From the editor: Trending topics at Secure Rail 2019

To help shape the agenda for this year’s edition of our Secure Rail conference, members of the Secure Rail Advisory Board discussed a range of issues and trends. Among the topics of conversation: the impact of autonomous technologies on railroads, collaboration between local and federal agencies in support of emergency response initiatives, and the increasingly blurred line between cyber and physical security.

As a result of these discussions, the programming for Secure Rail 2019 — which will be held May 1-2 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando — features a greater emphasis on the topics of risk, legal issues, future trends and regulatory updates. Session topics at our fifth annual conference include:

• “State of Security in the Rail Industry,” presented by Thomas Farmer, assistant vice president of security at the Association of American Railroads; Laird Pitz, vice president and chief risk officer at Canadian Pacific; and John Walsh, AVP of safety and security, Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Services Inc. Farmer, Pitz and Walsh also are members of the advisory board.

• “Passenger Screening at L.A. Metro,” presented by Alex Wiggins, chief of the System Security and Law Enforcement Division at Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

• “Cybersecurity — Lessons Learned From Other Practices,” presented by James Cummings, Oliver Wyman’s senior adviser of cyber risk management; and Paul Mee, head of Oliver Wyman’s cyber practice.

• “Protecting Rail Industry Operations with Application Security,” presented by Bill Dupre, director of security at Railinc.

• “Securing the OT Environment,” presented by Keith Dierkx of the IBM Industry Academy. Dierkx is IBM’s global industry leader in freight, logistics and rail.

To obtain the complete agenda and to register for Secure Rail 2019, visit securerailconference.com. Hope you’ll join us.

Brajkovic joins Progressive Railroading staff

I am pleased to announce that Vesna Brajkovic has joined the Progressive Railroading staff as associate editor.

Vesna most recently served as an associate editor with Endeavor Business Media, where she reported, wrote and edited articles on the trucking and automotive industries for Fleet Maintenance, PTEN and Professional Distributor. She also managed the digital presence of three print publications, including a website, social media accounts and three daily e-newsletters. Before that, she reported on the global aviation industry for AviationPros.com and three trade magazines: Airport Business, Ground Support Worldwide and Airport Maintenance Technology.

Vesna will report and write news and feature articles that’ll appear within our print pages, and on ProgressiveRailroading.com. She’ll help us take our social media game up a notch, and represent us at industry events, as well as our own (e.g., Secure Rail 2019). I’m very glad she’s with us.