Open mind, fresh approach: Joseph H. Boardman comes to the Federal Railroad Administration with "a commitment to positive change."

Railway Age, June, 2005 by Frank N. Wilner

There's a new railroad sheriff in town who says he's going to be a tough cop walking the safety and rail policy beat. Also expect him to be an advocate for intercity rail passenger and commuter operations. But it won't be a one-man show.

Joseph H. Boardman, 56, who was confirmed by the Senate last month as the 11th Federal Railroad Administrator, invites community involvement in the policing and planning effort, which translates to consensus building among all stakeholders, including management, labor, the public, and government at all levels.

Indeed, it might be a good time for those with rail safety and rail policy agendas to bone up on what labor relations folks call "interest-based bargaining." That's because Boardman's approach to regulation isn't one of choosing among competing demands. He wants all stakeholders to agree upon objectives, and then collaborate and buy into the best way to achieve those objectives. Coming from a family of eight siblings raised on a rural New York dairy farm instilled in Boardman the value of cooperation and compromise.

But don't mistake Boardman for a country bumpkin. Boardman ran New York State's Department of Transportation for eight years, where he earned the respect of trucking and rail interests--more often doing it the easy way, but also the hard way, by cracking a whip when required.

"I'm someone with an open mind who comes to the job with a fresh approach," Boardman says. He also comes to the job with considerable understanding of how railroads got to where they are today. More than three decades ago, while studying economics at Cornell University, Boardman began digging into railroad economic issues, including the wreck of the Penn Central.

Only if you are begging for embarrassment should you challenge Boardman on factual issues relating to construction of the Interstate Highway system and its impact on the rail industry.

Indeed, from his former office window at New York's DOT building in Albany, Boardman could point north to the nearby Adirondack Mountains, gracing the Sagamore Hotel in Bolton Landing. That's where Vice President Nixon, in 1954, announced that the Eisenhower Administration wished to construct a 40,000-mile Interstate Highway system to cost three times that of the Marshall Plan, which rebuilt war-torn Europe.

From that office window, he also could point 140 miles south down the Hudson River to the Port of New York and New Jersey, where perhaps only much-improved port, highway, and rail connectivity will stave off construction of a new super-port at Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Boardman's transportation studies didn't end at Cornell. Most recently, as chairman of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Standing Committee on Rail Transportation (SCORT), Boardman directed staff studies on rail capital investment needs, intermodal profitability, and modal equity.

Something more exhaustive is required, says Boardman. "Not since 1979 has there been a congressionally directed comprehensive national transportation policy analysis. Current transportation funding and policies are not adequate to meet future transportation needs." He supports creation of a "Next Generation National Transportation Policy Study Commission. We need to think about what we want our North American transportation system to look like and how we would like it to function," Boardman says.

Training in economics taught Boardman to think about resource inputs--capital, land, labor, and management, as well as externalities such as the environment. More specifically, Boardman wants every transportation issue studied with the following five factors in mind: safety; post-9/11 security; mobility, reliability, and consistency; economic competitiveness; and environmental protection. Be forewarned: Those bringing business before the FRA who ignore those considerations will do so at their own peril.

Boardman is quick to provide an example of how he prefers to scrutinize an issue, pointing to hazmat transport. Obviously, safety, security, and the environment first come to mind. But so must consideration of society's consistent and reliable need for the various chemicals used to manufacture the products we use in our daily lives, and how they might be transported most efficiently and economically from where they are produced to where they are used.

As for his interest-based bargaining approach to problem solving, Boardman says stakeholders should send forth their best and brightest to collaborate with the FRA on improving rail safety and crafting new transportation policies. "Decisions should be made with all the facts known, a desire to do no damage, and a commitment to positive change," he says.

Boardman recognizes--in light of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles in The New York Times--that when it comes to rail safety, he will be walking on eggshells. Here again, his approach will be collaboration among all stakeholders. "We must understand risk," he says--from the standpoint of what is inspected, why it is inspected, and how inspections translate to reduced accidents and injuries. For sure, safe track, ballast, ties, bridges, structures, signals, communications, locomotives, and rolling stock are crucial. But so are management and employee training and motivation, he says.