Jonathan Chalon’s Post

What’s next for high-speed rail in America? Amtrak's latest video explores what the railroad is doing next, what characteristics are needed for a successful high-speed rail route, and what the future expansion of high-speed rail will look like for Amtrak: https://lnkd.in/e4eJzcXf

With the Amtrak Chicago to Minneapolis Borealis line going beyond expectations of ridership. With the popularity of train travel in the U.S. rising, there's a growing movement to make high-speed rail, already established in Asia and Europe, available across the U.S. Watch an Urban Innovators talk from earlier this year by, Richard Harnish, executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance, outlining the progress of high-speed rail in the West and what will be needed to implement high speed rail in the Midwest and between the Midwest and East Coasts. https://lnkd.in/d6iRTyXn

Improving short line railroads across the state contributes to the safety, vitality and resiliency of the overall system for both freight and passenger rail. Learn more ➡️ https://bit.ly/3zWbcbI

🚄 “The Future of High-Speed Rail is Now." ~Amtrak's Andy Byford    Our latest video on high-speed rail features Amtrak President Roger Harris and Senior Vice President of High-Speed Rail Andy Byford discussing the future of high-speed rail at Amtrak.     We explore what it will take to expand high-speed rail to other corridors across the United States and answer the biggest questions:  Why is it so hard to get high-speed rail across the U.S.? And where do we see HSR next?     Did you watch the video? Let us know in the comments which two cities Roger and Andy discussed as Amtrak’s primary focus for future high-speed rail. And let us know on a scale of 1-10 how excited you are for high-speed rail in America.  #Amtrak #hsr #sustainability #train

Delve into two of the recent updates to rail standards in this month’s Horizon magazine: https://brnw.ch/21wMW0w Tom Waghorn, one of our Senior Rail Operations Specialists, talks us through the new rules around the operation of route- and line-proving trains and the introduction of new signs for some speed restrictions.

The North American rail industry is at an inflection point. We have a new cohort of CEO’s at the Class 1’s who will establish the direction for the industry for the next decades. Railroad boards and management teams have choices around strategy and direction. What’s it worth to shareholders and owners to grow the freight on rail versus watch it continue to decline?  My colleague Matthew Schabas has done the work to answer that question and we’ve summarized the findings in this article. We would be excited to continue the conversation and hear other views. https://lnkd.in/gZrvwy26 #OWTransportation #FreightRail #Railroads

Another excellant Oliver Wyman analysis of choices ahead. But, their metric focus is on gross revenues. Even with these $$$ changes — even at the optimistic growth view…. ….THE VOLUME OF UNITS like carloads might signal RR continued lost of market share. Does your team have units / tons / and or ton-mile projected outcomes to discuss? Those variables would indeed add spice to the discussion. FINALLY, to this old hand it seems inevitable that the choices are not going to be made by either senior RR officers of Regulators. THE POWER seems to sit with a majority vote of the investors. If not those assessing their Invested $$$ asset base wealth…. …then it’s going to be decided by the receivers/shippers who might just decide to walk away. In the meantime, the former expectations of rail freight ton-mile growth with only marginal returns (back in 2006 - 2008) is obviously a now dead scenario. Rail could exit markets and share with a free cash flow wealth re-distribution to shareholders. And eventual deferred asset maintenance. A possible long trend line exit. It is a possibility. With right of way assets sometimes sold off eventually as “autonomous truck ways”. Yes. It’s possible. Who really decides? Jim.

Great assessment of a very important topic.