Rail Group On Air

Rajani Modiyani, Lead Account Manager for the Global Rail Team at Cummins, discusses clean diesel options, emissions standards technologies and the company’s current hydrogen product offering, and the future of Cummins Rail with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. Modiyani, who joined Cummins in 2010 as a Systems Integration Engineer, supports OEMs and customers exploring hydrogen solutions as well as traditional diesel market opportunities. She has an Engineering degree from the Cummins College of Engineering in Pune, India; a Master’s of Science in Engineering from Purdue University; and an MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Podcast sponsored by Cummins.

Railway Track & Structures Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks with Eric Fields about the first lift of a new truss section at the Merchants Bridge site in St. Louis.

Everything you need to know about Precision Scheduled Railroading—how it got started, who started it and why, its promises and principles, and what it has become, for better or for worse—is here in this discussion featuring two of PSR’s “founding fathers,” Gil Lamphere and Henry Chidgey, who have more than 75 years of combined railroading experience. This in-depth session with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono isn’t a quick listen, but well worth the time. We think you’ll find it informative, educational and fascinating. Gil and Henry have seen and done it all.

Railway Track & Structures magazine Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks with Justin Meyer, who is vice president of Engineering for Canadian Pacific. Meyer was selected as RT&S's Engineer of the Year for 2021. Listen to how Meyer discovered his love for the railroad industry and how he managed some complex projects out in the field.

RT&S Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks to BNSF's Alan Bloomquist about the BNSF Bridge No. 66.4 over the Little White Salmon River project.

In this edition of Rail Group On Air, sponsored by ZTR, Business Development Manager – Rail Division Brodie McLellan and Railway IoT Program Manager Neil Shipley focus on the environmental and safety aspects of ZTR’s various technology offerings with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. They discuss engineering a sustainable future for the railway industry: the importance of clean technologies and how ZTR is helping to reduce locomotive idling and significantly cut down emissions, as well as the role digitization plays in enhancing railway safety, supporting higher training and skills standards, and improving efficiencies.

In Part 2 of the 2021 RT&S Top Projects, RT&S Editor-in-Chief Bill Wilson talks about the Mondo mud spring in California creating havoc with Union Pacific railroad tracks.

Two new rail ferries, the Maya and the Cherokee, will enter Gulf of Mexico service this year for CG Railway LLC (CGR), a joint venture of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. and SEACOR Holdings Inc. CGR, which transports 10,000 annual carloads of diversified commodities from Mobile, Ala., to Coatzacoalcos, Mexico, is replacing its existing two vessels with 590-foot-long ships that can each carry 135 railcars, up from 115 railcars on the existing ferries, with a top speed of 14 knots, up from seven knots. Currently, the trip across the Gulf takes about five days, or half the time required for the overland route. The vessels’ additional capacity and faster speed could potentially boost annual carload capacity by 40%. William C. Vantuono and Heather Ervin, Editors-in-Chief of Railway Age and Marine Log, respectively, talk with CGR President Hoffman Lijeron about the company’s operations and the new vessels.

Commuter Rail Coalition Vice Chair Mike Noland (South Shore Line) and Director of Government Affairs John Cline (Cline Strategic Consulting) discuss how the decidedly unsexy issue of excess liability insurance has become an existential threat to commuter railroads with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. They also share the innovative solution in need of bi-partisan support as it’s being shopped on Capitol Hill.

CN President and CEO JJ Ruest and Kansas City Southern President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer discuss the two railroads’ pending merger in detail with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. How confident are the two chief executives that the Surface Transportation Board will approve their jointly filed voting trust application? What will the capital investment and operating impacts be for KCS while the company is in trust? If the voting trust is not approved, what happens next? Would CN and KCS proceed with a merger application without one? KCS’s New Orleans-Baton Rouge line is the only stated overlap, which Ruest says will be divested if the merger is approved, and which was an anticipated condition of merging. Are CN and KCS anticipating any other conditions? And what, and where, are the most significant growth and service improvement opportunities for the combined railroad? Podcast sponsored by The Greenbrier Companies, Virtual Sample Railcar™.