Railway Age / RT&S Light Rail 2023

Program subject to change.

Sessions take place in the 9th floor Manhattan Ballroom.

Event Moderators:
William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief, Railway Age
David Lester, Editor-in-Chief, Railway Track & Structures

Wednesday, November 15

8:00 AM
Registration / Conference Check-in
Continental Breakfast sponsored by Kinkisharyo International, LLC.

9:00 AM
Keynote Address
Kevin Corbett, President & CEO, NJ Transit
Session Sponsored by MAC Products

9:30 AM
Ontario LRT Expansion Overview
Joe Costigan Jr., Senior Manager Corridor Extensions – Capital Projects Group, Metrolinx

10:15 AM
Coffee Break (sponsorship available)

10:30 AM
Platinum Sponsor Spotlight with MAC Products
Gary Clarner, MAC Products

11:00 AM
NJ Transit Overview: Hudson-Bergen, Newark Light Rail, RiverLINE, Camden-Glassboro
Gregory Woods, Chief, Light Rail Operations, NJ Transit

The Birth of Hudson-Bergen Light Rail
James C. Greller, Consultant and former Director of Transit Development, NJ Transit
William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief, Railway Age

12:00 PM
Luncheon (sponsorship available)

1:30 PM
ENGINEERING FOR OPERATIONS
Moderator: Alfred E. Fazio, P.E., BRT Rail Services

SEPTA Trolley Modernization Program
Anna Hooven, P.E., Program Manager, SEPTA

FRA Temporal Separation Waiver Best Practices
John Mardente, Civil Engineer – Passenger Rail Division, Federal Railroad Administration

3:00 PM
Afternoon Coffee Break (sponsorship available)

3:30 PM
Innovative Project Delivery Models
Catherine Campbell-Wilson, Vice President Strategy and Growth, Bechtel

4:00 PM
Sponsor Spotlight (sponsorship available)

4:15 PM
Unified Signals for Street-Running LRT
Ken Luebeck, P.E., Public Project Manager, Benesch
Giuseppe Mattoscio, P.Eng., P.E., Chief Safety Engineer, Houston METRO
Fred Mills, P.E., Chief Signal Engineer, Houston METRO

5:00 PM
Networking Reception (sponsorship available)

6:00 PM
Conference Day Ends

Thursday, November 16

8:00 AM
Continental Breakfast (sponsorship available)

9:00 AM
MBTA Grand Junction Urban Rail Study
Rachel J. Burckardt, P.E., Assistant Vice President & Senior Project Manager, WSP USA

9:45 AM
Sound Transit Light Rail Expansion Program
Suraj Shetty, Executive Director of Operations, Sound Transit

10:30 AM
Coffee Break (sponsorship available)

10:45 AM
General Discussion on LRT’s Role in Public Transportation
Led by William C. Vantuono, Railway Age; David Lester, RT&S; and David Peter Alan, Contributing Editor, Railway Age

11:30 AM
End of Conference Sessions

Pick up a boxed lunch as you depart! 

12:45 PM
Tour participants to gather in the hotel lobby to walk to Exchange Place.

1:00 PM
Tour: NJ Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail

NJ Transit will offer a guided tour to a limited number of conference attendees. Subject matter experts from NJ Transit and 21st Century Rail Corp. will accompany the group to answer questions. Participants will depart from Exchange Place via special train and ride the RiverLine section of the Hudson-Bergen Line. Visiting the Caven Point Avenue Maintenance Facility, attendees will see Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system’s major site for maintenance, operational control, train storage, and vehicle wash. Participants will receive a brief overview of the system’s SCADA operations. (Space is limited and allotted on a first-come, first-served basis; all attendees to wear hard-soled, closed-toe shoes; PPE to be provided as necessary.)

Covering a service area of 5,325 square miles, NJ TRANSIT is the nation’s third largest provider of bus, rail and light rail transit, linking major points in New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. The agency operates an active fleet of 2,221 buses, 1,231 trains and 93 light rail vehicles. On 253 bus routes and 12 rail lines statewide, NJ TRANSIT provides nearly 270 million passenger trips each year.

4:00 PM
Participants return to hotel.