Now On Line: January 2023 Railway Age Digital Edition
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
Railway Age’s January 2023 issue is now available digitally. It features a cover profile BNSF President and CEO Katie Farmer—the recipient of Railway Age’s 2023 Railroader of the Year Award, the 60th annual.
“Katie Farmer permanently changed the industry for the better by becoming the first woman chief executive of a Class I railroad,” says Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. “She took the throttle of North America’s largest railroad, in terms of both route-miles and revenue, during unprecedented times, in the midst of a global pandemic. She has continued to press forward during a challenging, post-pandemic period, dealing with global supply chain and service problems as well as a difficult labor market, focusing on building a better BNSF. Katie knows her railroad inside and out. She’s held leadership positions in every major function of the company, overseeing a 32,500-route-mile network that spans 28 states and touches three Canadian provinces. She has been working with her team to shape the legacy of BNSF, which has seen industry-leading growth.”
Railroading as a “momentum business,” Farmer told Vantuono in an interview for the cover story, “applies more broadly to the whole supply chain. When one part of the supply chain struggles, we all struggle. When volume fluctuates, we adapt to that variability, and that’s not new for us. The difference is the pandemic impacted the entire global supply chain, which, as you know, is a complex system of connections among ports, railroads, trucks and our customers.” She added: “We have strong momentum in restoring the service customers have come to expect and that we frankly expect from ourselves.”
Other January 2023 issue highlights:
- 2023 Passenger Rail Outlook: Amtrak at the Crossroads. Presently it could be the best of times, according to Railway Age Contributing Editor David Peter Alan, but the future is not as clear.
- Notch 8 to the Golden Run: Right Decisions, Right Time, Right Authority. In Part 2 of a three-part series based on Sonia Bot, Sheppard Narkier and David Sherr’s new book, Dynamic Multi-Level Decisioning Architecture, the authors look at the Business Environment as a Service Platform.
- Timeout for Tech With Gary T. Fry, Ph.D., P.E.: In this 13th edition, Fry addresses correlation vs. causation.
- MxV Rail R&D: Measuring Truck Hunting Track Effects. “A poorly performing vehicle could hunt on well-maintained track,” write Yi Wang, Principal Investigator I; Michael Craft, Principal Investigator I; and Walter Rosenberger, Scientist. “Poorly maintained track could cause a well-maintained vehicle to hunt.”
And Railway Age Financial Editor David Nahass offers predictions for 2023. (He notes that since North American rail craves stability, a New Year’s resolution to that effect might be in order.)
