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Platform Chats
Platform Chats
New Technology in the Rail Industry
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Join our host Walt Bleser as he sits down with Mike Weber, Signal Engineer at Modern Railway Systems, and Jerry Specht, Director of Signal Engineering at BNSF Railway. The three discuss AREMA’s newest Committee 35 – Information Technology. They take a dive into the future of AREMA, new technology in the industry, and the goals of Committee 35. You won’t want to miss this episode.
You know, with Committee 35, uh we're not looking to create uh the worldwide IT standards. What we're looking to do is is take existing IT standards, existing practices that are already out there, and make sure that we present them in a way that they are consumable by the rail professional, to take what's important to them so that when they have that question, when they have that lingering doubt, when they're when they're still in the process of putting together a project, they have some guidance that that will tell them what it's going to look like when they're done.
SPEAKER_00You may know the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, or AREMA, as the quote, keepers of the manuals. You may know them as the quote, people behind the largest annual railroad conference in North America. Heck, you may not know about AREMA at all. This podcast is designed, no pun intended, to change your view of who AREMA is and how AREMA has changed the trajectory of many railway careers over its 100-plus year history. Welcome to Platform Chats with your host, Walt Lesser, where he takes a moment to discuss the impacts AREMA has had on the very people who are proud to be called members. Are you ready to roll with ARIMA?
SPEAKER_02This episode is brought to you by Unabridged Structures. Unabridged Structures provides mentorship and advisement to emerging technologies and early stage companies focused on infrastructure. They have a proven track record of bringing technology solutions to the railway industry. For more on Unabridged Structures, go to Unabridged Structures.com.
SPEAKER_03Hey everybody, and welcome back to Arima's Platform Chats. Holy cow, it has been a minute. I was looking at the last time we recorded an episode, and I saw June 7th. And I'm looking at my calendar right now, and it's late July. And uh the amount of fan mail coming in demanding more content was completely overwhelming. Uh so I just want to come right out and say thank you to each and every one of you that reached out via LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, MySpace. Oh, I guess now you know that I'm somewhat joking. But honestly, it has been a minute. Total apologies. I think part of it is the fact that I was reveling in the fact that while we were away, platform chats with yours truly made the top 25 railway industry podcasts. Let that sink in. The part that I want to sink in is I did not know there were 24 other railway industry podcasts. So we are number 13, we got some work to do. Um, and I think the way we do that is we keep hitting it hard, and we're gonna start by going to talk about the future of Arima. So we have talked about the past, we have talked about history and setup of AREMA, we talked about how we're organized, we've had some fantastic guests on here talking about their careers, but over the course of the next couple podcasts, I want to get people excited about the fact that Arima is not just someone keeping track of what it has been, but we are also looking with an eye to the future. And so, with that, if you happened to read in RTNS magazine, um the article message from the president, Vic Babin, wrote an article about a brand new committee, committee 35 information technology, which as you hear on this podcast is a bucket with a lot of stuff in it, beyond just what you might think of as IT. It's not a help desk for your uh printer not working, although maybe it could be. I'm sure the chairman would love those emails. It's in the CNS functional group, and it was created somewhat as a directive from Vic Babin, who has a CNS background. So, for the loyal listeners, you know I'm a bridge guy, so I'm out of my a little bit out of my depths here. I I might have had something to do with a little IoT company in the past, so I know a thing or two, but these guys know a lot more than me, and I am stoked to hear what they have to say about C35. So, long introduction, but that's what happens when you're a little rusty. So, with that, I have Jerry Speck. He is currently, well, let's talk about his real job. His real job is he is the CNS functional group vice president for AREMA. And then in his spare time, Jerry is the director of signal engineering at BNSF. And in addition to Jerry, I'm gonna let Jerry give a little introduction here in a second, but in addition to Jerry, we have Mike Weber, and he is the chairman, the brand new, I mean, he is still wet. I'm looking at him on the screen here, chairman of C35, which is the information technology committee. And in his spare time, he is a signal engineer with modern railway systems. Uh in addition to that, when Mike starts talking, I want you to close your eyes and I want you to picture yourself in 1977 getting ready to listen to the next Led Zeppelin cut that's about to get dropped on the needle on the record at 11 o'clock at night as you just cracked another ham's. Okay. Mike, I don't know if I could have done a better intro. So with that, Jerry, why don't you start actually? Because you, I introduced you first. You are technically Mike's boss in Arima. So why don't you just talk a little bit about your role both at BNSF, Arima, how you got here, just whatever you want to talk about. This is a this is a safe space.
SPEAKER_04Well, hi Walt, thanks again for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate it. Um I'm gonna go back into the uh way back when machine and just start from the beginning. So uh born and raised in Center, North Dakota, uh started in the rail industry in 1994 as a track laborer, was a welder, grinder, machine operator, going to school at North Dakota State University uh for electrical engineering. And at one point in time, after uh pounding spikes melting rail together and and uh and then grinding some of that melted rail, um, I ended up deciding, hey, you know what? I I actually need to start looking at interning for the railroad and uh working in uh the actual field of electrical engineering. So I I got into the signal department, did that for a couple of summers interning for BNSF. And uh upon graduation uh from NDSU in Fargo, I uh hired on full-time in 1999 as a corporate management trainee and uh started as a in the in the signal engineering office in Kansas City, and then uh from there held positions in Glendive, Montana as a maintenance supervisor, Gillette, Wyoming as a maintenance supervisor, uh went down to I went back up to Billings as a general construction supervisor, down to Fort Worth as manager of special projects, back to Gillette because I just didn't get enough of Gillette Wyoming back as a uh I was a uh general signal supervisor, then out to Seattle as a manager of signals, and then now in my current role as a director of signal engineering. And so in this in this current role, uh basically doing uh train traffic control system design, uh working with safety checking teams, working with RD standards, all of that fun stuff, and and basically kind of shaping shaping the construction projects and what we're gonna do, where the future lies within BNSF, and then also looking even further out into research and development, what's what's coming up for the future and where we need to take the industry. Um so currently uh with Arima working as the uh CNS functional group vice president, which now with this change with Committee 35 edition is now going to be branded as the Communication Signals and Information Technology uh functional group. So now instead of just CNS, it's CS and IT. Um so you know, with the REMA, I've been a member since 1999. Uh spent time on the board of directors uh for the CNS functional group, executive nominating committee, membership committee, and then also helping out with the publications committee.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_04Quite a bit there.
SPEAKER_03Quite a bit. And just for everyone's uh knowledge, when I say that I'm talking about myself. CNS, the functional group, what what all the committees fall under your purview outside of 35?
SPEAKER_04So we we have committee 34, which is scales, committee 36 is highway rail grade crossing warning systems, committee 37 is signal systems, committee 38 is information defect detection and energy systems, and then committee 39 is positive train control.
SPEAKER_03Perfect. Okay, that's outstanding uh information for those that don't know. And uh yeah, you know, without further ado, Mike.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you, Walt. I really appreciate the opportunity to come here today and and speak to your audience and uh and to meet up with you and Jerry. It's always good to have a discussion with you guys. And uh I'm I'm excited about C35 getting launched. I'm I'm grateful to the AREMA board for for putting this all together. I think it was a uh a step that was needed, and uh I'm I'm glad they've addressed it. And uh I I look forward to being able to provide the guidance in IT uh like AREMA has been providing in in all other facets of railroading for so long. So I guess to uh to start at the beginning, like Jerry did, I uh born and bred in the Chicago area, and uh I'm still living there to this day. Uh I actually started uh outside of the rail industry, so I spent 25 years uh as a video engineer and uh did uh all manner of things from uh live remote sports, uh traveling around the country doing that, and also doing uh advanced uh post-production uh special effects for mostly national commercials. So did everything from uh you know your local McDonald's commercial to uh I did do seven Super Bowl spots uh during my career. Uh so it was an exciting time. We worked mostly with the ad agencies, and uh, but I was on the technical side of things, so we did a a lot of engineering, research, and development. And during that time I had uh befriended sort of, you know, through friends of friends, met some folks who were in the signaling industry. And and as a student of all things engineering, I I was I was attracted to the uh the the graceful elegance that is uh signaling and and how those systems were put together and and kind of got uh unofficial uh uh mentoring from some of those friends, and we started talking about it. When the business changed after uh the business I was in changed after the uh the 2008 uh bubble burst and and all of the economic ramifications from that, uh I had put in my 25 years and decided, you know what, it's time to time to go look at something else. Maybe I'll go check out this uh this railroad thing and see if we can make uh make a go of it. So I started at CN in 2013, held a few jobs there, uh uh started in actually just as an entry level, got in at the call desk, so worked the emergency call desk for a while, moved quickly into the uh train control group, so spent a fair amount of time in the back office. We were a TMDS company at the time, uh, and was actually there for the beginning of the migration to a new office system. So you talk about a uh a fun time to be there uh uh to not only keep an existing office system working, but also uh help implement a new one. That was uh quite exciting at times. Uh and then moved off into PTC doing uh design work uh for PTC. And the unique thing about that was at the time our PTC design group was was literally a a uh you know from project conception all the way to commissioning. So we didn't just do the office side of the design, we actually carried it all the way out and worked in the field uh doing all the commissioning. So it was a great way to get in and uh really see all facets of of that those types of projects. And uh we we we accomplished an amazing amount of work. Uh I think we did uh all together just over 1,700 cutovers in uh a little over three years. So that was uh pretty uh a cool thing to be a part of. Uh I started with Modern Railway Systems about a year ago, and I'm still based here in Chicago, and uh working on you know kind of expanding my repertoire, so working on different types of signal systems than I saw at the Class Ones, uh different types of PTC systems. So it's really been a unique educational experience, and uh I I look forward to continuing on with them and and uh continuing on with the work here at uh uh in the inarema, I've joined uh five years ago uh on committee 39, PTC, and and PTC, the PTC committee, I think Jerry kind of alluded to it, is is PTC, but it's also new technologies. So it was it was definitely the committee that if you weren't sure where to put it, you you talk to the guys in 39 because they probably had somebody who had dealt with the topic. So I look forward to continuing that, and I see C35 having some overlap there. Uh we'll will definitely be uh try to be on the cutting edge of those types of things as well. So that's that's kind of how I got started and uh and and how I got to where I am now.
SPEAKER_03Cool. And uh, you know, I'm not gonna let you go until you tell me, is it is it true you're the guy behind the three frogs that say Bud wise.
SPEAKER_01That was that was a long time ago. We we did do some work on those spots. I I didn't do the animation, we didn't do all of that, but we were we were definitely involved with those spots.
SPEAKER_03Um I you know the rail that just goes to show, Jerry, how amazingly captivating the railway industry is if you leave a job like that to join people like you and me. I mean, that's I gotta tell you, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get out of my office this afternoon because my head's so big. So thank you, Mike. Um, on that note, a couple things I want to unpack here. You guys, it's kind of cool. One, before I get into C35, I I think it's kind of cool to hear that uh we have what Mike would be considered a almost a non-traditional student for a re uh for the railway industry. You know, you hear a lot of stories about guys that started like Jerry did, where you're pre-college days in the railroad, or you had a dad or grandfather or whatever, and then next thing you know, you go to college or not, and you just boom, you're a lifer. Uh, or you've been in the industry since you graduated, like myself. And uh it's cool to hear someone that's had a a uh previous life or or a different career be able to come over here and be successful. So that's that's just something I want to hit on really quickly. You know, I think that when you talk to people about the railway industry and I talk about the general public, some don't believe us to be uh you know focused on the future or technologically adept uh individuals. I I get crap all the time that when I get home from work, do I have to take my overalls off and wipe the soot off my cheeks? Um I know it's all in jest, but you know, to a point, that's what some of the general public thinks. And yet that couldn't be further from the truth. Is that that right there, gentlemen?
SPEAKER_04I would agree, yeah. It's uh from from a technology standpoint, there's the the industry is growing in leaps and bounds. And and and I look at from the perspective of, you know, if you think about any any company, any organization, they all have problems, right? And so what are new new and innovative ways to solve existing problems? And and even problems that may have been solved already once, there's now a new way to solve that problem. And and and you know, just like every other company, I think there's there's always problems, and there's always us folks that really want to try and solve it and make make everything better.
SPEAKER_01I think some of that too falls into the uh just from the the perception that the railroads were always very slow to adopt any new technologies that came along. And and there certainly was that. I I wouldn't say the railroads were slow to adopt, but I would say they've always been cautious because let's let's face it, the the repercussions for making a bad choice or the repercussions for changing your operations in a way that that ends up leading to an incident are are are extreme. So, yes, the railroads have been cautious, but that's not to say they're not forward-thinking. Like Jerry said, they're just like any other corporation out there, they're trying to maximize uh what they can do, maximize their productivity, minimize their costs, and uh they would be foolish to not consider technology as one of those solutions to accomplish that goal. Uh PTC, I think, has definitely kicked a lot of that into high gear simply from the standpoint of you know, PTC is more than a train control system. You know, at its heart, PTC is a a very uh robust and all-encompassing communications system. And the railroads were smart to identify that yes, we can we can get a train control system out of this, but we can also leverage this communications now to provide connectivity to devices that in the past had operated completely autonomously and and completely without any type of interaction. And it's it's really paid dividends. I know at my previous job the the number of uh pieces of equipment that were being maintained by the signal department had increased uh approximately twenty percent. But the amount of minutes that a trouble ticket was opened had gone down in the same time because we had the the that proactive view of what's happening. So yeah, I I think it's definitely false nowadays to consider the railroads as anything other than forward thinking and uh embracing new technology. And I think things like C thirty five are are a testament to that.
SPEAKER_03And before we go any further, just uh can one of you give the uh elevator speech as to what PTC stands for, what it is, and uh where it originated out, you know, and my understanding is it might have been around 2008 with the uh Metrolink collision in Los Angeles, I think, cook kicked off the the uh Railroad Safety Act with that Bush signed into law because there were some bridge bridge uh safety standards that came out of that too. But that was more so the bridge piece was kind of the barnacle on the ship there. Um maybe because just if you could just give like a quick synopsis for our listeners as to as to what you're referring to.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I would I would say positive train control from my perspective, if I summarize this, is basically an enforcement system. So if you look at it, if a signal's that red and you're supposed to stop for it, uh if the engineer and conductor, for whatever reason, um due to inattentiveness or whatever it may be, aren't making the correct movements and making uh applying the brakes to the train to stop before it gets to that red, uh, at a point in time, the system will say, okay, person is not reacting. I will now enforce the braking and stop the train before that uh that stop signal. So it's it's basically about a it truly is a positive train control system that will enforce uh events that uh or or requirements that are needing to be enforced if they are not acted upon by a person.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01And I think the other good thing to point out about PTC or positive train control is the in addition to this uh enforcement of the existing signal systems we already had in place, it's also providing us a mechanism to positively enforce roadway worker protection and make sure those trains don't get into established work zones and to make sure that those trains abide by mandatory directives at a at a failed crossing, for example. Uh things that we we didn't have before PTC was in.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's a great point, Mike, and just thinking about the work zone incursion uh incursion requirements, making sure we're preventing work zone incursions.
SPEAKER_03Got it. Okay. Outstanding. Well, it sounds like PT the PTC subcommittee quickly became the the repository for new technologies. And when I look at uh Vic's article, uh, you know, to quote Vic, um the railway industry continues to apply more sensors, detectors, diagnostic and inspection equipment on the wayside to monitor and analyze the health, security, and proper operation of critical assets. He goes on to talk about uh computer-aided dispatching, back office systems, control cab training, simulators, and he talks also even about electric railroads dynamically modeling the performance of traction power systems. Uh that's a wide variety of stuff, guys. So is all of that that he's talking about, which I can see how that falls outside of proper PTC guidelines, is that how 35 came about? Or which one of you wants to kind of take that and run with it?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I can start with it. And just thinking about the the overall premise of commit creating committee 35 was to allow for these topics that haven't been really broached uh by by the by AREMA in general, and but yet are still uh consider issues and things that need to be addressed in the rail industry. And and so the intent of creating this new IT portion is to encapsulate some of these best practices amongst the railroads. Um so let's just say a railroad's looking for how to put in a uh you know a fire suppression system or any type of sensor system, what standards and I guess not standards, but best practices amongst the railroads are out there, and this is the best way to gather all those ideas and collectively put them into a a committee and have the conversations, hence committee 35, to have the committee uh discuss these issues and figure out what is the best avenue for the rail industry in general. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, there there used to be a time when anything electronic on the railroad was was either a signal or a radio. And and we've we've seen as the world has changed over the last two and three decades, just how much processing is now everywhere. Uh every device out there. I mean, you look around your home, and you you you can't you can't turn your head more than than 90 degrees and and view multiple uh microprocessors in your home, whether it's in an appliance or uh uh audiovisual equipment, whatever. Uh and I think the railroads have run into that as well. They've they've taken uh what had been traditionally legacy signal systems, and now we're we're bolting on all of these additional things, either as a part of a vital system, or as Jerry was pointing out, as an adjunct to that. And now we need to be able to provide some guidance there of how do you go about it? Uh we've we've all of a sudden got Ethernet connectors on everything, or we've got RF connections that we never had in the past. So, you know, with Committee 35, uh, we're not looking to create uh the worldwide IT standards. What we're looking to do is take existing IT standards, existing practices that are already out there, and make sure that we present them in a way that they are consumable by the rail professional, to take what's important to them so that when they have that question, when they have that lingering doubt, when they're when they're still in the process of putting together a project, they have some guidance that that will tell them what it's going to look like when they're done.
SPEAKER_04You know, and Mike, every time you talk about all these sensors and microprocessors, I always start thinking of that movie Maximum Overdrive, just not to date myself, but kind of scary at some point in time when your your appliances are talking back to you. But I mean, oh overall, I I I think that you know as everything becomes censored up, we have what is the the the term IoT, uh internet of things, and and we we kind of really have to start figuring out what do we want as an industry, and how do we try to you know give everybody the idea of how how how our industry is is uh moving in that direction. And uh as as you stated, with with Ethernet and and uh the internet and everything else, we're becoming more connected, and now we have to do something with this data too, which and and ends up uh bringing into the world of data analytics. And uh the railroads are all in in the uh world of data analytics now and looking at what is this stuff telling me? It's telling me a story. Do I need to fix something here, or can I wait a little bit and and then fix it later? So it helps us prioritize our maintenance, uh capital plans, everything else.
SPEAKER_03Got it. Well, that's uh yeah, I I mean I personally this week uh we replaced our router in my own house, and uh I could not believe the number of devices I had to go around this house and type in the new password. I mean, when you walk from when you walk in the door, you got the video doorbell to the to the NES thermostat to the whatever. You know, it's just like the whole thing fell apart. And I don't think that I'm probably not alone in that, and far less is the is the industry that we work in, and you know, well, that's a perfect way to jump in. How are you guys gonna break this down? I mean, I know that for the structures committee, uh, committees that I'm on, we have subcommittees uh to handle the different uh niches. I know that contrary to popular belief by the general public, there's more than just when within steel bridges, there's a number of other uh items within a steel bridge that need to be paid attention to. So, how are you guys gonna break down what seems to me like just a massive wave uh coming at you?
SPEAKER_04I I think the biggest part from my perspective was, you know, first let's get a strong leadership team in place. And and you know, Mike Mike has such a great background in this, and hence the reason why we we kind of gave the vote of confidence here. Mike, you you you're gonna run with this and and make us all proud. But at the same time, given some guidance of some topics of what areas we consider are key right now in the rail industry. And and one thing I want to make perfectly clear is Committee 35 was intentionally uh not given boundaries. So uh we want to make sure that it doesn't become, okay, you're cast in this specific box here, and do not leave this box whatsoever. So uh but but we still had to give some proper guidance in in providing this list of original topics that seem to be the hot topics for for uh IT world. And and so given given that task, Mike has uh has worked with this team, started forming the framework, and not to speak fully here for Mike, I'll let you uh segue you into the rest of the conversation there.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Well, thank you, Jerry. Uh yes, we we have put together a leadership team, so uh, although I'm the chair, I I consider myself the the least important part of all of this. What what really makes the committee is all the all the members who have joined it. Uh we have a uh a vice chair, Robert Kramer, who uh is a former colleague of mine uh from CN. He's now at WebTech, uh and he's taken on the vice chair role. Very talented when it comes to all things IT, back office, and field communications. He's he's an amazing talent, and I'm I'm lucky to have him as part of the team. Uh Clay Payne from Burns Engineering has uh stepped up and uh said, you know what, I've never been on a committee before, but I want to help out, and uh so he's gonna be our secretary, and uh really brings a lot of insight when it comes into facilities planning and uh some of the things that that maybe have always fallen on the periphery, particularly at the class one level. Uh Clay has a lot of uh intimate knowledge in in those types of systems and uh looking to bring a lot of talent in through that. Uh but really it's we we have our list of topics as as Jerry has talked about. Uh we've we've taken a stab at dividing things up into subcommittees, as you were talking about, Walt. Uh and there are sort of natural categories that a lot of these topics fall into. But what's really gonna drive all of this home is the members that we can attract. Uh we can't talk about a topic that we don't have expertise uh on board. So this is really where you know I'm gonna sit here and make an appeal to those listening and and those who are members of ARIMA. Consider 35, uh, because it is such a a broad set of topics. You you will not be bored if you come here. I guarantee there will be topics of interest, topics that you can be an expert on and and provide guidance. So that's really what we're looking for. We're looking for a broad base of talent, and uh and uh would love to love to see you come on board.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and when you say broad base of talent, I mean uh I'm just was looking at some of the subcommittee topics here, uh everything from dispatching to on on the wayside. If we just look at the wayside, uh bridge control systems, movable bridge, remote control systems, uh bridge monitoring systems would probably fall under here. Any IoT devices that are placed on any sort of structure, whether that's which is becoming a very hot topic, with uh whether it's ties to uh you know static uh instrumentation all the way to dynamic instrumentation of Hot Wheels and and uh wild detectors and I'm sure wild detectors are are handled elsewhere, but uh crossing systems, signal systems, fire and life systems. And then uh, you know, living in Denver, uh, you know, and um and folks out west I don't use as much, but the passenger station systems of ticketing and the cameras and the security and poof! Man, you guys, there is a lot here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there is a lot here, and that's really just in the wayside segment. We've got segments for back office, we've got segments for locomotive and onboard, we've got segments for telecommunications and backhaul. Uh, there's no shortage of topics. Uh it it like I say, the this all goes back to the fact that over the last 20 or 30 years the technology parade has advanced and really provided connectivity to things that never had it before. Uh, and we really need to provide some guidance for what is the sensible way to integrate this into your system. And really, I feel just as important, what are the pitfalls to look out for? What are the things you need to make sure you you consider? Because let's face it, the the rail environment, although yes, we have IT connectivity currently, but we also have a very abusive and challenging, rugged environment. So what are what are the factors there that may affect your deployment above and beyond what a typical IT deployment would be? And that's what I say. We're gonna take IT best practices and we're gonna custom tailor them for our environment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I remember uh in a previous life we were designing instrumentation that goes on bridges, and I remember the lead uh, well actually it was my CTO, came to me and said, So what's you know how what's the reliability of this? And I said, Oh, you just need to be able to put this on a bridge 100 feet in the air, and it needs to withstand high vibration, potential flooding, the occasional hurricane, and significant lightning strikes, and it needs to do all that for, I don't know, about 10 years without breaking. And he just kind of looked at me, he's like, Really? And I said, Yep, that's you know, that's the kind of the the tough environment that we're trying to build all these things for. This is not this is not, I mean, not to I probably shouldn't use the brand, but this is not a smart thermostat that we're we're putting in a uh temperature-controlled house. So this is cool. I mean, I just look at this thinking to myself, the way this is going, the way I loved your term technology parade. Uh this parade's gonna keep getting longer before it before I see a guy coming along and cleaning up all the candy. So, you know, I I mean, is there a potential here, Jerry, for 35 to potentially have children? I mean, I could uh further committees as part of the CNS functional group, even.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and as we talked earlier about, you know, thinking about the data analytics world, you know, what does the data tell us? How do we handle that? How do we how do we absorb all of this data? Of course, that may fall under back office systems to some extent, but the back office system is more about how do you how do you uh gather this information? But now it's like once you have this information, you have to do something with it. So uh and as they say, the you know, the the sky's the limit here with this, and you know, we have great opportunity to uh keep expanding upon this as necessary. So it of course at some point in time it gets too big, um, but we'll we'll tackle that when it when we get to that point. But um to Mike's point, I think the the biggest part is getting enough people to be involved in this to help contribute. Um, without this, or without this contribution from folks and and uh participation, it we would it's just gonna stay here as a bunch of topics that we'd really like to get covered, but uh uh really nothing moves forward on it. So that participation is gonna be crucial.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think one of the challenges we're facing, uh not to cut you off, Walt, but one of the challenges that I feel we're facing is this group can can vastly benefit from the talent that's already in AREMA, but it can also vastly benefit from talent that may never have considered AREMA as a resource in the past. We're truly opening the door to segments of the rail industry that may not have even heard of AREMA. So it's it's it's a challenge, but it's also a I think a unique opportunity to truly promote the values and and what a REMA is all about. I uh look forward to that.
SPEAKER_03That's a great point. I I I think that those listening to this that may not even be a member or someone sent them an email with a link, hey, check this out. You're yeah, this is the perfect uh entree uh to get into a REMA and be a part of it. And right out of the bat, right out of the gates, you're gonna be contributing. So let's talk about that real quick. You've got uh, according to Vic, this was created uh in June at the AREMA Functional Group Board of Directors meeting, which I attended, and we greenlighted this. So we have a leadership team in place. Do you already have members in place? Have people applied? What what's that looking like right now?
SPEAKER_01We have had people apply. We've got 20 members on the committee already within the last two weeks, I'd say. Uh and uh so it the the initial response was very strong. It's it's it it validated the fact that I think we all suspected this was an unfulfilled need. And and when we saw that initial uh sort of surge of membership applications, I I think we we knew we were on to something. So would love to see that continue. Uh of course uh you can you can still apply. Uh nothing has closed down. So uh and one other thing to note too is don't feel uh, you know, typically there have been committee limits in the past where you couldn't be on multiple committees. Uh C35 and C39, to my understanding, uh those limits actually don't apply. So don't feel like you have to leave a committee just to join C35. And maybe Jerry can uh expand on that.
SPEAKER_04No, thanks, Mike. I was gonna bring that up too, is you know, that so typically you're you're limited to a uh two committees uh for a maximum, and uh committee 39 was granted a a waiver uh per se of allowance for you can be on 36, 37, and 39 didn't count as that uh maximum uh committee requirements. And so committee 35 has also been granted that. So if you're on committee 36, 37, you can also participate in 35, or if you're on 37, 38, you can also participate in 35. So it was more set to the fact of we were a little bit concerned that maybe somebody has done 36, they like 36 and 37, um, and they may not want to participate in 35 because they want to stay on those two committees. So this now gives that exemption to allow for them to also participate in 35. So basically not robbing uh 3637 of their talent, um, but yet at the same time provide a flexibility for them to uh encourage the participation in committee 35.
SPEAKER_03But it also sounds like you could benefit from people, frankly, in the structures functional group that might have interest in coming over and sitting on this committee. I mean, there's I'm just thinking, not to be selfish, but we've got we have you know uh interests in in what I uh 35 is doing. There's a lot of work right now in the the monitoring space as well as the the drone space being used to fly around these bridges and uh just got to see a cool presentation with a group that's got little drones that live in boxes and they pop out from time to time and inspect the bridges and go back in the boxes. I mean, that's all it's all coming. Um so it sounds like you don't just have to be in the CNS functional group to join this group.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. And and if you think about it, even from the passenger and transit side uh functional group, their ability to participate in 35 is there as well.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. It's it's a part of CNS because you know, like I mentioned earlier, you know, we we always had this sort of legacy thought that, well, if electrons flow through it, it's part of the signal department. Uh but let's face it, electrons flow through everything now. And uh it it really does touch upon a broad swath of arema. Uh so please uh uh check it out, become a become a member. We can certainly use your talent, and uh the the committee will be will be shaped by those who join it.
SPEAKER_04You know, and and just to tag on to that a little bit, Mike, is thinking about you know my participation in various committees over the years, I I can't even begin to tell you the world of difference that it makes. Becoming connected with other professionals and a shared common interest, and you know, being involved since 1999 on 36, 37, uh, 39, uh just the the contacts, we're all dealing with the same kind of problems and having someone to either cry on their shoulder or or even take a napkin out and start drawing stuff on it and figuring out what you want to do, and and just the the the contacts in itself, I mean, and the history of what some of those folks have to share. Um, and I live by the philosophy of you know, history has a tendency to repeat itself. If we're listening and watching what has happened in the past or listen to the experience of others, we sometimes don't need to repeat it again.
SPEAKER_03So man, I feel like I can already envision that first meeting, and the meeting is over, and I'm standing at the bar with Jerry, and he's looking at me and says, Let me tell you about the Y2K bug. That's how old I am. Let me tell you, 99. Here we go. Um, so you know, let's maybe we could wrap it up with just a little bit of uh an outline of what your year looks like. So you're you're collecting members, there's a call for membership. I that's loud and clear. And we're looking at 20 now, there's no cap. So when is your first meeting? Obviously, we're virtual at the conference this year. I'm assuming you're gonna do a in-person, hopefully somewhere soon. And and and what are the how often are you gonna meet? I guess my question is like, what are the kind of the time commitments for someone that does decide uh they'd like to be a part of this?
SPEAKER_01I think the uh for folks who have been a part of a CNS committee in the past, they're used to the uh, you know, particularly pre-COVID, we're used to essentially two in-person meetings a year, uh, and we definitely want to have that as part of C 35. But we have a couple of things that we want to consider. One is this is a new committee, we're launching it. And one thing that always kind of struck me was sometimes in that six-month interim, uh sometimes the focus was lost, sometimes the momentum was lost. And because we're trying to get this off the ground, I really don't want the momentum to get lost. So what I'm proposing to the members, and we'll have some official communications here come August, is in addition to those two in person meetings, and obviously this is depending on. On COVID and the general state of the world. But in addition to those, we're also going to have at least two virtual meetings on sort of the off-months from there. I'd like to start with four meetings a year just because we are getting things going and trying to maintain that momentum. But we also have a wonderful communities site that has been spun up by ARIMA within the last year that is going to provide us with an incredible opportunity for what I like to call the non-real-time communications. Because we realize this is this is a voluntary activity and we appreciate every moment you can give us. So I I really want to uh leverage that community uh site as much as I can. So but expect two in-person and probably two virtual meetings would be the commitment during the year, and obviously we'll we'll adjust that as needed uh and depending on the needs that come down from the board.
SPEAKER_03And the first one you said you're you're gonna announce most likely uh you said in August.
SPEAKER_01We'll have some communications in August. One, I want to get to know the members better. So part of our communications in August is actually going to be a little informal survey, sort of a tell me about you type thing. And then we're also gonna start polling uh the membership, the the folks who have already signed on, and give them a uh a list of the subcommittees and try to gauge an interest for how the subcommittees are balancing out, because you know, obviously we don't want to spin up four subcommittees and then have all 20 people join one. So we need to make sure we're balanced there.
SPEAKER_04And to throw in too, Mike, is including, you know, I'll call it whistle stops, but I mean we've got 36, 37, 38, and 39 meeting in Indianapolis for RSSI coming up in September. And the intent is also for Mike and the leadership team to make those whistle stops in at those committees and just to explain what's going on. And and you know, one thing we've been a very tight team in in the CNS and now CS and CS and IT functional group is uh being supportive of each other. So uh really uh excited to hear that our committee chairs in in uh the CS and IT uh functional group have been supportive to helping Mike and the leadership team out and getting things kicked off and and then just even thinking about the uh the staff at ARIMA headquarters uh supporting this whole endeavor as well has been just fabulous.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it sounds like you guys have a lot of work ahead of you. Obviously, setting up a new committee, you're gonna have to find subcommittee chairmen and chair of women, and you're gonna have to find, I mean, like you said at the very beginning, Mike, uh it's great to have you as the chair, but I've been a chair, and uh the the backbone of these committees is your subcommittee chairman uh and chairwomen. And so you're gonna have to get good ones for all of this. It also looks like just kind of reading through your subcommittee uh assignments thus far. I think there's frankly, I think there's uh room to add uh subcommittees, and hopefully there's still time that uh that that is somewhat uh uh a movable target. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Oh, exactly. I mean, this what we've laid out so far um is based on just sort of a a wild guess of the number of folks that we're gonna get. If if the numbers are high and we can break things up into more granular groups, great, we'll get more done at once.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01But you know, we want to make sure that we've tailored the subcommittee structure for the talent we've uh attracted. So, you know, to that end, anyone who's listening to this podcast, anyone who's in the rail industry, maybe on the engineering side, make sure to share this with your friends over on the IT side who maybe haven't uh heard of us or talked to us, send them the link, let them know this is happening. Uh we're not like I say, we're not looking to replace all of the IT practices that they've come to know and love over the years. We're looking to tailor them for the industry we work in. And uh there's gonna be a lot of value to be had by them, and frankly, ARIMA will benefit from their uh expertise as well. So welcome everybody.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and let's be careful with that word IT. I think anyone that's working with uh data, I I almost prefer I almost like uh data technology systems. If someone's working with any sort of data and data mining, data science, no matter what aspect of the railway you're working with, I think those people may have interest in this. Uh this is really cool, and I'm excited. This is you know, I get to benefit as as being the host of this podcast to learn and talk to to folks like yourselves. This is just a really, really cool thing that's going on within Arima, and it's it shows that uh Arima does not have a blind eye to the future, and we are embracing new technology. And Jerry, is there anything you want to finish up with or Mike uh or even just instructions on how one might apply to the to the the uh committee?
SPEAKER_04So I I would say just remember, you know, we talk about this is huge, and you know, and the the the way we kind of look at it as you know, how do you eat an elephant is one bite at a time. So we just you know, we'll we'll uh we'll manage through this. Mike's uh leadership and and the leadership team will will uh really do a good job. And uh again, just encourage as much participation if if anybody's listening to this podcast, uh spread the word, uh get the get it out to the right folks that may be interested, and and uh even to think about those who don't even know they're interested in it yet. There's always opportunities to ask questions and find out. Reach out to Mike, and uh I think all the inform contact information will be available on Arima's website, so there's ability to ask questions if if you're unsure of things. So I really appreciate you uh bringing us on here to to talk and and uh listen to us, I guess, and thanks to all the podcasters out there listening to us as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes, thank you very much, Walt, and and thank you to uh Arima for for putting this committee together and having some faith in myself and my compadres who are uh going to try to lead this up and uh and welcome everyone to C35.
SPEAKER_03Perfect. Guys, thanks for joining me and thank you, listeners. This one was a little on the long side, but uh if you're listening to this, much appreciation for you sticking around to the bitter end. And uh hopefully there won't be as big of a time gap for the next one. Thanks again.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for rolling with Arima on today's episode of Platform Chats. For further information about Arima, please visit arema.org or contact us at info at arema.org.
