Better railroading is 10% planning plus 90% execution. It’s simple math.

A friend of mine directed my attention to Federal Railroad Administration Office of Safety Analysis website Section 2.03, “Train Accidents by Railroad Group,” in which it is possible to search, sort, select…

So there I was, quietly minding somebody else’s business, when I received notification that Railway Age had released a new Rail Group on Air podcast, “TRB Long Freight Train Consensus Study.” The podcast…

Let’s resume where I left off, moving right along, next up: The NPRM intends to amend section 236.1029, PTC System Use and Failures. The provisions authorizing “temporary exceptions” to the…

“We”—old timers, old heads, just plain old—sometimes refer to ourselves as “fossils,” but we’re not really. Fossils, as far as “we” know, can’t think, change positions, make jokes, whine, or…

I recently printed out a prepublication copy (uncorrected proofs) of the report Long Freight Trains: Insuring Safe Operations, Mitigating Adverse Impacts submitted by the “Committee on the Impact of Trains Longer…

There are accidents, incidents, all with a greater or lesser cost to the service. And we don’t lack for explanations—there’s always stupidity, distraction, inattentiveness, defects of one sort or the…

Following the catastrophic derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg addressed a more or less open letter to each of the Class I railroads, “urging” them to…

You’re probably not reading it here first, particularly if you start your days or nights with the Federal Register summary page of new and exciting government rules, proposals, notices, regulations etc., but…

You’re feeling bad? All alone? Misunderstood? Picked on? Unfairly accused of being completely selfish, self-aggrandizing and self-serving? Losing faith in your lobbyists? In your lobbied legislators? In the omnipotence of…

A co-worker of years gone by sent me a link to the ProPublica article “The True Danger of Long Trains.” ProPublica advertises itself as “an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces…

“Better to be lucky than good” is usually attributed to legendary New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez. I don’t believe it, the aphorism, most of the time. What I do…

While we’re all waiting for the carriers and the unions to agree or not on the recommendations of the Presidential Emergency Board, I thought I’d probe a bit more into…