Railway Track & Structures - November 2008 - (Page 9)

AREMA NEWS President’s Column he Annual Conference is now behind us and I would like share my thoughts regarding the conference with you. First of all, as I have said previously, it is with great honor that I now serve the association as president. I thank Larry Etherton for the excellent job he has done over the past year as president and I look forward to my next year to further the direction that Larry established during his term. The conference was a big success with attendance again at a record level. 1,360 persons attended the AREMA conference, which is a five percent increase from the 2007 conference. Salt Lake City was an excellent venue to hold the conference in the western U.S. and attendance supported this location. On Monday, Cliff Eby, deputy administrator, FRA, gave us his thoughts concerning where the industry, with the FRA’s oversight and input, needs to head concerning rail safety. Positive train control T Reflecting on conference success is a high-priority issue that the FRA and industry will address. He also discussed bridge management systems and inspection processes that have been, and will continue to be, important to the industry’s bridge infrastructure. AREMA’s Structures Functional Group has recently completed work on the AREMA Bridge Inspection Handbook, which is an excellent resource for all railroads, Class 1, 2 and 3s and shortlines. This handbook provides training material and guidance to the rail industry’s bridge departments and bridge inspectors so their bridge assets can be better inspected, maintained and upgraded. The FRA has purchased 1,000 copies of the handbook, which will be provided to all shortlines and FRA inspectors. Numerous Class 1s and other railroads have placed orders to provide this resource to their bridge inspectors and other supervisors. The handbook is a home run that will benefit the industry far into the future. If you would like to purchase a copy, it can be ordered on the AREMA Website at www.arema.org. The presentations given in both the Monday and Wednesday General Sessions and the Tuesday Functional Group Sessions were excellent. I received numerous compliments concerning the Robert J. Boileau AREMA® President 2008-2009 breadth and quality of the technical presentations. I, again, thank all who presented. You were a big part of what made the conference a success. Another highlight of the conference was the presentation of two major contributions to the AREMA Educational Foundation. The Union Pacific Foundation gave a $50,000 endowment in honor of retiring Vice President-Operations William E. “Bill” Wimmer. Bill also served as a member of the AREMA Board of Governors. And the HNTB Corporation presented the first installment of a contribution to establish an on-going HNTB Founder’s Scholarship. The REMSA show was again a big hit with conference attendees. REMSA had 165 exhibits ranging from technical services to all sorts of equipment and materials. More than 1,000 REMSA exhibitor personnel staffed the exhibits and several hundred of them also participated in the conference. REMSA is a key part of our industry and we are privileged to have such a good relationship with this organization. We look forward to our next event with REMSA, which will be the large multi-organization conference and show - Railway Interchange - in 2011. 138 attended the spouse functions, which is up almost 30 percent from last year. The spouses enjoyed the words from a guest speaker during their Monday luncheon and made a field trip to the Mormon Temple on Tuesday. The Tuesday Chairmen’s Luncheon was again very well attended and Wick Moorman, chairman and chief executive officer, Norfolk Southern, gave the keynote address via video. Wick stressed the growing importance of rail to the movement of the nation’s goods and the role of the engineering departments to provide the infrastructure needed to provide reliable service to its customers. The conference went off without a hitch due to the advance planning and day-to-day operations during the event. Many thanks to the Conference Operating Committee and all the volunteers that spent many hours manning the booths, desks and presentation sessions. The AREMA staff also worked very long days making sure the conference ran smoothly. Thank you to all who made this event a success. I hope to see you all back at next year’s AREMA Annual Conference & Exposition in Chicago, September 20-23. - Robert J. Boileau www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures November 2008 9 http://www.arema.org http://www.arema.org http://www.rtands.com

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Railway Track and Structures Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D TrainingVvital in Shaping Future of Railroad Industry Switch Stands, Switch Machines Automation Offers Improvements in M/W Planning AREMA 2008 Conference Report Products and Literature People Calendar Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - November 2008

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