Railway Interchange 2019 Roundup

Railway Interchange 2019, the largest Rail Industry Conference and Exhibition in North America, is in the books. Each year the event, which was held at the Minneapolis Convention Center Sept. 21-25, aims to serve as the one-stop for innovation in rail technology and education.

In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights.

• AREMA Conference proceedings can be seen here, and any sessions missed can be seen at VirtualAREMA.
• Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour gave the keynote address. Armour, a motivational speaker who served as America’s first African-American female combat pilot, addressed the general session on Monday, Sept. 23. Video can be seen here.
• KiwiRail won the 2019 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence for its “Rising to Meet the Challenge – Main North Line Earthquake Recovery Project” in New Zealand. The project was a response to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that affected 112 miles of New Zealand and KiwiRail’s Main North Line and New Zealand State Highway 1. Due to the project, within 10 months of the earthquake the line was reopened to restricted freight service and all services were fully up and running in December 2018.
• AREMA announced that the Railway Roadbed and Ballast Symposium is now open for registration. It also noted that sponsorship and expo sales for the AREMA 2020 Annual Conference and Expo will go on sale Oct. 22, with registration opening in April 2020. The event will be held in Dallas, Texas, Sept. 13-16.
• Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono spoke with a number of industry titans for exclusive videos. RA’s entire coverage of the event can be found here.