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January 2009
It’s tempting (real tempting) to put growth strategies on hold when a recession’s wreaking havoc with the bottom line. Although North American rail execs will cut back on some capacity projects this year, they’ve invested too much time, money and, well, soul preparing the mode for the restorative role it could/should play — in the not-so-distant future, as well as over the longer haul — to do any fundamental rethinking. At least not yet. If anything, they’re pressing ahead with their best-laid plans. Witness the work CSX Corp. continues to do with its National Gateway, a double-stack train route that would run through Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and link three mid-Atlantic ports with Midwestern markets (see article). Unveiled in May 2008 as a public-private partnership (PPP), the gateway calls for upgrading track, bridges and tunnels, and expanding and constructing several intermodal terminals during the next seven years — provided the Class I can attract the public financing and political support necessary to carry out the PPP.
For now, the project cost stands at $724 million, half of which would be funded by CSX. The states and the federal government would kick in $181 million each.
So far, the response from the states has been positive, as CSX officials told Managing Editor Jeff Stagl during his recent visit to the Class I’s Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters. But it’ll be awhile before CSX execs get a sense for what the Obama Administration thinks about the gateway and/or the funding of same — just as it’ll take time for railroad, rail labor and shipper constituencies to get a better feel for the stimulus role rail will play as the Administration and the new Congress attempt to come to terms with economic realities as they define them in the weeks and months ahead.
Next month, we’ll talk with rail leaders, legislative representatives and other interested observers about the extent to which rail rates on the “urgency” meter in Washington — and how the various constituencies might tailor the respective messages accordingly.
The industry lost a couple of true originals and dear friends last month.
A longtime national legislative director for the United Transportation Union, James Brunkenhoefer — known to just about everybody as “Brokenrail” — died Dec. 19 after suffering a stroke two days earlier. He was 61.
I didn’t know Jim as well as many of you did, but he was one of the first people I talked with when I started covering this industry in 1996 and he always gave it to me straight — colorfully, of course, but good and straight. That Brokenrail made a difference in this world was oh so plain. It wasn’t long after I began talking with people about Jim for a story I was writing (see article) that I started getting messages from people I hadn’t called. (“Heard you were writing something — I’d like to say a few words.”) A good man, Jim was.
Then, on Dec. 24, we learned that Kent Shoemaker, co-founder and chairman of the Red River Valley & Western (RRV&W) and the Twin Cities & Western (TC&W) railroads, died Dec. 21 of Parkinson’s disease. He was 74.
Born in Elmira, N.Y., Mr. Shoemaker graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor of science degree in engineering. He also earned a Certificate of Transportation from Yale University.
He began his 50-year rail career in the maintenance-of-way department of the Baltimore & Ohio in 1957. Shoemaker subsequently joined the Soo Line in Minneapolis in 1965, advancing to assistant vice president-operations. He served as president and chief executive officer of the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton from 1973 to 1976, and chairman, president and CEO of the Delaware & Hudson Railway from 1978 until 1982.
Shoemaker helped launch the 514-mile RRV&W, based in Wahpeton, N.D., in 1987, and the 229-mile TC&W, with headquarters in Glencoe, Minn., in 1991. The formation of the two roads helped preserve and ultimately revitalize hundreds of track miles in Minnesota and North Dakota, which helped the region’s farmers and ag-based businesses market their products more efficiently, according to a prepared statement issued by RRV&W/TC&W.
“Kent will be sorely missed,” said Andy Thompson, CEO of the RRV&W and TC&W. “His leadership and years of wise counsel helped make both companies outstanding regional railroads.”
Our thoughts are with the Brunkenhoefer and Shoemaker families, and their many, many friends.
Pat Foran, Editor
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