Author: William C. Vantuono

With Railway Age since 1992, William C. Vantuono has broadened and deepened the magazine's coverage of the technological revolution that is so swiftly changing the industry. He has also strengthened Railway Age’s leadership position in industry affairs with the conferences he conducts, among them Next-Generation Train Control, Light Rail, and Rail Insights. He is the author or co-author or editor of several books, among them All About Railroading; John Armstrong’s The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does; Railway Age’s Comprehensive Railroad Dictionary; and Planning, Engineering, and Operating Light Rail, With Applications in New Jersey.
Commentary

KCS Isn’t For Sale. Quit Salivating

If I had a $100,000 for every time the rumor mill shouted out that Kansas City Southern was on the auction block, I’d be a multi-millionaire with a collection of exotic cars rivaling that of Jay Leno, and racing a Corvette C8.R in the IMSA Series, with my son Craig as crew chief. (I wouldn’t own a private railcar, because Amtrak wouldn’t want to haul it around the country, and if they did, they’d probably overcharge me. But that’s another story.)

  • M/W

An Easier “Hole-in-One”

Focused Technology Solutions, a Marmon/Berkshire Hathaway Company, developer of the SpikeEase battery-operated spike puller, has released what it calls its “latest disruptive technology” to the rail market, the DrillEase battery-operated tie drill.

Graves’ Concern: INVEST is a non-STARTER

Let the partisan battle of acronyms begin: In response to H.R. 2, the surface transportation bill named the INVEST (Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation) in America Act, introduced by Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on June 3 and marked up and released late on June 18, T&I Committee Republicans, led by Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-Mo.), early on June 19 introduced a competing bill: the STARTER (Surface Transportation Advanced through Reform, Technology, & Efficient Review) Act.

Amtrak Slashing Service. Will It Be Permanent?

Citing a “need to be smart about how we deliver our service in this market environment” as well as “to demonstrate that we are using our resources efficiently and responsibly” because “Congress is not going to support us indefinitely to run mostly empty trains,” Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Revenue Officer Roger Harris, in a June 15 letter to employees, announced drastic service cuts taking effect Oct. 1, 2020, the beginning of the railroad’s Fiscal Year 2021.

Mixed Reactions to House T&I (Democrats) Infrastructure Bill

An infrastructure bill named the INVEST (Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation) in America Act, introduced by Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on June 3, has been received with mixed, mostly partisan reactions, as well as some skepticism.

Culver F Line CBTC Install Under Way in Southern Brooklyn

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has begun preparatory work on the next phase of the Culver (F) Line Signal Modernization project in Southern Brooklyn. The $253 million project, which had its original late March start date pushed back in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, will replace 70-year-old technology between Church Ave. and Coney Island with a Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) system.