Prototype News

Farrukh Bezar and Railway Age Editor-In-Chief William C. Vantuono discuss the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk merger to create the first east-west transcontinental Class I railroad in the U.S. Bezar offers his views on market conditions and the regulatory environment, truck-to-rail conversion, rail-to-rail competition, and how the merger could impact the North American rail industry, among other topics of interest.

Farrukh Bezar has more than 30 years of consulting, investment and industry experience in the transportation, logistics, financial services and supply chain industries. His areas of expertise include strategic planning and growth strategy, operations improvement, sales effectiveness and mergers and acquisitions support. A Partner at Littlejohn & Company, an integrated private equity and special situations investor focused on industrial and services companies in North America, Bezar is a strategic advisor, board member and investor across the transportation and logistics sector. Bezar spent five years at CSX as Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President, Marketing. Launching his career as a Senior Analyst, Intermodal Marketing & Sales at the Santa Fe Railway, he has also held senior-level positions at The Clarendon Group, Oliver Wyman, A.T. Kearney and Booz Allen & Hamilton. He also was a Founding Partner of Miami-based Lynwood Capital Partners.

Farrukh Bezar is a featured speaker at the Railway Age “Next-Gen Freight Rail Conference” at the Union League Club of Chicago, March 10, 2026. Confirmed participants include Jim Vena (UP), Mark George (NS), Keith Creel (CPKC), Tracy Robinson (CN), Tom G. Williams (BNSF),Patrick Fuchs and Michelle Schultz (STB), and 2026 Railroader of the Year John Orr.

The post UP-NS Merger Perspectives, With Farrukh Bezar: RAIL GROUP ON AIR appeared first on Railway Age.

Once again, POTUS 47’s efforts at creating chaos have been trumped: Federal Judge Jeannette A. Vargas of the Southern District of New York late Friday, Feb. 6 blocked the Administration from freezing billions in funding for the $16 billion Hudson Tunnel Project (HTP), centerpiece of the Gateway Program, pending ongoing litigation. “Plaintiffs have adequately demonstrated that they would imminently suffer” irreparable harm, Judge Vargas wrote in her 11-page ruling, if the HTP was “forced to shut down its operations.”

“The Gateway Development Commission is pleased with the court’s decision today,” GDC said in a statement. “We thank our partners in New York and New Jersey for taking action to help us access the federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project. As soon as funds are released, we will work quickly to restart site operations and get our workers back on the job. The Gateway Program is the most urgent major infrastructure program in the country—a comprehensive set of rail investments that will improve commuter and intercity services, add needed resiliency, and create new capacity for the busiest section of the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The NEC is the most heavily used passenger rail line in the country, hosting more than 2,200 train movements and 800,000 passenger trips daily.”

HTP workers had been preparing for a pause of unpredictable duration. Under the direction of GDC CEO Tom Prendergast (Railway Age’s 2017 Railroader of the Year), they did not remove cranes and other equipment from the job sites just yet. “If the pause is going to be days and weeks, it could stay here,” Prendergast told The New York Times. “If it’s going to be months, that would be a different story.” Prendergast, a public transportation icon, especially in the New York Metropolitan area, had guided Phase 1 of MTA New York City Transit’s Second Avenue Subway to revenue service in 2016, among numerous other accomplishments in his decades-long career.

The GDC has been seeking release of HTP federal funding withheld since October 2025. POTUS 47 has said the project is “terminated,” though he and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have given conflicting public statements on its status.

That’s par for the course. POTUS 47, most of the time unhinged, spluttering nonsense and out of touch with reality, says and does what he wants. Administration officials must be exhausted continuously having to say, “Well, what the President really meant was … ” Eventually, when the air and energy have been sucked out of the room, one escapes to a more peaceful place, where breathing is easier and the dark clouds seem further away.

On Feb. 6, HTP construction halted at 5:00 p.m. EST, resulting in the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs—which thankfully proved temporary. In October, POTUS 47 and the USDOT began withholding federal funding payments for the HTP and Phase 2 of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Second Avenue Subway projects in October, stating that payment requests could not be processed during project reviews it had ordered. Such “reviews” have been based on USDOT’s nonsensical notion that it needed to investigate whether “any unconstitutional practices” are occurring within the projects after the agency ruled that “race and sex-based presumptions of social and economic disadvantage that violate the U.S. Constitution” should be removed from the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program, which is intended to favor small businesses when awarding contracts for federally funded projects.

How ridiculous is that?

US DOT officials had said that funding halt “would last until a review of the project’s contracts for compliance with new policies regarding diversity could be completed,” The New York Times reported. GDC Executive Vice President Catherine Rinaldi said the Commission had responded to all of the USDOT requests and that all of its contracts with DBEs had been “appropriately certified.”

Additionally, the GDC sued the USDOT for breach of contract in a federal court in Washington Feb. 2, contending that it was owed more than $200 million in expenses that had not been reimbursed. The States of New York and New Jersey filed a separate suit in federal court in Manhattan.

The White House has accused Democratic politicians of failing to negotiate with the POTUS 47 Administration to secure a “deal” (POTUS 47’s most frequently used word in his rather limited lexicon) for the project’s future. The Administration blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats for refusing to negotiate, and “alluding to their stances on immigration policies,” according to the New York Times.

On top of that, POTUS 47, displaying his usual extreme sense of entitlement and grandiosity, had approached Schumer offering to releasethe funds in exchange for Schumer supporting naming Penn Station New York after him as well as Dulles International Airport, to include changing its IAD designation to DJT.Schumer rebuffed POTUS 47.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) responded Feb. 5 on social media to POTUS 47’s proposed “my name in very, very big letters if you want your train money” offer. “These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers,” Gillibrand said on X. “I demand that the President put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his Administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain.”

The governors of New York and New Jersey expressed satisfaction at Judge Vargas’ ruling. “Today, a judge affirmed what we’ve said from the start: Our case against the [POTUS 47] Administration is likely to succeed, and [POTUS 47’s] attempt to rip away funding and derail the Gateway Project is likely to be found unlawful,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York.

Newly installed Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey agreed: “I am thrilled that the court has granted temporary relief, lifting the freeze of billions of dollars of federal funding for Gateway. [POTUS 47’s] arbitrary and politically motivated decision to freeze this funding is plainly illegal, and we will continue to pursue full relief so the nation’s most urgent transportation project can keep moving forward—and workers can keep putting food on the table.”

GDC’s lawsuit, in my humble opinion, rightfully and accurately argues that USDOT and GDC are legally bound by the terms of Capital Investment Grants (CIG), Federal-State Partnership (FSP) Grant and RAISE Grant agreements, as well as Railroad Rehabilitation and Investment Financing (RRIF) loans, since full HTP funding was secured in July 2024 during the Biden Administration. But of course, anything done during the Biden Administration to advance critical infrastructure projects was “a terrible disaster,” according to POTUS 47.

Yeah, OK …

Let’s get back to work. Give ’em hell, Tom and Cathy!

The post Judge Vargas to POTUS 47: You Will NOT Stop Gateway appeared first on Railway Age.

Theatre of the Absurd: Major media outlets have been reporting that POTUS 47 recently approached Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to offer releasing the funds for the now-halted Hudson Tunnel Project (centerpiece of the Gateway Program) in exchange for Schumer supporting naming Penn Station New York after him as well as Dulles International Airport, to include changing its IAD designation to DJT.

“The White House declined to comment, and Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment,” NBC News reported. “A source close to Schumer told NBC News that ‘there is nothing to trade.’ ‘The President stopped the funding, and he can restart the funding with a snap of his fingers,’ the source said.”

”It seems like blackmail to me,”  NJ Transit customer Brandon Ellis told The Gothamist after arriving at Penn Station.  ”If you want to appeal to a narcissist sure, go ahead … it’s a stupid thing to have to do to get funding that’s already been appropriated by Congress. Maybe they should do a cage fight about it. We can pit [Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and [POTUS 47] together. That sounds just as stupid as putting [the President’s] name on it.“

But wait! New York’s Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul seemed to come into POTUS 47’s sphere of mass delusion in April 2025. After the federal government took over the Penn Station redevelopment project last year, Hochul indicated she was open to renaming the station after [POTUS 47]. “If he puts $7 billion into it? Who knows,” she said.

Gulp! Thanks a lot, Kathy! NOT!

“POTUS 47 wasn’t in charge of selecting a design for the project two years ago,” Streetsblog writer Dave Colon opined in November. “Fast forward to 2025, and [Amtrak project head Andy] Byford has said that the President will have the final approval of the developer and its design of the project. Amtrak officials insist it’s standard practice for the President to review the project, but it’s easy to imagine would-be developers proposing extravagant and expensive touches to catch the eye of a man currently attaching gold filigree and a $300 million ballroom to the White House.”

The Hudson Tunnel Project funding was provided in a Biden era bipartisan infrastructure funding bill, and POTUS 47 had no authority to withhold the funding—or, of course, use it as a tool of extortion to add his name to yet other national treasures, like the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Aside from being afflicted with extreme cases of both ASPD and NPD,* what type of psychological needs does the President have that enable him to engage in such bizarre behavior?

Fortunately, POTUS 47’s agreeing that a Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger “sounds good to me” did not contain a demand to name the unified railroad after himself. Perhaps that‘s because several model trains have been produced with his name and/or likeness, and he has no desire to play with the 1:1 scale versions:

TACOs, anyone?

*ASPD (Antisocial Personality Disorder) is characterized by a profound lack of empathy, conscience and remorse, and a disregard for social norms and others’ safety. People with this condition frequently display manipulation, deceit, impulsivity, aggression and irresponsible behavior, often struggling to form genuine emotional connections. NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) is defined by a deep-seated pattern of grandiosity, constant need for admiration and a profound lack of empathy, often paired with entitlement and manipulative tendencies. It manifests as self-centeredness, exploitation of others, arrogance, and inability to handle criticism, frequently damaging personal relationships and work environments. In POTUS 47’s case, the damage he is inflicting is affecting not just the United States, but the entire world. But this too shall pass.

The post Want Your Funding? Name That Train Station After Me! appeared first on Railway Age.

Metro and KRC on Feb. 5 reported their “resolution of several ongoing contract disputes regarding, among other things, the [October] 2021 Blue Line derailment of a 7000-series railcar [No. 7200] that led to the entire 7000-series fleet [of 748 cars] being grounded.” A multi-party investigation, led by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and that included Metro and KRC, found that wheel migration in the 7000-series railcars contributed to the derailment.

Metro operates a 128-mile, 98-station rapid transit system that includes six lines, plus 125 bus routes throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Yonkers, N.Y.-based KRC is a U.S. subsidiary of Kawasaki Rail Car Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a Japanese company that is part of the Kawasaki Group led by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.

“Following the 2021 derailment, and with support from Metro and KRC, the NTSB investigated the root cause,” Metro and KRC said. “The NTSB investigation did not assign responsibility for the cause of wheel migration, and Metro and KRC both deny responsibility or contractual liability for the wheel migration and other technical issues that are now resolved as part of a global contract resolution. The agreement reflects a mutual desire to resolve these issues without litigation, while maintaining a strong and successful partnership for the 7000-series program.”

Metro General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke “thanked KRC leadership for their support during Metro’s return to service efforts,” according to the transit agency.

“Their technical expertise and ongoing support have been invaluable,” Clarke said. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with them to ensure our customers receive safe, frequent, and reliable service. We are happy to put this chapter behind us which will free up valuable resources for Metro to use for other capital and service projects.”

“As part of the global settlement to resolve wheel migration and other matters unrelated to the 2021 derailment, the parties agreed to reduce Metro’s remaining contractual payment obligations by up to $35 million, which will offset Metro’s costs to implement technical changes to the 7000-series railcars, address wheel migration mitigation and other unrelated efforts, and allow Metro to reallocate funding to other projects,” Metro and KRC reported. “In recognition of KRC’s strong contribution to the design, manufacture, and delivery of the 7000-series railcars, Metro also agreed to release contractual payments to KRC for successfully achieving reliability and maintainability testing benchmarks and to reduce the amount of KRC’s required performance bond.”

Clarke said: “We believe our commitment demonstrates our confidence in KRC as a partner to deliver vehicle reliability throughout the lifecycle of our 7000-series fleet.”

According to Metro, KRC President and Chief Operating Officer Yusuke Hirose “also praised the deal as a sign of the company’s longstanding support for Metro’s 7000-series program.”

Hirose said: “The state-of-the-art 7000-series railcar has been in service with Metro for over a decade demonstrating a high-level of reliability and safe operation that are essential for Metro to serve the riding public. KRC looks forward to continuing to provide Metro with the engineering expertise and technical support it needs to maximize the operational life of each 7000-series railcar.”

2026 marks 15 years since Metro awarded the contract to KRC to design, produce and deliver the 7000-series railcars. KRC has since delivered all 748 railcars.

“Based on the recommendations of engineering experts involved in the NTSB review, Metro developed a plan to press wheels on the 7000-Series fleet in-house at a higher standard,” Metro reported. “Metro and KRC disputed, among other issues, whether the original standard had been a design specification or was developed in response to a performance specification. The remediation effort has been under way at Metro since 2023 and is expected to be completed in second quarter 2026.”

Separately, Hitachi is assembling 256 8000-Series cars for WMATA under a $713 million contract awarded in March 2021 that includes a two-year warranty, parts, tools, training manuals and a cab simulator.

• WMSC Audits WMATA’s Railcar Program
• NTSB Releases WMATA 2021 Derailment Report
• WMATA Addressing ‘Pressing’ Problem
• Jurisdictional Jumble
• ‘WMATA is Treading Carefully’
• NTSB Issues Wheelset Safety Alert, Preliminary Report on WMATA Derailment
• WMATA taps Kawasaki for more 7000 series cars

The NCDOT’s Rail Division on Feb. 4 released a new study on restoring passenger rail service between Salisbury and Ashville that would reconnect the western mountain region to North Carolina’s existing intercity passenger rail network, NC By Train operated by Amtrak (see map, top); service was discontinued in 1975. The Western North Carolina Rail Corridor Economic Impact Report “shows how the corridor would create a critical connection between the Charlotte metropolitan area, the Piedmont Triad, the Research Triangle, and the Blue Ridge region,” according to NCDOT. “This would improve access for visitors, workers, and residents while supporting long-term economic growth.”

According to NCDOT, restoring service “responds to strong public demand as Asheville is the most requested destination not currently served by NC By Train.”

While the project is not currently funded, NCDOT said that over the course of its implementation, the corridor is estimated to generate an economic impact of 5,270 jobs per year, $360.5 million in employee earnings, $1.05 billion in economic output, and $33.6 million in state and local tax revenue.

Beyond construction, the report projects “lasting benefits for western North Carolina that extend statewide,” according to NCDOT. Service and operations on the route are estimated to support 200 sustained jobs, $23.4 million in annual employee earnings, $66.9 million in annual economic output, and $2.1 million in recurring state and local tax revenue.

• NCDOT Report Shows Rail’s Importance to Economy

The Scranton to New York Penn Station (NYP) Passenger Rail Corridor project continues to progress after receiving federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments, PennDOT reported Feb. 5.

The proposed project would re-establish intercity passenger rail service between Scranton, Pa., and New York Penn Station via New Jersey. “This restoration of passenger rail service has been a priority for local communities for decades,” reported PennDOT, which noted that it has also been the subject of numerous studies, including the 2021 Amtrak Connects US Corridor Vision Plan, and long-range transportation plans that show “growing demand” for intercity passenger rail service along a corridor that has heavy auto traffic and unpredictable travel times for commuters and other travelers. “The 140-mile corridor consists of 60 miles in Pennsylvania owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) and 80 miles in New Jersey, primarily owned and operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) with a 20-mile section corridor of missing track owned by New Jersey DOT … The proposed corridor would connect Scranton, Pa., and New York, N.Y., with intermediate stops at Stroudsburg and Mt. Pocono, Pa., and Blairstown, Dover, Montclair, Morristown, and Newark, N.J. The proposed corridor would provide new service (three daily round trips) on mostly existing alignment, plus abandoned track to be rebuilt.”

The project was selected in 2024 to be part of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Corridor ID program, which aims to develop formal planning studies and perform preliminary engineering for new intercity passenger rail corridors, as well as enhancements to existing passenger corridors nationwide.

With PennDOT as the lead agency and Amtrak as the proposed operator, the owners of the route—PNRRA, New Jersey DOT, NJT, and Amtrak—are all project partners in working to restore passenger service to the Scranton to New York Penn Station (NYP) Passenger Rail Corridor.

The FRA in 2025 approved PennDOT’s Service Development Plan (SDP) scope. Now PennDOT is developing the SDP, which includes:

• Stakeholder engagement with railroads, agencies, and the public.
• Service options analysis and transportation planning.
• Capital project identification, conceptualization, and cost estimating.
• Environmental analysis.
• Financial and implementation planning.

PennDOT on Feb. 19 will host an online public engagement meeting to present an overview of the Scranton to New York rail initiative, a summary of the route options, and locations for potential stations. Public comments can be provided during the meeting or through the project website.

According to PennDOT, the SDP scope’s $118,000 investment was fully funded by the Corridor ID program, and the development of the SDP—estimated at $5.46 million—will be 90% federally funded with PennDOT matching 10%.

After the SDP is completed and federally approved, the projects identified in the SDP will advance to preliminary engineering and environmental review in coordination with the FRA, according to PennDOT.

“Under Governor Josh Shapiro’s leadership, PennDOT is aggressively putting additional federal and state transportation investments to work for Pennsylvanians, whether it’s fixing our roads and bridges or restoring and improving passenger rail service,” PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said. “Advancing this project ensures we will leave no stone unturned as we grow the northeastern region’s economy and mobility. We are steadfast in our commitment to the public, business leaders, and many more who look forward to restoring this passenger rail connection.”

“Amtrak looks forward to supporting PennDOT and PNRRA as they advance the proposed Scranton to New York City route through the federal planning process,” Amtrak Vice President of Network Development Nicole Bucich said. “This is an important next step to better understand the costs and benefits of this new service and to serve new communities in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We are excited about the future of this, and other, new routes across America!”

“I commend the experience, financial support, and leadership of PennDOT in advancing this vital Amtrak Corridor after many years of acquiring and developing this crucial Transportation and Economic Development Corridor,” PNRRA President Larry Malski said.

The route from Scranton to New York City last served passenger trains in 1970 as part of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. According to PennDOT, the entire right-of-way is still intact, with the majority in active use by various public rail operators:

• Starting in Scranton, the 60-mile segment of the route in Pennsylvania and across the Delaware River is owned by PNRRA and currently used for freight rail service and Steamtown excursion trains between Scranton and Slateford. One mile of track south of Slateford Junction was previously removed and will need to be reconstructed.
• The Lackawanna Cutoff, a segment of the route between Slateford, Pa., and Port Morris, N.J., carried its last freight train in 1979 as part of the Conrail network and subsequently had its track removed. The portion of this segment in New Jersey is owned by the New Jersey DOT. NJT is actively reconstructing about seven miles of track at the east end to extend its commuter service from Port Morris to Andover, N.J. The other 20 miles from the Delaware River to Andover will need to be restored.
• From Port Morris, the route will run over existing NJT commuter lines to Kearny, N.J.
• At Kearny, the route connects to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor for the last eight miles into New York Penn Station.

• Amtrak, PNRAA Examine Scranton-New York Corridor
• Amtrak, Scranton to New York City?

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