SLSI
John Angel, G&W Vice President, Compliance and Training, has joined six industry leaders on the SLSI Board.
Described as “the educational, training, and research source for short line and regional railroads concerning safety culture,” SLSI is a non-profit corporation that conducts Safety Culture Assessments and offers Hazardous Materials Training for railroads and first responders, as well as Leadership Development programs.
Angel has served G&W for 15 years, starting as a trainmaster and rising through the ranks to Road Foreman of Engines, Director of Safety and Training, Director of Corporate Operations Training, and AVP of Compliance and Operating Practices, before being appointed to his current position in 2020. Additionally, he worked from 2003 to 2009 at Ohio Central Railroad, which G&W acquired in 2008.
Also on the SLSI Board are Justin Broyles (Chairman), Executive Vice President, Commercial Affairs at R.J. Corman Group; Chuck Baker, President of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association; Janet Gilbert, Partner at Fletcher & Sippel; Mitch Harris, Vice President Safety and Compliance for Rio Grande Pacific Corporation; Jared Martin, Vice President Operations at Modesto & Empire Traction Company; and Tom Murta, Executive Director at SLSI.
“The SLSI is fortunate to have a guiding Board comprised of individuals who have spent their careers moving the industry forward in the area of safety and safety culture,” Tom Murta said. “John Angel brings both an on-the-ground experience, beginning his career as a conductor on a small short-line railroad in Ohio, and the experience of safety culture leadership at the highest level, taking on areas of increasing responsibility at Genesee & Wyoming railroads. His insight on practices and programs that will help move the needle on safety culture will be invaluable to our organization.”
“I am honored to be contributing to an organization that is charged with and successfully advancing the safety culture of the short line railroad industry,” John Angel said. “Each tool or training program the industry can provide to help ensure that every railroader comes home safe each and every day is time and effort well spent.”
Further Reading:
- Implementing SLSI Recommendations Boosts Safety Culture, Study Finds
- Safety: How You Function When No One is Watching
- Small-Road Briefs: CORP/Cathcart; OmniTRAX/SLSI; R.J. Corman
- OmniTRAX Teams With SLSI for Emergency Response Training
- ‘The Most Robust Model for Safety Culture Assessment’
- SLSI: 100 Safety Culture Assessments
NYPD Transit Bureau
Effective Sept. 27, 2024, Micheal M. Kemper will retire as Chief of Transit at NYPD, according to the Gothamist.
Kemper, who joined the Department in 1991, took on his current role in December 2022, succeeding Jason Wilcox, who left after less than a year of service, reported the news site.
NYPD’s Transit Bureau is responsible for the safety and security of the 5.6 million riders who use the New York City subways each day, according to Department. Bureau members patrol the subway system’s 472 stations and nearly 250 miles of rapid transit line. The Bureau comprises 12 transit districts, each located within or adjacent to the subway system, and overseen by three borough commands: Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Bronx/Queens. District personnel are supplemented by members of several specialized units within the Transit Bureau, including three borough Task Forces, Anti-Terrorism Unit, Citywide Vandals Task Force, Canine Unit, Special Projects Unit, and MetroCard Fraud Task Force.
“Earlier this year, Kemper and MTA [New York Metropolitan Transit Authority] officials scrambled to improve public perceptions of safety in the transit system after four high-profile subway shootings — two in the Bronx and two in Brooklyn, including one at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station, a notable transit hub,” the Gothamist reported Aug. 30. “Mayor Eric Adams has made cracking down on subway crime a chief focus since he took office. To that end, Kemper deployed more than 1,000 additional police officers into the subways last year, on top of the 2,500 officers already working in the NYPD’s transit bureau. NYPD overtime spend on extra officers in the subway went from $4 million in 2022 to $155 million last year, Gothamist previously reported. The surge of officers corresponded to a 2% drop in major crimes across the subway system, such as robbery, rape and murder. But the number of tickets and arrests for fare evasion skyrocketed. Fare jumping arrests have more than doubled since Adams took office, and fare jumping tickets have spiked 160%, Gothamist previously reported.”
“No Transit Bureau chief has ever been a better partner than Michael Kemper in creating strategies to reduce subway crime and improve quality of life for riders and transit workers,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in an Aug. 30 statement. “He leaves this role with a legacy that includes the lowest number of subway robberies since record keeping began, and fewer serious transit crimes overall than before the pandemic.”
Separately, MTA on May 22 reported advancing a host of initiatives outlined in the 2023 Blue Ribbon Panel report on reducing fare evasion. Also, the American Public Transportation Association on June 4 honored six public transportation providers from California, Georgia, New York (including New York City Transit, Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road), Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., with the 2024 Rail Safety, Security and Emergency Management Awards.
