Railroad News

4/13/2017    

Rail News: Intermodal

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Rail News Home Short Lines & Regionals April 2017 Rail News: Short Lines & Regionals

Tradepoint Rail interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.Photo – Tradepoint Atlantic By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorTradepoint Atlantic had a few major announcements to share earlier this month regarding the firm’s ongoing efforts to develop a 3,100-acre logistics center on a former steel mill site near the Port of Baltimore.On April 6, company officials said they signed a 10-year contract with Host Terminals to oversee marine cargo operations, landed a collective bargaining agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers’ Local 37 covering bulk and breakbulk cargo workers, and had $30 million available for infrastructure improvements at the site.The news bodes well for a mission Tradepoint Atlantic began in 2014: to combine access to Class Is, deepwater berths, interstate highways, warehouses and distribution centers to establish the nation’s largest intermodal redevelopment complex. More than 40 percent of the U.S. population and more than half of Canada’s population live within a day’s drive of the site.The logistics center would encompass an area that at one time housed plants operated by the Pennsylvania Steel and Bethlehem Steel companies dating back to 1889, but had gone dormant in 2012. It also would be the first center of its kind in the United States to bring bulk cargo operations inland, Tradepoint Atlantic officials claim.It might take them as long as a decade to fully develop the center, but Tradepoint Atlantic leaders are counting on the rail aspect of their plan to play a major role. In November 2016, the company formed and branded Tradepoint Rail, a short line that manages and operates more than 100 miles of track at the logistics center, and interchanges with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway. The railroad evolved from two former short lines that operated at the site for nearly a century: the Patapsco and Back Rivers Railroad, and the Baltimore Industrial Railroad.The master plan for the intermodal redevelopment project includes a future container terminal (shown in lower lefthand portion of the map). (Click to view larger.)Source: Tradepoint Atlantic

4/13/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

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Rail News Home Short Lines & Regionals April 2017 Rail News: Short Lines & Regionals

The transformation of the New Jersey hub from a hump to a flat yard included the installation of electric, remote-control switch machines (as shown in foreground).Photo – Conrail By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Managing EditorTake a tour of Conrail’s Pavonia Yard and to the naked eye, there isn’t much that appears different compared with other switching yards. But there are certain aspects — some not-that-noticeable yet noteworthy ones — that separate the Camden, N.J., facility from the rest.Pavonia is the only flat switching yard in North America that employs true one-person remote-control operations, without any assistance from utility field personnel, Conrail leaders claim. Moreover, the 1.5-mile-long facility is the only yard that employs wireless GPS devices to monitor all static and mobile assets in real time, they say.Just five years ago, there wasn’t anything unique about Pavonia, which at the time operated as a hump yard. Built in 1883 by the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Camden & Amboy Railroad, Pavonia since has undergone a transformation into a highly automated flat switching facility that employs a host of technologies, with the aim of enhancing efficiency and boosting safety.The metamorphosis included a thorough physical redesign of the traditional electro-pneumatic gravity hump and re-engineering of the yard’s processes. Now, with the project nearly complete, Pavonia operates with significantly higher productivity, lower safety risks and fewer assets, and meets service requirements with less variability, says longtime Conrail leader Ron Batory.“We realized we would not see more volume growth at the yard with single-car switching,” says Batory, who retired March 31 as the railroad’s president and chief executive officer. “So, we began to look at one-man crew operations and what we needed to do to get rid of the hump.”Prior to launching the $5.3 million makeover project in 2012, Conrail officials also started to explore the possibilities of leveraging the railroad’s information technology (IT) systems. A service-provider subsidiary of CSX and Norfolk Southern Corp., Conrail since the late 1990s has developed and employed IT systems that operate independently from the Class Is’ IT systems.Conductor Rich Haynes switches cars at Pavonia Yard as a one-person crew using a remote-control locomotive device, and control systems and TV monitors housed in a nearby kiosk.

4/12/2017    

Rail News: Safety

4/12/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

4/12/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

4/12/2017    

Rail News: Canadian Pacific

4/12/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail

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Rail News: Amtrak

4/12/2017    

Rail News: Canadian National Railway - CN

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Rail News: Short Lines & Regionals

Rail News Home Security April 2017 Rail News: Security

More than 100 people attended this year's Secure Rail Conference.Photo – Secure Rail's Twitter account By This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.At Progressive Railroading's third annual Secure Rail Conference, held April 5-6 in Orlando, Fla., attendees listened to 20 presentations on topics that addressed how railroads can improve the security of assets, passengers and employees.Starting with the event's first session, it became clear that cybersecurity risks and threats would be a primary topic addressed this year. The day opened with a panel discussion of "Railroad Cyber Risk Management," featuring speakers Nick Chodorow, chief information officer of the Belt Railway Co. of Chicago; J. Alex Lang, CIO at Carload Express Inc.; and Biff Myre, director, solutions, at OnX Managed Services Inc. Ron Schlecht, managing partner of BTB Security, served as moderator. Good morning from Orlando! We're just about ready to kick off our @SecureRail Conference. Stay tuned for live updates throughout the day. pic.twitter.com/T2UDKcZ7gI — Progressive Railroad (@rail_pro_mag) April 5, 2017The conversation began with Schlecht's observation that the application of cyber technology has spread quickly through the rail industry. Although physical vulnerabilities to rail systems remain, the greatest security risk to the industry right now may be found online rather than onboard.The industry's installation of positive train control (PTC) has led to "massive projects" to upgrade technology, Schlecht noted. The Belt Railway's entire IT footprint has expanded exponentially since the railroad began installing PTC technology along its 28 miles of mainline track in Chicago, Chodorow said."Now everything is IT connected," Chodorow said. "My team doesn't understand what that entirely means to be an IT-based network, so we're bringing in vendors to help us understand where our [security] vulnerabilities are and where someone might be able to get into our network. Those are things my peers would not have thought about in the past. They would have thought about things like, 'What happens if someone steals copper?' For me, I'm thinking, 'What if they get into our wireless network?' With that comes a lot of other risks."Myre advised that railroads eager to use Internet of Things (IoT) principles to drive efficiencies also pay close attention to protecting their data, not just how to use it."Also, if you're dealing with a lot of industrial manufacturers, you have to ask yourself how much have they been thinking about the security of their products," he said. "Build trusted networks and [use] password protection. Otherwise, you will have to rely on every manufacturer doing it right and you need to assume it is not being done right."Carload Express' Lang gave the short-line's perspective on cybersecurity concerns."For a lot of us, technology is still fairly new," said Lang. "We're crusty operations people used to doing things a certain way. The biggest cybersecurity threat for us is still the fairly broad malware and cyber attacks that take encrypted data and hold it for ransom."Railroads should have a management response prepared for a potential data breach, Myre said."You have to assume that someone will get into your [data], and how you will detect it and mitigate it," he added.Day 1 morning sessionsOther morning sessions presented during Day 1 of the conference included Jeff Watts, director of cybersecurity at RPI Group Inc., who addressed how to apply Department of Defense risk management and asset experience to the transportation sector; and Scott Carns, vice president-operations at Duos Technologies Inc., who discussed the use of multisensor technologies such as LIDAR and video analytics for detecting track safety and security at transit agencies.The morning wrapped up with a presentation by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inspectors Hans Hayes, Edison Velez and Ed Malinowicz, who described the purpose of the TSA Office of Security Surface Outreach, which offers railroads and transit agencies programs such as a voluntary "Baseline Assessment for Security Enhancements" (BASE). Using the assessment, the TSA will conduct a comprehensive review of an agency's overall security posture, then offer a report on how it compares with others in the industry.During the conference lunch breaks, attendees were free to visit and network in the Product Showcase Room, which featured new products, services and technologies from Strukton Rail North America Inc., Railhead Corp., Safety Vision, Frauscher Sensor Technology USA Inc., Parsons, DPS Telecom, RPI Group, BTB Security, Pacific Star Communications Inc. (PacStar) and Rockwell Collins Inc. Pausing for lunch in the exhibitors' room. #SecureRail17 pic.twitter.com/jBJWsMAHYx — Progressive Railroad (@rail_pro_mag) April 5, 2017After lunch, attendees returned to hear from Pamela McCombe, technical manager of transit and rail systems at WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff, who works with SunRail. McCombe talked about the process of assessing security risks at transit agencies, and noted that each agency may have a different view of what level of risk is acceptable."Some may find certain circumstances acceptable and some do not," she said. "Risk management is identifying threats and vulnerabilities and then prioritizing the allocation of resources."Security solutions for freight, passenger railroadsLater that afternoon, sessions featured Jim Lubcke, manager of systems solutions integration at CSX, and Steve Bowen, senior commercial business development manager at PacStar, who discussed the case study of a new, small form factor deployable network monitoring and analysis solution used to analyze CSX's wayside PTC network; and Northeast Logistics Systems LLC President Richard Flynn, who talked about the state of rail security post-9/11.Lubcke, Bowen and Flynn were followed by Steven Polunsky, a research scientist at Texas A&M Transportation Institute, who described a study of the homeland security implications of the proposed bullet train operation between Dallas and Houston. "If you don't have a plan to manage risk, you end up with chaos," says @CanadianPacific's Laird Pitz. #SecureRail17 pic.twitter.com/qoWQR4fRMw — Progressive Railroad (@rail_pro_mag) April 5, 2017Also speaking that afternoon were Canadian Pacific Vice President and Chief Risk Officer Laird Pitz, who offered his perspective on the importance of having a corporate strategy for managing risk; and Wi-Tronix President Larry Jordan, who discussed the concept of file-less data and asset security systems of the future.Metra Police Department Paul Riggio closed Day 1 by describing a critical response training program that his department created for Metra engineers and conductors. The program addressed how the railroad's staff should respond to an active shooter situation.Another full day of sessionsDay 2 began with DPS Telecom's Marketing Director Andrew Erickson, who described ways to remotely monitor and control mission-critical trackside and telecom facilities. He was followed by Immanuel Triea's presentation on how to leverage internal control and audits to address cyber threats and risks. Triea is senior director of information security at Gannett Fleming Inc.Next was Jim McKenney, who last week moved to a new position with NCC Group's transportation practice after spending the past two years as a solutions architect at CSX. McKenney's session, titled “How to Hack a Train Safely,” explored how to pick a methodology for cybersecurity testing, as well as how to share the results with a railroad's executive leadership team and the rank and file.Ellen Linnenkamp, managing director of Strukton Rail North America, and Lex van der Poel, director at Dual Inventive, followed with their presentation on transit-rail security. They traveled from the Netherlands to give a session on how remote-controlled shunts, monitoring systems, predictive algorithms and a secured cloud system have been used to secure Amsterdam Central Station. .@UMassLowell's Gary Gordon and @PSUHarrisburg's Richard Young assess risks for maritime-to-rail intermodal service #SecureRail17 pic.twitter.com/cGQyaO1dQ6 — Progressive Railroad (@rail_pro_mag) April 6, 2017The remaining sessions featured:
• Nick Percoco, chief information security officer at Uptake, who spoke on the importance of building a security system that protects a railroad's specific needs, rather than adapting to a system that was designed for another organization;
• Gary Gordon, adjunct faculty member in security studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Richard Young, professor of supply chain management at The Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, who co-presented on identifying the risk factors involved with ocean containers arriving at U.S. ports, then how to develop a strategy for addressing those risks as part of intermodal service;
• Mark Kraeling, product architect at GE Transportation, who discussed security fundamentals and methods that can be applied to locomotives;
• CheeYee Tang, electronics engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST), who described the cybersecurity testbed that NIST is developing for rail transportation systems; and
• Stewart Skomra, president and chief technology officer of TeMeDa LLC, who addressed the importance of IoT in the rail and intermodal transportation corridor, as well as establishing and maintaining trust as part of doing business in those realms. .@GETRANSPORT's Mark Kraeling talks onboard locomotive security. #SecureRail17 pic.twitter.com/KVHzd07hZK — Progressive Railroad (@rail_pro_mag) April 6, 2017The 2017 Secure Rail Conference wrapped up with Progressive Railroading Publisher Kirk Bastyr thanking the event's sponsors: Parsons and RPI Group (platinum); Frauscher Sensor Technology, Railhead Corp. and Safety Vision (gold); and BTB Security, DPS Telecom, PacStar, Rockwell Collins and Strukton North America (silver).Secure Rail 2017
Keywords Browse articles on Secure Rail Secure Rail Conference cybersecurity Nick Chodorow Alex Lang Carload Express Inc. BTB Security positive train control PTC Internet of Things IoT Transportation Security Administration Pamela McCombe CSX Laird Pitz Canadian Pacific Parsons RPI Group Frauscher Sensor Technology Railhead Corp. Safety Vision DPS Telecom PacStar Rockwell Collins Strukton North America Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff.

Rail News Home Rail Industry Trends April 2017 Rail News: Rail Industry Trends

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It's early March as I write this and we are — hopefully — exiting winter. We've already entered the spring conference season. And a good thing, too, because now that Warren Buffett Inc. has reported, we have a full set of rail earnings to make comparisons and see what, if any, key questions have been answered. Of course, we know that Warren et al. have been busy, given the Kraft Heinz Co.-Unilever Plc merger attempt. For rail intermodal, Unilever is an enlightened example of a great customer, so maybe gains at Warren's rail subsidiary BNSF Railway Co. will ease the Oracle’s pain.Railroads' 2017 previews still have validity, of course, but recent Class I management teams' comments at a few investor conferences were more positive than the cautious ones we heard in late January. Perhaps it’s the early thaw. But the rails experienced a solid end to 2016. Will we see volume and earnings improvements this year?Class I earnings in fourth-quarter 2016 essentially were in line with Street expectations. The final score was 4 wins, 3 (slight) losses, plus BNSF owner Berkshire Hathaway. That the railroads performed better than their truckload partners/competitors (they were down 30 percent) and worse than their intermodal marketing company partners is of some consequence when considering the future.The improvement in volumes over the course of Q4 continued into January: up 4.3 percent, according to Intermodal Association of North America data.During the earnings conferences, the top four critical issues I highlighted in my Q4 preview all were addressed, to varying degrees:• Strategic planning, in light of the secular mix changes and coming technological challenges, was not fully addressed ... although one could argue that the news out of CSX Corp. and related to CSX — the headcount reductions/changed leadership/probable future changes in top leadership — constitute an ongoing strategic discussion and one that, in due course, will bring accelerated change discussions to Norfolk Southern Corp.• Pricing appears to have troughed in the fall and will pretty clearly be above the rail inflation bar again in 2017 (+2 percent to +2.5 percent). And it'll accelerate over the course of the year to about a +3 percent run rate by Q4. Union Pacific Railroad did keep its promise and gave a fuller explanation of its pricing in terms of results, strategy and competitive response, while BNSF’s results didn’t show significant recent share changes in the West.• Capex will be down in 2017, and a tad more than I expected. All Class I carriers except Canadian Pacific (!) and (in the core) CSX will show varying degrees of reduction and will be in the 16 percent to 17 percent of revenues range — save for UP, which is slightly and inexplicably targeting around 15 percent. Interestingly, share buybacks have passed their peak usage, it seems. After bucking the capex trend for the entire 21st century, could railroads succumb to short-termism and re-direct cash to shareholders just as the rest of the corporate world moves in the opposite direction? I don’t think so, but it does bear watching.• Visibility and sentiment (given the coal stabilization): After an initial consensus guidance of “cautious optimism” that was more cautious than optimistic, the outlook over the course of the winter has clearly improved along with freight volumes — notably, the return to growth of intermodal. But direction and targets remain unaggressive.Tony Hatch is an independent transportation analyst and consultant, and a program consultant for Progressive Railroading’s RailTrends® conference. Email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Keywords Browse articles on Tony Hatch Warren Buffett intermodal BNSF CSX Norfolk Southern Union Pacific Canadian Pacific Contact Progressive Railroading editorial staff.

4/11/2017    

Rail News: Supplier Spotlight

4/11/2017    

Rail News: Passenger Rail