RailTrends 2025 preview by Tony Hatch: Everywhere there is a song and a celebration!

Railroad Woodstock returns this fall. 2025 will go down in the books as a possible red-letter year, or perhaps just the crazy year that we all look back on and ask ourselves, “Did that really happen??” Either way, RailTrends® 2025 (to be held Nov. 20-21 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City) will provide an excellent cap to the storylines or a critical mid-point detailed update in a setting — if not as muddy as Saugerties, New York, was in 1969 — that is equally and purposely eclectic and filled with all of the hit-makers and future hall-of-famers as the performers at Yasgur’s farm 56 years ago.

‘We are stardust ...’ The big song getting all of the radio play is, of course, “Transcon Mergers?”, which blew past “Trade Wars” on the Hit Parade. And sometimes, it is indeed better to be lucky than good — or in the case of RT25 and, say, Carlos Santana (who was asked to fill in for the three-day Woodstock concert and emerged a star), we named Union Pacific Railroad CEO Jim Vena as our 2025 recipient of the Railroad Innovator Award. And that was before he launched his bid for Norfolk Southern! He’ll receive the award at RT25.

Everyone at RailTrends will offer their opinion on the mergers, either openly or perhaps more guardedly, but we have the man of the hour who has been running the best-performing railroad in 2025. Can that continue despite the distractions? Can it get even better when the Union Pacific reaches, via NS, the Atlantic? But we have more players in this merger medley who will demand a listen:

• Two other (returning) CEOs directly and indirectly impacted by the announced deal: CSX’s Joe Hinrichs, always the popular draw and the seeming center of all rumor and excitement at the time of this writing; and CN’s Tracy Robinson, the coiner of the “Woodstock of the Rails” phrase (for which I cannot thank her enough) and leader of perhaps the first railway to recognize the smoke of mergers that might turn to flame.
• There will be additional strategists and thinkers from on and backstage, including: Adriene Bailey, partner, surface transportation, with Oliver Wyman, whose remarks at RT24 — that rails must “pivot to growth” as cost-cutting was nearing its end as a value driver, and failure would leave only two choices, shrink or ... merge — touched off this jam session; NS Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer (and a longtime RT presenter and key player in the merger band) Mike McClellan; a panel featuring (as of this writing) CSX’s former head of strategy Farrukh Bezar and BNSF Railway’s former chief legal officer (and former chairman of the Surface Transportation Board!) Roger Nober; and the annual consultancy panel.

And joining us as “concertmaster”? Current STB Chairman Patrick Fuchs. To me, the chairman has more of an “Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special” rather than a Rat Pack or hippie vibe, but his is the key song of the whole shebang. We anticipate that, as there were at RT24, many of the other STB commissioners — possibly including the fifth member — will be in attendance, as well ... allowing me to bring up the annual statement that the RailTrends audience is as powerful as the performers on stage.

“The big song getting all of the radio play is, of course, “Transcon Mergers?”, which blew past “Trade Wars” on the Hit Parade.”

Everyone will be chatting, pontificating and harmonizing about this merger album, from the annual analyst panel (Loop Capital Managing Director Rick Paterson and intermodal consultant Larry Gross join me) to two key suppliers (Wabtec Corp. Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Gina Trombley and GATX Corp. EVP and President of Rail North America Paul Titterton).

Meanwhile, we can’t avoid the other storm on the horizon — the trade war/tariff impact. By the time of the conference, a fuller understanding of the effects of the tariffs on earnings will be better known, and gauging the impact on USMCA trade and rail loadings, a year before the mandated treaty review, will be a critical undertaking. That will be fair game for all the CEOs and other leaders, but we are particularly excited to bring to the stage:

• Luis Hernandez, VP of intermodal with Ferromex/Grupo Mexico, a partner with UP/CN in the Falcon premium intermodal service; and
• Coby Bullard, SVP of merchandise, energy and transload for Canadian Pacific Kansas City.

Life is for learning

Finally, two topics dear to my heart will also be front and center — technology and short lines (and they intertwine).

Technology will always be a theme at RailTrends. In addition to Trombley/Wabtec, we’ll hear from short-liner Mike Miller, the CEO of Genesee & Wyoming and its 100-plus carriers. Mike is both a founding board member of RailPulse (along with NS’ McClellan and GATX’s Titterton) as well as a tech experimenter with Parallel Systems (from RT24’s tech panel). Perhaps best of all, Mike challenges industry complacency.

Also, technology certainly will be on the minds of the consultancy panel participants. And in our (for lack of a better name) “Rail Tech Startups” panel, we will provide further proof that, despite evidence of staleness (think Herman’s Hermits) there are garage bands out there working on far-out stuff. Panelists include:

• Old friend Harry Zander is the chief commercial officer of Intramotev, which brings autonomous movement to existing rail cars;
• Greg Hrebek, CEO of RailSpire (AV and other IT to railyards); and
• Paul Gross, CEO of Remora, which has a unique carbon-capture model that has excited some of the big players.

Separately, Ken Mannka EVP of Nexxiot, will speak (he’s also a player in the RailPulse band).

Short lines! Will this be the Third Golden Age? Stay tuned for my white paper. And there’ll be full short-line representation at RT25. In addition to G&W’s Mike Miller and American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) President Chuck Baker, we’ll once again feature our annual Short Line Jamboree.

Union Pacific Railroad CEO Jim Vena will receive the 2025 Railroad Innovator Award at Progressive Railroading’s RailTrends® conference, which will be held Nov. 20-21 in New York City.

Union Pacific Railroad

This year’s model features some newcomers and some oldies-but-goodies, including Ida Posner, VP and chief operating officer of Railroad Development Corp.; Justin Broyles, newly minted president and CEO of R. J. Corman Railroad Group LLC; Bob Babcock, president and CEO of Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad Corp.; and Brandy Christian, CEO of Patriot Rail Co. The jamboree’s musical director will once again be NS VP of Business Development and First and Final Mile Markets Stefan Loeb.

Again, everyone will be talking mergers — that is, with the possible exceptions of participants in RT25’s kickoff session (the Industry Fireside) and the Rail Association Insights panel, who might feel the need to remain neutral and not step out and take a solo.

The former includes, of course, Association of American Railroads President and CEO Ian Jefferies, ASLRRA’s Baker and Railway Association of Canada President and CEO (and RT newcomer) Eric Harvey. There’s lots of normal business to discuss here, including the revised 45G short-line tax credit and the introduction of something akin to 45G in Ontario, plus rail technology (see below) and more.

This year’s Rail Association Insights panel affords us the opportunity to introduce two new artists — Anne Reinke, president and CEO of the Intermodal Association of North America, and Jim Riley, president of the Railway Supply Institute — who’ll join longtime band members Railway Engineering-Maintenance Association President Urszula Soucie and National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association President Ashley Wieland.

So, come back to the garden, life is for learning ... and whatever happens with tariffs or Transcons, we are stardust, we are golden ...