Rail Group On Air

Norfolk Southern’s TOP|SPG operating plan—which stands for Thoroughbred Operating Plan | Service Productivity Growth—has evolved from NS’s previous plans, TOP 21 among them. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Cindy Sanborn and Vice President Network Planning and Operations Paul Duncan join Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono to talk about how TOP | SPG “isn’t a radical change in how we work with our customers, but a shift in how we execute our operations to move their shipments more directly and consistently.” The biggest changes affect intermodal markets, NS’s most time-sensitive business. TOP | SPG modifies about 90% of scheduled intermodal and merchandise trains “to reduce terminal congestion, improve network fluidity and create capacity for growth, ultimately simplifying the network through an operating plan with a high level of executability that will drive greater consistency and service improvements for customers.” Podcast sponsored by The Greenbrier Companies

Railway Age’s 2011 Railroader of the Year Charles W. “Wick” Moorman IV retired as chairman, president and CEO of Norfolk Southern in 2015, then spent a year as president of Amtrak. Since then, he’s been active in historic preservation, among other ventures, taking the lead, with colleagues Bennett Levin and Henry Posner, in the second restoration of Pennsylvania Railroad K4 Pacific steam locomotive 1361 and work with reorganizing the Railroaders Memorial Museum of Altoona. He’s also involved in resurrecting Pennsylvania’s East Broad Top as a tourist attraction and driver of regional economic activity. In this wide-ranging interview with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono, Wick talks about his historic preservation initiatives and tenure as Amtrak president—and offers his very candid, eye-opening observations on the current state of the U.S. rail industry: Precision Scheduled Railroading, customer service, capital investment, the Surface Transportation Board and regulation, and Amtrak’s relationship with its host freight railroads. This is one podcast well-worth a listen!

Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads: Gene Skoropowski and Tom Mulligan by RT&S, Railway Age, IRJ

RT&S Media Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks to the builder behind the Mid-Coast Corridor Projects in San Diego, Calif., which earned a spot on the 2022 RT&S Top Projects list.

Ahead of next week’s IAF International Exhibition on Track Technology in Münster, Germany, Plasser & Theurer speaks with IRJ Editor-in-Chief Kevin Smith in our latest Rail Group on Air podcast. Fabian Hansmann, Deputy Director for Marketing, looks ahead to IAF and the supplier’s key exhibits; Alexander Lehner, Director for Global Customer Services, reflects on Plasser & Theurer’s changing approach to customer service, including new rental services and second-hand machine supply; and Florian Auer, Director of Technologies and Innovation, looks at the future of railway infrastructure maintenance and the adoption of new technologies. (Introductory music: “Tired Traveler on the Way to Home” by Andrew Codeman – CC BY 3.0)

Railway Track & Structures Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks with AmeriStarRail's Scott Spencer about the proposed Grand Slam project that would run through downtown Baltimore.

The North County Transit District's decision to build a fence along the Del Mar bluffs has been debated for years, but recently the topic has really heated up. RT&S Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks to both sides of this "fence".

Commuter Rail Coalition Director of Government Relations John Cline of Cline Strategic Consulting, industry lobbyists Julie Minerva of Carpi & Clay and Bennett Resnik of Cardinal Infrastructure, and CRC Executive Director KellyAnne Gallagher join Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono for a conversation on what 2022 may hold in store for commuter rail priorities.

Railway Track & Structures Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson interviews Union Pacific President and CEO Lance Fritz about the Class 1's capital program and the industry's labor shortage.

Siemens Mobility North America President and CEO Marc Buncher talks with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono about the 2022 North American rail market. What are the opportunities for the passenger rail industry with the infrastructure bill’s passage? What is missing from the infrastructure deal? Will the bill really help the industry move the needle as far as technology is concerned, or is it more of a state-of-good-repair play? What of note will occur in the freight rail industry this year? Podcast sponsored by Siemens Mobility North America.