Conversations with the Michigan Railroad Association

Mark Huizenga: Well, hey everybody, it's another conversation with Mark podcast. And today I'm excited to have with me, John Cool. John is the president of the Michigan Railroads Association. And I have to tee this up a little bit, John. My uncle, I'm going to date myself a little bit too. My uncle was a guy who worked for CSX back in the day, Chessy system. And in the day, he was the guy that sat in ⁓ the in the caboose. And I railroads and trains are something that everybody especially children universally love. And there was nothing more cool for me to see than my uncle sitting in that caboose, waving to the cars. I everybody falls in love with trains and it was really cool for me to see him fast forward. I'm in college and I'm a security guard for a lumber company and I've got these guys bringing in box cars, lumber at and I'd open the doors for them and make them coffee and stuff like that. Some of the hardest working ⁓ nicest people ever met in my life. And they are the ones that are the backbone of society that I think in many respects are hidden. If you think about, if you ever look at the boxcars, ⁓ the that those things have for capacity versus a truck at 40,000 pounds, you're talking three or four truckloads for every boxcar. And then you've got tankers on top of that. And it's one things where I think a lot of times people miss how important it is, the goods that are transported ⁓ via rail. are incredible. And in Michigan, even though we're a peninsula state, we still have a lot of rail traffic in this state. We do. And it's important, and thank you for teeing it up that way, it's important to realize that just as you say, every rail car can take three or four trucks, commercial trucks off our local West Michigan roadways and highways. So moving freight by rail, it's safe. It's environmentally friendly compared to our friends in the trucking industry. any freight that we can pull off the road system, it helps the conditions of our road and bridges if we can move that freight by rail. But ⁓ mentioned the backbone of our local West Michigan industry. A lot of companies and consumers depend on rail. As a peninsula, we're not the through state, we're not the ⁓ or. Montana or Colorado where big freight trains coming in from the west coast are going to cross here. But we do have a lot of rail traffic here, whether it's hauling lumber, obviously automotive is a pretty big deal. And my example for the lumber company I worked with, they'd have three, four, five cars a week that come into that shop ⁓ a lot of efficiencies right there. But you guys also work in conjunction ⁓ competitors yet collaborators, because if it comes by rail, most people aren't going to get. Something delivered via via rail. It's going to be coming in versus truck And so it's really all these networks working together to make our communities what they are. Absolutely the the trans loading Situation where rail can bring in a product from the southeast or the west coast into Michigan and a truck ⁓ likely will be involved at some point on the back end and for businesses in West Michigan in Kent County That might want to think about shipping by rail. don't have a rail line right by their business There are transload operations where there might be a short movement of a mile or three miles to get to a rail position to move product out or receive product in. So if there's ever business entity looking for a ⁓ like that, please ⁓ reach out to the Michigan Railroads Association and we can put you in touch with the right railroad. You know, it's also, it's not only outbound, but ⁓ it's inbound too. So I like, I live near You know, Walker, I live in a Walker, but near the Wyoming yard, Grand Rapids, CSX yard, and there's offloading there of aggregates. And again, you compare how many truckloads come in these ⁓ cars and they're, they're full and long trains bringing in aggregates from other States that's our roads work and build foundations for concrete and for bridges and things like that. ⁓ It's incredible. Rail is also one of those things where I think lot of times There are, there's a lot of mystery around it. One, a safety perspective. And we know that, well, I'll give you an example. Just last week, I was driving down the road in on Chicago drive and some young guy walking on the rail. He's got his earbuds in ⁓ and like, how do we let this guy know? Like ⁓ one, is private property. And I think sometimes people think, well, it's a railroad. mean, why can't we just walk out there? mean, it's no man's land. Anybody can go out there. But rail safety is a really big deal. And I know the legislature has done a lot with what they call the rail grade separation, like bringing the grade or where the cars and rail drive and separating them so that there's more safety and better workflow. But safety is really one of the most important things that I hear from the guys on the rail side of things. absolutely. And let's ⁓ put an emphasis on the comment about ⁓ the person walking on the track. Is it illegal to walk on track on active rail lines, one, and it's extremely dangerous. And when you add on top of that, earbuds or noise canceling earphones, we're in a very bad spot. Everyone thinks you can hear a train coming. There been ⁓ news stories where they've gone out with the railroad to show or to prove how you may not hear a train coming if you're facing the other way. Some really interesting YouTube content out there about a fully loaded freight train coming up behind you, you might not hear it until it's absolutely upon you. So number one, stay off the tracks. They're not to be played on. They're not for photo shoots. They're not for Instagram or social media contact creators. It's dangerous. So stay off the tracks. But the rail industry, as far as safety goes, at its core level, ⁓ every shift the railroads that operate here in Kent County in West Michigan. Every shift, if you're an engineer, a conductor, someone on the maintenance of way crew that's going to go out and do some work along the line, each day starts with a safety briefing. That means the team members of that rail crew, they're talking about what they're doing that day out on the railroad and how to do it safely. Everything starts with a safety briefing, the communications, whether there's going to be a flag man that's out there that's keeping things safe if there's work being done. At its core, the rail industry is living a culture of safety. Also, the FRA just released safety data just recently, last couple of weeks. 2025 was the safest year in the railroad industry in the last quarter century. That means any derailment or employee accident, they have all these metrics that they track, the Federal Railroad Administration. Last year was the safest in the last quarter century. So, railroads talk about safety, but they're living that. It's a culture of safety. It is. Yeah. And the data proves that. And the technology that they've implemented, I'll just mention one to keep things safe, but wayside detectors that as a train is going down the tracks, hardware built out next to the rail line is looking at heat sensing, the wheel bearings, ball bearings, any defects in the wheel on every car that's going down the track. And that technology is being saved, uploaded to the cloud. So the railroad is getting that technology, that data. And then they're taking a look and saying, we may have a problem with car number 49 in that train. It needs to be pulled out for service, something like that. So there's all sorts of technology where railroads are using their money to build out ⁓ technology to not just be efficient, moving goods for a company point A to point B, which we all want the efficiencies, but to make things safer within the industry. You know, a fun story a couple of years ago, you were kind enough to help set up a ride along for me. And I had a chance to ride on a train from, I think it was near Sparta area where we got on. And one of the things that struck me was how different the community that I represented at the time when I was in the house of representatives looked from a train from a couple of different reasons. One, we talked about safety and how the thing can be on you right away before you even know it. Uh, rail safety and staying off the tracks. These things are so big. There's so much bigger than, than people think. And I remember climbing up into that engine and thinking, my goodness, steps alone to get in here are like an eight foot step ladder. I mean, it's a hike. so when you get up there, you're high up and it's massive engine. ⁓ takes a to get it up and running, but also takes a long time to stop. The other observation I had was the view from, the engine. was completely the opposite of anything I had ever experienced in the district. Why? Well, because we don't drive on rail. So no kidding. mean, it makes sense in retrospect, but we're driving through forests. like, we're driving through them. I have no idea where we're at. This is incredible. had to stop by and pick up ⁓ materials or drop something off ⁓ agriculture use. And I remember distinctly thinking quality liquid foods or feeds or something like that. And you're dropping off some materials for them to make feed for cattle and they service the whole, the whole state, think. And back in and, know, go in the spur and bring in the materials and pick up an empty one. And I was like, I never even one knew this place existed in my district while it was off a side road. But the siding of the rail wasn't a place that cars don't go. So you don't know about it. And I think a lot of times rail is a little bit hidden. It's a little bit elusive in that sense. And it's just a very interesting business because people don't know what they don't know. Yes, ⁓ absolutely. And that ride, that experience was eye-opening, seeing those businesses at the Marquette a Genesee, Wyoming company who travels through Kent County. The product that they're either picking up or bringing in, is eye-opening. But folks, if you walk into a Meijer or a Best Buy, or a target, the amount of consumer goods that are on the shelves, maybe your cell phone that you have right now, the shoes you're wearing, all of these, the shovel that's out in your shed. But so many products come into Michigan by rail that we, we consumers, will buy, walk in and expect them to be on their shelves. So if anything disrupts the ⁓ chain through over-regulation or some other issue, that could be very disruptive. But it's important to know Uh, that the rail, you know what people think about rail, but the amount of goods that come in, it's not just the heavy aggregate. Uh, we do ship a lot of cars in and out of the state, but paper product, there's all sorts of things, also it's probably this containerization. That's right. So the shipping containers that are the ships that come in from overseas are full of everything we use every day. And so it's really this trifecta between ships going across the seas, rail hauling this stuff from both coasts, east or west. and then the connection of trucking, getting it to your door to a Myer Distribution Center. like you said, whether it's a phone or a computer, so of those things travel via rail. Absolutely. And one ⁓ of the things we've been working on is cargo theft as an in DC, but in Lansing as well. There's some legislation that out of the House. It's in the Senate now that would penalties for cargo theft. rail ⁓ cars and rail yards are outside of rail yards. Definitely there is an issue there with people breaking into rail cars. there are some interesting examples of things that will just randomly pick a rail car and break into. it could be adult spirits, ⁓ whiskey is stolen. ⁓ This happened. All of these have happened. Items that go to a ⁓ pharmacy like a Walgreens, their rail car broken into in Metro Detroit over the past month. So we could go on and on the amount of things that are stolen out of rail cars. But It's a big issue, one of the legislative items that hopefully we'll see a little bit of action on the Senate side. Yeah. As we wrap this up, do you have any personal or maybe a moment in your career as you think about this field that you're in ⁓ of rail that makes you more passionate or a story of how people are impacted by rail? Yeah, absolutely. mean, one thing that comes to mind on that I've been ⁓ with the MRA, I've been fortunate enough to ⁓ represent the freight railroad industry. There's 29 railroads. freight railroads that operate in our state plus Amtrak. I bet most people have no idea. 29 upper peninsula, lower peninsula, but the class one, the large railroads, the medium sized railroads small railroads like the Coopersville and Mark, all has a little bit of freight. But the ⁓ items that are shipped, when I first learned all the items that are shipped by rail, the industry our state, brand new cars and trucks that we make here, three quarters. are moved out of Michigan by rail. a lot of that's Metro Detroit, some Lansing and other spots, but ⁓ are Michigan but we're building cars here in Michigan. We're proud of that. ⁓ And depend on a strong rail network. The auto industry depends on a strong rail network to move this product across ⁓ the and actually to ports where our automobiles are shipped overseas in some instances. So a strong rail network, a strong partnership between the auto industry and the rail industry is critical, but we could go down the ag industry and timber and all sorts of industries, industries that they need a strong rail network. So part of what I do in Lansing is talking to legislators like you about what does a strong rail network mean for us here in Michigan? So automobiles, when I first began this job, that was definitely one of the items was that relationship and how important it is. John, cool. Thank you for your time today. Thanks for talking to us about rail. Something that's really probably something everybody knows, but you help unveil some of the mystery there. I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity.