This time of year is when it becomes easy for anyone to wax philosophical and rather than hold back, I’m going to dive in and get it out of my system.  It is not just the turn of a new year that has put me on this kick; it’s a series of articles that provided the propulsion of this thought.

Russia seems to be winning the big dreams in railroading contest. A subsidiary of the state-run Russian Railways began passenger service in mid-December between Moscow and Paris with one stop in Berlin. The trip takes approximately 38 hours at speeds up to 124 mph and ticket prices begin at 330 Euros, which translates to about $430. It’s the second longest train ride in Europe. The longest belongs to the direct service between Moscow and Nice in the south of France. Soviet-era service between Moscow and Paris was cancelled in 1990, but the Moscow to Nice route proved so popular that the service between the two capitals was re-established.

Also catching my eye, Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov and his company, Summa Group, which won the right to build 91 miles of a brand new rail line in order to tap into the coal fields in eastern Siberia, estimated to cost $1.4 billion.

Back here in the States, the biggest rail-related dream going is the high-speed line in California. Between the political hoopla, a multi-billion-dollar price estimate and funding woes, I’m sure there are lots of folks who have filed this project into the “pipe dream” folder. However, it’s not dead yet, unlike Detroit’s Woodward Light Rail Project, which was scrapped in favor of a cheaper plan involving bus rapid transit.

Ultimately, reality-checks have done more than their fair share of dream crushing, but I believe that’s part of dreaming big. Eventually, you have to face the practical side of things and, sometimes, the big dreams are still feasible.

Theodore Judah, a dreamer himself who is responsible for planning the Central Pacific Railroad, as well as lobbying Washington to construct a west coast line, is reported to have telegraphed his partners upon President Lincoln signing the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862, “We have drawn the elephant, now let us see if we can harness him up.”

Finding the viable aspects of big dreams and big projects is difficult, but possible. Those who have seemed to harness the elephant: Norfolk Southern and its Heartland Corridor, CSX, which is constructing the National Gateway, Kansas City Southern and its partnership with Mexico and the Twin Cities and Dallas, which both have large and well-planned rail-specific transit plans and projects.

There are other times when a big dream is entirely personal. Do you remember Keith Fitzhugh? About this time last year, you could find his smiling face everywhere. Fitzhugh is the man who chose the railroad over the NFL. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, he has since earned a promotion to trainmaster, is now married and one year later, knows he made the right decision. Fitzhugh is quoted in the WSJ as saying, “Right now, it’s me and the railroad and I’m going to prepare for this company and profession like I prepared for football games. It’s still a success to be with a great company and having the opportunity to grow.”

The opportunity to grow, to provide for and spend time with family, well, that’s a dream a lot of us can identify with, I certainly can. I’m glad to see the railroad industry has provided both Fitzhugh and myself the chance to make that dream come to fruition.

This New Year, I wish you the inspiration to dream big and the knowledge to find practicality within those dreams. A very happy, safe and successful 2012 to all of you.

Many projects received an opportunity to get a head-start on New Year’s resolutions with the announcement in mid-December that $279 million in funds had been awarded to rail-related projects through the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery or TIGER Discretionary Grant program.

The U.S. Department of Transportation had a spring 2012 deadline to announce the third round of grants, but awarded the funds early in order to give communities a chance to start on the projects and, more importantly, to benefit from the projects, according to “Fast Lane,” the official blog of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

 Regarding the selection process, Secretary LaHood wrote, “Our TIGER team looked for projects that will contribute to long-term economic competitiveness, upgrade existing facilities and transportation systems, increase energy efficiency, improve safety and get people where they’re going faster and more reliably.”

The US DOT said the grants will fund a range of innovative transportation projects and provided the following statistics:

1. 29 percent of the funding will support transit projects like the Westside Multimodal Transit Center in San Antonio.
2. 12 percent will help build port projects like the Port of New Orleans Rail Yard Improvements.
3. 10 percent will go to freight rail projects like the Muldraugh Bridge Replacement in Kentucky.

A stat that the US DOT didn’t provide, but that I still find interesting is that the $279 million awarded to rail-related projects is about 54 percent of the total $511 million in total funds that were announced. Let the celebratory fist pumping begin.

Rail is an important piece to the transportation puzzle. We in the industry know this and now the states that applied for these grants are getting a chance to prove rail’s importance.

There are practical benefits of the TIGER program, as evidenced by the completion of a $20 million project to reconstruct three structurally-deficient rail bridges critical to moving the South Coast Rail project forward in New Bedford, Mass.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s website, the project was the first in the nation to begin construction after being awarded TIGER funds. The work began in October 2010 and was completed four months ahead of schedule in November 2011.

“These three TIGER grant-funded bridge projects advance New Bedford one hundred years in rail capacity,” said New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang. “The bridges will allow for appropriate speed freight and passenger traffic and will help spur economic development and smart growth on our waterfront and throughout our city. This project has been completed well ahead of schedule and has provided dozens of much needed heavy construction jobs.”

Secretary LaHood, again in his blog puts an ideal spin on these projects in an entry titled, “TIGER Projects Remind Us What America Can Do,” where he writes, “We are not a nation that just talks about building big things only to get mired in the smallness of politics. TIGER reminds us that we’re better than that. We can put our friends and neighbors back to work and we can make our nation’s transportation system once again the envy of the world.”

May the new year bring happiness and prosperity to you.

I remember the days when I would write out everything my heart desired in list form, along with a short note about how wonderful my behavior had been all year in the hope that maybe a few of those listed items would find their way under my family’s tree. Who would have predicted that this early practice of writing Christmas lists was great rehearsal for what many of us are in the middle of during this time of year: capital requests. As grown-ups, the same rules apply, make a list of everything our heart desires and include a short note about why we need certain items and if we mention that there is duck-tape involved in holding certain things together, well, that only helps our cause.

While I jest about certain wants and needs, I know there is one item deservedly at the top of many holiday lists: a job. It is with great pride and happiness that I report this is one request the railroads have been able to provide for a lot of folks. Some statistics from the Association of American Railroads:

• Freight railroads generate nearly $265 billion in total annual economic activity and support 1.2 million jobs.
• Every freight rail job supports another 4.5 jobs somewhere else in our economy.
• Every $1.00 of investment in rail infrastructure generates another $3.00 in economic activity, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• Each $1 billion of investment in rail infrastructure to expand capacity creates an estimated 20,000 jobs nationwide.

Norfolk Southern recently announced that it is hiring an additional 500 employees in eight states to fill conductor, freight car repairer, machinist, signal maintainer and track worker positions. NS has already hired more than 3,500 people this year and plans to add another 2,600 in 2012.

G.I. Jobs magazine listed CSX in the third spot and BNSF in fourth on its list of Top 100 Military Friendly Companies. UP, CN and NS also made the magazine’s top 50. In response to the honor, BNSF said hiring veterans is one way to show appreciation for their service but the railroad can also appreciate the skills, knowledge and discipline veterans bring to the table.

According to the AAR, one in five of the more than 15,000 new employees freight railroads expect to hire in 2011 have served in the military. In a similar sentinment to BNSF, Ed Hamberger, AAR president and CEO, noted there is a common sense overlap in personal traits and skill sets of railroad employees with military service men and women.

“Our vets have a disciplined background, with special capabilities and qualities that are uniquely suited to help keep freight railroads efficient and safe,” he said.

I think veterans also add a unique perspective to the work environment. I had a conversation last week regarding railroads and the hiring of veterans. The person I was speaking to was relaying a story about recruiting a veteran to work in the industry. The rigors of the job were purposely being described in the most non-sugar-coated detail possible. The recruiter asked if the veteran could handle the early mornings, late nights, travel, etc. The veteran’s response was along the lines of, “As long as I’m not getting shot at, late nights and early mornings sound great.” 

As many of these new recruits will realize, working on the railroad is more than just a chance to earn money; it’s an opportunity. Again, I turn to the AAR, which says, “in the railroad industry, jobs are not just jobs, they are careers.”

Whatever is on your list, I wish you the happiest of holidays.

Despite the high reliability of ERTMS, the rapid roll-out of GSM-R, and the increasing number of ETCS projects – particularly outside Europe – there is still a lack of confidence in ERTMS in Europe, as David Briginshaw discovered at the UIC’s ERTMS conference in Malaga, Spain, last month.

THE European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) was conceived to provide a standard train control system