From the Editor: On Ohio and priorities

By Pat Foran, Editor

Norfolk Southern Corp. began to implement its new resilience railroading strategy a few months before the railroad’s Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.  

One of resilient railroading’s aims involves getting better at managing the effects of a disruption. Like a derailment. 

That politicians continued as of press time to attempt to leverage the Ohio disaster isn’t surprising (it’s the Churchillian “Never let a crisis go to waste” thing), although some of the leveraging has been particularly deceitful.  

What’s been a little surprising — even in a sound bite, hot take, social-media-driven information dissemination world — has been the rhetorical posturing of people who know better. As our colleague, independent transportation analyst Tony Hatch, put it in a Feb. 22 email to his clients: “Other stakeholders should not use this opportunity for short-term gain while aiding long-term problems.” 

For as long as I’ve covered this industry (26 years), and, I’m sure, for a lot longer than that, every freight-transportation stakeholder — including management, labor, shippers, regulators and lawmakers in the rail realm — has said and said and said, at every public speaking opportunity and to anyone, anywhere, who’d listen: “Safety is our top priority.” 

If safety truly is their top priority, stakeholders need to check any disingenuousness they may be harboring at the door, and make sure — collectively — their priorities are in order. Or at least that the top one is. 

We’ll continue to follow the developments and stakeholders’ reactions to same — from the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation to the likely regulatory and/or legislative actions to come — via our Daily News at ProgressiveRailroading.com.  

We’ll also follow NS’ resiliency approach, wherever it leads. For in a broader sense and in the bigger picture, resiliency is an issue that currently applies to every link in the transport chain.   

In memoriam: Former KCS leader David Starling 

The industry lost a good friend when former Kansas City Southern President and CEO David Starling died late last month. He was 73. 

Starling began his rail career in 1971 with the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad. Subsequent career stops included American President Lines and the Panama Canal Railway Co.  

In July 2008, he joined KCS as president and COO. In May 2010, he was elected to the KCS board and named president and CEO three months later. He retired in 2016 and served on KCS’ board until May 2017. 

Starling also had been acting as trustee of the CP-KCS voting trust formed on Dec. 14, 2021, upon the closing of Canadian Pacific’s acquisition of KCS. 

In a 2019 interview, KCS President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer told me Starling was “the consummate ‘lead by example’ leader.”  

“Dave really brought operational excellence to a high level,” Ottensmeyer said. “I learned an awful lot from him — and not just about railroading.” 

 Colleagues past and present echoed Pat’s sentiments. I’m fortunate to have talked with David numerous times the past two dozen years. He’ll be missed.