JANUARY 2024
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
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR CN’s Tracy Robinson ‘We Power the Economy’
2024 PASSENGER RAIL OUTLOOK
Moving Forward – at Restricted Speed
MXV RAIL R&D Predicting Wheel Wear
railwayage.com
August 2017 // Railway Age 1
AILWAY GE
February2024 2020 January
28
FEATURES Railroader of the Year 10 2024 CN’s Tracy Robinson
28 Passenger Rail Outlook
Moving Forward at Restricted Speed
32 Timeout for Tech
Innovation on the Railways
35 MxV Rail R&D
Predicting Wheel Wear
DEPARTMENTS 4 Industry Indicators 6 Industry Outlook
COMMENTARY
8 Market
2 From the Editor
37 People
9 Watching Washington
38 Professional Directory
40 Financial Edge
38 Classifieds 39 Advertising Index COVER PHOTO
Metrolink/John Livzey
Railroader of the Year Tracy Robinson. CN photo
Railway Age, USPS 449-130, is published monthly by the Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation, 1809 Capitol Avenue, Omaha, NE 68102. Tel. (212) 620-7200. Vol. 225, No. 1. 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© 2023 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, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. Canada Post Cust.#7204564; Agreement #41094515. Bleuchip International, 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 239 Lincolnshire IL 60069-0239 USA; railwayage@omeda.com; or call +1 (402) 346-4740; FAX +1 (847) 291-4816. Printed at Cummings Printing, Hooksett, N.H. ISSN 0033-8826 (print); 2161-511X (digital).
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January 2024 // Railway Age 1
FROM THE EDITOR
AILWAY GE
‘No Better Organization Than a Railroad’
A
warm welcome to 2024! This year Railway Age marks 169 years of continuous publication (193 if you count antecedent publication The American Rail-Road Journal). As of this writing, just prior to Christmas Day 2023, we’ve published literally hundreds of thousands of articles in print, and for the past 15-odd years, nearly 19,000 on line (all of the latter of which are available on our website). In my December “From the Editor,” I said that, on balance, 2023 was a very good year, despite some problematic events. While I don’t expect everyone to agree with that assessment, I do hope that by December of this year, many of you who felt otherwise will be able to look back on 2024 with a smile (or at least a sigh of relief). Which brings me to the theme of this issue, our Railroader of the Year, CN’s Tracy Robinson. Optimism is Tracy’s mantra, and I’d like to share a few excerpts from my interview with her at CN’s Montreal headquarters (p. 10), which took place in early December. • “We talk about growing the business because we power the economy. If the railroads aren’t performing and if they’re not adding to the capacity where our customers need it, the economy is not going to grow. But if we can be in a position where we can help the economy grow, we’re also going to grow. So that means you need to start with that foundation of a strong, consistent operation and service to your customers. But especially these days, you need to be very close with your customers around how they’re trying to build their business and what the opportunities are.”
• “The biggest change between the time when I stepped out of the industry and came back is the advancement in technology. It’s important to lean into for several reasons. We aspire to zero harm in our company, which means environment. It means people and communities. We need to keep our rail operations safe, and technology plays a big role in doing that. But if we’re going to operate consistently, it means we need a minimal amount of disruption.” • “There’s no better organization than a railroad when it comes to a crisis. The ability of our teams to get track back in shape to run and to deal with whatever is going on around it is amazing. It’s a hallmark of the industry.” • “I’m a strong believer that if we are going to succeed in the future, we need to lean into diversity. It’s the right thing to do, but there’s also a strong business imperative for it. We need those different perspectives and different backgrounds coming together in the right way. This business is changing, and the culture needs to change, as well. We need to come together differently.” • “I want to make this industry the place that people want to work, to make CN in particular the place that people want to work. I want to help get people as excited as I am about getting up every morning and making this work for our customers, for our industries, for the economy, for the country and the continent. It’s a great purpose to rally around.” During my nearly 32 years at Railway Age, I’ve always felt excited about “getting up and going to work.” I wish the same for all of you who call the railway industry home.
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WILLIAM C. VANTUONO Editor-in-Chief
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Industry Indicators ’MOST DECLINES VERY SMALL IN PERCENTAGE TERMS’ “Originated carloads on U.S. railroads fell 0.01%, or 102 carloads, in November 2023 from the same period in 2022,” the AAR reported last month. “It was the fifth year-over-year decline for total carloads in the past six months, but most of those declines have been very small in percentage terms. Total carloads averaged 225,715 per week in November 2023, the fourth lowest of the 11 months so far this year. The Thanksgiving holiday typically holds down rail volumes in November. In the first 11 months of 2023, total carloads were 10.82 million, up 0.2% (21,700 carloads) over last year and up 0.5% (53,682 carloads) over 2021. U.S. intermodal traffic rose 5.0% in November 2023 over November 2022, its third straight monthly gain after 18 straight declines. It’s the biggest year-over-year percentage gain for intermodal in 29 months. U.S. railroads averaged 255,981 originated containers and trailers per week in November 2023, the fourth most for intermodal for November on record (2017, 2018, and 2020 were higher). Interestingly, the last week of November was the highest volume intermodal week of the year for U.S. railroads—hopefully a harbinger of things to come ... In November, carloads were up in 12 of the 20 categories the AAR tracks over last year.”
Railroad employment, Class I linehaul carriers, NOVEMBER 2023 (% change from NOVEMBER 2022)
TOTAL EMPLOYEES: 122,356 % CHANGE FROM NOVEMBER 2022: +2.87%
Transportation (train and engine) 52,321 (+4.78%)
Executives, Officials and Staff Assistants
TRAFFIC ORIGINATED CARLOADS
FIVE WEEKS ENDING DEC. 2, 2023
MAJOR NORTH AMERICAN RAILROADS BY COMMODITY
NOV. ’23
NOV. ’22
% CHANGE
Grain Farm Products excl. Grain Grain Mill Products Food Products Chemicals Petroleum & Petroleum Products Coal Primary Forest Products Lumber & Wood Products Pulp & Paper Products Metallic Ores Coke Primary Metal Products Iron & Steel Scrap Motor Vehicles & Parts Crushed Stone, Sand & Gravel Nonmetallic Minerals Stone, Clay & Glass Products Waste & Nonferrous Scrap All Other Carloads
179,195 16,822 55,475 55,378 230,952 108,946 377,417 9,818 28,375 37,110 96,579 25,149 62,143 29,205 125,022 121,481 20,941 57,194 20,219 32,503
191,157 24,584 56,610 52,936 213,449 100,517 369,875 9,811 28,751 37,924 90,474 26,734 59,257 26,329 111,755 128,859 21,675 53,768 20,576 43,012
-6.3% -31.6% -2.0% 4.6% 8.2% 8.4% 2.0% 0.1% -1.3% -2.1% 6.7% -5.9% 4.9% 10.9% 11.9% -5.7% -3.4% 6.4% -1.7% -24.4%
TOTAL NORTH AMERICAN CARLOADS 1,689,924
1,668,053
1.3%
8,169 (+1.73%)
Intermodal
Professional and Administrative
MAJOR NORTH AMERICAN RAILROADS
10,301 (+3.03%)
Maintenance-of-Way and Structures 28,700 (+0.95%)
Maintenance of Equipment and Stores
FIVE WEEKS ENDING DEC. 2, 2023
BY COMMODITY
NOV. ’23
Trailers Containers TOTAL UNITS
65,937 1,618,405 1,684,342
NOV. ’22
% CHANGE
79,717
-17.3% 4.4% 3.4%
1,549,748 1,629,465
Source: Rail Time Indicators, Association of American Railroads
17,945 (+0.96%)
Transportation (other than train & engine) 4,920 (+2.95%)
Source: Surface Transportation Board
4 Railway Age // January 2024
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TOTAL North American CARLOADS, Nov. 2023 VS. Nov. 2022
1,689,924 November 2023
AILWAY GE
1,668,053 NovemBer 2022
Short Line And Regional Traffic Index CARLOADS
BY COMMODITY Chemicals Coal Crushed Stone, Sand & Gravel Food & Kindred Products Grain Grain Mill Products Lumber & Wood Products Metallic Ores Metals & Products Motor Vehicles & Equipment Nonmetallic Minerals Petroleum Products Pulp, Paper & Allied Products Stone, Clay & Glass Products Trailers / Containers Waste & Scrap Materials All Other Carloads
ORIGINATED NOV. ’23
ORIGINATED NOV. ’22
% CHANGE
55,115 22,459 26,498 13,244 33,265 8,441 9,917 2,798 20,102 11,488 2,276 2,324 15,035 15,612 44,562 11,422 66,427
50,526 20,880 26,623 12,091 30,775 7,848 8,883 2,640 18,029 9,153 3,022 1,917 15,729 14,385 41,457 11,540 70,852
9.1% 7.6% -0.5% 9.5% 8.1% 7.6% 11.6% 6.0% 11.5% 25.5% -24.7% 21.2% -4.4% 8.5% 7.5% -1.0% -6.2%
Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved.
TOTAL U.S. Carloads and intermodal units, 2014-2023
(in millions, year-to-date through november 2023, SIX-WEEK MOVING AVERAGE)
ARE YOU A RAILROAD OR SUPPLIER SEARCHING FOR JOB CANDIDATES?
Visit http://bit.ly/railjobs To place a job posting, contact: Jerome Marullo 732-887-5562 jmarullo@sbpub.com
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January 2024 // Railway Age 5 RA_JobBoard_1/3Vertical.indd 1
7/27/21 3:02 PM
Industry Outlook
LOS ANGELES, CALIF.-BASED PARALLEL SYSTEMS has been conducting tests at its Southern California test track of its autonomous battery-electric freight cars that demonstrate “successfully platooning,” or “connecting with one another through bumper-to-bumper contact.” The individually powered railcars are designed to transport standard shipping containers as a single or double-stacked load in short-haul freight operations, and can form “platoons” of up to 50 cars, according to Parallel Systems. “The fully automated platooning process eliminates the requirement for railcars to couple to each other and connect air brake lines,” the company explained. “Upon contact, each vehicle maintains bumper contact with the one in front by controlling tractive effort. The small air gap between containers and the pushing action through railcar bumpers reduces average aerodynamic drag of the platoon, ultimately improving energy efficiency. Individual railcars can also separate from one another, enabling them to bypass rail classification yards and independently proceed to varied destinations, or to keep railroad crossings clear. Brake systems are self-contained in each railcar and therefore do not require connecting air lines.” According to Parallel Systems, 6 Railway Age // January 2024
platooning technology allows railroads “to sort freight anywhere along the network where there is a switch.” The company debuted its second-generation car in September 2023. Platoon testing began in October 2023, and “performance has been consistent with our modeling and simulations, which is exciting right out of the gate,” Parallel Systems Co-founder and CEO Matt Soule said in a Dec. 20, 2023 statement. “The vehicles have remained connected according to plan, allowing us to plan expanded platoon testing with increased speeds, greater number of vehicles and braking. Introducing platooning will help the rail industry address a range of critical challenges, including sorting and routing freight more quickly and keeping railroad crossings open for roadway and pedestrian traffic.” Earlier in December, Parallel Systems and Arc Infrastructure of Australia unveiled the prototype of their new Hiivr Rail system, comprising autonomous battery-powered railcars to move containers within ports and terminals. The new system was developed for the future Westport container port in Perth, with the goal of replacing fossil fuel-powered trucks and loaders, while offering automatic integration with logistics systems and real-time visibility of container movements,
according to a report by International Railway Journal, a Railway Age sister publication. Hiivr Rail cars can also be coupled together to form an autonomous freight train, the report said. The new system will be tested on main lines in Australia, with the aim of integrating it with Arc Infrastructure train control systems. In the United States, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) subsidiaries Georgia Central Railway, L.P. and Heart of Georgia Railroad, Inc. on Aug. 10 filed a petition with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to pilot Parallel Systems railcars on portions of their rail lines. If approved, the railroads said a multi-phased pilot would begin in 2024 and be overseen by the FRA, G&W and Parallel Systems, allowing G&W and Parallel Systems to “demonstrate the technology in a field setting while using carefully developed protocols to ensure the pilot is operated in a safe, controlled manner.” Parallel Systems, founded by three former SpaceX engineers, was awarded a $4.4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant in February 2022 to test its railcar technology. The award followed the company’s January 2022 report stating that it had raised $49.55 million in Series A funds to help build a fleet of new railcars for shorthaul freight operations, continue testing and grow the company. railwayage.com
Parallel Systems
Parallel Systems Tests Railcar ‘Platooning’ in California
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Industry Outlook market New Siemens LRVs for St. Louis
Metro Transit has awarded Siemens Mobility a $390.4 million contract for up to 55 new high-floor light rail vehicles—a base order of 24 plus options for up to 31 more—to replace much of its original MetroLink fleet, also supplied by Siemens. The BiState Development Board of Commissioners approved the contract on Nov. 29. It includes project management, support, testing, spare parts, tools and diagnostic equipment. The vehicles are being funded in part by $196 million in federal funding awarded by the U.S. DOT in early 2023. MetroLink currently operates 75 LRVs, of which more than 20 are 30 years old and have accumulated more than one million miles each. Fifteen vehicles of the existing fleet have topped the twomillion-mile mark. “Many of Metro Transit’s MetroLink LRVs are operating well beyond the typical expected 25-year service life,” the agency said. “The new high-floor vehicles will operate within the existing MetroLink alignment, platform and facility infrastructure, which spans more than 46 miles and soon-tobe 39 stations throughout the region, and will be well-equipped for the St. Louis region’s ever-changing weather.”
NORTH AMERICA
BULGARIAN STATE RAILWAYS (BDZ) signed a $US51 million contract with SIEMENS MOBILITY last month for 10 Smartron X4-E-Lok-D electric locomotives. The contract includes maintenance, staff training and the cost of emergency repairs. The first locomotive will be delivered in the next 18 months, and the remainder of the order in stages until December 2025. Siemens describes the Smartron as a pre-configured locomotive that combines the advantages of a standard product with the proven technology of the Vectron platform. Each Smartron will weigh 83 tons and will have a maximum speed of 100 mph. They will be able to operate under 25kV AC electrification. Siemens has also signed two more contracts with BDZ for the supply of spare parts and to provide technical support of the first 15 Smartron locomotives delivered in 2021.
The acquisition of certain railcar assets and operations formerly owned by SMBC RAIL SERVICES LLC has been completed by AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL TRANSPORT, INC. (AITX), a railcar leasing and repair and maintenance provider affiliated with investment firm ITE MANAGEMENT L.P. (ITE). St. Charles, Mo.-based AITX reported the acquisition in November and the closing on Dec. 14, 2023. With the acquisition, AITX said it “adds a diversified fleet of more than 50,000 railcars and welcomes new customers and new members to its expert rail industry team.” AITX and its affiliates now have a leasing portfolio of nearly 120,000 railcars. Michael McCarthy has been appointed President of AITX. He spent the past 10 years building SMBC Rail Services—which was a member of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC Group)—and running its commercial leasing and portfolio management business; he served most recently as CEO of that company. Previously, McCarthy held senior roles at GE Rail Services and GATX. Texas Howard has been named Chief Operating Officer of AITX, overseeing all U.S. and European fleet and repair operations, engineering, quality assurance, environmental health and safety, and human resources. Previously, he was President
Siemens Mobility
WORLDWIDE
8 Railway Age // January 2024
of SMBC Rail Services. DEUTSCHE BANK SECURITIES INC. served as lead financial advisor; CITI served as senior financial advisor; and JP MORGAN, GOLDMAN SACHS and RBC CAPITAL MARKETS LLC also provided advisory services to ITE Management. The acquisition financing was led by BANK OF AMERICA as administrative agent and supported by a group of arrangers and lenders, including Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ROYAL BANK OF CANADA, SUMITOMO MITSUI BANKING CORPORATION, and Citi, according to AITX. WILLKIE FARR & GALLAGHER LLP and VEDDER PRICE LLP served as legal advisors to ITE Management. WABTEC is the most recent rail supplier to enter the rapidly growing railcar telematics market, entering into an agreement with Netherlands-based INTERMODAL TELEMATICS B.V. (IMT) under which Wabtec’s Digital Intelligence Group will create a platform integrating IMT technology. Wabtec says this new platform “will deliver real-time information to railcar and tank container owners and operators, allowing them to turn rail cargo into smart, connected assets.” railwayage.com
Watching Washington
Railroads to Investors: ‘We Got This’
I
t is observed—positively and negatively—that Class I freight railroads are lucrative ATMs for investors, dispensing from profits $253 billion in stock dividends and buybacks since 2009 as calculated by Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairperson Martin J. Oberman. Deputized to guard the future of such cash disgorgements are lobbyists fluent in the transactional conversation of Capitol Hill, attorneys artful in crafting legal defenses, and third parties commissioned to sway opinion leaders and decision makers. The railroads’ lobbying budget alone reflects the perceived peril. Those dividends and buybacks represent what cannot be prudently reinvested and are rightfully owned by investors, but coveted by shippers seeking government-prescribed lower freight rates. Annually, the AAR spends some $5 million on lobbying; CSX, $1.5 million; Norfolk Southern, $1.8 million; and Union Pacific, $3.9 million. (BNSF lobbying expenses are not reported separately by owner Berkshire Hathaway.) Millions more are funneled through political action committees (PACs) to curry political favor. In 2024, rail lobbyists, attorneys and influencers will toil to block costly rail safety legislation, derail a bill delimiting management operating-plan discretion and thwart unwelcome STB and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) decrees. Topping challenges is the Rail Safety Act (S. 576), hastily born of populist politics following train mishaps, including a February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that terrifyingly spilled and ignited hazardous chemicals— the cleanup costs approaching $1 billion. S. 576, which earned Senate Commerce Committee approval in May 2023, would significantly broaden FRA regulatory authority over train length and safety inspections, increase maximum allowable fines and mandate two-person crews on many Class I trains. The bill’s elaborations contain ambiguities and gaps to be interpretated and filled in by regulators often harboring preferred policy outcomes. With backing by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), President Biden and a
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Post-Oberman, the STB may remain evenly divided politically—Senate Republicans lacking incentive to confirm a Democratic nominee ahead of November elections that could allow a Republican successor.” growing list of Republicans, S. 576 may be but another headline grabbing rail accident (or ProPublica article or John Oliver episode) away from reaching the Senate floor. If passed, S. 576 travels to the House, where railroads would lobby Rail Subcommittee Chairperson Troy Nehls (R-Tex.) to block its reaching an uncertain House floor vote. Then there is the Improving Reliable Rail Service Act (S. 2071), which, while unlikely to gain a floor vote, could be engrafted onto S. 576 by amendment. Its language, similarly stuffed with ambiguities, would harden, in ways railroads oppose, the common-carrier obligation. At the five-member STB, Democrat Oberman, who plans a 2024 departure, will remain to vote with his Democratic majority on cases generating railroad queasiness. In 2023, he had two opportunities to provide shipper-favorable case-law definitions of the statutorily undefined common-carrier obligation no matter the fate of S. 2071. Aware of the politics, BNSF settled a complaint by Navajo Transitional Energy Company, with Union Pacific seeking resolution with shipper Sanimax—the latter perhaps an attempt by new CEO Jim Vena to reset relations with the Board. The second case is a rulemaking to decide if, and under what circumstances, a sole-served shipper should gain access to a second railroad through STB-mandated switching. Oberman recently engaged antitrust expert and law professor Christopher L. Sagers as a consultant. Post-Oberman, the STB may remain
evenly divided politically—Senate Republicans lacking incentive to confirm a Democratic nominee ahead of November elections that could allow a Republican successor. While the first term of Republican Patrick J. Fuchs expired Dec. 31, statute permits him to remain into January 2025 if not renominated and reconfirmed. Shipper groups already have dispatched to the White House letters in support, and railroads are unlikely to oppose his renomination. The reason is his reputation as “calm,” “solid” and “seriously thoughtful.” At the FRA, the Administrator, reputedly joined at the hip with rail labor, is finalizing a minimum crew-size mandate and new requirements for dispatcher and signal employee certification. Railroads will ask federal courts to nullify the directives, alleging lack of safety justification and remarkably negative benefit/cost ratios. If railroads are suffering acid reflux, it is not apparent in their dispatches to investors: “Sleep tight. We are on guard.” Frank N. Wilner’s new book, Railroads & Economic Regulation, is available from Simmons-Boardman Books at www.transalert.com, 800-228-9670.
FRANK N. WILNER Capitol Hill Contributing Editor January 2024 // Railway Age 9
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR
TRACY ROBINSON PRESIDENT AND CEO, CN BY WILLIAM C. VANTUONO, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
‘WE POWER THE ECONOMY’
10 Railway Age // January 2024
railwayage.com
R
CN
ailway Age’s 2024 Railroader of the Year Award, the 61st annual, goes to an experienced and highly respected North American rail industry leader: CN President and Chief Executive Officer Tracy Robinson. Robinson continues the sweeping leadership evolution the railroad industry has been undergoing for the past few years. She continues to break new ground, bringing fresh ideas and a perspective based on change, growth, and service. She is leading CN during challenging times, strengthening and transforming the company and solidifying its position in the North American and global supply chains. While she brought many years of experience to CN, including leadership positions at Canadian Pacific and in Canada’s energy sector, she is dedicated to developing a new generation of railroaders from diverse backgrounds. Robinson was named President and CEO of CN in February 2022 following more than 30 years in Canada’s railroad and energy industries. She joined CN from TC Energy, where she was Executive Vice President, and President of Canadian Natural Gas Pipelines and Coastal GasLink. Prior to joining TC Energy, Robinson spent 27 years at Canadian Pacific, including in executive roles spanning Commercial, Operations and Finance. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan. Among many honors, she was named the 2023 New CEO of the Year by The Globe and Mail Report on Business magazine. Robinson will be presented with the Railroader of the Year Award on March 12, 2024, at the traditional dinner at the Union League Club of Chicago, hosted by the Western Railway Club. RAILWAY AGE: Tracy, on behalf of Railway Age and Simmons Boardman Publishing, congratulations. It’s a welldeserved honor. TRACY ROBINSON: Thank you, Bill. It’s great to be here with you today. And thank you and your team at Railway Age for all that you do for this industry. I’m an avid reader. railwayage.com
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR RAILWAY AGE: You’ve been in the industry for quite some time starting with Canadian Pacific a while ago. What brought you into the rail industry? What attracted you to it? TRACY ROBINSON: I grew up on a farm in southern Saskatchewan, and when you’re farming, the railroad is always central to what’s going on in the community. And I would say farmers don’t often think highly of the railroads, and that may not have changed over the years, but certainly I knew how important they were. So, when I went off to university, Canadian Pacific was recruiting on campus, and I wanted to do something that was important. I knew they were important, certainly important to the community I grew up in. I learned that they were important to the agribusiness, but they were also important to a lot of other businesses, whether it’s automotive or forest products. And that was exciting, to be in the middle of all of that. RAILWAY AGE: Tell me about your career. You were in many areas. You spent 27 years at CP in various roles. TRACY ROBINSON: CP is a great organization and it’s got a great history and place in Canada, and they gave me the benefit of an incredibly diverse set of experiences, both internally and in dealing with several different types and groups of customers. I started as a sales rep in Regina, Saskatchewan. I sat in the operations office, and my job was to knock on loading dock doors and try and figure out how we get the next piece of freight, which was exciting and a good way to learn the railroad from the ground up. And then I spent several years in marketing and sales in Calgary and in Vancouver and then Edmonton in asset management, which allowed me to touch a few industries. I came here to Montreal after that and spent a few years as the assistant chief of staff to the CEO and the president at the time. We were creating at the time the very first for CP service design organization, which put me in the middle of that. And then into operations, leading the transportation service centers for the network in Canada and the United States. Then, customer service, over into accounting, then I became treasurer. I went back into commercial to lead the coal business and then the merchandise business.
It was a unique set of experiences that allowed me to develop an appreciation for how the work really gets done, in a better enterprise view of our business and of leadership. RAILWAY AGE: So, you came into the industry at a relatively important time of growth. You were there during the time when railroads were able to grow their business. TRACY ROBINSON: Grow our business, become important to our customer’s ability to grow their business, and to learn how to do it effectively but also efficiently. We could start to price differently. We could start to differentiate ourselves and think about how we wanted to get our customers’ products to market. It was an exciting time. There are not very many new businesses that the railroads get into, but over the years there’s been a few of those. It was crude by rail. Now we’re into the precious minerals. We’re now hauling lithium out of northern Quebec into the whole E battery and EV market. The railroads are traditional, and they’ve been around a long time, but there’s still a lot of new stuff going on. RAILWAY AGE: A lot of changes. I remember crude by rail very well when the Bakken crude had this big peak and then it leveled out. But I think the industry at that point proved that it’s a good piece of business. TRACY ROBINSON: It’s a very good piece of business. But as railroads, we excel when we know what’s coming at us. Our supply chain can do pretty much anything when we know what’s coming at us. And we like long-term sustainable business because we invest significantly with our customers in these businesses. Crude by rail has been an interesting adventure. It did peak and come off, but I think we’re finding the sweet spot of the natural role that rail should play over the longer term, and that’s the right spot to be in. RAILWAY AGE: Looking ahead, everybody talks about, “We need to grow business; we need to grow traffic; we need to grow market share.” Where do you see the growth? Where are the opportunities not only for CN but also for our industry as a whole? TRACY ROBINSON: We talk about growing the business because we power the economy. If the railroads aren’t performing and if they’re not adding to the capacity January 2024 // Railway Age 11
where our customers need it, the economy is not going to grow. But if we can be in a position where we can help the economy grow, we’re also going to grow. So that means you need to start with that foundation of a strong, consistent operation and service to your customers. But especially these days, you need to be very close with your customers around how they’re trying to build their business and what the opportunities are. It’s a long lead time these days to get new capacity in place, whether it’s 12 Railway Age // January 2024
track or whether it’s cars or locomotives or even people. And so, the closer we are to our customers and to the industries, and the more we know about where flows are going to go, the better partner we can be. But that’s how we grow. RAILWAY AGE: Part of that is leveraging advanced technology. CN is doing some very innovative things with automated track inspection in revenue trains, and a lot of initiatives via inspection portals. This is all
good. But the public doesn’t really see how technologically advanced this industry is. TRACY ROBINSON: We’ve been watching trains for our entire lives, but we don’t realize how much technology is in this operation now. The biggest change between the time when I stepped out of the industry and came back is the advancement in technology. It’s important to lean into for several reasons. We aspire to zero harm in our company, which means environment. It means people and communities. We need railwayage.com
Stephen C. Host
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR
RAILWAY AGE: There is a regulatory difference between the U.S. and Canada. How do you find balancing those differences being that CN as a network touches two countries? TRACY ROBINSON: Indeed, in many ways we’d like to believe that the border doesn’t exist. We operate very fluidly, and in this industry, as you know, we all exchange 14 Railway Age // January 2024
equipment and locomotives. That all operates very fluidly. The regulatory environments are different at different times, but largely they move as one in the same direction. And that’s important because we’re one network across the continent. RAILWAY AGE: I wanted to go back and talk about your time at CP. Who were some of your mentors? TRACY ROBINSON: Well, we would be here a long time if I talked to you about everybody I learned something from along the way, but I’ve had the ability to move across functions and touch the business differently. There were very different kinds of leadership styles across some of those parts of the company. I met people who taught me a lot about the specifics in individual areas, and I met people who importantly taught me a lot about how to bring all of that together. And so it’s the sum total of all of that, the right kind of nudging, the right coaching and counseling at the right time. That’s really been a gift to me. We’re all a product of the environment that we grew up in. For me, I grew up at CP. I grew up in rail. At CP, it was the management team, but also the people that you work with every day who teach
you about the business and teach you what good looks like, and it becomes a family. So coming back to the industry, it felt very much like coming home. RAILWAY AGE: A lot of people say the industry is a big family. For the most part, we get along. You spent 27 years at CP and then you left the industry to go work in Canada’s energy sector. What prompted that? TRACY ROBINSON: It was when I was handling the merchandise portfolio in the crude by rail days. Generally, we were selling to either producers or refiners or the marketers. And our pitch was, we could be nimble and move across markets and move quickly, but it also occurred to us that we could be helpful from one origin to one destination, but in advance of the pipeline being built. Or, we could offer some flexibility in how they deliver services to their customers. Trans Canada Pipelines, now TC Energy, was part of that and they were receptive. That led me to join their organization to help them think through what those options were. They never ended up getting in the rail business, but it opened the next door for me on learning another business that had a lot of similarities, and a lot of differences. It’s a long linear railwayage.com
Stephen C. Host
to keep our rail operations safe, and technology plays a big role in doing that. But if we’re going to operate consistently, it means we need a minimal amount of disruption. Wayside detection that’s checking on the equipment as the trains go by, and the health of the equipment. Seeing things you cannot see with the naked eye. The ability to do that and then intervene before something happens. The ability to have our ATIP (Autonomous Track Inspection Program) cars move in merchandise trains, move over our track constantly, detecting early defects in the infrastructure so that we can get at those before there’s any incident. That’s incredibly important to safety and to efficient operations across the whole network. It’s amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish so far, but I think we’re just really scratching the surface.
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR infrastructure. It’s regulated, very safety sensitive. But a lot of differences. It’s an important industry and I learned a lot being there. This whole concept of where we get our energy from and where that’s all going to go is a fascinating world to be in. I’ve had the pleasure of running the Canadian natural gas pipelines and learning how to build pipelines.
RAILWAY AGE: One of the people who helped you out was Ed Harris, back out of retirement. He passed on the torch to two younger people. That’s kind of an unusual move, the way the operating department is now: two people working closely together in different functions. TRACY ROBINSON: Ed and I have 16 Railway Age // January 2024
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RAILWAY AGE: I’ve spoken with people in the industry who have known you for a long time and either worked with you or competed with you, friendly competition. Everybody without exception says how much they admire and respect you and have a lot of good things to say about what it was like to work with you or compete with you at the other carrier. TRACY ROBINSON: I appreciate that. Everything I know I learned from those people and continue to learn as I came over to CN and work with an equally impressive group over here. There is nothing that happens in an organization like a big railroad that is as complex, has all the moving pieces. It’s an outdoor sport. It’s a team effort, and the people I grew up around are the best in the business. And it’s an honor to be a product of that kind of environment and have the opportunity now to put me with the rest of the leaders in the industry, to put our fingerprints on where we take it next. But I think it’s important that, when we come to our work every day, we realize that our bigger purpose is to move the economy. And that means that there are times where the most important thing we can do is work very well together. And sometimes it means that we’re going to compete a little bit on the business that we move, or in different ways. And as leaders, we need to know and be good at distinguishing between when we should be doing one and when we should be doing the other, and to be able to do both and still have a tremendous amount of respect for each other.
2024 Railroader of the Year On behalf of the entire CN team, congratulations! You are a true trailblazer, making a lasting impression on the entire industry! www.cn.ca
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Tracy Robinson President & CEO
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR
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changing. But we need to be looking five years out and further, around what we think the business is going to look like. Then we need to have the track infrastructure and capacity up to standards. We need to have the locomotive fleet, we need to manage the crew base and the employee base, all of that through a longer-term lens. These are two very different pieces of work, and we can’t distract either of them from their purpose, which means that we have Derek (Chief Field Operating Officer Derek Taylor) and his organization every day out there delivering the plan, running the plan. We’ve got Pat (Chief Network Operating Officer Patrick Whitehead) and Derek and his organization every day working on the plan and looking forward to making sure that we’re set up for the future. I think that this is the right way to structure our organization as we look to maintaining our customer service levels and growing. RAILWAY AGE: Railroads must be nimbler to keep and grow market share. It’s a heavy lift, but it can be done with the right mindset. TRACY ROBINSON: I think the world is different and things are changing. We must change with it and be as ahead of it as we can. You’ve made the point: We need to
be nimble. Who knew that a war in Ukraine would suddenly change where we need to move grain or would cause the price of lumber to triple, and mean that it must move differently? We need to be able to pivot. We need an organization and a team who has a different perspective and isn’t afraid to step into those kinds of things and get it done. But we also need to know who’s doing what. Part of the structure of our organization is around who’s making the plan and who’s executing the plan. And we think that that makes us far more adaptable and nimbler in the moment. And I think it’s proving out. We had an interesting year with a serious forest fire season up here in Canada, in the northern part of our network. As I understand it, it was worse than it has ever been. And it was tough on our customers whose facilities were impacted. It was certainly difficult for us. And we had a two-week port strike on the West Coast. But if you look at our operating performance, it was consistent. We figured out the plan that was constantly evolving through that period and the execution, and got it done. And I think that was a real test of the resilience of our plan. These days, resilience is incredibly important. RAILWAY AGE: I well-remember the railwayage.com
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known each other for quite some time, and I have a great appreciation for his skills, the way he looks at this railroad. He knows this railroad very well and the way he thinks about the business, but also how he leads and what his values are. And that was important to me as I figured out who I could invite in to help us think through the next generation of the operations team. He did me a great favor in coming in. He knew our team very well, and he was a great thought partner on how we could structure this in a way that would make sure that we don’t take our eye off the operating ball while we’re growing. It’s important that, with this operating cadence and the level of customer service we have achieved, we don’t lose that as we turn to growth. We decided we would differentiate, create two very different kind of organizations. One is focused on the day-to-day execution. There’s a lot that goes on out there every day. We’re all involved in it. And that takes a lot of focus in the moment and day-to-day. Separately, we need as equal and as strong a focus on the future. Running the scheduled operating plan means a plan is made at the center of network operations to optimize the whole. And it is constantly being revised, because there’s new business coming on or the business is
2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR Canadian wildfires because the smoke came all the way down to where I live in New Jersey. With climate change, global warming, rising seas, whatever you want to call it, weather has gotten more extreme. Railroads are well equipped to deal with that. We’ve seen instances where there have been landslides and track washed out and fires and other things, and the railroads are able to come right back. TRACY ROBINSON: There’s no better organization than a railroad when it comes to a crisis. The ability of our teams to get track back in shape to run and to deal with whatever is going on around it is amazing. It’s a hallmark of the industry. What we’re trying to make sure is that while we do that, we don’t distract from the longer-term work as well. We’re distinguishing between that capability, which is critical, but also the capability to look forward. Things are changing very, very quickly and we need to be able to anticipate it. We need to be able to see around corners these days.
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RAILWAY AGE: Everybody in your position has a long-term vision, long-term goals. What are yours, now that you’ve come back into the industry? TRACY ROBINSON: As I come back into the industry and consider what’s going on around us and what we’re going to need to do to step into the role we need to play in the economy, there are a number of things that we’re doing a lot of work on. One is this aspiration that we have around zero harm. We believe there should be no harm to the environment, no harm to our employees in coming to work every day. And there should be no harm through the work that we do to the communities in which we live. We want to be a net-positive benefit. That takes culture, that takes technology. There’s lots of opportunity, but it also takes leadership to set us on that path. I think it’s something you’re seeing the industry focus on, and it’s critical. It’s a much more complex stakeholder environment than when I started in this business. That’s mission number one. But beyond that, as I speak to our customers
across every industry, I think a lot about our ability to help them be successful. That’s the growth part. If we’re going to power growth in the economy and the continent, it means we need to be good at a couple of things. We need that consistent operation where our customers are getting consistent service they can count on. For us in this railroad, that means the commitment to the scheduled operating model, with a focus on the velocity of the assets that helps service our customers but also helps us use our capacity effectively. And it means that we need to be a lot closer to our customers around where they want to grow. It’s difficult for us to be surprised, so we need to be with them early on when they’re making decisions and understanding what markets they’re going to be trying to get to so that we can have the capacity in place. We need to think about the fact that supply chains are more complex than just railroads. We all need to run good railroads. But our customers and industries need good supply chains. This means we need to integrate in better ways through data, through
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2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR technology, through business process, with our partners at the other railroads and up and down the supply chain, whether they’re terminals or ports or warehouses or shipping lines, and with our customers, so that we can figure out how to make that supply chain work, to perform and have the capacity that our customers need, when they need it. It’s zero harm. It’s how we figure out growth for the economy, and it’s how we build this next generation. When I look around, it’s hard not to notice that these are the folks that are going to be running the place next. And that deserves a tremendous amount of effort and focus for us in how to get them ready to handle all of this. RAILWAY AGE: As you well know, the demographics in this industry are changing. We have far more women in leadership positions. You’re an example. Attracting younger people, more diversity in terms of whether it’s ethnic background or whatever, is good to see. We ran our first live Women in Rail conference in Chicago in November, and the
REMSA congratulates 2024 Railroader of the Year
Tracy Robinson OF CN RAILWAY “Congratulations to Tracy Robinson! Her exceptional contributions are making the industry better every day, and this recognition is well-deserved.” —Greg Spilker, REMSA Chairman VP Sales & Marketing, MOW Equipment Solutions, Inc.
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2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR response was tremendous. It was very gratifying to see all the energy in the room from women of all ages, a lot of young women who are new to the industry, and some who have been in the industry a long time. The camaraderie, the energy there. It’s really satisfying. It must be gratifying for you. TRACY ROBINSON: Thank you for doing that because it takes all of us. I know several of our people were involved in that event and came back with that energy you’re talking about. It’s good to see the momentum coming, but we must go faster. Our industry trails in this, as you would know. And I’m a strong believer that if we are going to succeed in the future, we need to lean into diversity. It’s the right thing to do, but there’s also a strong business imperative for it. We need those different perspectives and different backgrounds coming together in the right way. This business is changing, and the culture needs to change as well. We need to come together differently. But I would argue that the size of the future workforce is not as big as it was in the past.
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I want to make this industry the place that people want to work, to make CN in particular the place that people want to work. No matter who you are, everyone is welcome at CN. I want to help get people as excited as I am about getting up every morning and making this work for our customers, for our industries, for the economy, for the country and the continent. It’s a great purpose to rally around. These are the kinds of experiences you can have. Working in an organization like this is tremendous. I’ve benefited from it. I’m going to make those same kinds of opportunities available to others around here, and we’re looking to be the place to work. RAILWAY AGE: That’s one of the best things you can do. One of my mentors, my predecessor, the late Luther S. Miller, said the best thing you can do as a senior person, a leader, is to prepare the people who are coming up behind you to do your job someday. I believe strongly in that. I think you do, too. TRACY ROBINSON: Very much so.
These jobs aren’t easy. Most jobs I’ve had, at the time weren’t easy. But they’re gifts, and opportunities to learn. The best thing we can do for those coming up is to make sure that they’ve had the set of experiences and the exposures and the wins and the failures and the scars that come from that. Build character so that you’re ready for these roles when you step into them. There’s that opportunity, but there’s also the opportunity, if those aren’t the kinds of things that you aspire to, to have a great career and touch all kinds of things. This is a great place to be for that as well. We’ve done a lot of things in this company over the past couple of years to help our employees get to know each other again and to realize the family piece, the caliber of the quality of the people that they’re working next to. To get excited around what we get up to do every day and to want to be part of this. If being in this role helps people realize that these jobs are available, that they’re not easy, that they take a lot of effort and a lot of experience, but they’re available if you want them, that’s a great thing to be doing.
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2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR RAILWAY AGE: I often paraphrase John F. Kennedy, who I admire very much because he set the United States on the track to go to the moon: “We choose to be railroaders, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” TRACY ROBINSON: Exactly. I’ve been in very difficult situations in my career. I talked to a lot of people in those moments. You must realize that you can’t buy experience like that. You can’t buy development like that. We should all be embracing the difficult because it’s what makes us capable of taking on the next thing when the world is so complex, moving quickly. We need people who have been there, maybe not in that exact situation, but who know that the difficult is important, and that if we come together in the right way, anything is possible. I’m an optimist and I can see a glorious future for this next generation. Think about technology that we can apply. Think about the different ways that we can work with our frontline employees that run trains every day or fix track or figure out the next locomotive. If we can all come together and be excited about the way we do that, but
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2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR appreciate the difficulties and what they make possible, then I think we can do anything. RAILWAY AGE: This past year, 2023, was difficult for the industry. It was put in spotlight by one accident. Look at all the scrutiny and a lot of the politicizing of not only that, but also a lot of other things that were going on. But I think brighter days are ahead. And we’re seeing very strong signs of that. Service is improving, traffic is coming back. I think as an industry, we’ve weathered the storm, not that the storm is over because there’s always something going. TRACY ROBINSON: It is important not to lose the benefit that comes from every problem in every crisis. There are lessons to be learned. I am proud of the industry and the way that we rallied around all that’s come from that event and the new processes, procedures, and technologies that we’re putting in place. I share your view that the future is bright and that as we come together, we are going to figure out how to make sure that our customers are served properly every day, that
we can help them and us grow as the economy grows in North America, and how to make the place that our employees want to come and work and learn and challenge themselves every single day. RAILWAY AGE: CN has a lot of partners. There are some good examples of that, the Falcon Premium Service with Union Pacific, for example. You’re also growing the network. TRACY ROBINSON: We like to think about different ways that we can use our network to bring the right services to our customers. Sometimes that’s our own network. Sometimes it’s working with the other railroads like the FXE and the UP, which has been a great partnership in trying to pick up some truck market share. We’ve also announced a partnership with Norfolk Southern. We want to be open for business, and we look at it through the lens of what’s good for our customers. Sometimes that takes you down the path of coming together in different ways. We have a partnership now, a joint venture with the CBNS in Nova Scotia
that’s going to help us with our growth over the long-term in the East. And now there’s the acquisition of the Iowa Northern. That’s exciting for us. It’s a great regional operation. They’ve done a tremendous job of providing solutions and growing with their customers. Coming together is going to allow that customer base to get access to market in a much more efficient way. And we think that brings benefits certainly to the holders of the Iowa Northern, but also to their customers. We’re excited about it. RAILWAY AGE: I think, Tracy, that many years from now, you’ll be able to look back on your career and say you feel good about it, that you’ve made a difference. I think a lot of people in the industry will say, “Tracy Robinson. I remember her. She drove change. She helped us.” TRACY ROBINSON: Thank you. I hope that’s true, but it takes a lot of people to get all of that done. And I’m proud of who I’m sitting with here at CN. It’s only as we come together that any of that happens. Thank you.
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2024 PASSENGER RAIL OUTLOOK
MOVING FORWARD harles Dickens began A Tale of Two Cities, his saga of the French Revolution by saying: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...” That could also be said for Amtrak and rail transit in the U.S. for the upcoming year. I opened a similar article with the same quotation one year ago, and indications seem to have moved toward the “worse” side 28 Railway Age // January 2024
of the continuum, for rail transit, anyway. The indications for infrastructure have not looked this good in decades, but from the riders’ point of view, the aspect is hardly a solid green. It will be more like “Proceed at Restricted Speed” (NORAC Rule 290) or “Movement at Restricted Speed” (GCOR Rule 6.27) toward an uncertain future, as the prospect of better transit and more trains that should result from it work their
way through the regulatory process, which seems to run on perpetual slow orders. The upcoming year and beyond could also be the worst of times for transit riders, as government funding that kept transit going through the COVID-19 crisis begins to run out. As always, politics rule, and the political instability in effect today will endure, culminating in a Presidential election with more novelty and uncertainty perhaps than railwayage.com
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2024 PASSENGER RAIL OUTLOOK private-sector railroad, running in South Florida, which recently introduced service further north to Orlando Airport. That service has been successful so far. While we don’t know how it will fare in the long run, Brightline has demonstrated that a privately funded railroad can improve a line, build new track and operate on it, and plan for expansion. That includes plans both for Florida and for Brightline West, which is slated to run between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles catchment area. It also recently announced a $3 billion grant to the Nevada Department of Transportation from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program.
NORAC Rule 290/ GCOR Rule 6.27 appear the most prominent indications for the foreseeable future. BY DAVID PETER ALAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
any other since 1876. We will learn more about the unsettled political situation as time goes by, but the upcoming election could set the stage for what will happen to Amtrak and much of our transit for many more years to come. A WORD ABOUT BRIGHTLINE Everybody’s talking about Brightline, and with good reason. It’s an innovative railwayage.com
AMTRAK: INFRASTRUCTURE VS. EQUIPMENT? The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), was passed and signed on Nov. 15, 2021, and included plenty of money for Amtrak. For example, it authorized grants for Amtrak over five years, including $1.2 billion for the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and $2.45 billion for the rest of Amtrak (long-distance and state-supported routes elsewhere) for FY24. All of them are geared toward infrastructure improvements. It is true that better infrastructure could expand capacity to accommodate more trains, but it is unclear how many new lines will be added to the Amtrak route map, or even how many more trains will be added to the schedules on existing lines. We know that, in essentially all cases, the improvements must be funded and then built before the lines in question can host more passenger trains, so it will be several years before riders can go to more places or have more choices of when they can go to the places that Amtrak serves now. Amtrak’s skeletal long-distance network (14 routes, the same number as when Amtrak started in 1971) is again running daily (except for the two tri-weekly trains, and there are efforts to restore them to daily operation), but it took a long time for that to happen, and capacity still runs below pre-COVID levels. Earlier this year, the Capitol Limited and the Sunset Limited ran with a single coach and a single sleeping car, along with food service cars. Other trains also ran with consists that
were shorter than during pre-COVID times, despite increased demand for space on all travel modes lately. An accelerated program to repair equipment sitting out of service at the Beech Grove shops would help, but only enough to restore preCOVID levels of capacity, at best. Without new equipment, expansion is out of the question. That includes more cars on existing trains; more trains on existing routes; and new routes, like between Meridian, Miss., and Dallas on Canadian Pacific Kansas City, first proposed by John Robert Smith more than 20 years ago, when he was Chair of the Amtrak Board and Meridian’s mayor, and now under active consideration. It will not be easy for Amtrak to get equipment, either. Debut of new Alstombuilt Avelia Liberty (“Acela II”) trainsets on the NEC has been delayed until sometime this year due to testing and certification problems encountered following successful tests at the TTC in Pueblo, Colo. As recently as Sept. 29, 2023, Amtrak Assistant Inspector General James Morrison issued a 44-page report that specified those problems (OIG-A-2-23-013). Meanwhile, the “Venture” cars purchased from Siemens for use on Amtrak’s Midwest corridors and by VIA Rail Canada on its corridors in Ontario and Quebec are steadily entering service, replacing outdated equipment. Amtrak also needs equipment to replace the Superliner cars (nearly 40 years old) and the Amfleet II cars used on long-distance trains in the East (now over 40), but it would still take several years before they can be delivered, tested, and certified to enter service. Assistant IG Morrison initiated an audit of the ordering process on Oct. 13, 2023 (Project Code 002-2024). Can the existing fleet last long enough to keep the current long-distance network going until new equipment arrives? Maybe, but it’s still possible that equipment shortages could affect the entire long-distance network. Time will tell. Amtrak is not promoting new longdistance trains, concentrating instead on new state-supported corridors. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has announced modest grants for studying several, but the issues I raised nearly three years ago (“Amtrak’s 2035 Map: Hopes and Challenges,” April 9, 2021) are still pertinent. Of the roughly 40 routes mentioned January 2024 // Railway Age 29
2024 passenger PASSENGER RAIL rail OUTLOOK outlook
NJ Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, Jersey City
as possibilities, only one is slated to open in 2024: Gulf Coast service between New Orleans and Mobile, with two daily trains in each direction. Even getting that modest amount of passenger service necessitated the “Second Battle of Mobile” before the Surface Transportation Board, which we reported in detail throughout the proceedings. We don’t know how many of the proposed routes will ever run, how many states will be willing to spend the money that will be required to keep them going, how strongly the prospective host railroads will challenge a proposed route the way CSX and Norfolk Southern did with the Gulf Coast route, or when any of the routes that survive the process will actually begin to host passenger trains. It’s reasonable to expect that some of the proposed services will eventually run, but some have been proposed for decades, and those proposals have still not been implemented. FRA’s Corridor Identification Program and its grants for corridor development will help to some extent, but this is a preliminary step. There are ongoing projects on the NEC like the Baltimore Tunnel and the Gateway set of mega-projects in the New York/New Jersey area, but they seem geared toward local results. Many rider-advocates, especially outside the Northeast, view Amtrak as favoring that region above others and cite the preponderance of Amtrak Board members from that region. Still, it seems unlikely that Amtrak’s Northeastern service will change soon, although there is action in Virginia. The state is acquiring and improving tracks for passenger 30 Railway Age // January 2024
service along rights-of-way owned by CSX and NS, and adding local trains from Washington, D.C., on Virginia Railway Express and on Amtrak-operated routes to Richmond and through Charlotte to Roanoke, with an extension to Christiansburg in the future. One project that will someday increase capacity for Virginia is a companion span alongside the Long Bridge over the Potomac River between Alexandria and Washington. SLOW TRANSIT PROGRESS For 77 days in 2019, I held the distinction of having ridden all the operating rail transit in the U.S. Since that time, expansion has proceeded at a slow pace, with eight new segments opening over the past four years in the continental U.S. (two per year), plus the first segment of HART’s Skyline Rail, a line plagued by delays for years, but where an extension is slated to open in 2025. The IIJA/BIL includes grants for transit projects, too, but the Federal Transit Administration does not recognize a distinction between rail transit and busway projects. Of the 64 projects on the agency’s grant list, only 25 pertain to rail. Some, like the Hudson Tunnel Project that would build a new tunnel between New Jersey and New York City as part of the Gateway Program, are huge. Many are much smaller. There are a few places where expansion projects are under construction and might open in 2024. Candidates include Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s South Coast Rail between Boston and New Bedford and Fall River and the East Link
CHANGING RIDERSHIP PATTERNS Commuting, including by rail, is changing, as a result of technology developments that facilitate working remotely, the adoption of which was accelerated by COVID-19. Ridership tanked in 2020 and 2021, when many offices were almost empty. It’s higher now, but its character has changed. Many former commuters have not returned to the office five days per week. A pattern seems to be emerging where many employees go to the office two or three days per week, while working remotely the other days. On New Jersey Transit and other regional railroads, ridership is lighter on Mondays and Fridays than on the other three weekdays. Weekend ridership is back to preCOVID levels, and some weekend trains are crowded to the point of standing room only. This situation raises the question of whether capacity is being wasted on a decreasing number of traditional peak-period commuters and withheld from an increasing number of off-peak and weekend riders. Some agencies, including NJ Transit and Metrolink in Los Angeles, have initiated new fare structures, but have not changed schedules to reflect ridership changes. SEPTA in the Philadelphia area has not restored the preCOVID level of weekend service. Can we expect much change in 2024? Another change wrought by the virus was federal aid for the operating side of transit, included in §3401 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Before the virus struck, federal aid was given to transit providers as an ancillary addition to highway assistance for the states, and it was generally restricted to capital improvements. The operating assistance that came when the virus was ravaging transit ridership was designed to be temporary, and that money will run out within the next year or two. Transit is in trouble in many cities, particularly major transit systems, all of which were hit hard by declines in ridership when fewer workers were required to go to work sites, and almost everybody reduced the number of trips they took. Today, both regional/commuter rail and local rail transit are facing severe difficulties. We have reported on transit woes at the MBTA in Boston; SEPTA; WMATA in railwayage.com
William C. Vantuono
Extension on Seattle’s Sound Transit. More new starts are projected for 2025.
2024 PASSENGER RAIL OUTLOOK and around Washington, D.C.; Muni and BART in San Francisco; New York’s MTA; NJ Transit; and others. Problems include employee shortages at many agencies, equipment that has become old and unreliable, and difficulties with infrastructure that require expensive repairs. If there is one overarching threat to transit today, it is the “fiscal cliff”—the impending financial catastrophe that many agencies will face when the COVID-19 relief money runs out. That could happen at New York’s MTA as soon as late in 2024. State officials, with some participation by city leaders, are thinking about how to raise the money necessary to keep the transit going, with the understanding that New York City needs strong transit to survive. However, not all local officials are taking such steps. Elsewhere, the day of reckoning will probably come sometime in 2025. WMATA is facing a $750 million deficit (above, right). NJ Transit, which has never had a legislatively mandated source of stable and secure funding, is facing a shortfall of nearly $1 billion in less than two years. There isn’t room in this article to report on every transit agency’s financial woes in detail, but even the agencies that are planning expansions or other capital projects know (or should know) that capital grants do not pay for operations, even though some agencies are using a portion of their capital funds for the purpose, believing that they have no choice.
POLITICS RULE AS USUAL We all know that Amtrak and the nation’s transit are subject to politics at the federal and state levels. We also know that, if there has ever been a year that anything can happen in politics, this is it. Biden and Trump might face each other in a rematch, but given Trump’s criminal indictments and concerns with both men’s advanced age and health, we can’t be sure of that. That goes for Congressional and state races, too. Republicans in the House proposed slashing Amtrak’s funding drastically, but Democrats and a few Republicans who support Amtrak can prevent that result, for now, anyway. If Trump somehow retakes the White House and the Republicans assume control of both Houses, all forms of passenger rail will probably suffer. If Biden and the
Democrats win, it probably will not be as bad, although it seems unlikely that either Amtrak or transit will be out of the woods. Much will depend on the states and what they are willing to fund, another extremely unsettled situation. At the Light Rail Conference sponsored by Railway Age and Railway Track & Structures this past November, I raised the possibility that transit providers could have brand new infrastructure, but not enough money to operate it. That still seems like a possibility at this writing. The indication now appears to call for restricted speed going forward. There appears to be plenty of reason for that, most notably the probability of a solid red aspect and an indication to STOP further down the track, but not far from here.
CONGRATULATIONS
TO THE 2024 RAILROADER OF THE YEAR
TRACY ROBINSON
CN President & Chief Executive Officer
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January 2024 // Railway Age 31
TIMEOUT FOR TECH
INNOVATION Invisible to the Eye, Essential to Safety
odern railways are deeply innovative and dynamic systems. Despite this fact, I am frequently in conversations with people who wonder why “things never seem to change on the railroad.” They are surprised to learn the truth of just how changed and changeable railways really are! So, why the disconnect? In my experience, it has a lot to do with what our eyes can see. For example, most people can clearly see the considerable differences between steam locomotives of the past and modern high-speed passenger trains. In contrast, however, the physical railways upon which modern locomotives run look much the same as railways from 150 years ago that supported steam locomotives. Is it possible that trains have improved, while the railways under them are the same? 32 Railway Age // January 2024
Most railways still employ the basic concept of hard steel wheels rolling along two hard steel rails. Today’s rails still have a head, a web and a base. Timber ties remain very common. Broken-rock ballast layers are the norm for supporting the ties on a compacted and shaped roadbed of soil. Since “seeing is believing,” it does appear that railways haven’t changed much. Our eyes deceive us! It turns out that some of the most important innovations in railroading are essentially invisible. One place comes to mind in particular: inside rails. Rails fail much less frequently today and last longer than ever under historically unprecedented demand—much heavier and more frequent axle loads. These substantial gains in safety and performance are largely a result of enhanced metallurgy and improved manufacturing processes. Only under detailed examination in a metallurgy lab,
using microscopes, can one see the differences between modern rails and those from decades past. Extraordinary and ingenious metallurgical and manufacturing innovations are simply unseen as we watch trains roll by! There are other amazing innovations on the railway that often go unnoticed because they seem to be normal features alongside the tracks. Here, I’m referring to wayside detection systems. For example, intensely clever devices, protected within weather-worn metal boxes, identify wheels with geometric irregularities, such as missing tread pieces caused by the fast fracture of internal fatigue defects. There are similarly unremarkable metal containers for complex digital systems that identify bearings with thermal and/ or acoustic anomalies that might indicate internal damage. Further, with respect to wayside detection systems, there are dedicated railwayage.com
BNSF
M
By Gary T. Fry, Ph.D., P.E., Vice President, Fry Technical Services, Inc.
TIMEOUT FOR TECH organizational features—communications systems, digital archiving and computing systems, human resources, policies, procedures and more—necessary to process and respond to the wayside data streams that have no historical precedent in railroading. These essential back-office features are also not visible as we watch trains roll by. It suffices to say that, despite some visual appearances, the modern railroad is substantially evolved and improved over its historic origins, especially in terms of safety, efficiency and reliability. And the improvement continues. As key innovations are developed and successfully implemented, the demand for more increases. But innovation on a railway is not for the faint of heart. It takes substantial commitment and effort. Let’s look at some of the features associated with innovative change on a railway. When opportunities for innovation are identified and assessed, potential “challenges against change” must be also be
identified and assessed—often a daunting process in a mature industry like the railway industry. Mature industries usually include dedicated organizations, such as technical societies and trade associations that publish essential standards, specifications, recommended practice guidelines, etc. Innovative changes in the industry often result in a need to revise these documents to avoid the innovation being interpreted as “out of line” in some way. Mature industries are often regulated, and revisions to federal regulations might also be needed before an innovation can be implemented fully and acknowledged officially as acceptable. Revising these documents in response to a desirable innovation can be a formidable “challenge against change,” and even the most promising innovations are at risk of falling by the wayside as a result. Sections of these documents can be written in a style that facilitates, or even encourages, innovation or in a style that hinders innovation. As a result, revisions
that render an innovation admissible might never be completed, might take several years to complete, or might not be required at all. Often, to support innovation, such documents avoid prescriptive phrasing to the maximum extent possible in favor of clearly stating performance requirements of the systems under consideration. Although some prescription is unavoidable, such as defining the measurement for standard gauge of a railway—56.5 inches (1,435 mm), the professionals who maintain these documents generally consider phrasing carefully to avoid creating unnecessary barriers to innovation. In summary, with or without intent, mature industries generally have inertias to shift, in various types and amounts, before innovations can be fully implemented and effective. The inertias can be overcome by proving the merits of the innovation. The usual approach is to simply compare the performance of the innovation against the performance of the
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TIMEOUT FOR TECH status quo. But here can be found another formidable “challenge against change.” Imagine a situation where there is insufficient statistical data regarding the performance of the status quo. The innovation might be substantially and significantly superior to the status quo, but lacking the basis for comparison, the fact can’t be proved. The obvious answer is to gather the necessary data through controlled performance testing of the status quo. Sometimes this is straightforward, other times it is not. For example, it can be especially difficult in an industry setting to obtain rigorous statistical assessments of human performance. To be innovative, an organization must acknowledge that improvements are usually possible. There must also exist regular assessments of the organization’s operations with an eye to identifying opportunities for improving them. Innovative organizations are strategic in these assessments and always guided by their business models. The organizations
34 Railway Age // January 2024
establish and maintain an incentivized culture of innovation, especially in terms of intraorganizational communication and employee reward and promotion policies. With these conditions and policies in place, there is minimal inertia resisting progress, and the organization is receptive to innovation. For more than 150 years, the railway industry has proved itself as being fundamentally innovative and committed to improving. As technology has advanced, the industry has kept pace, solved the “challenges against change” and continued moving forward. The innovative changes are not always f lashy; sometimes they are invisible. But f lash and change for the sake of change have never been part of the pragmatic railway equation. For the railway, changes are made to improve, and improvement should be measurable. In this spirit, it is essential that railroads maintain a steadfast commitment to the “Five I’s”: Identify, Invest, Innovate, Implement, Improve!
Dr. Fry is Vice President of Fry Technical Services, Inc. ( h t t p s : //w w w. f r y tech se r v ice s. com/). He has 30 years of experience in research and consulting on the fatigue and fracture behavior of structural metals and weldments. His research results have been incorporated into international codes of practice used in the design of structural components and systems, including structural welds, railway and highway bridges, and high-rise commercial buildings in seismic risk zones. He has extensive experience performing in-situ testing of railway bridges under live loading of trains, including high-speed passenger trains and heavy-axle-load freight trains. His research, publication, and consulting have advanced the state of the art in structural health monitoring and structural impairment detection.
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MxV RAIL R&D
PREDICTING Shutterstock/ VMCgroup
WHEEL WEAR
M
xV Rail analyzed wheel profile detector (WPD) data to determine the potential for predicting wheel end-of-useful life based on wear rates. Preliminary results indicate that it may be possible to accurately predict when a wheel will reach the end of its useful wear life. Such predictions would allow car owners
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By Matthew Witte, Scientist, MxV Rail and operators to determine the optimal time for scheduling wheel change outs to maximize asset utilization and minimize service disruptions. Utilizing the extensive collection of historical data provided by Railinc, MxV Rail created a subset of WPD data from North American detectors by selecting the top 10,000 freight railcars that passed any single WPD most frequently. As a result of
this selection method, researchers found that two railcar types, Type J (Gondola Car, 5,370) and Type K (Equipped Hopper Cars, 2,951), made up the majority within the subset. Wheels that ultimately were removed for one of the following Why Made (WM) codes: WM60 Thin Flange, WM63 Wheel Tread Hollow, WM64 High Flange, or WM73 Thin Rim were identified within this population. The identified January 2024 // Railway Age 35
MxV RAIL R&D
Figure 1. Range of average flange height wear rates expressed as percentiles.
wheels were analyzed both individually and in groups based on the WM code. Trends were studied per failure criterion by car type and axle position, and wear rate studies were performed based on estimated mileage provided by Railinc. Because the actual in-service date is unknown for the wheels in this population, the wear life was estimated per wear factor by calculating the nominal wear rate slope for that factor and then extrapolating over the range of dimensions from new to AAR condemnable limits. For certain factors, such as wheel hollow and flange thickness, the wear trend shows an inflection where the wear rate slope signifcantly increases. For these cases, the slope after the inflection was used. For flange thickness, the inflection point occurs when wheel hollowing reaches approximately 1.5 mm. Figure 1 shows the flange height wear rates with the data broken down into select percentile values with each value plotted linearly from new to the AAR condemnable criteria. This figure offers a 36 Railway Age // January 2024
theoretical representation to help visualize the number of miles it would take a new wheel to wear to the AAR condemnable limits based on the range of median wear rates identified and given the calculated slopes. The range of wear rates is quite large over this population of cars. Half of the data points fall in the range between ~2 million miles (orange line) and ~3.5 million miles (red line). This calculation was performed for both car types and at each axle position, and similar results were observed for the other wear parameters. The median wear rate range of variation between the longest- and shortest-lived wheels in the sample set for each of the wear factors is approximately a factor of four. When studied on wheelsets with known cause for removal, wear rate trends per wear parameter showed uniformity. Ultimately, this shows promise for providing researchers with the ability to predict the end-of-life point by extrapolation. A population with a uniform wear
rate may result in predictable optimized wheel removal. However, further studies are needed to determine whether the wear trends per parameter per wheel in the general population will follow a similar pattern and whether the wear can be extrapolated across all parameters with sufficient precision to predict wheel end-of-life with enough accuracy to be useful. Any future studies should develop methods to account for measurement and wear rate variations. The initial study performed by MxV Rail did not attempt to explain wear rate differences or why the wear rate differences develop. Future work will expand beyond the WPD dataset to focus on finding the characteristics of the equipment population that display the most uniform wear rates for each wear parameter. This work will require expanding the datasets to include design characteristics (e.g., suspension type), wear characteristics (e.g., wedge rise), and service characteristics (e.g., loaded duty cycles). railwayage.com
PEOPLE GRAHAM CHRISTIE
Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority HIGH PROFILE: The Alameda Corridor Trans-
portation Authority (ACTA) last month named Graham Christie as Chief Operating Officer. Christie comes to ACTA after a 10-year career at HTNB. He previously worked at RailPros Inc. and AECOM. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California-Davis and is a licensed Civil Engineer in California. “Graham provides more than 30 years of highly valued experience and leadership in the rail industry, particularly in California,” said ACTA CEO Michael Leue. “He is a seasoned engineer who has been a project manager for more than 100 critically needed and complex rail projects and programs—including high-speed, commuter and freight rail systems. This background and proven success make Graham the ideal choice as COO.” “I’m honored by this appointment and as a Southern California resident, I look forward to assisting one of the region’s most important rail authorities,” said Christie. “Much of my career has been spent in planning, engineering design, construction management and interfacing with train operators and tenant railroads on projects that involve construction in a live railroad environment. At ACTA, I will also utilize my lengthy experience in coordinating construction activities with adjacent projects and key stakeholders—such as utility owners, freight railroad owners, local jurisdictions, the California Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Railroad Administration. I am very excited to be part of the ACTA team.”
M
arcelo Bravo is the new Vice President of Rail and Transit at Fairport, N.Y.-based Tracsis North America, formerly known as RailComm. Bravo will help build a market presence for Tracsis products, including Computer Aided Dispatch, Yard Automation and Remote Condition Monitoring software, in North America and beyond, according to the company, which rebranded in October following its acquisition by Tracsis PLC Group, a provider of software, hardware, data analytics/GIS and services for the rail, traffic data and wider transport industries. Bravo also will work with the Tracsis UK team. The Railway Supply Institute (RSI) last month appointed executives at GATX Corp. and TrinityRail Inc. to lead its Quality Assurance Committee in 2024, and advocate for “quality and continuous improvement in the performance, safety, and reliability of the rail supply industry’s products and services.” According to RSI, the Quality Assurance Committee charter is to “proactively identify industry issues, needs, and trends and provide guidance and railwayage.com
service offerings to continually improve railway supplier products, processes, and services. This is accomplished by developing and publishing best practice industry compliance standards, documents, and guidelines, and educating the industry on quality issues and processes.” The committee comprises quality leaders representing railcar owners, fleet managers, repair and reconditioning facilities, and railcar and component manufacturers. In 2024, GATX Director of Quality Assurance Margaret Zero will serve as Chair of RSI’s Quality Assurance Committee. With more than 10 years of Quality experience in the rail industry, she has held various roles in the GATX Quality Department, and she and her team currently administer, support and oversee the regulatory compliance program, quality auditing and facility certification, the quality management system and the NDT, and welding and training programs for the GATX Rail North America network. Zero is recognized as a Certified Quality Engineer through the American Society for Quality and is a member of the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Quality Assurance Committee. TrinityRail Director
of Quality Assurance Michael Ruby will serve in 2024 as Vice Chair of RSI’s Quality Assurance Committee. He began his career at Peterbilt Motors as a quality inspector for heavy-duty trucks, working his way up through various roles, including auditor, problem-solver, supplier quality engineer, and quality engineer. He also served as Quality Manager at Navistar Inc. Ruby in 2015 transitioned to TrinityRail and in his current role manages the quality management system, AAR and ISO audits, AAR facility certifications, and technical approvals. Ruby is also pursuing an Executive MBA at Baylor University. Senior rail executive Matt Service and maritime industry veteran Ian Hirt have been hired to help develop new cargo and rail projects for the Ports of Indiana, a statewide port authority managing three ports (Burns Harbor; Mt. Vernon; and Jeffersonville, Ind.) on the Ohio River and Lake Michigan. Service will lead rail development efforts at all three ports and explore expansion projects outside the existing ports. He is the owner of Service Rail Advisors and served recently as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Patriot Rail. He also held the role of Chief Investment Officer at Pioneer Lines, which Patriot Rail acquired in 2022, and various management roles at CSX and OmniTrax. Service has successfully led negotiations for more than $1 billion in mergers and acquisitions, and has extensive experience in strategic planning, business growth and continuous safety improvement for rail operations, according to the Ports of Indiana. He is a University of Mississippi graduate. Hirt will lead targeted cargo development efforts for Ports of Indiana, including establishing new container shipments. He served as Port Director at Ports of Indiana-Burns Harbor from 2017 to 2021, and now has an ownership interest in Benchmark Marine Agency, a vessel agency servicing ports around the western Great Lakes. A graduate of Northern Michigan University, Hirt started his maritime career with Fednav, and spent 12 years as General Manager for Federal Marine Terminals at Burns Harbor and six years as General Manager at North American Stevedoring Co. at the Port of Chicago. January 2024 // Railway Age 37
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Ad Index COMPANY
PHONE #
URL/EMAIL ADDRESS
PAGE #
AMSTED RAIL GROUP
312-922-4516
kskibinski@amstedrail.com
C2
CN
888-888-5909
DANELLA RENTAL SYSTEMS
561-743- 7373
SBolte@danella.com
25
FREIGHTCAR MERICA
630-561-4755
Mtonn@freightcar.net
15
HOLLAND CO
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sales@hollandco.com
31
NEXT-GEN
212.620.7224
www.railwayage.com/ngfr
26-27
OKONITE CO
201-825-0300
info@okonite.com
7
PLASSER AMERICAN CORP
757-543-3526
plasseramerican@plausa.com
3
RAILWAY EQUIPMENT CO
763-972-2200
sales@rwy.com
20
RAILWAY EDUCATIONAL BUREAU
402-346-4300
bbrundige@sb-reb.com
33,C3
RELAM
770-335-9273
jroberts@relaminc.com
C4
REMSA
202-715-2921
info@remsa.org
22
STRATO INC
732-317-5406
korozco@stratoinc.com
34
TRINITY RAIL
800-631-4420
trinityrail.com
13
WESTERN CULLEN HAYES
773-254-9600
jm@wch.com
24
WI-TRONIX LLC
630-679-9927
hannah.tadey@wi-tronix.com
23
WVCO RAILROAD SOLUTIONS
541-484-9621
wvcorailroadsolutions@wilvaco.com
19
17
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.
MARKETPLACE SALES
JEROME MARULLO P: 212-620-7260 jmarullo@sbpub.com
RTS_Classified_7.5x1.5in.indd 1
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ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED 4/26/22 11:10 AM
January 2024 // Railway Age 39
Financial Edge Railroad Safety is Not the Problem
T
he marketing genius that was P.T. Barnum coined the oft repeated phrase “There is no such thing as bad publicity.” One only needs to search the origins of fame of some “stars” such as Kim Kardashian and Rob Lowe to see Barnum’s timeless genius. September’s “Financial Edge” highlighted increasing safety related scrutiny facing North American railroads. An inability to maintain a clean house has attracted the attention of the mainstream media. Even genius has its failings. The Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine and a few other safetycentric news events put a bullseye on North American rail. Political attention on the East Palestine derailment made railroad operations an easy target for mainstream media. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times (and online publications like conspiracy-theory-touting Propublica) published several stories that negatively highlighted service-related practices and pilloried the late E. Hunter Harrison as the “mastermind” engineering a 21st century Crédit Mobilier scandal—bilking investors of billions and sacrificing safety for profit. The spotlight just got brighter. On Dec. 10, HBO’s news satire program Last Week Tonight ran a 27-minute episode on failing railroad safety. Host John Oliver (who covers various topics, e.g. home schooling, government surveillance, $148 million man Rudy Giuliani) gets into topics that are easy hits with ample media outlet coverage. Oliver is not Woodward or Bernstein; Last Week Tonight is not CBS 60 Minutes (which itself aired a negatively slanted and errorfilled report on PTC a few years ago). Don’t expect a future Pulitzer. But therein lies the rub. Railroad safety is such an easy target that Last Week Tonight, a “news lite” program, deems it episodeworthy. That’s a real concern. The irony is that rail safety is not the problem. What is? It’s railroad management’s seeming indifference to the outward appearance and public opinion of the railroad industry. Experienced rail professionals will quibble with Last Week Tonight’s experts and conclusions (never mind the ongoing exhumation of Mr. Harrison’s legacy six years after his passing). That’s nice, but read 40 Railway Age // January 2024
the memo: You’re in the minority. North American rail needs an image makeover. Ads on CNBC and I-Bank transportation conference rah-rah sessions aren’t enough. North American rail needs a New Year’s resolution: Put your house in order and change the way people think about rail. Perhaps Miss Kardashian or Mr. Lowe can recommend a PR specialist?
Remembering Tom Power
The railroad industry mourns the passing of Thomas F. Power Jr., who passed away Dec. 2, 2023. He was 83. Tom Power started his career in railroading in 1966 at the New York Central and Penn Central Railroads. He moved from the New York area to Illinois and joined the railroad that eventually became known as the Milwaukee Road. He held several positions there, ultimately becoming president of the railroad serving under the Bankruptcy Trustee, Richard B. Ogilvie. Most people will remember and recall the events of Tom’s career that began in 1987 when he, along with a group of investors, including Ed Burkhardt, started the Wisconsin Central Railroad. At its outset, the Wisconsin Central was a Class II. The WC added additional rail lines in North America through acquisitions of the Fox River Valley and Green Bay & Western (1993) and the Algoma Central (1995). While successful as a profitable operating North American railroad in its own right, beginning in 1993, the Wisconsin Central Transportation Group (WCTG) made investments in the United Kingdom (the English, Welsh & Scottish), New Zealand
(TranzRail) and Australia (Australian Transportation Network in Tazmania). The push by the WC into foreign markets was unique at the time. The pathway for foreign investment and expansion made by WCTG changed the paradigm for what a short line railroad could be. It opened the door for other short line holding companies like Genesee & Wyoming to explore foreign markets. WCTG brought its experience in operating railroads in North America to these markets that, in many cases, were deregulating. Tom Power (and the investment team and Board of Directors at WCTG) saw the opportunity to bring to these markets the efficiencies that had made the Wisconsin Central acquisition successful. Those investments delivered strategic and economic success. CN acquired WCTG in 2001. Following his career at WCTG, Tom went on to participate in a handful of rail related businesses, most notably as a board member of Electro-Motive Diesel after the private equity acquisition of that company from General Motors. (EMD is now a division of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar Company.) Tom also participated as an investor and advisor to Railveyor, Railpod, the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad and Helrom AG. Tom was a great mentor and friend to many. He was always willing to share his wisdom and expertise in a generous and congenial manner. At the start of his career at Wisconsin Central, Tom was instrumental in supporting the early days of Railroad Financial Corporation, the company founded by Tony Kruglinski. (Tony was Financial Editor of Railway Age from 1989 to 2014.) Tom will be missed for his engaging personality, industry knowledge and expertise, and for his friendship. Got questions? Set them free at dnahass@ railfin.com.
DAVID NAHASS President Railroad Financial Corp. railwayage.com
We’re current, are you? FRA Regulations Mechanical Department Regulations
Now Include Part 22 s 4
A combined reprint of the Federal Regulations that apply specifically to the Mechanical Department. Spiral bound. Part Title 210 Railroad Noise Emission Compliance Regulations Updated 4-15-19. 215 Freight Car Safety Standards Updated 1-6-23. 216 Emergency Order Procedures: Railroad Track, Locomotive and Equipment Updated 1-6-23. 217 Railroad Operating Rules Updated 11-13-23. 218 Railroad Operating Practices - Blue Flag Rule Updated 11-13-23. 221 Rear End Marking Device-passenger, commuter/freight trains Updated 1-6-23. 223 Safety Glazing Standards Updated 1-6-23. 224 Reflectorization of Rail Freight Rolling Stock Updated 1-6-23. 225 Railroad Accidents/Incidents Updated 1-6-23. 229 Locomotive Safety Standards Updated 11-13-23. 231 Safety Appliance Standards Updated 1-6-23. 232 Brake System Safety Standards Updated 1-6-23.
49 CFR Part 215, Freight Car Safety Standards Implementing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. FRA is proposing to amend the Freight Car Safety Standards (FCSS) to implement section 22425 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Act). The Act places certain restrictions on newly built freight cars placed into service in the United States (U.S.) including limiting content that originates from a country of concern (COC) or is sourced from a state-owned enterprise (SOE) and prohibiting the use of sensitive technology that originates from a COC or SOE. The Act mandates that FRA issue a regulation to monitor and enforce industry’s compliance with the standards of the Act. DATES: Comments on the proposed rule must be received by February 6, 2024. Comments received after that date will be considered to the extent practicable.
Part 229: Locomotive Safety Standards
$34.50
Mech. Dept. Regs.
BKMFR
FRA News:
The Locomotive Safety Standards cover the laws governing inspections and tests, brake system, draft system, suspension, electrical, cabs and cab equipment plus more! Softcover. Spiral bound. Updated 1-6-23
Order 25 or more and pay only $31.00 each
Current FRA Regulations Item Code
FRA Part #
Update effective
209 211 BKTSSAF 213 BKTSSG 213 BKWRK 214 BKFSS 215 BKROR 217 218 BKRRC 220 BKHORN 222 BKHS 228 BKLSS 229 BKSLI 230 BKSAS 231 BKBRIDGE 237 BKLER 240 BKSEP
1-6-23 RR Safety Enforcement Procedures & 3-1-21 Rules of Practice 1-6-23 Track Safety Standards (Subpart A-F) 1-6-23 Track Safety Standards (Subpart G) 1-6-23 RR Workplace Safety 1-6-23 RR Freight Car Safety Standards 11-13-23 RR Operating Rules and Practices 11-13-23 1-6-23 RR Communications 1-6-23 Use of Locomotive Horns 1-6-23 Hours of Service 11-13-23 Locomotive Safety Standards 1-6-23 Steam Locomotive Inspection 1-6-23 RR Safety Appliance Standards 1-6-23 Bridge Safety Standards 6-1-23 Qualification and Certification of Locomotive Engineers BKCONDC 242 6-1-23 Conductor Certification
BKBSS
232 12-11-20 Brake System Safety Standards
Each
50 or more
32.00
28.80
11.95 12.50 11.50 9.50 11.50
10.75 11.25 10.35 8.50 10.35
7.75 15.75 13.50 13.50 27.95 11.50 8.95 14.95
6.95 14.15 12.15 12.15 25.15 10.35 8.00 13.45
13.50
12.15
Each
25 or more
17.50
15.75
Update effective
BKCAD
40 219
6-1-23 6-1-23
BKSTC
233 234 235 236 238 239
1-6-23 1-6-23 1-6-23 1-6-23 1-6-23 1-6-23
BKPSS
Each
25 or more
Drug and Alcohol Regulations in the Workplace
39.95
35.95
Signal and Train Control Systems
22.95
20.65
$13.50
Passenger Equipment Safety Standards and Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness 49 CFR 238 - 239 Part 238 covers: Safety planning/ General Requirements - Tier I & II Passenger Equipment - Specific safety planning requirements for Tier II passenger equipment Part 239 covers: Specific requirements - Review, approval, and retention of emergency preparedness plans - Operational (efficiency) tests; inspection of records and recordkeeping Softcover. Spiral bound. Updated 1-6-23.
BKPSS Pass. Equip. Safety Stan. and Pass. Train Emerg. Preparedness $26.95 Order 25 or more and pay only $24.45 each
Part 222: Use of Locomotive Horns at Public Highway-Rail Grade Crossings 49 CFR 222. This regulation provides for safety at public highwayrail grade crossings by requiring locomotive horn use at public highway-rail grade crossings except in quiet zones established and maintained in accordance with this part. Spiral bound. Updated 1-6-23 Use of Locomotive Horns Order 50 or more and pay only $14.15 each
$15.75
800-228-9670 www.RailwayEducationalBureau.com
Passenger Safety Standards
26.95
24.25
1809 Capitol Ave., Omaha NE, 68102
Compliance Manuals BKTM
Locomotive Safety Standards Order 50 or more and pay only $12.15 each
BKHORN
Combined FRA Regulations FRA Part #
BKLSS
Technical Manual for Signal and Train Control Rules. - Includes Part 233, 234, 235, 236
51.95
46.76
Updates from the Federal Register may be supplied in supplement form.
Add Shipping & Handling if your merchandise subtotal is: U.S.A. CAN Orders over U.S.A. CAN UP TO $10.00 $6.40 $11.70 25.01 - 50.00 15.00 25.50 $75, call for shipping 10.01 - 25.00 11.00 19.55 50.01 - 75.00 16.85 31.85 *Prices subject to change. Canada please call to place orders. Revision dates subject to change in accordance with laws published by the FRA. 1/24
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