New INRD leader Gioe eyes more growth, more services at the regional
12/12/2024
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Joe Gioe had spent about 20 years at two Class Is rising through the ranks, including nearly 18 years at BNSF Railway Co. and almost two years at Norfolk Southern Railway. His last two positions at NS were vice president of performance excellence and VP of transportation.
For a long time, he thought he’d spend his entire career at Class Is. But not anymore. When an opportunity arose earlier this year at a regional railroad — and the top position to boot — he seized it.
In August, Gioe became the president and CEO of the Indiana Rail Road Co. (INRD). Founded by short-line industry legend Thomas Hoback in 1986, INRD operates 500 miles of track in Indiana and Illinois, including a line between Indianapolis and Newton, Illinois, and a route to Chicago.
The regional operates terminals in Indianapolis, Jasonville and Terre Haute, Indiana, and Palestine, Illinois, and offers intermodal, transloading, warehousing and other services.
“Indiana Rail Road is an iconic company with the best brand. I have admired the railroad from afar,” says Gioe.
Class Is had changed during the 2010s, trying harder to operate leaner and to do more with less. The constant struggles to accomplish objectives in shrinking organizations that weren’t always in synch made short-line railroading more attractive to Gioe.
“I knew that short lines were the ‘say yes’ to anything part of the industry, and I thought I’d love to do that,” he says.
Moreover, Gioe previously was involved in many aspects of a Class I — from operations to revenue design to network optimization to continuous improvements — but not in all of them. As INRD’s leader, he has his hands on everything, including pricing.
“This is an opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the railroad business,” says Gioe. “The regional/short line space is different. I can learn a lot and now fully manage [profit and loss].”
Gioe (at far right) tries to spend a lot of time in the field to gain a better rapport with employees and a better understanding of the regional’s advantages. Indiana Rail Road Co.One positive so far in his short INRD tenure is not having to spend a lot of time trying to solve lingering problems.
“My previous experience was coming to an organization that was in crisis mode, in turmoil and struggling. I would have to triage the operation,” says Gioe. “But INRD was running well, is well structured with good people, and has a great executive team.”
Instead of dealing with adversity, he is focusing on changing the trajectory at INRD and spurring growth because the regional’s business has flatlined just slightly.
“I challenged the executive team to answer what the railroad will look like in eight years, in perhaps 10 years. Then we developed an eight-year plan,” says Gioe. “We are betting on us.”
For example, INRD’s locomotive maintenance facility in Jasonville is a top-of-the-line shop, but is underutilized, he says. So, the exec team recently increased the facility’s staff and added a second shift, enabling the shop to operate 24/7.
“We have a number of smaller railroads and some regionals around us we can go after for business at the facility,” says Gioe. “Within a week of starting this, we got a contract with a regional partner of ours. This is getting back to our roots.”
INRD also has latent track capacity that can be used in a different way. To that end, Gioe and his team plan to offer excursion services, such as from Indianapolis to Bloomington, Illinois, in the fall. The regional used to offer a dinner train featuring wine tastings for about 15 years. Now, INRD could partner with Indiana University to provide passenger-rail services tied to its football program, says Gioe.
“We need to use the railroad to invite people to it and to partner with it. We can show why rail is important to a community’s long-term health and gain a different revenue source,” he says. “You don't only need to use the railroad to move freight from point A to point B — trucks and planes can do that, too. This gets back to what railroads meant to people back in the 19th Century.”
The railroad is trying to get the word out about opportunities it can exploit in industrial development, excursion services and contracted locomotive maintenance work, Gioe (at far left) says. Indiana Rail Road Co.In addition, INRD is increasing efforts to pursue more industrial development. Gioe and his team recently met with community leaders in Terre Haute to promote a project.
“We can see we are at the crossroads of America. We touch so many major cities,” he says. “We are investing in real estate in Terre Haute and want to get land zoned for warehousing and transloading. Terre Haute is our most northern point and the area has been booming.”
Another potential revenue- and traffic-growth generator: INRD’s Senate Avenue Terminal in Indianapolis. INRD and CN opened the terminal in 2013 to offer an international container service connecting Indianapolis to points in Asia and Europe. The service bypasses Chicago to avoid terminal congestion and costly drayage to or from facilities in central Indiana and the Ohio Valley.
“There’s really nothing like the terminal in the regional space. We want to double down on that,” says Gioe “Why can’t it be where loads become loads? We want to partner with steamship lines, CN, CSX and others to make it that, as a load comes in, another load goes out.”
INRD expects to increase capital expenditures above its 10-year run rate in 2025 and 2026 to advance certain projects, such as improving egress at the intermodal terminal.
As Gioe pushes forward with his objectives, he realizes he’s carrying the torch at INRD for former CEOs Tom Hoback, Peter Mills and Dewayne Swindall, who helped guide the regional to great success over the past 38 years.
“This railroad had been built up by some great leaders,” says Gioe. “They try to do right by customers, by partners and by regulators.”
