Railinc Freight Car Review

34

TTCI R&D

Vermont Rail System

The Fleet is Increasingly “Youthful”

DEPARTMENTS 4 6 7 36 36 37 38 38 39

Industry Indicators Industry Outlook Market People Events Products

NEWS/COLUMNS 2 8 10 40

From the Editor Watching Washington Financial Edge ASLRRA Perspective

Professional Directory Classified Advertising Index

ON THE COVER: “Emerging from darkness along a twisty, tricky path.”

Photo: Bruce Kelly

LUTIS Looks Underneath

Railway Age, USPS 449-130, is published monthly by the Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 88 Pine St., 23rd Fl., New York, NY 10005-1809. Tel. (212) 620-7200; FAX (212) 633-1863. Vol. 221, No. 4. Subscriptions: Railway Age is sent without obligation to professionals working in the railroad industry in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

However, the publisher reserves the right to limit the number of copies. Subscriptions should be requested on company letterhead. Subscription pricing to others for Print and/ or Digital versions: $100.00 per year/$151.00 for two years in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; $139.00 per year/$197.00 for two years, foreign. Single Copies: $36.00 per copy in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico/$128.00 foreign All subscriptions payable in advance. COPYRIGHT© 2020 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without permission. For reprint information contact PARS International Corp., 102 W. 38th Street, 6th floor, New York, N.Y. 10018, Tel.: 212-221-9595; Fax: 212-221-9195. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post Cust.#7204564; Agreement #41094515. Bleuchip Int’l, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Address all subscriptions, change of address forms and correspondence concerning subscriptions to Subscription Dept., Railway Age, PO Box 1407 Cedar Rapids, IA. 52406-1407, Or call toll free (US Only) 1-800-553-8878 (CANADA/INTL) 1-319-364-6167. Printed at Cummings Printing, Hooksett, N.H. ISSN 0033-8826 (print); 2161-511X (digital).

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April 2020 // Railway Age 1

FROM THE EDITOR

AILWAY GE

“Serving The Nation”

I

t has now been, at this writing, about one month since the COVID-19 pandemic began to sweep through North America. My community in Monmouth Beach, N.J., thankfully is peaceful and quiet, a far cry from the chaos that continues to engulf New York City, just 50 miles to north.

What does this extraordinary time of crisis mean for our industry at present?

Longer-term?

“Over the past 150 years, the North American rail industry has survived several pandemics, two world wars, numerous recessions and oppressive governmental regulations,” our Wall Street Contributing Editor, Jason Seidl, recently commented.

“It remains well-equipped to survive extreme economic swings ... We have modeled for 2Q2020 to be the hardest hit.

That said, we continue to believe that, even as 2020 results will be significantly lower than expected just a few months ago, railroads remain well-positioned to handle this downturn with good balance sheets and operations that have been streamlined over the past few years ... Rail pricing has continued to be strong, quarter after quarter and is expected to remain above cost inflation, even in the downturn.”

Thanks, Jason. That’s encouraging. But let’s not forget that behind the balance sheets and streamlined operations and strong pricing are people who, as this pandemic continues to take a heavy toll, continue to do their jobs, with pride and dedication. Among them is a Union Pacific locomotive engineer who, after receiving

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his notice of exemption from federally imposed travel restrictions, contacted Contributing Editor Bruce Kelly and told him, “We’ve gone from building America to saving it.” This Train & Engine Service employee, who didn’t want to bring attention to himself, embraced UP’s slogan, “Building America,” and took it to a higher level—from motto to mantra.

We’ve seen examples of this sense of purpose all across our industry. This is what we’re made of, and it goes beyond the role railroads have as a provider of essential services, freight and passenger. Indeed, it illustrates the resiliency, hope and solidarity the world needs right now.

In the midst of the turmoil, uncertainty and suffering that the COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed, railroaders remain “on the move,” carrying out their duties, “Serving The Nation,” to borrow the Pennsylvania Railroad’s World War II motto.

Railroads, of course, can be pressed into service beyond their normal roles. They can, if needed, deliver humanitarian aid, or transport medical personnel, first-responders and medical supplies. And if the U.S. Military is pressed into action to enforce lockdowns and containment zones, railroads can deliver their equipment.

They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again, whatever it takes.

We at the Simmons-Boardman Rail Group—Railway Age, Railway Track & Structures and International Railway Journal, hope that all of you are safe and well. We will get through this, together.

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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88 Pine Street, 23rd Fl. New York, NY 10005-1809 212-620-7200; Fax: 212-633-1863 Website: www.railwayage.com ARTHUR J. McGINNIS, Jr. President and Chairman JONATHAN CHALON Publisher jchalon@sbpub.com WILLIAM C. VANTUONO Editor-in-Chief wvantuono@sbpub.com ANDREW CORSELLI Managing Editor acorselli@sbpub.com BILL WILSON Engineering Editor/Railway Track & Structures Editor-in-Chief wwilson@sbpub.com DAVID C. LESTER Managing Editor, Railway Track & Structures dlester@sbpub.com Contributing Editors: David Peter Alan, Roy Blanchard, Jim Blaze, Peter Diekmeyer, Alfred E. Fazio, Bruce Kelly, Ron Lindsey, Ryan McWilliams, David Nahass, Jason H. Seidl, David Thomas, John Thompson, Frank N. Wilner Art Director: Nicole D’Antona Graphic Designer: Hillary Coleman Corporate Production Director: Mary Conyers Production Director: Eduardo Castaner Marketing Director: Erica Hayes Conference Director: Michelle Zolkos Circulation Director: Maureen Cooney INTERNATIONAL OFFICES 46 Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3PP, United Kingdom Telephone: 011-44-1326-313945 Fax: 011-44-1326-211576 International Editors David Briginshaw db@railjournal.co.uk Kevin Smith ks@railjournal.co.uk David Burroughs dburroughs@railjournal.co.uk CUSTOMER SERVICE: 800-895-4389 Reprints: PARS International Corp.

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1 9 8 8

2020

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Industry Indicators “We May Have Seen the Worst of COVID-19’s Impacts on Asian Trade” The figures in the charts below show traffic throughout February 29. As this issue went to press in late March, the numbers were still down, but signs of life began to emerge. “The good news is that the intermodal volumes of the railroads serving the West Coast ports that receive the bulk of imports from China appear to have plateaued over the past four weeks, indicating that we may have seen the worst of the COVID-19 impacts on the Asia trade,” said AAR Senior Vice President Policy and Economics John T. Gray. However, “it wouldn’t be surprising to see volumes in other categories soften in the weeks ahead as steps taken to limit the spread of COVID-19 continue to impact producers.”

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

TRAFFIC ORIGINATED CARLOADS

FOUR WEEKS ENDING FEBRUARY 29, 2020

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

BY COMMODITY

FEB. ’20

FEB. ’19

% CHANGE

51,451 (-1%)

Grain Farm Products ex. Grain Grain Mill Products Food products Chemicals Petroleum & Petroleum Products Coal Primary Forest Products Lumber and Wood Products Pulp and 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

78,733 3,883 36,511 23,034 132,340 52,182 253,733 4,183 13,685 20,656 15,548 14,954 36,136 15,313 70,111 73,589 13,717 28,192 13,694 26,890

84,083 2,981 35,827 23,165 128,622 48,694 321,503 4,697 12,699 22,436 13,852 13,588 38,950 15,385 69,083 84,146 15,352 27,105 13,959 24,015

-6.4% 30.3% 1.9% -0.6% 2.9% 7.2% -21.1% -10.9% 7.8% -7.9% 12.2% 10.1% -7.2% -0.5% 1.5% -12.5% -10.7% 4% -1.9% 12%

Executives, Officials, and Staff Assistants

TOTAL U.S. CARLOADS

927,084

1,000,142

-7.3%

TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 127,634 % CHANGE FROM FEBRUARY 2019: –1%

Transportation (train and engine)

7,576 (–1%)

CANADIAN RAILROADS

Professional and Administrative

TOTAL CANADIAN CARLOADS

308,086

296,644

3.9%

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RR

1,235,170

1,296,786

-4.8%

10,817 (-1%)

Maintenance-of-Way and Structures

30,304 (+1%)

Maintenance of Equipment and Stores

22,170 (-1%)

Transportation (other than train & engine)

5,316 (-1%)

Source: Surface Transportation Board

CLASS I EMPLOYMENT, THE “1% FACTOR” Figures released by the STB show Class I total railroad employment again dropped 1% in February 2020, measured against February 2019. This rate has remained constant for more than one year.

Five of six employment categories experienced virtually the same percentage drop, 1%, when rounding is taken into account. This most certainly indicates headcount reductions attributable to PSR. Looking at the bigger picture, total employment has dropped 12% over the past 13 months, from 145,592 in January 2018. Coronavirus impacts may be a factor going forward.

4 Railway Age // April 2020

Intermodal

FOUR WEEKS ENDING FEBRUARY 29, 2020

MAJOR U.S. RAILROADS

BY COMMODITY

FEB. ’20

FEB. ’19

% CHANGE

Trailers Containers TOTAL UNITS

71,379 926,304

99,303

997,683

995,277 1,094,580

-28.1% -6.9% -8.9%

0 231,619 231,619

0 258,768 258,768

-10.5% -10.5%

71,379 1,157,923

99,303 1,254,045

-28.1% -7.7%

1,229,302

1,353,348

-9.2%

CANADIAN RAILROADS Trailers Containers TOTAL UNITS

COMBINED U.S./CANADA RR Trailers Containers

TOTAL COMBINED UNITS

Source: Rail Time Indicators, Association of American Railroads

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

1,235,170 FEBRUARY 2020

AILWAY GE

1,296,786 FEBRUARY 2019

Short Line And Regional Traffic Index CARLOADS

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

ORIGINATED FEB. ’20

ORIGINATED FEB. ’19

% CHANGE

51,749 12,866 22,253 10,464 24,551 7,922 8,945 2,472 16,402 10,119 2,533 1,949 17,132 11,492 38,904 9,491 68,215

45,473 18,758 20,649 9,944 22,858 6,591 8,681 2,701 16,581 8,985 2,751 2,097 16,473 10,790 36,908 9,453 70,547

13.8% -31.4% 7.8% 5.2% 7.4% 20.2% 3% -8.5% -1.1% 12.6% -7.9% -7.1% 4% 6.5% 5.4% 0.4% -3.3%

Copyright © 2020 All rights reserved.

TOTAL U.S. Carloads AND INTERMODAL UNITS, 2011-2020 (year-to-date through FEBRUARY 2020, in millions)

ARE YOU A RAILROAD OR SUPPLIER SEARCHING FOR JOB CANDIDATES?

Visit http://bit.ly/railjobs To place a job posting, contact: Jennifer Izzo 203-604-1744 jizzo@mediapeople.com

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April 2020 // Railway Age 5 RA_JobBoard_1/3Vertical.indd 1

9/30/19 3:16 PM

CARES Act Provides Billions For Rail PRESIDENT TRUMP ON MARCH 27 signed H.R. 748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, into law, following swift passage in the House of Representatives by voice vote, and one day after the U.S. Senate passed the bill in a unanimous 96-0 vote. The CARES Act is a $2 trillion stimulus package that addresses the devastating economic and societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes many funding measures that directly benefit the railway industry—all modes, freight and passenger, including rail labor: Amtrak: $1.02 billion to support Amtrak’s ability to operate passenger rail service on the Northeast Corridor ($492 million) and National Network ($526 million) and protect Amtrak workers. An additional $239 million is available to Amtrak to cover the cost of FAST Act-required payments to Amtrak for State-supported services. States shall not be required to pay Amtrak more than 80% for use of Amtrak facilities pursuant to section 209 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA).

Transit: $24.9 billion for grants to transit agencies nationwide for operating expenses of those agencies to ensure continued operation of transit services. It also eliminates any requirement that transit agencies use their own funds to receive federal assistance, and maintains key worker protections.

Railroad Unemployment Insurance: Waives the seven-day waiting period for 6 Railway Age // April 2020

filing a sickness or unemployment claim with the RRB (Railroad Retirement Board) and provides $50 million to cover the costs of providing these additional benefits.

Increases unemployment benefits through an additional $1,200 bi-weekly benefit and provides $425 million to cover the costs of providing these additional benefits through July 31, 2020. Allows RRB to access approximately $130 million of remaining ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds to provide extended benefits through Dec. 31, 2020. Supplies $5 million to RRB for additional administrative costs.

U.S. DOT Operations: $31.3 million in budgetary resources to support activities by the Office of the Secretary, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, and Maritime Administration to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus. Funding would support increased needs for telework and information technology, inspection equipment, and preparing and equipping the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Ready Reserve Fleet, the United States Merchant Marine Academy, and State Maritime Academies. FRA Safety and Operations receives $250,000, to remain available until Sept. 30, 2021, to prevent, prepare for and respond to coronavirus.

The CARES Act’s $24.9 billion for public transit formula operating and capital grants is meant “to prevent, prepare for,

and respond to COVID-19,” the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) said. “The bill provides that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) distribute the transit funds proportionally based on the ratio of funding of four specific programs: Urbanized Area Formula Grants (49 U.S.C. § 5307); Rural Area Formula Grants (49 U.S.C. § 5311); State-Of-GoodRepair (SOGR) formula grants (49 U.S.C. § 5337); and Growing/High-Density States Formula Grants (49 U.S.C. § 5340). It provides almost three times (280%) of the FY 2020 appropriations for each of these programs, and distributes the funds proportionally based on the ratio of funding for these formula programs in the FY 2020 apportionments.”

“However, it is important to note that CARES Act funds are only eligible for grants to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19,” APTA pointed out. “Under the bill, the funds are eligible for COVID-19 impacts as if they were made available under Urbanized Area Grants or Rural Area Grants. The bill requires the FTA to apportion these funds (using FY 2020 apportionment formulas) within seven days of the date of enactment. The federal share of the costs for grants made available under the bill is 100%, at the option of the recipient. In general, transit law requirements (Chapter 53 of Title 49) apply to these operating and capital grants.

“However, notwithstanding transit law limitations, these funds are expressly available for operating expenses to prevent, prepare for and respond to COVID-19 beginning on Jan. 20, 2020. These funds are available to reimburse public transit agencies for operating costs to maintain service and lost revenue due to the coronavirus public health emergency, including the purchase of personal protective equipment and paying administrative leave of operations personnel due to reduction in service.

“Although these specific operating expenses are outlined in the bill, other operating costs may also be eligible. These operating expenses are not required to be part of state-wide or metropolitan transportation improvement programs or state-wide or long-range transportation plans. The bill prohibits FTA from waiving the prevailing wage and transit labor standards (49 U.S.C. § 5333) for these formula grants.” railwayage.com

Two photos: William C. Vantuono. Inset: Associated Press

Industry Outlook

Market

MBTA Completing Violet Edge Rollout The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is completing deployment of the Wi-Tronix® Violet Edge IoT Platform on its diesel locomotive fleet in an effort to enhance the safety of its trains and to improve service reliability. Wi-Tronix has assisted the MBTA with some of its fleet since 2015. With this scheduled deployment of Violet, MBTA will soon have all of its diesel locomotive fleet equipped with safety, fuel management, transportation, maintenance and video solutions.

WORLDWIDE

NORTH AMERICA

SG Rail, Korea, has awarded a $282.2 million contract to Hyundai Rotem to supply 120 eight-car EMUs for Line A of the Great Train Express (GTX) project in Seoul. This is the first trainset order for the new three-line GTX regional rail network serving the Korean capital. The trains will be delivered in time for the opening of Line A in 2024. They will have sufficient capacity to carry up to 1,090 passengers. The EMUs will have a maximum speed of 112 mph and will operate partially underground, carbodies reinforced and air-pressure tight.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) last month contracted with PS Technology (PST) to implement CrewPro Short Line™, a cloud-hosted, subscription-based railroad crew management and Hours-of-Service (HOS) system, and QualPro™, a qualification and training management solution, across its U.S. freight railroads. CrewPro Short Line aims to automate much of the crew calling process while simultaneously tracking HOS and preventing inadvertent violations of FRA regulations. The system is a cloud-based single source for all ops worker information, scheduling and recordkeeping. Workers can check their status at any time with a mobile device. The QualPro qualification system is a collection of tools, which aims to dynamically track all employees’ qualifications and push that information to the CrewPro scheduling system—ensuring only qualified employees are presented as options to select from.

Additionally, the mobile-enabled Field Training Exercise (FTX) tool allows testing, and recording is kept on-site for engineers and non-ops personnel. Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis

railwayage.com

(TRRA)—Railway Age’s 2020 Short Line of the Year (p. 19)—has selected CloudMoyo Crew Management (CCM) technology for implementation across all locations in an effort to ensure better crew availability, intelligent rostering and lowered costs with better crew utilization. “The next-generation, cloud-based CCM solution leverages the scale of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and harnesses the power of advanced AI and analytics to optimize crew boards,” CloudMoyo said. “Sophisticated algorithms factor in crew eligibility, qualifications and certifications, hours of service (HOS), duty hour compliance, crew penalties and bidding rules, as well as records and vacation requests. The CCM solution will streamline crew operations and optimize crew costs by intelligently boosting crew utilization to more than 85%.” Said TRRA CEO Mike McCarthy, “With the adoption of modern, cloud-based digital technologies, TRRA is well-positioned to manage its business growth. CCM will substantially improve our capability to handle increasing car switching volumes, improve on-time arrivals and optimize crew allocations.”

April 2020 // Railway Age 7

Watching Washington

STB: Give Rube Goldberg the Boot

A

though shippers lacking effective transportation alternatives to rail are relatively few, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) exists to protect them from market-power abuse, as railroads earn substantial margins from the traffic.

The task’s complexity is “Rube Goldberg,” a reference to the cartoonist synonymous with accomplishing by complex means that which can be done simply. Twice—in 1995 and 2015— Congress instructed regulators to find a more direct and less costly path to the objective. Progress has been protracted.

The villains are a convoluted screening process to determine which shippers are captive, and an even more tortuous StandAlone-Cost (SAC) test to ensure such captives do not pay “unreasonable” rates.

Although in 1998 the STB ceased considering as evidence of effective competition a shipper’s ability to transport a substitute product or obtain it from a different source—calling analysis of non-transportation issues and the “second-guessing” of shipper decisions a “substantial burden”— it hardly solved the problem.

For example, while the law provides that rates exceeding a certain threshold allow a shipper to seek rate relief, qualitative considerations, such as hauling dangerous chemicals, may justify higher margins. Further uncertainty is found in the STB’s three-decades-old Uniform Rail Costing System (URCS) integral to rate regulation.

NO RATIONAL CAPTIVE SHIPPER SPENDS

$5MM ON LE NGTHY L I T IG ATIO N U N LE SS TRULY C A P TIV E

8 Railway Age // April 2020

Additional squabbles arise over a shipper’s ability to use trucks, and whether such competition is feasible and actually effective; and what relevant documents shippers must share with railroads. Although an STB task force recently recommended a streamlined technique to identify captive shippers, critics say it creates risks of false negatives and false positives.

As for determining if rates charged to captives are reasonable, Goldberg would adore the STB’s SAC test. It requires the shipper to design a hypothetical, leastcost, most-efficient replacement railroad—a grueling $5 million-minimum assignment. Tumults ensue over such minutiae as the appropriate number of printer cables and toilet stalls.

In search of simplicity, the STB has proposed a Final Offer Rate Review (FORR). A shipper suggests an alternative to the railroad’s maximum rate, and the STB chooses which is most reasonable. Critics say it lacks a specific methodology allowing for clear-cut regulatory review standards.

For this Gordian knot to be loosened, the STB must find its trigger finger and make practical alternatives to the status quo ante, or risk further congressional action, which could include its being merged into a more-determined Executive Branch Department of Transportation. What are some practical alternatives?

Eliminate the task of identifying a captive shipper. No rational one spends $5 million to pursue lengthy litigation challenging a rail rate if there exist effective alternatives to rail, or if they can “build-out” their own track to a second railroad. Further, an unsuccessful rate challenge generally bars another for a substantial period.

As for the SAC test, which requires the Goldberg-like construction of a hypothetical railroad—with every aspect inviting stakeholder fisticuffs—it has proven overly costly, overly complex and unacceptable to Congress. Instead, consider artificial intelligence (AI), already expert at learning face, object and voice recognition.

STB should stop procrastinating and provide closure.”

AI can learn every aspect of an existing rail network—the characteristics of a commodity and whether it is captive to rail; whether and when it moves on single- or double-tracks and their topographies; and whether one or more railroads are involved and the costs of interchange. Standardized costs, including overhead and administrative, can be allocated by commodity and route characteristics. AI also can indicate whether a railroad is earning adequate revenue.

This information can be applied to determine if a rate is reasonable; and while judgment is involved, there will be a methodology and clear-cut regulatory review standards. If not AI, then what?

It has been 25 years since regulators were first told by Congress to simplify and make less costly the process of protecting captive shippers. Morecomplicated Positive Train Control was developed and implemented faster.

It is time for the STB to cease procrastinating, present credible and implementable proposals, and provide railroads, their investors and shippers with closure.

FRANK N. WILNER Contributing Editor railwayage.com

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Financial Edge Takeaways From Rail Equipment Finance 2020

U

nder the shadow of the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, Rail Equipment Finance 2020 was held March 1-4 in La Quinta, Calif. In the weeks since REF, the world has changed, and with it the rail industry has changed as well. Nonetheless, there are clear takeaways to be shared with the Railway Age readership about where the market for rail equipment and rail freight is headed in 2020.

As is tradition, Financial Edge will summarize the REF 2020 in brief fashion, with the full summary to be posted on line at www.railwayage.com. It is difficult to write a column about something that happened weeks ago when the passage of time made such a difference in the daily lives of all U.S. citizens and those around the world. Some side notes to the more vulnerable areas are included in this summary. The rest of the story will unfold before our eyes over these next few months.

What was clear from REF was that investors, manufacturers, end users of equipment and railroads were on the fence about the direction 2020 is going to take.

New equipment orders are predicted for 35,000 units. (Clearly, those numbers will be headed down now, probably below 30,000.) What is not surprising is the reason for the downturn. As is well-documented, there has been an ongoing trend of loadings loss in major commodity groups (led by decreases in coal). New car inquiries, which were low to begin with, are at a virtual standstill.

While there is universal belief in the potential growth in the plastics and chemicals market, those loadings generally do not create enough momentum for the kind of shift that seems to be required by the industry to stimulate growth necessary for equipment markets to grow, rather than contract.

Intermodal growth continues to be a source of weakness, with loadings down 4.1% in 2019. This segment of the marketplace will likely see significant short- and medium-term impact from COVID-19.

Global industrial production has slowed considerably. Auto sales and consumer sales,

10 Railway Age // April 2020

combined with the incredible drop-off in factory activity makes a potential secondhalf recovery unlikely if not impossible.

(The projections for a second-half recovery were numerically best-case, anyway.)

Tariffs still remain an issue impacting imports from Asia.

On the tank car side, the regulatory puzzle and the need for public and private partnership was on the table as an industry focal point. The fleet stats were positive, even if rates are lower than what investors hope for right now. Across all of North America, the COVID-19 impact on CBR (crude by rail) loadings is going to be extreme. Shelter-in-place rules and the effective shutdown of the air travel system (roughly 70% of all airline flights canceled) will impact the need for refined products in the short and medium term. (When will people be ready to fly again?)

That feeds into the hopper car market.

Sand, already oversupplied, may come to a complete halt as oil fracking virtually stops. The plastics market (which likely will rebound faster than other markets) has to deal with falling consumption and industrial production (autos again) and weakened export markets. Grain should actually stay stable in its somewhat depressed state as people continue to need to eat, and shelf-stable products like pasta are flying off the shelves of every supermarket. I won’t even begin to discuss the bathroom tissue shortage, but please don’t hoard the Charmin!

The boxcar market discussed the age-old battle between supply, demand and car design. As the industry moves to a Plate F (excess height) only f leet, shippers and railroads continue to jostle, even while the goals of shipper, lessor and railroad often seem to be the same— increased market share, return on investment and efficient operations.

Shippers at REF 2020 asked for increased partnership and involvement from the railroads in improving business growth.

Shippers are looking for partnerships from carriers and lessors, as all industry groups need to increase loadings growth for long-term sustainability and profitability. The shippers at REF 2020 represented

the north american rail industry will return stronger and healthier.” thin-margin-commodity businesses such as paper, ethanol, plastics and refined products, all wanting to stay competitive and keep traffic on the rails.

Brief ly on locomotives, new technology remains important in what the next wave of locomotive growth might be for North America. New orders remain weak due to lower freight volumes. The quantity of existing units in storage is at a high level, and may continue to increase as demand cycles downward throughout this crisis.

REF 2020 was a great success, and the participants were fortunate to have the opportunity to share information and knowledge before COVID-19 stopped business travel, domestically as well as internationally.

As a final note, please stay safe and healthy to the best of your ability. Take the steps necessary to ensure the safety of your families and businesses so that the North American rail industry returns stronger, healthier and ready to surge forward when this crisis subsides.

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

DAVID NAHASS President Railroad Financial Corp. railwayage.com

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

RESILIENT, RESOURCEFUL, FOCUSED,

STRONG I

t is said, quite incorrectly, that little of consequence occurs in election years. Actually, in Official Washington, there is much affecting railroads; while universally, there is sufficient gloom to make a preacher cuss and keep a railroad CEO bedridden.

Start with a COVID-19-driven global economic recession whose length and depth is unknown. Add the collapse of coal traffic, the threat of a dissolving fracking industry because Saudi Arabia flooded the globe with oil; the continuing negative impact of trade-punishing tariffs; and the increasing financial cost of climate change. Good grief.

Looking on the bright side of life, Class I railroads appear on sound financial 12 Railway Age // April 2020

footing—resilient, resourceful, focused and strong. Assets are long-lived. Mergers eliminated overhead-cost redundancies, pared the track network, and accelerated operating and marketing efficiencies. And labor productivity is up by one-third since 2000.

Further evidence of financial strength are railroad decisions to invest in themselves.

CSX, Norfolk Southern (NS) and Union Pacific (UP) collectively have repurchased almost $30 billion of their stock, while BNSF has been providing substantial dividends to its Berkshire-Hathaway parent.

Understandably, there exist challenges to be answered. Shippers question whether the rail response to a south-headed economy will be prioritizing protection of the stock

price, with cost cutting adversely affecting service quality.

Also questioned is the long-term success of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), a driving force in pummeling down operating ratio. PSR, after all, is in its infancy, and the lone major railroad untethered from its operating-ratio-loving Wall Street masters is BNSF, whose sole owner Berkshire Hathaway (B-H) is legendary for focusing instead on long-term efficiency. Said B-H Chairman Warren Buffett of PSR, “It makes the customer adapt to the railroad more than the railroad to the customers.” Publicly traded railroads may be holding the wolf of lower operating ratio by the ear—neither able safely to hold on, nor to let go. railwayage.com

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

In crisis mode, America’s railroads appear sufficiently solvent, focused and managerially prepared to navigate through the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, other economic shocks, and whatever Congress and regulators may decide.

Bruce Kelly

BY FRANK N. WILNER, CAPITOL HILL CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

An additional challenge going forward is preparedness for a post-recession traffic resurgence. With reduced capital spending, sufficient capacity could suffer when demand returns. Although substantial railcar and motive power assets are in storage, the longer they are parked, the longer and more costly the task of readying them for return to service.

There also is attention to private-equity infrastructure investment funds, perhaps poised to scoop up a Class I for its future cash-flow stream, as Brookfield Infrastructure Partners acquired small-railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming for $6.5 billion. If propping up stock price becomes a takeover defense, shippers railwayage.com

may wave before lawmakers and regulators the Oct. 8, 1882, unfortunate “public be damned” response of railroad baron William Henry Vanderbilt when asked, “Are you working for the public or for your stockholders?”

TRAFFIC BY THE NUMBERS Historically, the most important rail-hauled commodity has been coal. “Coal made the railroads necessary, and the railroads made the use of coal possible,” wrote historian Albro Martin.

But coal carloads are down 23% since the 1980s, displaced for electricity generation by shale-produced natural gas and wind energy.

Where 45% of America’s electricity was

generated by coal in 2010, it’s now 24%. Since 2010, 289 coal-fired generating plants have closed, leaving 241 in operation. Estimates are that the price of natural gas can double and still remain competitive with coal.

Other bedrock traffic includes chemicals and automotive, but with a global economic slowdown and continued tariff-accelerated trade wars, those carloadings could stagnate at low levels.

The pathway forward includes intermodal, with the number of trailers and containers hauled annually now at 14 million—up from but 3 million in 1980.

Post-recession future growth depends on 1) the railroads’ ability to compete with nonunion truckers and the lower fuel prices April 2020 // Railway Age 13

LEGISLATIVE LEGISLATIVEREPORT REPORT

SHORT LINES AND REGIONALS Although Class II and III railroads are successful collectively, owing in part to a variety of federal and state programs intended to preserve a rail service option, some small railroads may require additional assistance depending on the severity of the economic downturn.

First among the long-term regulatory priorities of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) is for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to adjust the Title 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 243 Minimum Training Standards rule 14 Railway Age // April 2020

to allow performance-based operational testing—identifying employees requiring refresher training rather than mandating blanket training every three years. “The cost savings could go toward investments in safety, where they are needed,” says ASLRRA President Chuck Baker.

Although a 2019 legislative victory extended through 2022 the short line investment tax credit (Section 45-G of the Internal Revenue Code), Baker says ASLRRA “has a puncher’s chance” of making it permanent in an infrastructure bill, as “more than half of Congress, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, is on record in support.” That 50% tax credit spurs some $200 million annually in new small-railroad infrastructure investment.

AMTRAK Amtrak’s projected revenue loss through Sept. 30 is $1 billion, as passenger traffic evaporated with the spread of COVID-19.

Absent knowledge of the length and depth of this health crisis and no assurance Congress can provide long-term financial aid, but with Amtrak designated by the federal government as a “critical infrastructure asset,” Amtrak implemented a strategy to conserve cash by curtailing empty-train operation, and to keep as many employees on the payroll as feasible in exchange for wage and benefits givebacks and dramatic

spending cuts—but with no impact on normalized maintenance or safe operation.

Another Amtrak challenge is the Association of Independent Passenger Rail Operators—whose members include commuter operators Herzog, Keolis and Veolia— seeking legislation promoting private sector competition on state passenger routes now exclusive to Amtrak.

DIVINING CONGRESS While anticipated for priority passage, but equally likely to be extended at current spending levels another year, is the soonto-expire Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Since 2015, it allocated some $305 billion in taxpayer funds primarily for highways ($226 billion) and public transit ($18 billion), but also included dollars for grade crossing safety ($1.2 billion) and other transportation safety programs.

From a renewed FAST Act, railroads seek additional dollars to help states install new active warning devices and improve road surfaces at grade crossings, where the railroad almost always preceded the highway.

Also sought are federal incentive payments to states to close more crossings, and funding for testing new rail safety technology (as is spent testing new highway safety technology).

Of equally pressing concern in a FAST railwayage.com

Bruce Kelly

favoring them; 2) whether Congress liberalizes truck size and weight ceilings without imposing full-recovery user charges for the pavement and bridge damage they cause; and 3) rail labor’s willingness to negotiate one-person crew agreements for the most competitive traffic. Also creeping up on railroads are battery-operated heavy-duty trucks with dramatically reduced operating costs, and whose current maximum 500-mile range for 80,000-pound loads is expected to increase sooner than later.

Also, expect e-commerce to define, even more forcefully, retail supply chains, as even before the COVID-19 crisis, some 20,000 brick-and-mortar stores closed.

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LEGISLATIVE REPORT Act renewal is eliminating the substantial underpayment by rail-competitive heavy trucks of their highway cost responsibility.

While most of the FAST Act expires this fall, one provision froze federal fuels taxes through late 2023 at their 1993 level—an enormous subsidy boost for rail-competitive truckers. In fact, the FAST Act transferred more than $51 billion into the insolvent Highway Trust Fund (HTF) to fill the gap between user fee collections and highway expenditures made for the users’ benefit. Heavy trucks are estimated to be paying but 80% of the costs they inflict on pavement and bridges.

Yet, while trucking interests seek billions more for highway reconstruction largely made necessary by their heavy vehicles, they oppose higher user fees. Economists and professional engineers say a more equitable user charge than the existing per-gallon fuel tax would be to charge for actual vehicle-miles traveled (VMT), as heavy trucks inflict damage every mile. Its

16 Railway Age // April 2020

support in Congress is tepid.

While this avoidance by truckers of equitable user charges is of legitimate concern to railroads, which construct, maintain, signal, police and pay taxes on their privately owned rights-of-way without public subsidy, an adequate highway system also is important to railroads. Indeed, the 14 million trailer and container loads hauled annually by rail travel in part by highway.

In fact, two-thirds of the nation’s freight emanates from rural areas comprising 68% of all road miles, with many said by experts to be “crumbling.” The American Society of Civil Engineers gives the nation’s roads but a grade of “D.” Despite the insolvency of the HTF, a 27-year refusal on the part of lawmakers to increase heavy-truck user charges, and the deteriorating condition of the nation’s highways, there are efforts—led by Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.)—to increase the existing 80,000-pound weight limit to 91,000 pounds. While Katko says adding axles

mitigates pavement damage, it is gross weight that affects highway bridges, with some 25% reportedly structurally deficient or functionally obsolete because of heavy truck passage.

Also notable is the lame-duck status of House Rail Subcommittee Chairman Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), defeated in a primary election. His father, William, who previously held that seat, has been on the lobbying payroll of the AAR and BNSF. STB While the 2015 Surface Transportation Board (STB) Reauthorization Act is up for renewal in 2020, it won’t occur. Agencies often go more than a decade without being reauthorized, dependent only on annual appropriations. In fact, many of the instructions of the 2015 law remain unfulfilled, such as the STB having been told to simplify its Stand-Alone Cost (SAC) test for determining rate reasonableness, and considering revisions in how it calculates revenue adequacy.

railwayage.com

LEGISLATIVE REPORT Attendant to the decisional delay is delay by the President to nominate a Democrat to fill one of two vacant STB seats. While the three-member board can make decisions, a recent inability of the three to form a majority and rule on setting standards for recovering fuel surcharges harked to a reason the 2015 law added two new seats.

A five-person board avoids a Government in Sunshine Act prohibition preventing a majority (just two when only three members) from communicating privately.

One-on-one private meetings are often essential paths to compromise.

Moving on, in furtherance of the status-quo rulemaking siesta, railroads have enlisted free-market think tanks to write opinion articles suggesting STB action would be reregulation. Shippers are befuddled.

Shelly Sahling-Zart, president of the Freight Rail Customer Alliance, says, “Shippers are not looking for special treatment.

[Congress instructed the STB] to address

all stakeholder problems and concerns, not just those advanced by the railroads.” Emily Regis, president of the National Coal Transportation Association, says her members seek only “an effective and affordable process that can fairly resolve rate reasonableness and service disputes.”

FRA Prescriptive elements of PTC installation are nearing completion—the next objective being to encourage further technological development through artificial intelligence that FRA Administrator Ronald L. Batory says can “build a foundation for autonomous operation where warranted.”

Batory also seeks to use waivers and pilot projects to generate sufficient data leading to performance-based safety regulations, and to accelerate other fact-based research associated with human behavior, physical assets and cyber systems. “I want to lead in implementing advanced technology in our industry,” Batory says.

And while the FRA is still some eight months out from finalizing a study on safe rail movement of liquified natural gas (LNG), the Trump Administration—over objections from the National Transportation Safety Board—wants restrictions loosened by early May. LNG would be carried in cryogenic tankers to East Coast ports for export.

BOTTOM LINE America’s railroads appear sufficiently solvent, focused and managerially prepared to navigate through this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, other economic shocks, and whatever is decided—or not—

by Congress and regulators.

Full recovery, however, will require cooperation from labor. Headcount reductions already are significant, but if the industry is to compete successfully going forward, productivity-enhancing collaboration is essential—beginning with fact-driven decisions as to crew size.

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Short Line of the Year

SHORT LINE OF THE YEAR William Beecher

TERMINAL RAILROAD ASSOCIATION OF ST. LOUIS

R

BY ANDREW CORSELLI, MANAGING EDITOR

ailway Age’s 2020 Short Line of the Year is the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA), which serves more than 80 industrial customers in the St. Louis region and provides interchange services railwayage.com

to six Class I’s.

Playing a critical role in railroad operations and growth in the St. Louis metropolitan area, TRRA currently operates six subdivisions: Merchants, Illinois Transfer, MacArthur Bridge, North Belt, West Belt and Eads. These lines interchange

with BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, CN and Kansas City Southern.

Here’s how TRRA earned Short Line of the Year honors: Since its founding in 1889, TRRA has been committed to providing costefficient transportation options to April 2020 // Railway Age 19

businesses and is a critical hub connecting the St. Louis region to national and international trade.

Not only does TRRA play a vital role as a short line connector, but it also is committed to creating a safety-first culture, ensuring regulatory compliance and meeting the needs of its customers, owners and the public.

Today, TRRA is taking innovative measures in doing so, harnessing the power of modern, cloud-based technologies. TRRA announced at the end of 2019 that it was selecting a digital operational testing system as the technology to modernize its testing, and anticipates being able to more-agilely respond to new regulations, implement new safety measures and improve the productivity of its workforce by more than 30%.

In the same manner, TRRA is digitalizing its crew operations to move toward increased efficiencies in critical functions of crew scheduling. It is implementing a 20 Railway Age // April 2020

cloud-based crew management solution to address the complexities associated with crew scheduling and allocations, account-

TRRA is PLANNING ON ROLLING OUT A DIGITAL TRACKING SYSTEM FOR MANY QUALIFICATIONS FUNCTIONS. ing for availability, eligibility and seniority—all in compliance with HoS rules.

TRRA has identified more predictive crew

scheduling as a key driver of increased efficiency and service excellence, and is making headway into this critical step in its rail digitalization journey.

Like any other railroad out there, TRRA is committed to establishing best practices that will ensure regulatory compliance without compromising operational efficiencies. Ensuring that its crew scheduling is optimized is not the only priority on TRRA’s plate; it is taking active steps toward digitalizing its certification management.

TRRA is planning on implementing a digital qualifications tracking system that will ensure timely certification expiry management, enhanced compliance and safety, audit readiness, and advanced performance management.

“We see this as a critical step for TRRA as it promises to be a game-changer when it comes to more efficiently managing their crew with advanced reporting capabilities and visibility into qualification railwayage.com

William Beecher

Short Line of the Year

Short Line of the Year and certification programs,” Rajeev Kak, Vice President, Solutions & Marketing Management, CloudMoyo, Inc., tells Railway Age. “TRRA’s deep level of commitment to both its employees and its customers really shines in these steps they are taking to digitalize core operations in a scalable, sustainable manner.”

As mentioned above, TRRA’s approach sets it apart from its peers. Short line and regional railroads often face limitations when it comes to modernization (i.e. limitations in resources or a lack of bandwidth). Yet, TRRA is not letting this be the end of its story.

Organization-wide, the railroad is embracing a digital-first approach that is in the best interest of keeping its employees safe, ensuring the best service for its customers and guaranteeing that it can more efficiently respond to regulatory requirements when it comes to scheduling, testing, certification tracking or reporting. “For example, one of the drivers for deployment of OTS across their locations

was to more quickly import rules libraries so that they could efficiently roll out new test execution programs within a short length of time,” Kak says.

“Not content to simply meet the bare minimum for compliance, TRRA is going several steps further, truly an exemplary tribute to the culture and vision that the company is built on. At the end of the day, this level of innovation would not be possible were it not for the strength of TRRA’s people and processes, enabling the railroad to successfully mitigate changes agilely as it scales up.”

Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, later part of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad.

More than 130 years later, following numerous mergers that consolidated the Class I railroads into today’s “Big Seven,” TRRA’s joint owners are BNSF, CN (Illinois Central Railroad until 1999), CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific. TRRA also connects with Kansas City Southern; the Canadian Pacific is the only Class I railroad that does not reach St. Louis.

RICH HISTORY TRRA was founded in 1889 in a deal orchestrated by Jay Gould involving the Missouri Pacific Railroad; St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway, later part of the Missouri Pacific; Wabash Railroad, later part of the Norfolk and Western Railway; Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, later part of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; Louisville & Nashville Railroad; and Cleveland,

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April 2020 // Railway Age 21

6th Annual

RAILWAY AGE CONFERENCE & EXPO

2020

JUNE

17 & 18

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TOPICS INCLUDE: • Evolution to PSR 2.0 • How Can Safety Be Improved?

• Supplier Perspectives on Technology and Customer Needs • Class II and Class III Perspectives

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS PLATINUM SPONSOR

• Car and Locomotive Building/Financing Environment • Shipper Perspectives

Explore the challenges, issues, and trends affecting the North American rail market

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

JACK HELLMANN

PAT OTTENSMEYER,

Chairman, President & CEO Genesee & Wyoming

President & CEO, Kansas City Southern

RON BATORY Federal Railroad Administrator

JOHN N. WARD Executive Director National Coal Transportation Association

SAMEH FAHMY Executive Vice President Precision Scheduled Railroading, Kansas City Southern

IAN JEFFERIES President & CEO Association of American Railroads

EXHIBITS & SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE

REGISTER NOW

212.620.7224 | jchalon@sbpub.com

www.railwayage.com/insights

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.

RAIL From Railway Age, RT&S and IRJ GROUP http://bit.ly/rail_news NEWS

ROUND-UP o

RAILW

Regional of the Year

REGIONAL RAILROAD OF THE YEAR READING & NORTHERN

R

All photos: Reading & Northern

eading & Northern (R&N) is Railway Age’s 2020 Regional Railroad of the Year. R&N, with its corporate headquarters in Port Clinton, Pa., is a privately held railroad company serving more than 70 customers in nine eastern Pennsylvania counties (Berks, Bradford, Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Wyoming). It has expanded its operations over the past 30-plus years and now handles more than 34,000 carloads of freight and 140,000 excursion train riders over 400 miles of track.

R&N operates freight services and steam and diesel-powered excursion passenger services, owns almost 1,300 freight cars and employs nearly 300. It has repeatedly been honored as one of the premier Class II railroads in the nation, having also earned Railway Age’s Regional Railroad of the Year -UP of NEWS STORIES FROM: three other times (2002, 2011 and 2015).

R&N Owner and CEO Andy Muller, Jr. capped his remarkable, nearly 40-year

LWAY AGE, RT&S and IRJ railwayage.com

BY ANDREW CORSELLI, MANAGING EDITOR

railroad career with the Feb. 4, 2020 opening of the Nesquehoning Bridge. This $14 million bridge—a public/private partnership of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and R&N, with R&N contributing $4 million—had been a dream of Muller’s for more than 20 years. It connects the railroad’s Reading and Lehigh Divisions, “allowing for progressive, expedited moves between Reading and the Scranton area.”

Here’s the story of how the Nesquehoning Bridge came to be, as told to Railway Age: For years, R&N connected its Reading and Lehigh Divisions via an old bridge, which was rehabilitated in 2003. That bridge connected an old Central Railroad of New Jersey line with the Lehigh Valley’s former main line. Unfortunately, the resulting connection was not a progressive move, and moving traffic between the two divisions took more time and costs than were optimal.

After years of working to persuade officials in Pennsylvania of the benefits of creating a new, efficient route between Reading

and points south, and Scranton and points north, R&N received final grant approval in 2016. The railroad immediately went to work. McTish, Kunkel & Associates took the lead on the engineering and design of the bridge. It designed a beautiful three-span, 450-foot-long structure that would span the Lehigh River. The new structure was set to soar 55 feet above the river, connecting the two divisions.

Upon receiving the official bridge plans, R&N put out a bid package. More than 15 contractors submitted bids. In June 2017, PennDOT opened the bids and announced the winner was J.D. Eckman, a family

April 2020 // Railway Age 25

Regional of the Year

owned and operated company—just like R&N. With all the pieces in place, construction was set to begin.

“The proverbial first shovel hit the ground on Aug. 14, 2017,” Daren P. Geschwindt, VP-Distribution Services, R&N, tells Railway Age. “J.D. Eckman began by clearing and grubbing the land on the west side of the river, which then set the stage for construction on the south bridge abutment.

The abutment was constructed by driving large steel beams into the earth to bedrock, and then forming and pouring concrete to form the southern abutment. The next step was to build a causeway into the Lehigh River, to enable the contractor to excavate to bedrock and begin forming the foundation for the first pier. With the foundations in place, construction began on the two 40-foot-tall bridge piers that would stand in the middle of the river.”

Work on the east side of the river required additional coordination, due to R&N’s close proximity to the Lehigh Gorge State Park and a Norfolk Southern line.

“We worked closely with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and 26 Railway Age // April 2020

Norfolk Southern to gain access to the site,” Geschwindt says. “Work on the east side would closely mirror what was being built on the opposite side of the river, with the construction of the bridge abutment and a pier in the river.”

One of the biggest moments for this project occurred in July 2019, with the setting of the 12-foot-tall, 130-foot-long beams. Setting the beams required coordination with multiple agencies and contractors. The beams were set, utilizing strategically positioned cranes to lift and set the 18 steel beams between the abutments and piers. Once the beams were in place, the contractor began to install the panning and rebar, which was needed to secure the 12-inch-thick poured concrete deck.

Throughout November 2019, the contractor put the finishing touches on the bridge, by completing the parapet wall, as well as backfilling and grading the east and west abutments. On Nov. 26, 2019, J.D. Eckman officially completed the bridge structure.

Once the bridge work was completed, the R&N track gang and the railroad’s track construction contractor, Track Solutions,

went to work building the track across the new structure.

“We started by building the northern turnout, and track over the bridge,” Geschwindt says. “At the southern end, the track work would also require severing the existing main track, and building track on a new right-of-way that was graded to line up with the new bridge. This led to a single day with most of our forces on-site to disconnect and swing the old existing track over and connect it to the new track and the southern end of the bridge. Once the track was in place, we dumped ballast and surface throughout the horseshoe-shaped curve, thus completing the connection and all necessary components.”

The new bridge was officially placed in service on Feb. 4, 2020, with Muller and Executive Vice President Operations Tyler Glass operating the first train across it.

As a result of the new bridge, and the progressive movement it allows, R&N has made changes to its trains operating between Reading and Pittston (near Scranton). Instead of two separate trains operating between those two points and railwayage.com

Regional of the Year

One of the biggest moments for this project occurred in July 2019, with the setting of the 12-foot-tall, 130-foot-long beams.

Setting the beams required coordination with multiple agencies and contractors.

Jim Thorpe Yard, R&N now has one road train that operates a turn between Reading and Pittston. These efficiencies have improved the velocity of the railcars by at least 24 hours.

“Those types of efficiencies translate into better service for our customers as well as better cycle time for equipment owners,” Geschwindt says. “With this greater efficiency, we were able to allocate the locomotives and employees to other jobs to handle our constantly growing

traffic base; our traffic has grown by 24% since the end of 2016.

“R&N already was the industry leader in on-time performance, as we have met our guaranteed two-hour service window 99% of the time over the past three years.

This new connection enables us to further improve our service to our customers. Our new NRFF train moves traffic between the two divisions, making a round trip in 10 hours. By moving traffic via this route, it provides a faster transit time for the

customer, cutting at least 48 hours out of the trip and eliminating the need for the cars to be processed at the NS Allentown yard. The improved routing also benefits equipment owners by reducing the round trip by more than 96 hours.”

This newly configured main line is a noteworthy achievement, given that most of the main line routes in Pennsylvania were completed by the early part of the 20th century and have remained basically the same since their original construction.

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April 2020 // Railway Age 27

SHORT LINE/Regional OF THE YEAR

SHORT LINE HONORABLE MENTION DELMARVA CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY

Railway Age’s 2020 Short Line of the Year Honorable Mention Delmarva Central continues to invest, and grow.

I

n 2019, Delmarva Central invested significantly into the continued turnaround of critical infrastructure by investing more than $5 million into track, bridges, signals and locomotives. Seven grade crossings were rehabilitated (more than 40 rehabilitated since 2017), and more than 30,000 ties were installed (more than 70,000 ties since 2017), including rehabilitation of 15 miles of former Bay Coast Railroad operated by DCR on behalf of Canonie Atlantic Co. DCR’s operating plan resulted in significantly decreased dwell times and encouraged customers to return to rail. In 2019, DCR secured four new brick-and-mortar customers, including Novus International, Nutrien and ADM. Unit aggregate train cycle times were improved significantly, resulting in year-over-year stone shipment growth of nearly 4,000 carloads. In 2019, DCR corn traffic was 128% higher compared to 2016 (the year prior to DCR operations on the peninsula).

28 Railway Age // April 2020

DCR closely partners with state, county and city economic development entities to help bring industry and jobs to the region.

Through these relationships, DCR expanded operations and encouraged state investment into two additional lines in 2018, bringing the total network to 188 miles.

One notable project is DCR’s new Seaford Transload Terminal. DCR invested more than $1.5 million to develop a new bulk liquids transload terminal, and built upon existing relationships to convert longhaul truck traffic to rail, creating two new lanes of steady rail business in 2019. DCR purchased the vacant former BASF facility at Seaford, Del. Significant investments

were made to the site to allow for the efficient handling of this new rail traffic that was a pure 100% conversion from long-haul trucks. As a result, DCR secured several hundred new railcars of highly consistent traffic per year. These liquid feed ingredients are critical to the poultry industry on the eastern shore, and now they are available in quantity at a centralized location, eliminating the unpredictability and risk associated with sourcing this high-value material via long-haul trucks. DCR parent company Carload Express continuously makes strategic investments in vacant railserved real estate to secure these properties as future rail customers.

railwayage.com

SHORT LINE/Regional OF THE YEAR

REGIONAL HONORABLE MENTION VERMONT RAIL SYSTEM

Railway Age’s 2020 Regional Railroad of the Year Honorable Mention Vermont Rail System “became the glue that held New England railroading together in early 2020.”

DCR and VRS photos

T

he combination of CN First Nations blockades coupled with the Pan Am Southern Hoosac Tunnel collapse forced multiple railroads to look for alternate routes to keep traffic fluid.

VRS, literally within hours of the tunnel collapse, had established a detour route for Pan Am traffic between Hoosick Jct., N.Y., and Bellows Falls, Vt., to allow important east-west traffic the ability to continue moving. The detours were handled around the clock, with extra VRS crews coming from management sources, including Vice President Selden Houghton, who was right in the grind at all hours running trains in an engineer role.

The Pan Am detours were joined by Norfolk Southern autorack traffic destined to Davisville, R.I. Yet again, the moves were taken on without hesitation. Simultaneous to these detours, Central Maine & Quebec’s connection to Canadian Pacific and traffic moving

railwayage.com

west in Canada was halted by First Nations blockades. VRS again stepped up through its Washington County affiliate, moving detour traffic from CMQ (Farnham, Quebec, to Newport, Vt.) at Newport and making several “hot moves” to get traffic to White River Junction and the connection to NECR and furtherance to CSX for movement west to rejoin CP. “Pan-Am’s Hoosac Tunnel problem has resulted in a very impressive detour operation

on behalf of Pan-Am by Vermont Rail System,” Christopher Parker, Executive Director, Vermont Rail Action Network, tells Railway Age. “In striking contrast to CSX, which has only managed to send 1/6th of detour trains it offered, trains through Vermont have been running a fluid, well-organized and efficient operation that started immediately—plans were laid even before the crew that encountered the tunnel slide was off-duty.”

April 2020 // Railway Age 29

RAILINC FREIGHT CAR REVIEW 2020

NEW CARS

TRENDING LARGE

BY DAVID HUMPHREY, PH.D., SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST, RAILINC CORP.

ailinc’s annual analysis of the North American revenue-earning f leet reveals that the total f leet increased slightly in 2019, with one-half of the major groups—tanks, covered hoppers and f lats—accounting for the growth. One of the smallest car types, open hoppers, continued to decline in 2019. (The revenue-earning f leet is a subset of the North American rail f leet that is largely composed of freight cars that can be used in interchange service and against which an interline waybill can be placed. It is made up of six subf leets: hoppers, covered hoppers, gondolas, f lat cars, tank cars and boxcars. It excludes locomotives, intermodal trailers and containers, maintenance-of-way equipment and end-of-train devices.)

The average age of cars in the revenueearning f leet was slightly down, and the new cars again trended large, with the majority having gross rail loads (GRLs) of 30 Railway Age // April 2020

286,000 pounds.

• The total f leet size was up 0.5% from year-end 2018 to year-end 2019, compared with a 0.7% increase the previous year.

• Tanks grew the most of all the car types, up 3.4%, followed by f lats, up 2.3%. It was the tenth consecutive year of decline for hoppers, down 3.7%, and gondolas were also down, by 3.2%.

Boxcars—the least populous car type of the revenue-earning f leet—were down by 1.9%.

• The average age of the f leet returned to 19.5 years following 2018’s slight increase—suggesting new cars were joining the f leet at a slightly higher rate than older cars were exiting during the past year.

• The number of GRL 286 cars added to the f leet declined by about 6% in 2019.

However, these cars accounted for 90% of all new additions in 2019 and about 85% in the past decade. Larger cars enable operational efficiencies that reduce costs

and ease logistics challenges.

The revenue-earning fleet realized a net increase of 8,000 cars in 2019. At the end of 2019, the revenue-earning freight car fleet totaled 1.66 million units, up 0.5% from the previous year (see Figure 1).

Tanks drove growth in the revenue-earning fleet, increasing by 3.4% over 2018.

Covered hoppers and flats also grew in 2019, increasing by 2.3% and 0.4% respectively over 2018. Hoppers (3.7%), gondolas (3.2%) and boxcars (1.9%) all declined.

The average age of railcars in the revenue-earning f leet in 2019 was 19.5 years, a 0.1-year decrease from 2018. This figure is the lowest age since Railinc implemented the new Umler® system in 2009 (see Figure 2). The near-stability in the f leet over the past several years suggests that new cars have been added at approximately the same rate as old cars have been exiting.

About 94,000 new cars joined the revenue-earning f leet in the past two years railwayage.com

Union Tank Car

R

Tank cars, covered hoppers and flat cars account for growth in a fleet that’s increasingly “youthful.”

RAILINC FREIGHT CAR REVIEW 2020

FIGURE 1: At the end of 2019, the revenue-earning fleet totaled 1.66 million units.

(see Figure 3). The trend that started in 2017 of adding less than 50,000 new cars a year continued in 2019.

In the past 25 years, GRL 286 railcars have accounted for 80% of all new additions to the f leet. This trend continued in 2019, as 90% of new equipment were GRL 286 cars (see Figure 4). The number of GRL 263 cars added in 2019 increased by about 450 cars from 2018.

GRL 286 cars dominate among recent additions to the f leet because they enable operation efficiencies that reduce costs and ease logistics challenges. The f leet continues to add GRL 263, 268 and GRL 220 cars, but at a much lower rate than GRL 286 cars. The last year non-GRL 286 cars led among new additions to the f leet was 1992.

SUBFLEET TRENDS More than 700 equipment type codes (ETCs) appear in the UmlerÂŽ equipment registry. Of those, 10 ETCs accounted for 52% of the revenue-earning fleet in 2019.

For the fifth time since 2011, nine of the top 10 car types were either tank cars or covered hoppers—the two largest car types in the revenue-earning fleet. For tanks, the 2019 rankings saw a slight change compared to the previous year, with T178s rising five spots to seventh place, which propelled T389, T106 and T107 to eighth, ninth and tenth place, respectively.

As the demographics of the car groups railwayage.com

change, so do the average car size and the total combined capacity of all the units in a group. For example, the total tank subf leet capacity has increased by 52.9% since 2009. Most new tanks are large, which has pushed the average car size up by 7.4%. The total f leet capacity for covered hoppers has increased, as well, by 21.4%. However, the average car size has decreased because most new covered hoppers are small.

In the past decade, the boxcar population has decreased, which has driven

down the total f leet capacity. Large boxcars have joined the f leet, which led to an increase in average car size, but not at a fast enough rate to offset the population loss.

From 2011 to 2016, this report presented data on individual car types grouped by their capacity and GRL, which is the sum of the weight of the car plus the lading within the car. That represents the maximum allowed loaded weight of the car. As of 2017, the report now presents select car types by the kinds of commodities they carry. This provides a more nuanced view of these car types.

For example, while covered hoppers carry grain, sand, plastic pellets and other commodities, the types of covered hoppers that transport each commodity are very different in their characteristics.

Plastics: Covered hoppers are commonly used to ship plastic pellets.

This commodity subf leet added about 14,000 cars in the past two years, about 39% of what was added in the previous 10 years combined. Cars with equipment type code C214 comprise nearly the entire commodity subf leet as defined here, make up 8% of the revenue-earning f leet and are the second most populous equipment type. New railcars have trended large. Of the cars added to the commodity subf leet in the past 20 years, about 93% have had a capacity of 6,000 cubic feet or more.

FIGURE 2: The average age of railcars in the revenue-earning fleet in 2019 was 19.5 years, a 0.1-year decrease from 2018.

April 2020 // Railway Age 31

RAILINC FREIGHT CAR REVIEW 2020

FIGURE 3: About 94,000 new cars have joined the revenue-earning fleet since 2018.

Grain and Fertilizer: Railroads move grain and fertilizer in large covered hoppers. This subf leet added about 12,000 new cars in the past two years and make up about 17% of the revenue-earning f leet. Two types of covered hoppers— C114 and C113—account for about 96%

of the commodity subf leet and are in the top five of the most populous equipment types in the revenue-earning f leet. Larger covered hoppers with capacities of at least 5,000 cubic feet have made up nearly 87% of the additions to the commodity subf leet in the past 20 years.

Sand and Cement: Small covered hoppers are used to move sand and cement. Over the past 10 years, the revenue-earning f leet has added almost 80,000 covered hoppers with an equipment type code of C112. About 96% of the subf leet is comprised of C112s, which was the third-largest equipment type in 2019. Because of the density of sand and cement, the cars that carry these commodities tend to be smaller. Of the cars in the subf leet, almost all have a capacity of just over 3,000 cubic feet.

Coal: Coal is shipped primarily in gondolas and open hoppers. These cars still made up a sizable portion of the revenueearning fleet—12%, or 198,000 railcars— in 2018 and 2019. About 76% of those cars were added between 1991 and 2013.

Aggregates: Commodities such as limestone and crushed stone are shipped in gondolas and open hoppers. The number of these car types added to the revenue-earning f leet in 2019 and 2018 was down nearly 72% over the previous

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RAILINC FREIGHT CAR REVIEW 2020 two-year period.

Boxcars: Boxcars are the least populous car type in the revenue-earning f leet and are used to ship a wide variety of products, from consumer goods to automotive parts. The boxcar f leet is older than other car types. Boxcars made in the past two years account for about 34% of all boxcars added to the f leet in the past 12 years.

CONCLUSION The North American railcar f leet grew slightly in 2019. The total size of the revenue-earning f leet increased for the ninth consecutive year, up 0.5% from year-end 2019 to year-end 2018.

The revenue-earning f leet added cars FIGURE 4: In the past 25 years, GRL 286 railcars have accounted for in half of its subf leet —tanks (3.4%), f lats 80% of all new additions to the fleet.

(2.3%), and covered hoppers (0.4%). All operational efficiencies that reduce costs other subf leets contracted, with hoppers as older cars are exiting.

GRL 286 cars continue to predominate and ease logistics challenges. declining the most (3.7%).

Railinc is a wholly owned subsidiary of The average age of cars in the revenue- among new additions to the revenueearning fleet returned to 19.5 years after a earning f leet. This size of car accounted the Association of American Railroads. slight increase in 2018, suggesting new cars for about 90% of all new additions to For more information, please visit www. the f leet cars enable railinc.com. are joining the fleet at a slightly higher rate1 7/17/19 1_2pgHorzWrkStTraining2019.qxp_Layout 10:00inAM2019.

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April 2020 // Railway Age 33

FAULT DETECTION

LUTIS: A LOOK UNDERNEATH

A new wayside technology, Locomotive Undercarriage Thermal Inspection, uses infrared heat signatures to monitor major mechanical components. y regulation, locomotives undergo static inspection on a regular schedule, and many have onboard diagnostic systems to monitor in-service health. However, not all locomotives are equipped with onboard diagnostic systems, due to the logistics of equipping large fleets.

Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) recently worked with several vendors through the Association of American Railroads Strategic Research Initiatives (SRI) program to develop and test infrared inspection systems known as Locomotive Undercarriage Thermal Inspection Systems, or LUTIS. This new wayside inspection method, a concept suggested by the railroads for monitoring locomotive components, employs thermal sensing

34 Railway Age // April 2020

technology to monitor major mechanical components on active locomotives.

TTCI worked with two suppliers to create proof-of-concept LUTIS systems.

Initial studies used temporary cameras to optimize camera placement and perform thermal range studies. As a result, two different configurations of LUTIS emerged.

One configuration was a two-camera system with sensors located near the gage side of each rail. This configuration provided a clear view between the wheels and traction motor and provided the best view of the gear box and hardware that may otherwise be obscured by the traction motor from below. It also provided visibility of these components regardless of locomotive type or orientation.

The other opted for a single thermal

camera centered between the rails. Special optics and a wide-angle lens were used to broadly view the heat signature of undercarriage components. Installation near optical undercarriage imaging systems also provided additional options for data viewing and identifying components.

Operational parameters varied as well.

One system essentially monitors temperatures in the overall field of view and generates alarms at definable temperature thresholds.

The other system measures component temperatures directly. Initial results for both systems showed good repeatability under normal operating conditions. Both systems were able to distinguish temperature zones of interest. A validation test was performed where thermocouples were placed on select components of the locomotive. Correlation between the thermal railwayage.com

William Beecher

B

BY MATTHEW WITTE, TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY CENTER, INC.

FAULT DETECTION

Figure 1. Thermal image of three locomotive traction motors. Left to right: Worn center bowl liner; cracked adapter pad; delaminating adapter pad. All components are within normal operating range, although the power cables on Traction Motor 3 (red circle) are shown to be a few degrees higher than the others.

image temperature measurements and thermocouple instruments was consistently within 1 degree C. LUTIS provides insights to operational conditions that may otherwise be difficult to detect. Figure 1 shows a colorized thermal image of three locomotive traction motors. The color gradient represents about an 85-degree Fahrenheit range from violet to red. All components are within normal

operating range, although the power cables on Traction Motor 3 (red circle) are shown to be a few degrees higher than the others.

The positive results from testing at TTCI and continued industry interest indicate a need for evaluation in revenue service. One Class I railroad is sponsoring the implementation assessment of LUTIS and has invited technology vendors to test on its property.

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April 2020 // Railway Age 35

People / Events VANESSA ALLEN SUTHERLAND Norfolk Southern

HIGH PROFILE: Norfolk Southern has promoted Senior Vice President Government Relations and Chief Legal Officer Vanessa Allen Sutherland to Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, effective April 1, 2020. Allen Sutherland joined NS in 2018 as Vice President Law. She was promoted to Senior Vice President Government Relations and Chief Legal Officer in 2019. “Recently, she has been focused on the NS government relations team’s ongoing work, building and strengthening relationships with legislative, state, and local stakeholders in support of the company’s financial and legal obligations,” NS noted.

“During her tenure at NS, she has helped lead a review of the company’s safety program, managed government relations initiatives, introduced automation at multiple levels within the law team, and collaborated with industry peers on matters related to short line railroads.”

T

rinity Industries, Inc. realigned responsibilities for some of its most senior executives, effective April 1, 2020.

Specifically, Eric R. Marchetto has been appointed Trinity’s Chief Financial Officer, and W. Relle Howard, currently Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, will return to his previous role as the Company’s Chief Information Officer.

Marchetto succeeds Melendy E. Lovett, who will return to her previous position as Chief Administrative Officer. The role of Group President, TrinityRail will be discontinued. On the heels of the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the “rapidly evolving nature” of its own situation, Trinity also announced it has withdrawn the fiscal year 2020 guidance provided on its year-end earnings call on Feb. 19, 2020 and related earnings press release. “This management realignment is the first step in implementing a new organizational design developed over the past few months, which is aligned with the company’s commitment to optimizing the rail platform in order to drive our financial performance to new levels,” said E. Jean Savage, President and CEO. “Trinity is transitioning its business model from a holding company structure to an operating structure.”

OmniTRAX, an affiliate of The Broe Group, appointed Robert Walker as Chief Financial Officer. He reports to CEO Kevin Shuba and is responsible for corporate finance, treasury, financial planning and analysis, tax and pricing. For the past 10 years, Walker served as Chief Operating

36 Railway Age // April 2020

and Financial Officer at The Madison Companies and affiliates. Prior to joining The Madison Companies, he served as Executive Vice President and CFO of property operations and redevelopment at Apartment Investment and Management Company, a publicly traded REIT, and as Senior Vice President and CFO for Miller Global Properties, a private equity real estate fund manager. Walker started his career in audit and advisory services at Ernst & Young and served as Global Controller for GE Capital Real Estate.

Patriot Rail and Ports has appointed Paul Tonsager as its Chief Commercial Officer. Tonsager will oversee all commercial efforts related to the transportation, services and ports business units across Patriot Company’s business platform. More specifically, his scope of responsibilities will “cover the growth of industrial development projects, as well as M&A activities and further leverage strategic organizational capabilities by aligning and refocusing the commercial group.” Tonsager comes to Patriot from CN Rail, where he most recently was responsible for U.S. Business Development and Short Line Engagement.

Prior to that, he ran CN Worldwide North America, Marketing and Sales for CN’s 31 warehouse and distribution facilities, Aquatrain, and CN’s Machinery and Dimensional business. Tonsager has broad international experience, moving to Shanghai to launch and develop CN’s presence in Asia. He previously worked for Maersk and Crowley Maritime.

APRIL 27-OCTOBER 30, 2020 MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY RAILWAY MANAGEMENT CERTIFICATE PROGRAM 2020

Module 1: Railway Business Administration, April 27- May 1, East Lansing, Mich. (MSU Campus).

Module 2: Railway Regulation, Safety & the Rail Industry, June 8-12, Washington, D.C. Module 3: Railway Operations, Sept. 14-18, Chicago.

Module 4: Railway Engineering and Technology, October 26-30, Pueblo, Colo. (TTCI) https://execed.broad.msu.edu/ programs/ railway-management-certificateprogram-2020-four-weeks-entirecertificate-program/

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Products

High-Torque Adjustable Gravity Discharge Gate Opener MARTIN ENGINEERING has developed a new high-speed, high-torque railcar opener engineered to quickly open and close even the most stubborn gravity discharge gates. Powered by a 1.5-inch pneumatic impact tool capable of delivering up to 10,000 foot-pounds (13,558 Nm) of torque, the Martin® Impacting Railcar Opener (IRCO) features a lifting mechanism that provides nearly 15 inches (38 cm) of height adjustment. By repositioning the axles, the tool can be set up to accommodate capstan heights of 7.23 inches to 22.22 inches (18.4 cm to 56.4 cm) or 10.23 inches to 25.22 inches (26 cm to 64 cm).

As a result, the capstan extension can be quickly and easily aligned (level and square) with the gate’s capstan, allowing the tool to apply maximum torque to the gate and reduce the chance of a misalignment that could cause stripping. Adjustable handle height and pivoting wheels contribute to an ergonomic, versatile design that can speed the unloading of unit trains with improved safety and efficiency.

“Cement terminals, grain handlers, glass manufacturers and other facilities use hopper railcars,” says Railcar Business Development Manager Marty Yepsen. “This design can benefit virtually any location railwayage.com

that relies on dependable opening and closing of hopper cars with horizontal gravity discharge gates.”

While shaving seconds off the opening/ closing time may seem a minor advantage for bulk terminals, if that’s multiplied by hundreds of gates per day, the time adds up quickly. “The adjustable capstan height and maneuverability of this unit mean operators won’t have to struggle to get the alignment just right,” Yepsen notes. “They can use the foot pedals for quick, easy height changes.”

The adjustable handle height also delivers a more ergonomic tool that helps reduce repetitive stress, and the improved operator experience contributes to greater safety and fewer potential injuries. Large, foam-filled tires provide easy maneuverability on any surface, and users will never have to deal with a flat tire. The wheels also pivot with the pull of a lever for lateral movement to accommodate travelling capstans.

The new IRCO was designed for durability and long life to maximize return on investment.

“In some opener designs, failures are caused by the deterioration of the OEM grease over time, with no way to replace the lubricant short of disassembly,” says Yepsen. “Our design allows operators to add grease on a regular maintenance schedule to prolong the service

life of internal wear parts and ultimately extend rebuild/replacement intervals.”

Peak performance is realized using 90 PSI (6.2 Bar) of compressed air at 130 CFM (0.061 m3/s or 61 L/s). An in-line lubricator is supplied with each unit.

Like all Martin products, the new railcar opener will be covered by Martin Engineering’s “Absolutely No Excuses” guarantee. The company also offers a 14-day risk-free trial. Some Martin Engineering products may not be available in all regions.

For more information, contact info@martineng.com, visit www.martin-eng.com, or call (800) 544-2947. Martin Engineering products are protected by U.S. and foreign patents and patents pending.

Martin Engineering is a global innovator in the bulk material handling industry, developing new solutions to common problems and participating in industry organizations to improve safety and productivity. Martin Engineering products, sales, service and training are available from 19 factory-owned facilities worldwide, with wholly owned business units in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Spain, South Africa and Turkey.

April 2020 // Railway Age 37

EQUIPMENT SALE/LEASING

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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.

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AILWAY GE April 2020 // Railway Age 39

Perspective: ASLRRA

Flexible, Creative and Keenly Aware

A

s with every other business in the country, short line freight railroad operations are increasingly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, and it will get worse before it gets better. Those that can in our workforce are working remotely.

Operations, dispatching and maintenance workers are heroically doing what they can to make the trains run on time. Many of our customers are under severe duress that affects our train schedules, loadings and unloadings, and ultimately our revenue. As of this writing on March 30, about 15% of our short lines report they have employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in self-quarantine.

While our industry’s difficulties mirror those of the country as a whole, our railroads do have some inherent advantages. Much of our work is done outdoors where there is less opportunity for spreading the disease unwittingly, and where social distancing is less problematic. Many, albeit not all, short lines operate in rural areas where the virus has not yet spread as widely. We can move large volumes of product with very few people.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has responded quickly to the crisis by providing a relatively broad set of emergency waivers to a whole host of regulatory requirements that cannot be met because of social distancing and a reduced workforce.

The list of regulations affected includes Parts 213, 214, 217, 218, 219, 220, 228, 229, 232, 234, 236, 239, 240, and 242. ASLRRA, along with AAR and APTA, submitted this request to the FRA, worked closely with

20% TWO SHORT LINE CUSTOMERS PREDICT

PRODUCTION INCREASES OF

40 Railway Age // April 2020

their senior leadership to determine what was safe, necessary and possible, and we are grateful to the FRA for their support.

Like the rest of the country, we will see some relief from the recently enacted stimulus legislation measure, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), which will help the country attempt to weather this storm. As small businesses, most short lines will be able to take advantage of the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs contained in the latest legislation, including most prominently the SBA’s modified 7(a) “Paycheck Protection” loan program, which will make, and more important forgive, loans to cover eight weeks of payroll, rent/ mortgage and utility costs.

As businesses across the country curtail their activities or shut down altogether, some short lines will lose business. This is already happening. Some good news, though, is that overall short lines are and will remain a critical link in the movement of products important to fighting the virus. A recent survey of our short line companies reveals dozens of short lines moving traffic that is related to medical and or cleaning products.

The Wisconsin & Southern Railroad (WSOR) has been contacted by a number of customers deemed as “Critical Infrastructure” during the COVID-19 outbreak, and their businesses will likely increase WSOR’s carloads. WSOR customer Schoeneck Containers makes food-grade containers now in high demand by takeout restaurants across the country, and the railroad expects volumes will stay steady and perhaps increase in the weeks ahead.

Wisconsin-based plastics customers Bemis Manufacturing Company and Plastic Ingenuity are predicting a 20% increase in production as a result of the crisis. GVT Rail, operating in New York and Pennsylvania, ships large volumes of plastic resin used in making masks, and chemicals used for hand sanitizer. These are critical raw materials essential to fighting the outbreak, and the railroad is doing everything possible to ensure uninterrupted and timely delivery. The Lancaster and Chester Railroad in South Carolina ships isopropyl alcohol, propylene glycol and sodium hydroxide, all

short lines are critical to products for fighting COVID-19.” of which are common ingredients in cleaning and personal hygiene products used by hospitals and other facilities.

Finger Lakes Railroad in New York ships pharmaceutical salt. One of the RJ Corman railroads serves a plastics manufacturer that among many other items makes face shields for medical facilities. And, of course, hundreds of short lines carry the raw materials needed to produce consumer-grade paper goods such as toilet paper and paper towels, products that are flying off store shelves in record numbers as concerned Americans stock up to ride out this unsettling emergency.

The availability of these and many more products is something that most Americans never think about. And we’re OK with that!

Short lines just want to do their jobs, reliably, cost-effectively, efficiently and safely. I am proud to report that short lines across the country are working hard to keep these products moving from origin to destination, and I am optimistic we will continue to get the job done. Ours is an industry that survived and grew by being flexible, creative and keenly aware of how to do more with less. I am confident that those characteristics will help us weather this storm as individual companies, and in the process contribute to the needs of our customers and the nation.

CHUCK BAKER President ASLRRA

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