Durango & Silverton Challenged By Continuous Flooding
Texas & Eastern Railroad completes first phase of track infrastructure project
Iowa railroad expands Le Mars Transload Center with $792,000 state loan
Port nets $8.92M grant for railroad safety improvements
$22 million railroad grant supports grain movement in Minnesota
Chicago South Shore Railroad Receives $2.88 Million Federal Grant for Infrastructure Improvements
Railroad members! If you want to be featured in this section, please email us the link. You can also tag us (@ASLRRA) in your social media posts. Interested in seeing your railroad showcased in your local newspaper? Contact Amy Krouse for assistance.
ASLRRA is now accepting nominations for its three member awards, the Business Development Awards, Green Spark Award (formerly the Environmental Award) and the Veterans Engagement Award. Nominations for all awards are due Jan. 8.
Every year, the Association recognizes its members for exemplary performance in business and marketing, environmental initiatives and support of military veterans. Winning railroads are recognized in person at the 2027 ASLRRA Annual Conference & Exhibition, which will be held March 14-16, 2027 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Green Spark Award (formerly the Environmental Award)
Please contact Mariel Takamura with any questions.
Only One Week Remains to Nominate Deserving Railroaders for ASLRRA’s Safety Person and Safety Professional of the Year Awards
In addition to its member awards, ASLRRA honors two individuals each year for their contributions to safety at their railroads and in the community. Nominations are due next week, Nov. 12, for the Association’s Safety Person of the Year and Safety Professional of the Year Awards.
As with the member awards, winners of the safety awards will be honored in person at the 2027 ASLRRA Annual Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans.
The Safety Person of the Year Award recognizes any railroad employee at any level, except those considered to be professional safety management employees.
The Safety Professional of the Year is open to any professional safety management employee of an ASLRRA Class II or Class III member railroad who is responsible for safety programs, training and the overall management of safe behavior and actions on their railroad(s).
The November edition of the Railroad Retirement Board’s (RRB) Q&A series discusses how parts of a railroad retirement employee annuity can be considered marital property subject to legal partition.
According to the RRB, only select components of employee annuities can be subject to a legal partition order, including the tier II component of a railroad retirement employee annuity and a railroad retirement supplemental annuity.
Under this order, a portion of select annuity components are paid on a monthly basis directly to a former spouse or spouse in cases of divorce, annulment or legal separation. Legal partition is different from garnishment, as garnishment can be applied to employee, spouse or survivor annuities and sickness and unemployment benefits paid under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA).
The Q&A goes on to explain how a monthly partition payment is calculated, what a spouse or former spouse must do to receive partition payments, how long a legal partition can be applied and more.
Midterm elections took place across the nation yesterday, though election officials in many states continue to count votes and results are still unknown in many races.
ASLRRA’s government affairs team is monitoring election outcomes. No matter the composition of Congress come January, the Association is prepared to engage with every elected official on issues important to the short line freight rail industry. This includes the 45G short line infrastructure tax credit, Division J funding for transportation programs, modal equity with trucks and much more.
ASLRRA’s advocacy efforts include helping new members of Congress understand short line railroads and what makes them unique. Industry stakeholders interested in assisting in this outreach will have an opportunity to do so at Railroad Day on Capitol Hill, which will take place May 19, 2027, in Washington, D.C.
Railroad Day on Capitol Hill unites hundreds of railroad industry professionals, all of whom are eager to help their elected representatives understand the importance of strong public policies that help railroads perform at increasingly high levels of efficiency and safety.
ASLRRA expects to open registration for Railroad Day on Capitol Hill in early 2027. Bookmark the Association’s Railroad Day on Capitol Hill webpage and watch for emails to stay abreast of information about this important event.
Know a company that would benefit from joining and participating in ASLRRA? Please contact Vice President, Membership Danialle Lovik via email or at (202) 585-3443.
U.S. Marine Insurance Group (USMIG) provides first-party insurance coverage for short line and regional railroads for property, locomotives, rolling stock, maintenance-of-way equipment, bridges, tunnels, track and roadbed, foreign rolling stock, and bill of lading exposures through appointed agents and brokers. Their dedicated underwriting team brings more than 40 years of combined railroad insurance experience, delivering specialized expertise and service to the railroad industry. Vice President, Railroad Underwriting, Chuck Brehmer, can be reached at cbrehmer@usmig.net.
Since 1989, Yangtze Railroad Materials (YRM) has supplied railroad track hardware from our home base in Maryland. As a certified Minority Business Enterprise, they stock joint bars, compromise joint bars, tie plates, track and screw spikes, track bolts and nuts, rail clips, and other components for short line, regional, and Class I railroads, transit agencies, and contractors. YRM would be glad to help with your next project. Please reach out to Patrick Young at pyoung@yangtzeproducts.com or (410) 501-5318.
Honoring award winners and learning from industry luminaries is only one of the many exciting and engaging events that will take place at the 2027 ASLRRA Annual Conference & Exhibition.
The conference will also feature a busy exhibition hall, hours of industry education, opportunities to connect with railroad colleagues, suppliers, stakeholders and leaders and much more. Networking events will include evening receptions and a closing event at Five O Fore Golf.
Registration is now open for ASLRRA’s 2027 Annual Conference & Exhibition, which will be held March 14-16 at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Click here to register now and secure the Early Bird Rate. Registration for the closing event at Five O Fore Golf is free for Class II and III railroad members.
ASLRRA reminds everyone that the Association does not employ or partner with third parties to book rooms. The only authorized source for hotel reservation information for conference hotels is the Association’s website. Click here to book a room in one of the six hotels in which ASLRRA has a room block.
Anyone who receives a solicitation from a hotel scammer should contact meetings@aslrra.org immediately. ASLRRA’s legal team will follow up with the solicitor.
The Coalition Health Plan is specifically designed for ASLRRA members looking for a solution to reduce medical premiums and simplify the employee healthcare experience. When you partner with HUB, you're at the center of a vast network of experts who will help you reach your goals through risk services, claims management, and compliance support.
Click here to learn more about ASLRRA’s Member Discount Program and view all available products and services, or contact ASLRRA’s Sabrina Waiss for more information about becoming a Preferred Provider.
Nov. 10, 2026: Evaluating Railroad Infrastructure Exposure to Natural Hazards using FRA's Composite Hazard Index (CHI)
The Composite Hazard Index (CHI) for Rail serves as the definitive empirical baseline for evaluating railroad infrastructure exposure to natural hazards. By synthesizing multidimensional environmental data—such as annualized frequencies of recorded occurrences for various hazard types—into a unified, rail-centric scale by census tract, the CHI provides a standardized framework to quantify risks to safety and service reliability. Currently, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is utilizing GIS technology to assist with weighting hazards geographically and gathering qualitative insights. To support these analytical efforts, FRA has built an interactive geospatial tool that provides CHI baseline results, top-ranked hazards by census tract, and spatial integrations with the North American Rail Network (NARN).
Speakers: Raquel Wright, Transportation Analyst (GIS), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Ruby Li, Operation Research Analyst, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Jo Strang, SVP, Safety, Regulatory, and Environmental Policy, ASLRRA and Fred Oelsner, VP, Data, Technology and Security, ASLRRA.
Nov. 12, 2026: Using Rail Protect to Support FRA 172.820 HazMat Route Risk Analysis
Representatives from ASLRRA supplier member Tiez Technologies will discuss Rail Protect, an application built to support FRA 172.820 hazmat route risk analysis. The session will cover how the tool helps railroads identify and score risk at the segment level, track hazards and mitigations, and generate clear, audit-ready reports that stay tied to actual track geometry and mileposts. Rail Protect runs on RailPlatform, the cloud-native GIS platform Tiez designed specifically for railroad networks. By anchoring risk data to accurate linear referencing, subdivision boundaries, and infrastructure layers (including crossings, bridges, and operational zones), RailPlatform gives safety, compliance, engineering, and operations teams a shared, map-centric view of the network.
The webinar will walk through practical examples of how Rail Project tools fit into existing compliance and operations workflows for short line and regional railroads, including options for transitioning prior HTRAM data into the RailPlatform environment to preserve historical risk information, segment scores, and supporting records.
Speakers: Tim Brauer, Principal, Tiez Technologies and Michael White, Principal, Tiez Technologies
Every year for Veterans Day, ASLRRA shines a light on those in the short line industry who have served or are serving their country in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Last year, the Association invited individuals to share their stories via online form. ASLRRA looks to continue that tradition in 2026, encouraging veterans who work for either railroad or supplier members to talk about their personal experiences in these fields.
The connection between the military and the railroad industry is strong. Your responses will help ASLRRA share more about this connection and help the public understand it better.
Click here to complete an online form. Responses are due by Nov. 5.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced $1.24 billion in funding will be awarded under the Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) grant program. Grants will go to 91 projects in 37 states, funding rail safety infrastructure projects in various stages of completion, from project planning to construction.
Although short line railroads are not directly eligible for RCE funding, several ASLRRA members will make improvements to at-grade rail crossings or otherwise further project planning thanks to RCE grants awarded to local governments, state departments of transportation and other eligible entities.
These ASLRRA members include the Great Western Railway in Loveland, Colorado; Florida East Coast Railway in Stuart, Florida; Iowa Interstate Railroad along the Colona Rail Corridor in Illinois, New Orleans Public Belt Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana; Mississippi Export Railroad in George County, Mississippi; Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad in Hampton Roads, Virginia; and Pend Oreille Valley Railroad in Usk, Washington.
Click here to view the full list of RCE grant recipients and read project summaries.
Tomorrow, Sarah Yurasko will attend the 2026 Association of Transportation Law Professionals (ATLP) Fall Transportation Forum at Surface Transportation Board headquarters in Washington, D.C. The forum enables transportation bar professionals to interact with regulators and hear from experts on legal and commercial challenges and freight transportation developments.
ASLRRA maintains an industry calendar featuring events that may be of interest to members. If you have an industry event you would like included on the calendar and possibly in Views & News, please send relevant event details and links to Mariel Takamura for consideration.
Views & News is published by American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.
Please contact Mariel Takamura, associate editor, with questions or comments.
