So here I am up in Massachusetts, about eight weeks into this new job, and I get an email telling me about a public hearing that the Joint Committee on Transportation of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was having, and that there was a bill that would allow the transfer of surplus railroad property from the DOT to the railroads in Massachusetts. Time to get the tie and jacket out of the closet in New Jersey and bring them up north to go to the statehouse in Boston to testify.As I have written many times before, going to see politicians is something I have done for many years now, but in New Jersey we really dealt with the politicians on the national front, like congressmen and senators, and not as much with the state assemblymen or senators. I think this was more because there really was not as much legislation that applied to the railroads, and most railroad issues were handled directly by the DOT. As I have now found out, this is not the case in Massachusetts, and I was off to speak to the Joint Committee on Transportation.As I mentioned above, this was a public hearing, and comments on roughly 30 different bills were going to be heard. For those of you who remember the TV show The West Wing, there was an episode that dealt with the day that the President’s staff had to meet with the general public and hear about all of the (sometimes crazy) ideas for the path that the president should follow. The hearing I was at was not terribly different. There were people who wanted to express their support for bills covering electronic traffic ticket generation, illegal use of handicap parking placards, bicycle paths and protective side guards on trucks, and medical examinations for some types of bus drivers, and then of course, the railroaders.Instead of each of us going up one at a time to testify, we set up two panels of people to speak to the committee. Each of us on the panels got a chance to speak on the bill, which would benefit the small railroads by allowing MassDOT to make surplus materials, like rail or ties and other equipment directly available to them instead of having to sell the materials for scrap. What happens now is that we generally end up repurchasing the same materials from the dealers (at a higher price, and sometimes with funds from state grant programs), and we don’t get as big a bang for our buck as we can. While we were just a small percentage of the people who spoke that day, one thing that I noticed was that the committee members were listening to what we were saying, which wasn’t exactly the case during some of the other testimony. At any time, some of the members were looking down into their phones or doing paperwork, but when we were up there, I was able to make eye contact with each of the members there.While I am sure that the content of our testimony was forgotten in minutes after we left, the important thing was that we were heard, and our support was on the record.
---By Steve Friedland
Steve Friedland is a well-known leader in the short line industry who has devoted more than two decades to railroading. At the Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR's Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA's board of directors.
Steve Friedland is a well-known leader in the short line industry who has devoted more than two decades to railroading. At the Morristown & Erie Railway, a 42-mile New Jersey short line, he worked in all areas of the railroad, including track, mechanical, signals, and operations. In 1999, he founded Short Line Data Systems, a provider of railroad EDI and dispatching software, AEI hardware, and management consulting to the short line industry. He currently serves as the ASLRRA representative to the AAR's Wireless Communications Committee and is chairman of the joint AAR-ASLRRA Short Line Information Improvement Committee. He also is a member of the ASLRRA's board of directors.