Greene assumes top post for Paducah & Louisville parent
2/3/2023
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
On Jan. 1, P&L Transportation Inc. installed just its third leader since 1988, but second in the past year.
Longtime Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tom Greene assumed the holding company’s reins as chairman, president and CEO.
He succeeds Tom Garrett, who led P&L for just a year. Prior to that, Tony Reck guided the firm for 36 years.
P&L owns and operates the Paducah & Louisville Railway Inc., Appalachian and Ohio Railroad, Evansville Western Railway Inc. and two intermodal terminals. Greene, 64, joined the company in 1995 as vice president and CFO, and soon afterward assumed responsibility for operations as COO.
He was assigned to the company by CSX, which along with Paducah & Louisville officers owns P&L Transportation. Prior to joining P&L, Greene held numerous finance and operations support positions at the Class I.
Coal business — which generates the majority of P&L’s annual traffic and revenue — is projected to increase 10% this year. P&L Transportation Inc. “I was only supposed to only be [at P&L] for two or three years,” says Greene. “Tony Reck wanted me to stay beyond that and take on operations in addition to finance, and my stay progressed from there.”
Greene didn’t expect that tenure to reach 27 years and counting, and he didn’t anticipate a stint as P&L’s leader. But since both Reck and Garrett retired at 2022’s end — completing 53-year and 35-year stints at P&L, respectively — the company’s board turned to Greene because of his long tenure and extensive experience as an officer at P&L.
Board members also noted how he has become a seasoned railroad veteran with more than 40 years of experience in Class I and small railroad environments, including regional and short-line startups.
Now, Greene plans to rely heavily on his skills and what he culled from Reck and Garrett while working with them for decades.
Reck was VP of sales and marketing prior to becoming P&L’s president and CEO in 1988, and Garrett was the company’s longtime general counsel before becoming president in 2010 and CEO in 2022.
“Tom is an attorney and was on the legal side, and Tony has an incredible operations mind and is a shrewd sales and marketing type. All of that has been instilled in me,” says Greene. “I'm now 60% a lawyer, even though I’ve never wanted to be an attorney.”
He began his railroad career in 1977 while attending Ferris State University, sailing Lake Michigan on Chessie System car ferries from his hometown of Ludington, Michigan, to ports in Michigan and Wisconsin. He graduated with a degree in accounting and finance.
While serving CSX for 18 years, Greene gained exposure to who he characterizes as two of the Class I’s great leaders: Hays Watkins and Pete Carpenter. CSX’s leader from 1971 to 1991, Watkins died last year at the age of 96. President and CEO from 1992 to 1999, Carpenter died in 2019 at age 77.
P&L’s three railroads also transport chemicals, petroleum products, crushed stone, clay, vehicle frames, iron, steel, grain and feed. P&L Transportation Inc. “I learned that the metrics of a large railroad are so different than those at a short line,” says Greene. “Even though I’ve been involved in finance and operations for so long at P&L, I’ve had my fingers into everything as the CFO.”
Now, he expects to carry on P&L’s long tradition of focusing heavily on customer service, safety and operational performance. But to hit the mark on all three fronts, the company needs more people — a common theme of late in the rail industry.
Greene’s first order of business is hiring, he says. P&L needs at least a couple of dozen more people throughout the company. To bring more employees on board and then retain them, P&L needs to provide better quality-of-life benefits, Greene believes.
“We are knee deep in trying to figure out how to improve that. We are experimenting with assigning people six days on and two days off, with some weekend time in there,” he says.
More workers are an extreme need because P&L — which serves about 200 customers — anticipates more business in 2023. P&L transports chemicals, petroleum products, crushed stone, clay, vehicle frames, iron, steel, grain and feed, but the majority of the company’s annual traffic and revenue is generated by coal movements. That sector’s prospects are quite promising this year, Greene says.
“We anticipate 10% more coal business because demand is still high, the spot market is strong and exports are going strong,” he says.
P&L has registered growth over the years because of Reck’s guidance and the company’s adherence to strong customer service, Greene says.
In addition, the firm has developed a solid management team. So much so, it will be very difficult to choose the next successor from that strong bench when the time comes, Greene says.
“I haven’t made a decision as to how long I’ll be the leader, but I won’t be here forever,” he says. “I won’t leave until I’m satisfied everything is in place.”
