Union Pacific's Dick Davidson: managing a 33,000-mile factory—with no roof - Railroader of the Year - Company Profile

Railway Age, Jan, 2003 by William C. Vantuono

Public/private partnerships, though, are another story. Even the conservative UP is beginning to show interest. "There are instances--the Alameda Corridor, for example--when there's clearly enough public benefit where government and railroads, working together with a local community, can create wonderful improvements," says Davidson. "Streamlining the flow of rail freight traffic through Chicago is the next big opportunity, not only to improve the flow of railroad cars through the city but to lessen the impact of freight train interference with commuter rail movements. There's clearly a win-win here if we approach it diligently and thoughtfully."

Davidson says the characterization of UP as being passengerrail-unfriendly is unfair, particularly where Amtrak is concerned. "There have been times when our performance handling Amtrak trains hasn't been as good as Amtrak would hope it would be, or as good as we would hope it would be," he says.

"Following the SP merger, we identified about $1.5 billion in incremental capital that needed to be spent to put our infrastructure in good shape, and while we've worked through a l large amount of that, there's still some more to be done. We've also been blessed with business growth, and big freight trains and little, fast passenger trains sometimes don't mix that well. We do want to be a good partner with Amtrak, and we're doing our best to get our railroad upgraded on the Amtrak routes and work with them to improve performance. That's just the way we try to conduct our business-without making judgments on long-haul passenger service, which is a political decision, not a railroad decision. And it's a myth that passenger transportation-rail, air, whatever-will ever be self-sufficient, anywhere in the world."

"Synergies from necessity"

One of the pressing issues facing railroads is security. The Pentagon, for example, has designated more than 30,000 miles of rail corridors as essential to national defense. Protecting and maintaining UP's "33,000-mile factory--with no roof," malting sure it helps to keep the economy humming under all sorts of conditions, is no easy task. "We are the guardians of more than $30 billion of infrastructure that stretches across the entire western U.S.," says Davidson, who notes that UP operates through 7,296 communities.

Davidson chairs the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, whose members President Bush selected to provide advice and expertise on safety and security issues affecting all U.S. citizens. There are 25 council members, including 18 who are chairmen and CEOs of several major companies that play an important role in maintaining and protecting the nation's infrastructure. Among the industries are oil and gas, water supply, transportation, and banking. The NIAC works with federal experts led by Richard Clarke, Special Advisor to the President for Cyberspace Security.

The NIAC, says Davidson, "firmly believes that government regulation of critical infrastructure companies must be avoided. Instead, we should rely on market forces. We recognize, however, that in public sectors and highly regulated industries, like municipal water, some regulation may actually be required to drive security enhancements. The government should leverage its $20 billion in annual information technology purchases in order to encourage better security-product offerings. Internet service providers should have a larger role in the national strategy. ISPs sit at the gateways to the Internet. In that role, they possess crucial capabilities to have significant and immediate positive impact on critical infrastructure assurance"