NRC Chairman's Column: Transit, Passenger Rail Make up a Growing Piece of NRC Members’ Pie
The NRC has an impressive history of working on behalf of freight rail contractors and suppliers, but freight railroads only tell part of our story these days. We’re definitely not your father’s NRC.
Our members – old and new – are doing more and more business with transit and passenger rail entities through work on commuter, heavy- and light-rail lines, as well as streetcars and people movers. Business has expanded from providing new construction services and supplies to a complete range of maintenance services, including fully outsourced maintenance programs.
This growth of significant transit business didn’t happen overnight.
The NRC is on board with transit agencies and authorities to address the growing need for high-quality, responsive services and materials to keep busy transit lines in compliance.
Decades of work constructing new transit lines and extensions has naturally led to opportunities in maintenance services, including 24/7 maintenance programs. Today, NRC member contractors work as an extension of transit agency operating departments to provide turnkey maintenance programs customized around their requirements and operations.
These contractors assume full responsibility to keep transit rail lines running smoothly. With dedicated resources – employees, equipment, tools, facilities, planning and reporting – they are on the job around the clock working in conjunction with transit agency forces. These contractors put their track and signal expertise into action, whether inspecting, testing, maintaining or upgrading and replacing infrastructure.
NRC Transit Committee and Lobbying Focus – The NRC has evolved along with our members and dedicates considerable resources to business, legislative and regulatory developments related to passenger railways.
The NRC Transit Committee, chaired by Marc Hackett, director of operations with Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc., regularly collaborates with key transit leaders to promote growth and opportunities for our member companies. With more than a century of combined transit industry expertise, committee members focus on increasing awareness about the competitive work methods and latest technology that NRC members utilize to create safe and efficient transit operating environments.
The NRC staff in Washington, D.C., works with industry partners on the various infrastructure bill proposals and annual transportation appropriation bills that all have major implications for the rail industry, especially for transit funding. This summer, we were pleased to see the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee leadership take action on the next iteration of the surface transportation bill.
The bill puts forth some encouraging funding levels, particularly the $60-billion Rail Title and increased transit formula funds. However, we have some grave concerns over harmful labor provisions in the bill and numerous others that would create an unfriendly business environment and add new unnecessary requirements for our freight rail customers during an already challenging time. New partisan and controversial requirements contained in the bill would undermine the industry's ability to support the nation's economic recovery.
The NRC is on board with transit agencies and authorities to address the growing need for high-quality, responsive services and materials to keep busy transit lines in compliance. It’s a role the NRC and its member contractors and suppliers are investing in for the future.
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