Representatives from three National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) partner universities presented research at the 2024 Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC), including Michigan Technological University (MTU), Morgan State University (MSU), and University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). The 26th RREC was a two-day event on 29-30 October at the I-Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL. NURail CoE also had a booth in the exhibit hall.
Approximately 400 guests, including representatives from the Federal Railroad Administration, federal government agencies, Class I railroads, suppliers, and academics, had the opportunity to hear more than 60 different spoken and poster presentations. Six of these presentations were given by NURail CoE, a federally funded nine-university consortium led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign:
- Research assistant Amir Tajik, assistant professor Yousef Darestani, graduate research assistant Saeed Sohrabi and Associate Dean and Professor Pasi Lautala, all from MTU, joined William Pringle, a coastal ocean and earth scientist at Argonne National Lab, to present their research on “Coastal Railroads Damage Estimation and Mitigation Subjected to Storm-induced Inundation, Surge, and Wave.”
- MTU’s Professor Lautala and research engineers Zachary Stanchina and Jeremy Worm presented “Evaluation of Alternative Methods of Reducing Emissions in Non-Tier Locomotives.”
- “Equity at the Crossroads: Examining Demographic Disparities in Hazardous Material Transport via Railways” was presented by MSU student Nicole Anderson and Robert Starin, who are both with the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
- Assistant Professor Tyler Dick and Rydell Walthall, both of UT Austin, joined James Blaze of the Railroad Economist, and Michael Iden of Tier 5 Locomotive LLC to present “Cost and Benefit Risk Framework for Modern Railway Electrification Options.”
- UT Austin’s Assistant Professor Dick along with Jason Lustbader and Chad Baker of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Garrett Anderson and Steven Fritz of Southwest Research Institute presented their work “Maximizing Battery Electric Locomotive Decarbonization Potential with ALTRIOS: Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System.”
- Two NURail CoE partners – UT Austin and MTU – presented their research “Parameterized Life Cycle Information Models and Sensitivity Analysis of Embodied Carbon and Emissions of Railway Track Maintenance Activities.” Researchers were MTU PhD candidate Mohammad Taeb and Associate Dean and Professor Lautala and UT Austin’s Assistant Professor Dick.
RREC featured two women keynote speakers. The conference speaker was Dr. Lee Kindberg, Maersk (retired). The title of her address was “Agility and Decarbonization – Nothing Is Certain Except Change.” Janet Drysdale, CN Railway Senior Vice President and Chief Stakeholder Relations Officer, was keynote speaker for the AREMA Committee 13 Banquet.
During the conference, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) honored four railroaders for their commitment to sustainability and advancing the industry’s environmental efforts. The 2024 John H. Chafee Award for Environmental Excellence went to Union Pacific’s Jason Fox, the Environmental Excellence Award to Canadian National’s Reid Bodley, and the Career Achievement Award to both Canadian National’s Seble Afework and CPKC’s LeeAnn Thomas. These are the highest honors for environmental professionals in the railroad industry and are presented annually at RREC. Detailed information on these awards and their winners were featured in Railway Age, Progressive Railroading, and on the AAR website.
