Rail Group On Air

This podcast, taken from Railway Age’s 2025 Rail Insights Conference, features Kate Suprenuk, President of Leasing and Manufacturing, Union Tank Car Company & Procor | Marmon, in conversation with David Nahass, President, Railroad Financial Corp. and Financial Editor, Railway Age. Conference sponsored by BNSF Railway, The Greenbrier Companies, Amsted Rail, Loram, Trinity Rail and Union Pacific.

Without volume and market share growth, the Class I’s may be at risk—or be forced to look at merging. Investors continue to await the next leg of Class I railroad earnings growth. While margin gains from current levels are expected, PSR (Precision Scheduled Railroading) is no longer the investor story it once was, and the railroads must prove they can grow to maintain their premium multiples. In this wide-ranging conversation with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono, Wall Street Contributing Editor Jason Seidl, Managing Director at TD Cowen, explores the factors that can drive railroad market share growth, including high-quality, consistently reliable service; ease of doing business; industrial development projects; regulatory relief allowing technological advancement; and potential mergers producing a U.S. transcontinental network. While the track record for industry volume growth has been questionable, Seidl views the growth levers “as largely in railroad control.”

Drawn from our 2025 Rail Insights conference, this edition of Railway Age’s podcast series features Surface Transportation Board Chair Patrick Fuchs in conversation with Editor-in Chief William C. Vantuono. Now in his second five-year term expiring Jan. 14, 2029, Fuchs was first Senate-confirmed in 2019. Fuchs earned second-term support from dozens of rail shipper groups who citied his expertise and offered depictions as “calm,” “transparent” and “seriously thoughtful.” Railroads, which rarely take positions on pending nominations, acknowledged support. In his six years at the STB, Fuchs’ “just the facts” approach has had him siding with railroads and shippers. As examples, his railroad-favorable dissent rejecting an STB-initiated Final Offer Rate Review was cited by an appellate court, while he issued a partial dissent to side with shippers in a recent high-value tank car case. Sponsored by BNSF Railway, The Greenbrier Companies, Amsted Rail, Loram, Trinity Rail and Union Pacific.

Railway Age’s 2025 Railroader of the Year is CSX President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Hinrichs, who joined the railroad industry in September 2022 and in a little more than two years has made immediate and long-term positive impacts. His collaborative approach to labor relations—for example, CSX being the first Class I to offer paid sick leave and forge preliminary agreements with its unions prior to the start of national bargaining—has gone a long way toward transforming the dynamic between management and rail labor from adversarial distrust to engaged problem-solving. Hinrichs firmly believes that for CSX to fully realize its growth potential, labor and management must function as one team, with mutual respect and trust. He knows that change is difficult, but he also knows it’s necessary. And as a long-time railroad customer in his prior role as President of Ford Motor Company, he knows the importance of providing good service. CSX’s overall excellent performance is a testament to that. Joe Hinrichs—only the third CSX executive to be named Railroader of the Year (he was preceded by Michael Ward in 2009 and Hays Watkins in 1984)—will be presented with the award at the traditional dinner hosted by the Western Railway Club at the Union League Club of Chicago on March 11, 2025. He sat down with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono at CSX’s Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters for this interview.

In 2021, the U.S. Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Transportation Research Board (TRB) “to conduct a study on the operation of freight trains that are longer than 7,500 feet.” Railway Age reported on the 105-page study, “Long Freight Trains: Ensuring Safe Operations, Mitigating Adverse Impacts – TRB Special Report 353.” Sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration, the TRB convened a 12-member committee “with experience in freight and passenger railroad operations, state rail transportation, national rail safety oversight, and freight and passenger rail research” that met 16 times (six in person) to examine impacts of long trains and invited presentations from individuals and organizations. Meetings focused on railroad technology and highway-rail grade crossings. This Rail Group On Air podcast features six of those members and TRB Senior Program Officer and Study Director, Consensus and Advisory Studies David O. Willauer, who coordinated their participation: • Debra L. Miller (Chair), Former Secretary, Kansas Department of Transportation and former Surface Transportation Board Vice Chair. • Gary F. Knudsen, Locomotive Engineer, BNSF Railway (retired). • Allan Rutter, Freight Analysis Program Manager, Texas A&M Transportation Institute and former Federal Railroad Administrator. • Dr. John M. Samuels (National Academy of Engineering), President, Revenue Variable Engineering and retired Senior Vice President Operations Planning and Budget, Norfolk Southern. • Peter F. Swan, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University. • Paul E. Vilter, Assistant Vice President Planning, Commercial Services, and Sustainability, Amtrak (retired).

The Indiana Rail Road (INRD) named Joe Gioe President and CEO in mid-August 2024. A career railroader with 20 years of industry experience, he has held leadership positions at two Class I railroads, with most of his tenure at BNSF, where he was twice named Employee of the Year for intermodal train execution and delivery of major infrastructure projects in Transportation and Service Design. He also served as Assistant Vice President Network Optimization and Vice President Transportation at Norfolk Southern. A third-generation railroader whose family roots go back to the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Conrail, Gioe began his career as a conductor, locomotive engineer and front-line supervisor in 2005 and rose through management roles of increasing responsibility. Gioe joins Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono in a wide-ranging discussion on customer service, efficiency, safety, traffic growth and employee development at INRD.

Speaking with IRJ Editor-in-Chief Kevin Smith on this episode is Martin Howell, Transport Markets Director for the UK and Ireland at Worldline, a payment service provider, which also operates a number of operational systems for the railway in Britain. The discussion focuses on possible changes to ticketing in Britain and what Worldline is hoping to see from the new Labour government as it sets about reforming the country’s railway sector. Sponsored by Worldline. (Introductory music: “Tired Traveler on the Way to Home” by Andrew Codeman – CC BY 3.0)

New Jersey Transit President and CEO and Northeast Corridor (NEC) Commission Co-Chair Kevin Corbett and Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono discuss key issues involved with the 453-mile Washington D.C.-New York-Boston NEC, the nation’s busiest passenger rail system. The NEC—its main line and connecting corridors to Harrisburg, Pa.; Spuyten Duyvil, N.Y.; and Springfield, Mass.—support more than 800,000 daily trips on eight regional/commuter railroads and Amtrak’s intercity services. These services, of which NJ Transit is by far the largest provider, connect eight states and the District of Columbia on infrastructure segments with four different owners. The Northeast Corridor Commission convenes the NEC’s key stakeholders in state government, commuter agencies, the federal government and Amtrak. Given the huge SOGR (state of good repair) backlog on the NEC, what are the most pressing issues to be addressed? How does the Commission respond to critics who say that new, multi-billion-dollar capital projects like the Gateway Program should have been deferred and the money invested in SOGR projects? How can investment be balanced? The federal government has been investing billions in the NEC in recent years. Should the NEC states, and the public transportation agencies that are the primary users, have a larger cost share? Corbett addresses these questions and more in this edition of Rail Group On Air.

In its inaugural podcast, we hear from Walter Kastinger, head of sales at Linsinger’s mobile rail milling division. Kastinger presents the rail milling solutions that visitors to this year’s InnoTrans can expect to see at Linsinger’s exhibit at the outside display area. This includes a new rail milling train called Railmaster®; a new innovative rail surface treatment technology, Linsinger Smart Surface Technology; and a further development of Linsinger’s proven rail measurement technology.

Norfolk Southern Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer joined Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono at the 2024 Rail Insights Conference for this discussion on the changes that have been under way at the Class I railroad. Much has been accomplished, and much more work needs to be done.