CRC Sound Bite with Coalition Chair Jim Derwinski

On the eve of its third anniversary, Commuter Rail Coalition Chair Jim Derwinski provides opening comments at the spring 2022 meeting of the membership.  Chairman Derwinski shares information about the Coalition's growth, our first in-person meeting since COVID, and volunteer opportunities.

Transcript

Admin  0:09  
Thank you for joining us for a Commuter Rail Coalition Sound Bite where we bring you information impacting commuter railroads across North America. In this Sound Bite, on the eve of the Commuter Rail Coalition's third anniversary, listen in as CRC Chair Jim Derwinski presents the association update at the most recent meeting of the membership.

Jim Derwinski  0:30  
Thank you, KellyAnne. And it's great seeing everybody. There's a lot of positive signs out there right now; more in-person meetings happening.  I was at an event last night, no masks. I'd say that there were 2500 in one room and very few masks. These are signs that we're starting to move in a very positive direction (on COVID). I'm not saying that we have control over this, but obviously, it's something that we're clearly monitoring. Riderships are changing all over the nation, in some cases very rapidly. I'm sure we'll talk a little bit about that; the challenges in our industry are huge. 

We're starting to see, like many others, labor challenges. COVID has created a whole new position when it comes to having people work in the office and get things done. So the labor challenges out there right now are something that we're all kind of tackling. And in some respects, we're all wrestling over supply chain. It is starting to creep up on us not only direct supply chain, but of course, diesel, fuel, motor fuel, all of those things that bring the supply chain to our doorsteps is starting to weigh on us as well. 

So you want some more problems here, we have more problems. And of course, the uncertainty, we've seen it before. We've thought we've had positive signs, but uncertainty continues to be something that we're going to have to look back in our rearview mirror and go okay, that wasn't that uncertain anymore. But we've always stepped up to the table here. We've been creative. We really dug our heels in and we've  shown as an industry we're in this for the long haul. 

Growth of the CRC  continues to demonstrate that commuter and all of our partners play a vital role in the regions that we serve. And I'll even go further to say in the economies that we support. 

Moving on to talk about our newest members. KellyAnne (Gallagher) and team have been doing a lot of work recruiting new members.  Darren Kettle from Metrolink is now a CRC member; Rio Metro RTD/Rail Runner, Terry Doyle. Welcome New Mexico DOT's Dave Harris. RazorSecure, led by Alex Cowan; Stadler, with Martin Ritterer; and Atkins', Kurt Goddard. And believe it or not officially on my screen, I can actually see Jeff Knueppel, here representing  KCI. Jeff is, obviously, a long standing supporter of commuter rail. 

So with that, I'm moving to a real brief report. As you saw earlier, we have 14 agenda items, including the one called "adjourn".  In just  under three years, we've actually gotten to the point where we're representing 93% of pre-COVID riders, we currently have 39 railroads and private sector members. So, incredible growth, and just to say there is a pandemic going on right now; one might really wonder how far we could have traveled had there not been a pandemic. 

Once again, I go back to my earlier comment, it just shows our vast importance in the regions we serve. With our growth, though, we've had to scale some of our capacity to the point where we've actually had to start procuring outside services from third party contractors who are going to start handling some of the back office work and some of our work associated with our podcasts.  I want to thank KellyAnne personally right here. For the last almost three years now, KellyAnne has done the lion's share of that work. And I will say she does have this great army of volunteers that have really supported us. So thanks again to you and everyone who's supported CRC over the years and it's  time that we move forward and get that kind of support on the backside. 

Since the CRC last met, we've been invited to join the FRA's newly reconstituted Safety Advisory Committee, RSAC, so that's a great accomplishment. We were the only new member allowed into the RSAC committee. KellyAnne will represent CRC at RSAC and Don Eccleston from Long Island Rail Road and Dave Hein from Hatch will serve as alternates on that very important committee. 

We've launched some new task forces that we're going to talk about later today, creating additional opportunities for hands-on participation and work in the Coalition. One is a research partnership with TRB and the other one is going to take a look at our infrastructure based on a suggestion from Mike Nolan.  We'll look at how we can possibly once again make our systems more efficient and more productive using the current infrastructure. I'd love to hear Jeff Knueppel's comments on that at some later point. 

And today we're also going to be hearing from our counsel Chuck Spitulnik. He's drafted some language that we're going to need to talk through to understand how commuter could possibly be looked at more equitably in the broader Federal spectrum. We're also welcoming us DOT Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg. 

And then finally, in the upcoming weeks, we turn three years old. And with that we are finally are getting back to where we've got on the books, scheduled, an in-person, we'll call it a hybrid meeting in June where we're going to go down to San Diego to be hosted by Matt Tucker at NCTD. We'll be looking for volunteers as we go to that meeting (to serve on) the nomination committee or to fill three specific board seats. So I guess at this point in time, I'll end but I will ask if there's anybody interested in volunteering, to be on the nominating committee for our June board meeting, for three specific board seats. I'll call some people up and see if we can get some volunteers that way. I don't want to put you on the spot right now. So that really concludes my opening remarks.

Admin  6:01  
That was the Chairman's report from the Commuter Rail Coalition's spring 2022 meeting. Please join us live when we meet again June 3 in Oceanside, California. Thank you for listening.