After a year’s live absence (but as good a zoom as you can have) RailTrends 2021 is back live and in
person at the Marriott Marquis in wide-open (vax-mandated) NYC November 19th & 20th. See the attached agenda for the speaker order and www.railtrends.com and you will see that RT2021 is certainly
no placeholder till things “really get back to normal” – despite the uncertainties, difficulties in travel
(including cross-border, of course) and everything else we have –all – had to face, we have a really good
thing going....we’ll be covering the key rail investment themes (overcome as was everything by the
pandemic but now re-emerging)of Growth/ESG/Technology while hardly ignoring the up-to-the-minute
issues of consolidation, regulation, and supply chain. And by being “live” we can once again bring out
the hidden power of the RailTrends franchise – the quality of and interaction with the audience...
Our 2021 Railroad Innovator of the Year is CN’s CEO JJ Ruest – who was chosen based on his body of
work bringing helping move Canadian National from PSR to PSR 2.0 and now to DSR (digital). Of course,
we know that there is an activist campaign by large CN (and, remember, CP) shareholder TCI to replace
Mr. Ruest with well-known former CN (and UP) COO Jim Vena. As of now, we do not know the full TCI
plan, and only the beginnings of CN’s response, so the target date for the special shareholders meeting
of March 22, 2022, seems to still be the key moment in the future. That said, attacking CN for the
Operating Ratio and growth gap to their rival CP, echoing some themes of the just-concluded campaign
for KCS, seems short-sighted, and a turn away from growth (and “feeding the beast”) toward margin
improvement – exactly not what the (US) regulators want to hear! And the “real” OR gape is only about
~2-300bps, not the 1000-1500bps opportunities that existed in the three activist shareholder campaigns
this century (CSX, CP, CSX again), after a 50-year or so pause, all three successful, two of them helmed
by the late Hunter Harrison. JJ’s speech will therefore not only be partially valedictory but an important
campaign milestone.
Growth: That railroads had for the most part passed PSR 1.0 (cost revolution) and entered 2.0 was
overwhelmed by the pandemic and the rhetoric. Of course, not all of the criticism is wrong, but we
wanted to re-focus the discussion back on “the pivot to growth” (CP’s phrase), and the
acknowledgment that “service begets growth” (KCS’). The theme will be kicked off by lead-sponsor
Oliver Wyman in the person of Railways Partner Adriene Bailey, whose speech at our 2020 virtual event
was the buzz of the conference (if only there was a live cocktail party then – for so many reasons but
mainly to continue that discussion!). This year she will discuss “Creating a Customer-Centric rail of the
Future”, the unofficial theme of the entire event. In addition, from the carriers:
- The future of CP and the new CPKC from CEO Keith Creel himself. Nuff Ced!
- Union Pacific’s Kenny Rocker, Chief Marketing Officer
- Kevin Boone, CSX’s CMO
- Ed Elkins, Norfolk Southern’s VP of Industrial Products, to discuss their already much-prized new
experiments in growth, including less-than-carload traffic! - EVP/COO of KCS John Orr will talk about how their service improvements, especially in Mexico,
will, er, beget growth. After John’s speech, there will be a “Special Recognition of KCS’s Sameh
Fahmy’s Retirement – featuring the management team of the Kansas City Southern - Our annual Shortline Commercial Panel, the entrepreneurial side of railroading, cited by CPKC as
a source of synergistic growth and critical to the post-PSR world, featuring Michael Miller,
GWR’s President of North America, Alin Campian CCO of RJ Corman, Jimmy Patterson SVP
Commercial, Watco, and certainly not least, Bruce Lieberman, co-founder and SVP/CFO,
Anacostia & Pacific - I will stick the Analyst Panel here, as Larry (“Mister Intermodal”) Gross and myself (insert you
own nickname – be nice) will discuss the current, IM-centered supply chain issue and the future
of rail/IM growth potential...
Tech & ESG will be sub-themes in most if not all of the presentations but will feature in two specific
presentations:
- Rail Pulse – an update on the transition of this game-changing diplomatic achievement into a practical technological visibility solution for rails and carload shippers, featuring 2/5 of the co-founders, Gregg Mitchell – EVP/CCO of Trinity Industries and the irrepressible Mike McLellan, VP Strategic Planning from Norfolk Southern. At the networking break, I am sure you can ask these guys about other things at NSC and TRN!
- New Power Options for Locomotives – who better to tell us about jumping on the Green Train
than Gina Trombley, EVP/Sales/CCO of Wabtec?
Regulation – the issue (threat?) is baaack, and it will also be a sub-themes in most of not all of the
presentations, by the CEOs, and as related to reducing congestion and the growth pivot, but will be
specifically addressed thrice:
- Of course, we are pleased to have an update by the Chairman himself, the STB’s Marty Oberman.
Marty has become a friend, even if we don’t....always agree, and is not shy. - In a prequel, the CEO of the Association of American Railroads, Ian Jefferies, will present the
rails’ position on issues such as reciprocal switching and regulation of rails, in general. In a
preview of the prequel, see attached. - In addition, we have our annual “Association Viewpoint Panel”, featuring Marc Brazeau, CEO of
the Railway Association of Canada, Ashley Weiland, President of the NRC, Urszula Soucie,
President of REMSA, and Jon Palmbak, SVP of the Intermodal Association of North America
(IANA); after a pandemic-induced hiatus we’ll have ASLRRA back in ’22.
So – clearly RT21 is no placeholder. We expect to directly address the North American rail issues of the
day – growth, service, technology, regulation, activism, ESG – head-on and come out the other side much
better informed. Join us, LIVE from NYC November 19-20!
Anthony B. Hatch
abh consulting
http://www.abhatchconsulting.com
abh18@mindspring.com
Twitter @ABHatch18