Rail Group On Air

In this edition of Rail Group On Air, sponsored by ZTR, Business Development Manager – Rail Division Brodie McLellan and Railway IoT Program Manager Neil Shipley focus on the environmental and safety aspects of ZTR’s various technology offerings with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. They discuss engineering a sustainable future for the railway industry: the importance of clean technologies and how ZTR is helping to reduce locomotive idling and significantly cut down emissions, as well as the role digitization plays in enhancing railway safety, supporting higher training and skills standards, and improving efficiencies.

In Part 2 of the 2021 RT&S Top Projects, RT&S Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks about the Mondo mud spring in California creating havoc with Union Pacific railroad tracks.

Two new rail ferries, the Maya and the Cherokee, will enter Gulf of Mexico service this year for CG Railway LLC (CGR), a joint venture of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and SEACOR Holdings Inc. CGR, which transports 10,000 annual carloads of diversified commodities from Mobile, Ala., to Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, is replacing its existing two vessels with 590-foot-long ships that can each carry 135 railcars, up from 115 railcars on the existing ferries, with a top speed of 14 knots, up from seven knots. Currently, the trip across the Gulf takes about five days, or half the time required for the overland route. The vessels’ additional capacity and faster speed could potentially boost annual carload capacity by 40%. William C. Vantuono and Heather Ervin, Editors-in-Chief of Railway Age and Marine Log, respectively, talk with CGR President Hoffman Lijeron about the company’s operations and the new vessels.

Commuter Rail Coalition Vice Chair Mike Noland (South Shore Line) and Director of Government Affairs John Cline (Cline Strategic Consulting) discuss how the decidedly unsexy issue of excess liability insurance has become an existential threat to commuter railroads with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. They also share the innovative solution in need of bi-partisan support as it’s being shopped on Capitol Hill.

CN President and CEO JJ Ruest and Kansas City Southern President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer discuss the two railroads’ pending merger in detail with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. How confident are the two chief executives that the Surface Transportation Board will approve their jointly filed voting trust application? What will the capital investment and operating impacts be for KCS while the company is in trust? If the voting trust is not approved, what happens next? Would CN and KCS proceed with a merger application without one? KCS’s New Orleans-Baton Rouge line is the only stated overlap, which Ruest says will be divested if the merger is approved, and which was an anticipated condition of merging. Are CN and KCS anticipating any other conditions? And what, and where, are the most significant growth and service improvement opportunities for the combined railroad? Podcast sponsored by The Greenbrier Companies, Virtual Sample Railcar™.

Locomotive engineers have been qualified and trained with simulation technology for years. Through technology, the opportunity to leverage simulation beyond locomotive engineers is quickly emerging. Heartwood scratched the surface by developing a virtual simulation platform to certify Transportation and Mechanical employees in conducting 49 CFR Part 232 brake tests at Norfolk Southern, and obtained a Federal Railroad Administration simulation training waiver to meet the regulatory requirements. With simulation technology, including augmented and virtual reality, regulatory and maintenance training can be at employee fingertips. Can railroads train, qualify and improve their workforce with simulation tools? FRA Staff Director, Railroad Safety Partnerships Rob Castiglione, Heartwood Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Neil Wadhawan and Consultant Brian Keller discuss this emerging technology with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono.

RT&S Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks with Railroad Construction Company's Frank Spinozza and Lisa Tackach about the New Mid-Suffolk Electric Yard Design-Build Project.

RT&S Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks with Green Line Extension project manager John Dalton about progress and challenges behind the work.

MidRail LLC Chairman Gil Lamphere offers his views on the competition between Canadian Pacific and CN to acquire Kansas City Southern, discussing the details of voting trusts and the role of the Surface Transportation Board, and other railroad merger-related issues, with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. Lamphere has nearly 40 years of experience as a principal investor and financier in rail industry and other private equity transactions. He has headed four private equity firms and has extensive operational experience as a chairman and/or board member for a wide range of publicly traded and private companies. Lamphere is the former Chairman of the Illinois Central Railway, Co-Founder of MidSouth Rail Corporation and a former board member of CN, CSX and Florida East Coast Railway. He led teams and boards that bought, managed and changed operations at those railroads, and at Southern Pacific, with alumni leading CP, creating gains for investors in excess of $2 billion.

Canadian Pacific President and CEO Keith Creel, Executive Vice President Operations Mark Redd and Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer​​​John Brooks discuss CP’s proposed merger with Kansas City Southern with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. Podcast Sponsored by Trinity Rail.