WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a story around every corner at the Transportation Research Board conference.
Google is giving a presentation on self-driving cars, the University of Illinois has a seminar on concrete ties, and I just left a presentation given by a European researcher on how to optimize Chinese freight railroad operations based on customers' needs. There’s more than 1,000 separately planned meetings, sessions, or workshops packed in between Saturday and Wednesday for an estimated 10,000-plus participants.
So, there’s a lot of listening, questioning, and talking that I need to do to get the best stories for Trains readers. But here’s the skinny on what I’ve heard talked about in the past 24 hours:
Crude-by-rail: Seems like a dead topic now with traffic plummeting, but conference organizers devoted a long Sunday afternoon session to the topic, which included a reference to mandatory testing of a unit crude oil train with new DOT-117 cars that have yet to be built. The catch? Well, the minimum requirement for a crude oil train for research purposes in 70 cars, of which researchers expect to destroy about a dozen with every test. Yes, destroy. We’re talking about derailing and likely blowing up crude oil trains on purpose in the pursuit of science. I’m working to get front-row seats for when that test is announced.
Young people: There’s nothing new here. Old heads are retiring or dying faster than railroads can replace them. Someone mentions that at each freight rail session. And it doesn’t help that railroads are laying off engineers and conductors who would be young enough and possibly willing to go to college, even community college, to be better roadmasters, civil engineers, or maintenance chiefs with actual railroad knowledge.
Transforming transit: Well, sort of. There’s talk about what the Federal Transit Administration is going to do, now that it has direct oversight of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority. Until public outcry about a series of safety mishaps on WMATA’s Metro subway lines demanded FTA involvement, the transit agency was mostly in the business of handing out grants. Knowledgeable people here in Washington say that that is just a pilot program for expanding FTA safety oversight to other similar railroads such as Chicago’s CTA, Atlanta’s MARTA, and others.
On the flip side: One interpretation of the recently passed FAST Act transportation bill say that it takes away the Federal Railroad Administration’s authority to hold freight railroads accountable for implementing positive train control. That may be an oversimplification, but people who want to see PTC get installed are bothered.
Model mayhem: One Swiss researcher on Monday afternoon talked about a complicated computer model meant to optimize freight scheduling in Switzerland. Before life-size testing, the researcher said that the computer models resulted in a gigantic model railroad with the precise gradients and curves seen on the real-life freight network. They wanted to test their “models.” Yes, I’m trying to get a picture of that and see if they have an operating session.
On Tuesday: All freight rail eyes will be on the four-hour Friday afternoon session that includes presentations from Linda Darr, American Shortline and Regional Railroad Association President and Debra Miller, one of three members of the Surface Transportation Board. Yes, it is the same STB that will play a role in Canadian Pacific’s attempts to takeover Norfolk Southern.
What about passenger?: Malcolm Kenton, our D.C. transit contributor is here covering that for us, so I can focus on freight. Look for Malcolm to put up his own blog posts in the next several days. Let’s just say there’s electrifying talk in the air.
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