Side Tracks
LRIW Members Connect in Birmingham
May 16th, 2012It was great to see old friends and make new ones at this week’s League of Railway Industry Women’s Annual Conference in Birmingham, Ala. The location couldn’t be more fitting for a group of women who mainly work for railroads and their suppliers because the city was founded in 1871 at the junction of two railroads.
“Birmingham planned a city with heavy industry at its center, literally,” as local rail expert John Stewart told the group. The city benefited from an abundance of raw materials needed for producing iron and steel.
The group heard presentations from several prominent Birmingham-area companies, including Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, Vulcan Materials, and Boatright Companies. Vulcan Materials is a major producer of construction aggregates and other construction materials. It shipped 142 million tons of aggregates last year.
Jeff Harris, national accounts manager for Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, spoke about his company’s new customer service and branding efforts, which include a new logo and the integration of Southeastern Frog & Switch and Houston Rail & Locomotive into what he termed the new BR&L. “Those names are going away and everyone will be BR&L,” he said.
BR&L was founded in 1899 and its main rail product is track spikes, but the company is branching out to new and relay rail sales. And if you want to purchase something, don’t expect to leave a message when you call this company. “We don’t believe in voice mail,” Harris said. “If you want to buy something, you will reach a salesperson whenever you call.”
Shane Boatright, founder, president and CEO of Boatright Companies, told the LRIW audience about how he grew the company from running one high-rail truck spraying weeds along railroad rights of way to a diversified rail business providing vegetation management, equipment sales, tie production and railcar repair services with 350 employees and offices in four states. His life-long dream came true in 2007 when he was able to buy a railroad–a short line in Georgia called the St. Marys Railroad. The short line, which has operated since 1865, mainly serves companies transporting paper products and items needed for the Kings Bay naval base, including ballistic missiles.
“Everything I do is tied to the railroad,” he said. “And moving ballistic missiles for the Department of Defense is kind of cool.”
And Boatright isn’t done yet. His company is building a $60 million tie plant in Alabama and is on the lookout for strategic acquisitions as well. He says he reviews about five potential deals every month and predicts that there will be more consolidation in the railroad industry.
Boatright insists that he never had a plan to build such a large company, but credits his success to several things, including working hard, hiring the right people and building relationships with his customers and his customer’s customers.
And building relationships is exactly what we did at the LRIW conference. I look forward to our next opportunity to meet face to face in September when the LRIW holds its annual luncheon during the Railway Supply Institute conference in Chicago.
—By Kathy Keeney
Kathy Keeney is Publisher of the Rail Group at UBM Global Trade. The granddaughter of a railroader, she has been writing about railroads for more than 25 years. She is a past president of The League of Railway Industry Women, and served on the board of directors for the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
Coming Back to Earth
May 9th, 2012Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s during the Apollo moon missions, a number of the astronauts who had flown the missions went through a tough return to “normal” life following their flights. Books have been written both by the astronauts and others about the difficulties, which mainly stemmed from them going from a high level of involvement in training and preparation for the flight to the high of the flight itself and then to the far slower pace of post flight activities and a return to what the rest of us call normal. Now while I didn’t fly to the moon last month at the ASLRRA 2012 Connections, I do think I have gained a little insight into what they went through on a smaller scale.
First of all, I have to say that the meeting came off almost exactly as planned. To my critical eye it wasn’t perfect, but the vast majority of the attendees have been saying that it was a great meeting. Believe me, what you don’t know in this case won’t hurt you. While I had a great time seeing everything come off as we had planned, I really wasn’t able to relax and not be “on call” until 9 pm on Tuesday. When I was able to finally relax and take a deep breath, I was really done. Physically and emotionally there was a release, and I was able to enjoy myself at the Centennial Lounge.
The next day started Post Meeting Syndrome, or PMS. PMS is what each of the people who have a big role in the Annual go through just after the meeting. Just like the astronauts, we go through a period of preparation for the meeting that gets more and more intense as the meeting gets closer. In the two days before I left for Indy, I had multiple conference calls, tens of emails, and I still had my job at the railroad to do. Once on site I was running all over the place making sure that everything was ready to go, and then the meeting itself exploded with all of its activity. Then, it was over, and everything stopped. The big problem was my brain still wanted to move at meeting speed, and my body wasn’t ready to do it again. I was physically exhausted, and it took almost a week for my brain and body to catch up with each other. In past years I would come home from the meeting on the Thursday after it ended, and go back to work on Friday. This year I got smart and decided that after all I had been through that it would be a good idea to take Friday off and pick things back up on the Monday after.
Boy, was that a good idea.
In my case the spirit was willing but the body just couldn’t do it. I spent the day puttering around the house, catching up on emails and other stuff, and really for the balance of the day I felt pretty good. Then at 9:30 pm or so my body said it was done. And when I say done, I mean done. I was asleep by 10pm (midnight is normal for me on a Friday night), and I slept over 10 hours, which is very unusual for me. This was my body’s way of telling me it needed the rest, and following that I made sure to take it easy for the rest of the weekend. Monday was a little weird because my mind was still expecting the dozens of emails and calls coming in all the time, but life had settled back to normal, and I had to get used to a slower pace of life.
Fortunately slower did not mean quieter, but that can wait for next time.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
April 24th, 2012I would think by the time you are reading this ASLRRA 2012 Connections will be over, and I really hope that those of you who attended it had a good time. I’m probably sitting in a corner someplace in a semi-comatose state having gone all out for the week that I was on site, so it is probably good that I am writing this on the day before I head to Indianapolis.
I am probably going to forget to publicly thank some of the people below, so I thought I would use this bully pulpit to get all of my thanks out.
So here we go…
First of all, thank you to Wes Weis and the rest of my co-workers at the M&E. They have put up with umpteen conference calls, meetings, and various planning sessions and trips, and without their understanding and patience, I wouldn’t be allowed to get this opportunity.
Thank you to the ASLRRA staff: Cara Lione, Jenny Bourque, Steve Sullivan, Dave Mears, Tom Streicher, Keith Borman, David Whorton, Eric O’Neill, Jennie Lam-Nagata, and Cheryl Huyck for putting up with endless requests and nudging. Thanks to Rich Timmons, Bob Bailey and Mike Ogborn for basically handing me the keys to the meeting and saying “have at it.” And letting me do it.
Special thanks go to Kathy Cassidy. This Association would be a whole different place without her, and none of what you see happens without her unending dedication to the cause.
I also have to thank two other Kathys, Keeney and Rogers, and Heritage Exposition Services, for putting together what is simply a huge trade show in the middle of a huge meeting.
Thank you to Judy Petry and her loyal troop of volunteers, who start going from the minute they arrive and don’t stop until they get on the plane to go home. This meeting can’t physically run without them. Additional thanks go to the Planning Committee, who are the people who take the somewhat off the wall ideas of the Meeting Chairman and turn them into reality.
There are probably a hundred or more people that I could also thank, but I want to end this with the most important person of all, my wife Holly. She gives up a huge chunk of time that I could spend with her so that I can lead this band of misfits into battle, and she is right by my side throughout it all. I thank her from the bottom of my heart for her loving, her bottomless patience, her wise counsel, and her friendship throughout this whole adventure.
And… for those of you who did attend, thank you.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
Now the Ball Starts Rolling
April 10th, 2012A little under a year ago, I was standing talking with Judy Petry on the Friday before the start of the 2011 Connections, and we both kind of gave each other a look, and said “get the feeling that this thing is going to take the course it wants to, no matter what we do to try to change it?” The fact is, time moves on, and once the meeting is on the calendar, it’s going to happen, whether we are ready or not. Fortunately, between the staff, Planning Committee, and Volunteers, the vast majority of the work to make Connections happen has been done, and with small corrections the meeting runs smoothly.
Well, today was the first time I got that feeling for the 2012 Connections. The crates for SDS’ booth in the exhibit hall shipped out to Indy, and as we were loading them on the truck I had the realization that this thing was going to happen, and nothing I was going to do at this point was going to significantly affect that.
Are we ready? Absolutely. I spent a day in DC last week going over the meeting with the ASLRRA staff, and we did a 100% top to bottom review of every event, room set, staging, etc. You name it, we went over it. Was everything 100% perfect? Not exactly, but even the things we found were a little off were noted, and from the flurry of emails that I’ve received since my visit, most of them have already been taken care of.
Now do I get to kick back and take it easy until the start of the festivities? Not quite. There is still a list of items that must be taken care of before the show gets started, and when I get on site next Wednesday, all the fun begins. Hopefully I won’t be run over by that ball as it comes rolling by…
Shameless Plug of the Blog
We have an App for that. 2012 Connections, that is. Scan the QR code below with your iPhone, iPad, or Android device, and it will take you to where you can download the App for your device. I’ve been playing with the App for the last week or so (it is free), and it will be one of the most useful tools that you will have in Indy. There are interactive maps of the exhibits, listings of each event, speaker bios, and you will be able to download presentations and information from exhibitors. There will also be alerts of events coming to you in real time, and you can customize your schedule right within the App. Finally, when Connections ends, that doesn’t mean that the App’s usefulness ends. We will be putting out updates on the ASLRRA’s Centennial Celebration and other events through the App throughout the year.
And away we go.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
Packing More Than a Bag
April 9th, 2012I’m packing my bags for Indianapolis and this weekend’s American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s Annual Convention.
But before ASLRRA 2012 Connections officially opens on Sunday, April 22, there’s another type of bag-packing that I’ll be doing and it has nothing to do with airports or TSA screenings or anything like that. I’ll be joining dozens of my industry colleagues in a service project at Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana.
This year’s ASLRRA Service Project will involve working an assembly line for a program called BackSacks (click here to check it out on YouTube). The program is dedicated to improving the lives of Indiana children by providing BackSacks full of kid-friendly, shelf-stable foods to hungry K-6 students over the weekends.
Items included in a BackSack can be opened easily by a child and do not require refrigeration or heating. Gleaners consulted with a nutritionist to create rotating menus that include two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners, snacks, and drinks. They estimate that about 60 percent of a child’s nutritional needs over the weekend are met by the BackSack he or she receives.
These children often receive assistance from programs operating during the week, such as free and reduced price lunches and after-school services. However, it is over the weekend that many of these children risk going hungry, so this program helps to ensure that kids don’t go to school hungry on Monday morning.
I’m looking forward to working side by side with my industry friends and colleagues stuffing those backsacks (hopefully we’ll do better than Lucy and Ethel in their infamous chocolate factory assembly line in I Love Lucy) and participating later that night in the ASLRRA’s Party with a Purpose fundraiser for the food bank. I’m proud of the fact that Team ASLRRA will make some connections with youths in Indy and leave the city a bit better than we found it … just as we have in other places including New Orleans and San Antonio.
—By Kathy Keeney
Kathy Keeney is Publisher of the Rail Group at UBM Global Trade. The granddaughter of a railroader, she has been writing about railroads for more than 25 years. She is a past president of The League of Railway Industry Women, and served on the board of directors for the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
New Toy, New Tool
March 21st, 2012I have a new favorite toy right now. No, it is not the new iPad (but I do have one on order). Actually, it is the latest revision to the system that Railinc offers for railroads to upload and download their Car Hire (CHDX, or exchange tape) data. Stop glazing over for a moment and let me tell you about this, because while the majority of you reading this right now will never use or have need for this system, what it represents is very important.
First of all, what is CHDX data? Every month, each railroad has to pay the owners of railroad marked (and some private marked) cars for the time that the owner’s cars are on the user’s railroad. So, about 40 days after the end of a service month, each railroad submits a file to Railinc, who then processes the data, and sends statements to the railroads. The funds move through a clearinghouse, and everyone ends up with the net result of the payments from other railroads minus the payments they need to make.
In the “old days” this was referred to as the Exchange Tape, because the railroads would literally have to mail a computer tape to Railinc ( there was even a whole section in the CHDX manual that explained how everything was to be packaged and addressed). This was one of the reasons why companies like RMI made such inroads into car hire processing for short lines, because most of them did not have the capability (or even a computer) to create this tape.
What happened over the years as the internet grew and more railroads were able to do their own car hire was that Railinc created a site for railroads to upload and download their data. It worked, but it was very simple, and the data was still processed in a similar fashion to when it was provided on tape (you found out about errors after they started to run the data for the month, causing great problems). There was a definite need for something that was more secure, and did more than just accept the file.
And what did Railinc do? They created a new utility as part of their website that is easy to use and actually looks at the data before it is processed and tells you if there are errors in your submission so you can fix them. The system also tells you how much your payment (on an upload) or how much you will be receiving (on a download) is. It works, and it works well.
Now why am I all excited about this? Well, in the end, more than 90% of the short line industry will never need or use this tool. However, that remaining percentage (a reasonable proportion of them being my SDS customers) will use this tool, and for those who need it, they have welcomed it with open arms, as it was sorely and definitely needed.
Shameless Plug of the Blog
As I did in my last blog, I’m going to plug something that I think is worth knowing about at the ASLRRA 2012 Connections.
This may shock some people who know my background, but I really want to let people know about the whole Legislative and Community Outreach breakout track at the convention. There are a full six sessions this year, with some really great topics. We lead off on Monday morning with a session on TIGER grants (the panel includes a representative from the US DOT, the people who decide on the grants), followed by a panel on Quiet Zones. The afternoon features two great panels on Corporate Communications and the Section 45G Tax Credit, and Tuesday concludes the track with sessions on the Transportation Bill and my personal favorite, Congress 101: They Put Their Pants on the Same Way You Do.
Whichever sessions you decide to attend, the big thing is that you do attend. Early registration has been extended to Thursday, so you can still take advantage of the $50 price break.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
If it’s Wednesday, it Must be Washington…
March 7th, 2012I’m writing this from my hotel room in Washington, D.C. I’m in the middle of my first business trip of the year, a two-fer consisting of the CSX Short Line Conference that just finished in St. Augustine FL, and RR Day on Capitol Hill, which will take place tomorrow. I’ve written about both events before, and both are red-letter events on my calendar each year.
Why?
Well, both events are “must dos.” You have to maintain your relationship with your Class 1 partners, period. If they don’t know who you are (and I mean putting a face to an email address here, folks), they won’t know who you are, and you will have a much harder time making your case for a good rate for your next big freight move. There is no doubt that there is a dog and pony show going on, and that is true of any meeting like this. However, it is a lot more pleasant hearing about how the rebound is occurring and how much a part of it we as short lines play in that rebound, than hearing about cars in storage, employees laid off, and waiting for the next good sign.
Now, RR Day is just as important with regard to our relationship with our legislators. As the Rail Safety Act of 2008 proved, if we rest on our laurels, we can leave ourselves open for legislation that hits our pocketbook and how we operate in ways that may not exactly jibe with reality. We all should get to know our representatives in Congress, and this way, when you need to express your opinion about pending legislation or need their support for something like the 45G tax credit, they will know who you are, and that goes a long way. While all of the above is important, that isn’t the reason why I do RR day now…
I do it because it is fun, a lot of fun.
It is one of the rare days in our industry that everyone works together. Class 1’s, Short Lines, Suppliers, Trade Organizations, Lobbying Groups, and Labor all work as one, spreading the message. No one group dominates the day, and I have been in many meetings in the past where the Short Line was the leader in the meeting, and the much larger organizations have taken a back seat. The power of a local vote, especially a vote for the person who you are meeting with, goes a lot farther than someone who does not have a direct connection with the person they are meeting with.
Shameless Plug of the Blog
With the ASLRRA 2012 Connections right around the corner, I’m going to use a little space of this blog to plug a part of the meeting that you might not normally think of doing. In this first plug, I want to talk about the Car Hire Training session that is going to take place on April 22. This is truly the training session to go to if you have ever had any sort of question about Car Hire. It will be taught by the people in the industry: from Railinc, Class 1 railroads, Short Lines, and the service providers. As an add-on to your meeting registration it is a bargain. Don’t miss this opportunity.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
And Away We Go…
February 23rd, 2012It’s always good when you get in some practice before a big event, and Indianapolis is no exception. If you ask me, hosting the Super Bowl was good practice for their next big event: ASLRRA Connections 2012, which will be held April 21-25.
Did you see this picture? Well, that is our hotel for the meeting. The NFL saw fit to use it as the headquarters hotel for the Super Bowl, and now you get the opportunity to stay there for a lot less than what the people who were there that weekend paid.
Now every year you hear me plug the meeting, and of course this year I am heavily biased, because I am the convention chair. That aside, we really have a spectacular event planned. The Exhibition will have more than 195 booths, and has been sold out for weeks. We are going to have a technology focus at the center of the hall with our Tech Aisle, and those exhibitors in the Aisle will have an opportunity to speak about their wares in the Tech Theater. We will also have the popular Coffee Talk with the EPA returning for its Monday morning breakfast slot again this year.
Railroad U will not disappoint either. It is back with 42 sessions on Monday and Tuesday, and in addition to the regular subject areas covered, we will also have three sessions focusing on fuel conservation, which has become an important topic in the last couple of years. One of the nice things about the Railroad U sessions is that they cover all educational levels, and each track will feature what we call the RR101 sessions that are a basic level introduction to that subject.
I am particularly excited about the two full day training sessions that we are going to be offering on Sunday, April 22. The first is a full day training course on car hire and car service rules, and this is being done as a joint effort of the ASLRRA, AAR, ACASCO, Class 1 RRs, and the EDI service providers. This is one of the first classes ever offered of its kind in our industry, and if you have any interest in learning about these rules, please plan on attending. The other class will cover Conductor Certification, and will focus on the new rules and the ASLRRA sample plan for Conductor Certification. If you don’t have a plan, or are confused with what you have to do, go to this class.
The general sessions will be just as exciting. Our Monday session will kick off with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (invited), and continue with our Keynote Address from CSX Chairman, President, and CEO Michael Ward. FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo has been invited again to speak to the assembly, and help present this year’s safety awards. On Tuesday the revamped general session will include a panel of short line holding company CEO’s moderated by Tony Hatch, and the revised general membership meeting. On Tuesday night we have thrown out our usual dinner and presentations, and replaced it with an awards ceremony and reception that will be like nothing you have ever seen at an ASLRRA event.
We haven’t forgotten the social and the social responsibility side of the convention with all of the other things we have going on. On Saturday April 21 we will be having our service project at the Gleaners Food Bank in Indianapolis, and on Saturday night our Party with a Purpose will also benefit Gleaners (the NFL did their own Party with a Purpose benefitting Gleaners this year, and I can assure you that ours will be far less than $600 a ticket, but unfortunately we will not be having a concert from Sara Evans). All of the receptions will be held in the exhibit hall on Sunday and Monday, and Indianapolis is a great dining out town, with a number of restaurants in and within walking distance of the hotel.
Ok, so now that I have your attention, what do you have to do to register and be a part of what (I hope) will be the biggest ASLRRA event ever? Click here, and away we go.
See you in April.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
What’s a Short Line?
February 21st, 2012It’s not a question you expect to hear when you are out for a walk in the neighborhood on a Saturday morning. But that’s exactly what happened to me recently.
I was walking along an abandoned rail line that had been converted to a trail when a couple behind me saw the short line trail sign and asked what a short line was. Before I even had chance to chime in, one of them started talking about how the freight train used to bring in coal on this line to a local facility and lumber to a nearby lumberyard.
I chuckled a bit initially, but the question really makes a lot of sense. For most people, their only exposure to the phrase short line is from playing Monopoly where the corner spaces of the board are taken up by Pennsylvania, B&O, Reading, and Short Line.
That “what’s a short line” question used to come up a lot back in the mid-1980’s and early 1990’s when I was editor of a short line newsletter (and later a short line monthly magazine) during the height of the Staggers Act-fueled line sale spin-off wave. The question comes up every once in a while at the office today as well–typically from a newcomer to the railroad industry, particularly a supplier.
For years, my off the cuff answer is that it’s a freight railroad operating less than 350 miles of track. Industry trade groups and regulators have more precise answers and tend to classify railroads by how many miles they operate or by revenues (see http://www.aslrra.org/about_aslrra/FAQs/)
In a presentation last fall, the president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association noted that there were more than 570 short lines, regionals or switching/terminal railroads. They operate about 50,000 miles of track and serve a total of 12,500 customers. They are often the first mile or last mile provider for shippers and receivers and connect communities, industries, agriculture, energy sources, transload facilities and ports to the North American main freight network.
Short lines, no matter of how you define them, are a dynamic, growing sector of the railroad industry and are an increasingly important factor in the national transportation network. But don’t just take my word for it. If you want to learn more about them, I have two events for you to put on your calendar. The first is the annual New England Rail Forum and Expo, set for March 27 in Worcester, Mass., put on by the New England Railroad Club. The event will focus on “The Year of the Short Lines” and features a keynote presentation by ASLRRA President Rich Timmons and a lifetime achievement award presentation to short line entrepreneur Maggie Silver of the Pinsly Railroad Co. The second event is the ASLRRA’s 2012 annual convention, April 21-24 in Indianapolis. That event is expected to draw more than 1,600 attendees and features presentations from a virtual Who’s Who of the railroad business, dozens of workshops and training sessions and an exhibit hall packed with about 200 booths from companies that provide products and services to the industry. I hope to see you there.
—By Kathy Keeney
Kathy Keeney is Publisher of the Rail Group at UBM Global Trade. The granddaughter of a railroader, she has been writing about railroads for more than 25 years. She is a past president of The League of Railway Industry Women, and served on the board of directors for the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
Another New Year
January 25th, 2012As I mentioned in my final blog of last year, I would be starting 2012 out with an extended rest period due to shoulder surgery on December 28. While I will admit there was some very needed recuperation going on (it’s kind of interesting when you are on Percoset and Oxycontin how you can tilt your head back, close your eyes, and next thing you know it is 90 minutes later), it really separated me from the railroad world for that time. So now that I have been back in the saddle for ten days or so, there are a couple of things that have already popped up as things to watch during the next year.
- 1. Conductor Certification - This one is the 900-pound gorilla on the operations side. The rulemaking and implementation have been on a very compressed schedule, and the FRA is going to be hard pressed to approve the certification plans of the railroads in a timely manner.
- 2. Section 45G tax credit - The current tax credit expired on 12/31/2010, and none of our efforts last year led to its renewal. What does that mean? We carry on with our efforts to have it retroactively renewed, which in the past have borne fruit.
- 3. The election - In case you haven’t heard, there is a Presidential election going on this year. Now I can’t tell you which will be more contentious, the Republican primaries or the actual election itself, but considering that this has been going on almost since the end of the last election cycle maybe we all need a break. One other thing to consider, and something generally overlooked in a Presidential election year: this is also a Congressional election year, and the entire House and a third of the Senate are also up for reelection. The more local races will most likely in the end prove more important to you than the White House.
- 4. PTC - Still there, is getting closer all the time. There was an interesting letter sent to the AAR and ASLRRA by the head of the NTSB expressing concern over the number and type of accidents recently caused by crews not following restricted speed rules. Watch out folks, keep it up and next thing you know PTC will be everywhere, signaled territory and not.
- 5. Narrowband Radios - This is the last time (for now) that I am going to mention this. On December 31, you better be changed over to narrowband. If not, my friends at the FCC might be having a word with you. Just do it.
And of course this year will have its share of meetings, with CSXT in March, RR Day on Capitol Hill later that same week, ASLRRA Connections 2012 in April (you’ll be hearing more about it in the coming weeks), CP in May, NS in July, and UP and BNSF in the fall with the ALSRRA Regionals. No matter how you slice it, 2012 will be interesting, to say the least.
—By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a child of the railroad industry. Following summers and vacations working on the track gang for the family-owned Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he started full-time in 1994. He has worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations, and currently is a member of the management team for the company as director of operations in Morristown, N.J. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR’s Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA’s board of directors.
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