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July 23, 2025|Light Rail

Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s Lukaszewicz Tops 2025 Light Rail Lineup

Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

This year, Railway Age and RT&S are pleased to venture to Pittsburgh on Oct. 1-2 for the much-anticipated 2025 Light Rail Conference with a packed lineup of LRT professionals who are significantly influencing today’s rail transit industry. Topping the list of reasons to attend is kick-off speaker Andy Lukaszewicz, Deputy Chief Officer Rail Operations, Pittsburgh Regional Transit. 

This edition of our annual in-person Light Rail Conference will be filled with dynamic panels and the chance to network with a wide-reaching group of like-minded professionals. This event will offer a comprehensive review of the specialized technical, operational, environmental, and socio-economic issues associated with light rail transit (LRT) in an urban environment. All this will take place at the Fairmont Pittsburgh. Plus, don’t miss a special tour of the Pittsburgh Regional Transit PRT light rail system. The 26.2-mile network runs from the North Shore and Downtown Pittsburgh areas, through Pittsburgh’s southern neighborhoods and many South Hills suburbs. With 80 light rail vehicles in its fleet, PRT aims to be the “region’s transportation mode of choice by delivering an innovative network that is clean, sustainable, and equitable; a network that enables individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.”

Meet Andy Lukaszewicz

During a transit career spanning more than 30 years, Andy Lukaszewicz, has been a fixture of Pittsburgh’s Port Authority of Allegheny County, directing rail operations and service delivery at PRT, among other roles. As Director of the Rail & Facilities Department (consisting of Way and Structures, Power Substation and Overhead Catenary Systems), LRT Signal/Electronic Communications, Non Revenue Vehicle Maintenance and Facilities Systems, he restructured work practices, combined job responsibilities that were of a similar nature and implemented new procedures that required maintenance to communicate more closely with Road Operations to get work accomplished during non-revenue periods and between rush hour, enabling the Authority to decrease the number of technical hourly personnel by 20% while increasing safety, reliability, proficiency, and efficiency by 45%. Andy worked closely with the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Keystone Transit funding association to develop and implement a skilled trades maintenance apprenticeship program to train the skilled work force. He also spent time at Hampton Roads Transit, Norfolk, Va., as Director of Operations Maintenance at The Tide, the region’s new-start, and at Metro Transit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, as Director of Rail Systems Maintenance.

Program Highlights

Presented Oct. 1-2 at the Fairmont Pittsburgh, the 2025 Railway Age and RT&S Light Rail Conference is a must-attend premier conference on LRT for transportation professionals in planning, operations, civil engineering, signaling, and vehicle engineering, Students at the undergraduate and graduate levels are also welcome.

In addition to Andy Lukaszewicz, transit leaders on the program include  Justin Selepack of Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT), Bryan K. Moore and Casey Blaze of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), Henry Posner and Ida Posner of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), and many more.

Key sessions will focus on:

  • Strategic insights into major new-builds and expansion projects.
  • Engineering sessions illustrating how to best support long-term efficiency and safety.
  • Capital program oversight, risk mitigation, and performance tracking.
  • Resilience planning, sharing adaptive strategies for extreme weather events.
  • Improvements to customer-facing technologies such as fare collection, communications and security.
  • The viability and scalability of alternative propulsion technologies.
  • Confronting funding challenges.

Supporting Organizations

Industry support for the Railway Age / RT&S 2025 Light Rail Conference is already strong, including sponsorship from 4AI Systems, Piper Networks, Benesch, and RDC.

Learn More