Advertiser's Alert for the December 2007 Issue of Railway Age

Annual Review and Outlook: Railroads Under Siege!

Railroads under siege? From whom? Here’s whom, and they are all driven by short-sighted self- interest: 1) Disgruntled and disaffected shippers (mostly so-called “captive shippers”) seeking to lower their transportation rates by forcing “competition” through open-access scenarios and reregulation —rolling back parts of the Staggers Act to pre-1980. 2) Sympathetic legislators on Capitol Hill with personal agendas (and perhaps significant campaign contributions from nos. 1 and 3). 3) One disaffected labor union that hasn’t settled with the carriers in national bargaining and has aligned itself with the above-mentioned shippers and legislators to push reregulation and beat down an investment tax credit bill that would greatly assist railroads in improving their physical plant and adding much-needed capacity. 4) Hedge funds (like The Children’s Fund) with short-term profits in mind that think they know more than railroaders about how the railroads should be managed. As Railway Age has been consistently reporting and commenting on for quite some time, this is not a pretty picture! If any of this comes to pass it is going to hurt the industry and ultimately result in scaled-back investment. We’ve also asked the chief executives of the Class I railroads to respond to several key questions dealing with their 2008 investments in plant and equipment; particular strengths (or weaknesses) in the North American and global economy that could affect their traffic; and commodities in which they expect to see improvement (or a decrease). New York City in Transit

The world’s single-largest passenger rail market and its enormous five-year capital investment plan will be covered by our resident passenger rail expert, Managing Editor Doug Bowen. How is the New York MTA—quite possibly the industry’s biggest bureaucracy but by far its biggest spender —going to invest the money in routinely spends on maintaining and expanding its massive subway (NYC Transit) and commuter rail (Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North) networks? Where do multi-billion-dollar, long-term capital projects like LIRR East Side Access and NYCT Second Avenue Subway stand? Any company that does business in with New York MTA—suppliers, consultants, and there are dozens of them—will have an interest in this story and will want to have an ad in it. Railway Age knows what’s going on in New York and always reports it best!

Buff and draft protection

Anyone who understands freight train operations understands the important role of draft gears and cushioning devices in controlling those potentially violent in-train forces that create, at best, difficult train handling and, at worst, pull-parts and derailments—not to mention lading damage. Several key suppliers are continuously improving their products to manage such buff (compression) and draft (expansion) forces.

FOR INFORMATION, CONTACT YOUR RAILWAY AGE SALES REPRESENTATIVE (see "Sales Offices" page on this web site), OR CALL OUR NEW YORK OFFICES AT 212/620-7200.