Feed aggregator

INRD recently announced, via a LinkedIn post, the promotion of Dereck McClure to Director, Service Operations.

McClure has been a dedicated member of the INRD team for more than 13 years, and this new role, the company says, “expands his leadership in ensuring safe, reliable, and efficient daily operations across our network.”

The PANYNJ Board of Commissioners recently approved the nomination of Kathryn Garcia to serve as the agency’s next Executive Director, effective Monday, Feb. 9.

Garcia brings three decades of experience across government, most recently serving in the administration of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul as Director of State Operations and Infrastructure, where she oversaw major initiatives like the launch of New York City’s congestion pricing program, New York’s nuclear power moonshot, the Interstate 81 Viaduct project in Syracuse, N.Y., the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project, the Interborough Express, and the redevelopment of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Previously, Garcia served in senior roles in New York City government, including as Commissioner of the city Department of Sanitation, Interim Chair of the New York City Housing Authority, and as the city’s COVID-19 “food czar,” where she distributed 130 million meals to New Yorkers during the pandemic. As Executive Director, Garcia will lead day-to-day operations across the Port Authority’s air, rail, bridge, tunnel, and seaport operations and will deliver the recently approved 10-year Port Authority capital plan.

Garcia assumes the role of Executive Director following the retirement of Rick Cotton, who served in the role for 8.5 years. Under the leadership of Cotton and Chairman Kevin O’Toole, the agency says it has “delivered an agenda of institutional reform and historic renewal of the Port Authority’s core assets,” advancing major projects like the $50 billion transformation of the region’s three airports, including an entirely new LaGuardia, a rebuilt John F. Kennedy International Airport, the new Terminal A at Newark Liberty and a replacement for AirTrain Newark.

The agency’s Board of Commissioners also approved the nomination of Jean Roehrenbeck to serve as Deputy Executive Director. Roehrenbeck brings extensive experience in federal transportation policy government affairs. She most recently served as a Vice President at Summit Strategies, a national government affairs and strategic consulting firm. Previously, Roehrenbeck served at the USDOT under Secretary Pete Buttigieg, including as Acting Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs, where she led the department’s engagement with Congress and state and local governments and managed all governmental affairs operations. She served on the department’s senior leadership team during the rollout of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, helping advance major infrastructure initiatives nationwide. Earlier in her career, Roehrenbeck was Chief of Staff to then-U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As deputy Executive Director, Roehrenbeck will report directly to the Executive Director.

Bryan Jones, HNTB Mid-Atlantic Division President and Senior Vice President, has been appointed to the USDOT’s newly formed BTIC. Established by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, the Council, HNTB says, “will advise on policy and design strategies that elevate the aesthetic quality of the nation’s highways, bridges and transit systems.”

With more than 20 years of strategic transportation planning, policy development and infrastructure delivery experience, Jones has deep expertise in highways, bridges, mass transit and rail systems. He has guided major programs from early planning through full implementation, successfully navigating funding mechanisms and legislative requirements. 

Jones is a recognized national voice in transportation policy. He serves on the board and Leadership Council of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, chairs its Surface Transportation Reauthorization Council and sits on the board of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. He is also a member of the Economic Club of Washington and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.

“It’s an honor to join this Council and help shape infrastructure that delivers both beauty and function,” Jones said. “This initiative is an important opportunity to advance transportation solutions that are safer and reflective of the communities they serve. As transportation needs evolve, embracing thoughtful and innovative design approaches will be essential to improving reliability and enhancing the experience for every user.”

STV on Feb. 9 announced that Jerry Jannetti has joined the firm as President of its Transportation South Operating Group following the retirement of Jerry Stump, who will join the firm’s Advisory Board.

“This leadership transition is a move from strength to strength,” said STV CEO Greg Kelly. “Jerry Jannetti will further drive growth across this region, leveraging his strong client relationships and commitment to developing future leaders. As Jerry Stump joins our Advisory Board, we will continue to tap into his years of expertise and client relationships as we further position STV for growth.”

Jannetti brings more than four decades of experience delivering complex infrastructure programs and, most recently, led a $1.5 billion transportation and infrastructure business overseeing water, highways, bridges, transit, rail, aviation, mobility and ports programs. Throughout his career, he has guided some of the most significant transportation projects in the country, including major transit expansions, tunneling programs and public-private partnerships. In this role, he will “drive the growth of STV’s transportation business in the south region, focused on expanding into new geographies and offering the full suite of STV’s services to new and existing clients,” according to the company. Jannetti has held industry organization leadership positions in American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Maryland, ACEC National Planning, New York Building Congress Board, New York Regional Planning Council Board. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Stump adds his nearly 45 years of transportation and infrastructure experience to STV’s Advisory Board, which, the firm says, “includes some of the most highly respected industry leaders and infrastructure innovators in the country.” In this new role, he provides strategic advice and support to STV leaders across the company as they execute the firm’s Strategic Plan. Stump previously chaired both ACEC and the Design Professionals Coalition (DPC). He also chaired numerous industry organization committees, including ACEC Transportation Committee, the Government Advocacy Committee and the Planning Cabinet. He has testified before Congressional committees regarding infrastructure policy and chaired various efforts, including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)/ACEC Joint Committee, helping to set national priorities for federal infrastructure bills. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree in engineering management.

The post People News: INRD, PANYNJ, HNTB, STV appeared first on Railway Age.

The event is slated to bring together leaders from Class I railroads, government agencies, suppliers, universities, and global research organizations, and will allow students—the next generation of rail researchers and engineers—to gain “insight into the nation’s most advanced rail research initiatives”; engage with MxV Rail engineers, scientists, and technical experts; and get a “firsthand look at the critical work shaping the future of rail transportation,” according to MxV Rail, an AAR subsidiary.

MxV Rail on Feb. 9 reported that the Student Travel Grant Program will provide up to $1,500 in travel reimbursement, in addition to complimentary registration. It is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in ABET-accredited U.S. institutions.

Interested students should complete this online application form and submit the required materials (including a one- to two-page personal essay and one faculty recommendation letter) by March 6, 2026. Award notifications are expected by March 20, 2026.

According to MxV Rail, the new Student Travel Grant Program, formerly known as University Days, expands its “commitment to fostering academic engagement and supporting students in engineering and physical science disciplines,” as the AAR Research Review will showcase “emerging technologies, high-impact research, and the latest advancements in safety, testing, and innovation.”

“We are proud to invest in developing the next generation of rail innovators,” said Kari Gonzales, President and CEO of MxV Rail. “This travel grant program allows students to immerse themselves in research that directly impacts the safety, efficiency, and future of the North American rail network.”

The post Student Travel Grant Launched for 31st Annual AAR Research Review appeared first on Railway Age.

Wabtec Corporation has landed its third Class I locomotive order in roughly as many months; this time from CSX. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad on Feb. 9 reported signing a $670 million deal with Wabtec to provide 100 new Evolution Series units, to modernize 50 aging D9s by converting them from DC to AC traction, and to equip all of the locomotives with Trip Optimizer with Smart Horsepower per Ton, which is described as “an EPA-certified system intended to support fuel efficiency.”

Delivery of the new Evolution Series locomotives is expected to begin this year, with deliveries of the modernized locomotives starting in 2027.

According to CSX, the Evolution Series units will support its fleet “by improving fuel efficiency, tractive effort, and overall reliability,” as they are “designed to reduce fuel consumption while maintaining performance for long-haul and heavy-duty operations.” Additionally, the modernization of the D9s will “extend service life, improve fleet standardization, and enable the use of advanced control and diagnostic technologies, with expected improvements in fuel efficiency, tractive effort, and reliability,” it said.

“Our locomotive fleet is a fundamental element of our safe and reliable railroad,” CSX Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mike Cory said. “Modernizing these critical assets strengthens network performance and supports the level of service our customers depend on.”

“CSX’s fleet modernization initiative underscores its strong commitment to enhancing operational efficiency and delivering reliable customer service,” added Rogerio Mendonca, President, Freight Equipment at Wabtec. “Our unique partnership supports CSX’s strategic approach to long-term fleet planning. By combining new and modernized locomotives with our industry-proven digital solutions, we expect to continue supporting improvements in fuel performance, operational efficiency, and reliability across CSX’s rail operations.”

CSX in 2024 extended its AC4400 modernization program with Wabtec to give the remaining 200-plus locomotives in its 460-plus unit fleet improved fuel efficiency, reliability, utilization and tractive effort. The contract added to the 260 modernizations that CSX previously ordered. The railroad also selected Wabtec in 2021 to revitalize its yard fleet using the supplier’s Tier 4 switcher modernization program, which upgrades 40- to 50-year-old locomotives and Tier 0 non-emissions switchers to the Wabtec Tier 4 platform.

Separately, Union Pacific on Feb. 4 announced signing a $1.2 billion agreement with Wabtec in fourth-quarter 2025 for the modernization of UP AC4400 locomotives with deliveries expected to begin in 2027, and Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Norfolk Southern last month announced acquisitions of new Tier 4-compliant road units from Wabtec and Progress Rail.

The post For CSX, $670MM Power Upgrade Order appeared first on Railway Age.

This is the third in a five-part series about railroad growth coming from truck conversions. Given the Union Pacific’s proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern, UP’s Dec 19, 2025 merger application sent to the Surface Transportation Board predicts there will be more than two million trucks converted to rail from this new network within three years.

In Part 1, we established the five-year 26% Domestic Intermodal growth (conversion from truck to rail) goal has not been achieved during the past 15 years per IANA (Intermodal Association of North America). The same statement applies even more so to the applicants submitted three-year proposed timeframe.

In Part 2, we examined the Carload Watershed Market, which is roughly 150 miles west and 100 miles east of the Mississippi River Valley, where major East/West rail interchanges such as Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans are located. We established that the Watershed markets are underserved because of the financial return requirements of two separate railroads for short hauls into these dead zones. Yes, a single railroad can apply a single price equation and put in place more competitive rates than what exists today, but we will not see very much truck-to-rail conversion in three years? Ten years is possible, but it depends on the next best alternative.

Per the chart below from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Intermodal underwent two “growth” periods over the past 25 years, the first in 2001 to 2007 due to International Intermodal growth of almost 5% per year. After the housing crisis and resulting recession, Domestic Intermodal growth began in 2011 through 2018 with a little more than 3% growth per year. Note that overall Intermodal volume has been flat since 2018—zero growth Why? Service has been better since PSR (Precision Scheduled Railroading) was implemented, but with no growth. Is there something else at play?

That the merger applicants believe there are about two million potential convertible trucks to rail from this acquisition seems viable. The data sets can be bought to replicate the analysis. The question is, how much is realistically convertible in three years? Let’s focus on the 1.17 million trucks to convert to Domestic Intermodal. Looking at Intermodal maps of the UP and NS networks, what are the new Domestic Intermodal lanes being added? One in the application is the EP-AL (El Paso, Tex., to Birmingham, Ala.)—not a huge truck lane in terms of demand, but let’s use it as an example.

Once the transaction completes, rates and service need to be put in place. UP’s Santa Theresa Intermodal Terminal in New Mexico is a relatively new facility. Let’s assume it has lift, parking and gate capacity. I’m not as familiar with Birmingham, but let’s assume it also has lift, parking and gate capacity for the conversions. We need 53-foot containers and chassis at both locations. The IMCs (intermodal marketing companies) that own containers on UP (e.g. Hub Group, Schneider and Knight-Swift) and the rail container programs (let’s focus on EMP and ignore the UMAX/CSX question for now) should have some capacity—maybe 6-8% available, not 26%. New containers will need to be acquired.

Will there be adequate chassis in time for the new business? Like the containers, I have concerns. I don’t see an excess of 6% capacity on 53-foot chassis currently. UP sold off much of its chassis fleet to DCLI (Direct ChassisLink Leasing), so it will depend on how much additional capacity DCLI and/or the IMCs can get their hands on, if they’re willing to invest and buy new chassis. Chassis take time to build and are more expensive than containers. And recall, this is a UP+NS transaction; CSX and BNSF haven’t said they’re going to “get married” and therefore won’t be committing container, chassis or car capacity to UP+NS growth. 

Are there enough well cars in the fleet? Between TTX and BNSF, the largest domestic well car providers, there may be 5-7% available capacity. Cars will need to be acquired and built, and this takes a willingness to invest and time to build. Will BNSF buy cars so UP+NS can grow? Will TTX buy cars for UP+NS? BNSF’s and CSX’s ownership in TTX will have a say. A key element of PSR is maximizing utilization of resources, which is great in flat or down markets. But as history shows us, a lack of resources historically retards rail growth in bull markets. Will UP+NS and their IMCs bet on the future and have additional capacity to capture this growth on day 1? We should be skeptical based upon past experiences.

Having access to capacity when these new lanes are put in place is one element of the equation. An additional element is the sales process. More than 90% of domestic intermodal moves are wholesale moves where the railroad provides rail service to an IMC. That IMC provides the retail price and the door-to-door service, including the container, dray service, rail service and customer service to the shipper. The railroads are largely insulated from the freight payor and the overall door-to-door experience by the intermediary.

Why does this matter? The wholesale model puts a lot of price on the first- and last-mile execution, with which the railroads aren’t involved. There isn’t the same amount of “ownership” for service performance by the railroads as with truck, since there are multiple parties involved and priorities at terminals or handoff points aren’t always aligned. Think of ramp dwell. In addition, much of the truck conversion in the application like the EP-AL lane is short-haul freight that is “messier”: multiple stops, time sensitive, not balanced. It is difficult for customers who truck their freight today to convert to intermodal. It often means that they get a reduced-service product that is more complicated than “just trucking” it. This makes intermodal harder for the railroads to sell. Again, more complicated and not necessarily cheaper.

Converting truck freight to Intermodal isn’t easy. Of all the railroad growth methods, new conversions are the hardest. From experience, it’s far easier to grow with an existing Intermodal shipper who is growing (think Amazon) or “stealing” someone else’s Intermodal business with a better price or leverage in a large buy contract. For the large IMCs vs. smaller niche IMCs, size and scale often wins. Look at J.B. Hunt or Hub Group as examples.

In the existing intermodal network, there isn’t much freight left to grab outside of arbitrage opportunities if fuel prices surge or truck capacity unexpectedly tightens, as it did back in 2013. The main Intermodal lanes like Los Angles to Chicago are largely penetrated by rail in the 60%-70% range. Why not 100%? There are many reasons: Using rail often requires a regular steady volume pairing inbound with outbound to get the right economics. Irregular loads, rush loads, back haul pricing, triangulation, leverage from large truck carriers, diversification of modal portfolios are numerous reasons some portion of convertible freight never converts.

In addition, not all Intermodal lanes offer the same savings. The rail-competitive Intermodal lanes (Los Angeles-Chicago, Los Angeles-Dallas, Chicago-New York/New Jersey, Chicago-Atlanta) are largely penetrated because there is rail-to-rail competition. In Los Angeles-Chicago, BNSF and UP go head-to-head. Pricing and service in this lane are competitive. Shippers can save 20%-30% using rail vs. truck with good service. In Chicago-New York/New Jersey, a similar dynamic exists for CSX and NS. In single-served rail lanes like Laredo, Tex.-Chicago, where there is no BNSF rail competition to UP, the rail rates are 15%-50% higher than the equivalent rates in competitive lanes, making the resulting savings lower or even nonexistent vs. truck.

A desire for rail-to-rail competition is why ocean carriers pushed BNSF to open International Intermodal service from Los Angeles/Long Beach to Salt Lake City, historically a lane where UP only competed against trucks. BNSF entering this market is a great win for shippers in the Salt Lake City area. Rates will come down and service will improve. Container volume currently trucked from Los Angeles/Long Beach to Salt Lake City will convert to rail with service and rail rate competition—better rates, better service and less risk for the shipper than a sole-source provider. Competition will bring growth. More on this in Part 4.

The new proposed UP-NS lane from El Paso to Birmingham may have some freight to convert. How much will convert will be a function of service, rates and available capacity. If the asset capacity investments are made, will a single rail solution lead to 60%-70% conversion? Based on history, I say no. A 25%-35% conversion of the 1.17 million truckloads to Doestic Intermodal, 300,000 to 400,000 loads over five years, is more achievable. Again, this will ultimately depend on service, rates, asset capacity, and balance vs. the truck alternative.

We’ve had three years of stagnant truck rates while rail rates increased at above-inflation levels. The North American rail industry has not grown since 2017 and has consistently lost share to truck and other modes since 2018. Rail is a precious commodity, and the benefits of rail transportation cost savings, access to capacity, environmental benefits and better jobs) are without dispute. Generating new rail-to-rail competition is critical for this transaction to be beneficial. Join us in a few weeks for Part 4 as we peel back the veil on the benefits to shippers and the railroads to competition. Adding competition through reciprocal switching among the Class I’s, like in Canada with interswitching, could make this transaction a win-win for all parties.

Rob Russell, Managing Partner, Russell-Kroese Partners (RKP), is a seasoned transportation executive who operates fluidly from the boardroom to the shop floor. A certified six sigma black belt and a LEAN champion, Rob is a proven business leader who has a track record of strategy development, financial planning, business development, operations and performance management to accomplish an organization’s desired goals. RKP partners with railroads, ports, shippers and land developers on growth strategy, market development, competitive positioning and operational execution. They help clients translate complex transportation dynamics into clear, execution-ready business decisions.  You can learn more about RKP at www.russellkroese.com.

The post Part 3 of 5: Intermodal Conversion – It’s Not Easy appeared first on Railway Age.