Railway Track & Structures - May 2008 - (Page 24)

State of the NRC is made-up of companies that work on tracks, signal systems, bridges and rail facilities, encompassing every aspect of the railroad infrastructure. We compete with each other, but we do it honorably and we know when the time is right to work together. RT&S: What are your goals for the NRC? Ramirez: I have a few very important goals for the NRC. First and foremost, safety is at the very top of my agenda. Safety is the key to everything we do, and it will absolutely be my Number One focus until the day I leave my position as chairman of the NRC. Most of our contractors are already doing an excellent job on the safety front, and we will work to get the word out to the rest of the industry. When our railroad, transit and industrial track customers hire us, they must know that safety is our Number One priority. Internally, we are going to continue to ramp up our focus on safety. We will highlight and enhance the annual Safe Contractor of the Year award contest. We’re expanding the usefulness of the safety section of the NRC Website (www.nrcma.org) and we’re increasing our involvement with the Federal Railroad Administration through the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee. Currently, the NRC has Safety Committee members working on the Medical Standards and Bridge Safety Task Force Committees. I also intend to continue and improve our services to our members. One of our most important member services is the Roadway Worker Protection training that we offer. We have spent a lot of time and money getting this program off the ground and we are continuing to work hard on it. For the RWP program, the training and test is now available at no charge to our members via CD-ROM, in addition to being available over the Web as it has traditionally been offered. My goal is to make sure this valuable service is used fully by our members as it will make our industry both safer and more efficient. Additionally, we are producing a series of instructional safety DVDs for distribution to our members. We have already released the first four DVDs, dealing with hand tool safety, power tool safety, safety on the track and safety around rail maintenance equipment. And we are currently in the planning stages for the next two, which we expect to release in late 2008. We are very excited about these products and, just like the RWP CD-ROM, we are distributing them at no cost to our members. Finally, I am also focused on maintaining our wonderful tradition of educational and timely conferences and exhibitions. The next one is January 710, 2009, at the Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa in Fort Myers, Fla. We’ll be renewing our exhibition partnership with REMSA there, but we can talk about that in more detail later. RT&S: Chuck, what can you tell us about your recent legislative activities? Baker: The NRC wants to continue playing an active role in pushing a legislative agenda that is good for the railroad industry. We are doing everything we can to promote the extension of the shortline rehabilitation tax credit, which expired at the end of 2007. This turned out to be a very important piece of legislation that helped maximize rehabilitation spending in the shortline industry. The Railway Tie Association estimates that railroad tie purchases increased by at least 500,000 per year over the three-year life of the credit. At a time when Congress is trying to stimulate the U.S. economy, this kind of tax incentive is very useful. It helps maximize shortline capital investment. It has leveraged additional capital spending by railroad customers who are more willing to make additional investments in their own railroad infrastructure so as to accommodate the longer and heavier trains made possible by shortline track rehabilitation. Perhaps most important of all, this additional investment is being spent on track materials that are made almost exclusively in America and that are being installed by NRC contractors. The NRC has also actively supported the Class 1 railroad effort to avoid reregulation. Reregulating the railroads is a sure way to reduce capital investment in the national railroad network. Railroads need to be increasing capacity and reregulation runs completely counter to that need. www.rtands.com 24 Railway Track & Structures May 2008 http://www.nrcma.org http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track & Structures - May 2008

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