'Tis the season: RailTrends '24

By Pat Foran, Editor-in-Chief

It’s Oct. 1 as I write this. Major League Baseball’s playoffs start today. Football’s a month or so in. Fall’s tiptoeing forward. And there’s a familiar feeling in the air.

‘Tis the season for RailTrends^®.

The lineup for this year’s summit — to be held Nov. 14-15 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City — is, as my colleague and friend Tony Hatch notes this month in his RailTrends preview, eclectic as ever.

We’ll have C-suite representation from all six Class Is, including this year’s Railroad Innovator Award recipient Keith Creel, the president and CEO of Canadian Pacific Kansas City. The award recognizes an individual’s outstanding achievement in the rail industry. Three other CEOs will be speakers: CSX’s Joe Hinrichs, CN’s Tracy Robinson and Union Pacific Railroad’s Jim Vena. Meanwhile, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer John Orr will represent Norfolk Southern Railway, and EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Tom Williams will do the honors for BNSF Railway Co. See Tony’s preview for the rest of the lineup.

Creel will be picking up his second Innovator award; he’s our first two-time winner. For good reason. A strategic thinker renowned for his operating acumen and focus on smart growth, Creel sees the forest and the trees — the bigger picture, always — and he leads CPKC accordingly. It was apparent when he received his first Innovator hardware in 2014, and again in a different context this year, with his approach to moving the CP-KCS combination forward. I’ll be writing about Creel’s life and career in our November cover story. I hope you’ll check it out.

We know this year’s program will afford an opportunity for debate and idea-sharing. It always does. I wouldn’t presume to predict what the overarching themes and undercurrents will be — a lot can (and will) happen in the next six weeks — and one thing RailTrends isn’t is static.

The NYC event is a dimensional reflection of a moment in time in the North American rail realm, and not just at the lectern. As Hatch notes in his preview: “There will be some surprise guests” (because there always are) and “a phenomenal audience to network with.” RailTrends is “Live from New York” for a reason. You gotta be there. Especially, I’m thinking, this season.

For more information or to register, log onto RailTrends.com. Hope to see you there.

Dean joins Progressive Railroading staff

Bridget Dean has joined the Progressive Railroading editorial team as associate editor.

She most recently served as a reporter for the Waukesha Freeman, a daily newspaper. She’s a graduate of Carroll University, where her accomplishments included co-founding the New Perspective, a student-run newspaper.

Bridget will work across all the rail group’s information offerings — from Daily News to RailPrime (our digital prescription offering dedicated to all things freight transportation) to virtual events to the print magazine to whatever’s next, information delivery vehicle wise.

Welcome, Bridget! We’re glad you’re with us.