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.

NJT: PTC 95%, new comms under way, powered Multilevels

New Jersey Transit announced Dec. 5 that Positive Train Control is “95% complete” toward meeting compliance with the Dec. 3, 2018 interim deadline. Concurrently, the agency launched “a new comprehensive communications initiative aimed at improving the customer experience” and announced a procurement for new multi-level railcars.

Tomlin joins Byford at NYCT

Long-time colleagues and fellow Englishmen Andy Byford and Pete Tomlin, who worked together on the London Underground and Toronto Transit Commission, will once again join forces, this time at MTA New York City Transit.

UP’s Knight “Best CFO” six years’ running

Institutional Investor, a publication covering the financial services industry since the 1980s, has named Union Pacific Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Rob Knight “Best CFO” for the sixth consecutive year in its 2019 All-America Executive Team list of airfreight and surface transportation companies.

LTK elevates four

LTK Engineering Services has promoted four staff members to senior-level positions, three of them with new regional responsibilities.

Chicago Union Station Great Hall project completed

Chicago Union Station, opened in 1925 and now Amtrak’s fourth-busiest (serving 37.6 million Amtrak and Metra rail passengers annually, 120,000 on a typical weekday), has undergone a $22 million restoration of its Great Hall, featuring a restored skylight and improved lighting.

UP 4141 honors President George H.W. Bush

Union Pacific on Dec. 6 will participate in the funeral procession for President George H.W. Bush with a special funeral train powered by SD70ACe 4141, whose paint scheme honors the 41st U.S. President. The train will leave UP’s Westfield Auto Facility at 1:00 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive at College Station, Tex. at Bush’s final resting place at his Presidential Library, across from Kyle Field at 3:25 p.m.

Cuomo to Trump: Take Amtrak off Gateway

The Gateway Project to build two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York has been mired in political controversy for years, going back to its first iteration, the ARC (Access to the Region’s Core) project, or “THE (Trans-Hudson Express) Tunnel,” dubbed by critics as “the tunnel to Macy’s basement,” and killed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the latest politician to add fuel to the fire.