News Archive

Despite the winter weather, RailTEC faculty, staff, students and alumni had a good showing in the rail section at the 104th Annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) meeting in Washington, D.C. on 5-9 January 2025. In total there were over 45 separate references, including 25 authors, 16 Committee Members, 3 session chairs and 2 committee meeting chairs. Click here for a guide to 2025 RailTEC contributions at TRB.

The TRB Committee on Transportation of Hazardous Materials (AT040) presented an Outstanding Paper Award to an article with ties to four RailTEC alumni. “Quantifying the Influence of Tank Car Position and Train Configuration on Risk of Rail Transport of Class 3 Flammable Liquids” was written by Di Kang (State University of New Jersey), Jiaxi Zhao (UT Austin), C. Tyler Dick (UT Austin), Xiang Liu (State University of New Jersey), Chen-Yu Lin (National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University), Zheyong Bian (University of Houston) and Steven Kirkpatrick (Applied Research Associates, Inc.). Jiaxi, Tyler, Chen-Yu and Xiang are all former RailTEC members while Di Kang and Zheyong Bian are Xiang’s PhD students and Jiaxi Zhao was Tyler’s PhD student.

Also during TRB 2025, Cambridge Systematics presented the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) New Faculty Award to RailTEC alumni Tyler Dick. Every year since 2003, Cambridge Systematics has recognized a tenure-track faculty member in transportation education who has made outstanding teaching and research contributions to the transportation field. Tyler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT, he lectures on railway design and operations topics, and supervises a team of graduate students engaged in research on railway operations, capacity and alternative energy topics for a range of Class 1 railroad, agency and rail industry supplier sponsors. Before joining UT Austin in 2022, Tyler spent ten years as Research Associate Professor, Lecturer and Principal Research Engineer with RailTEC at Illinois.

The TRB Annual Meeting brings together transportation research professionals from around the world and is the largest global gathering of transportation professionals and researchers with a focus on innovative solutions for all modes of transportation. The thousands of transportation administrators, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who attended the conference participated in more than 3,000+ presentations in 350+ sessions; 350+ meetings organized by TRB standing committees; curated programs and 3 days of exhibits, showcasing transportation-related products and services.

The 2026 TRB Annual Meeting will be held 11-15 January 2026 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C.

The University of Illinois Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) and the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE) sponsored six William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminars throughout the Fall 2024 semester.  Over 750 students, faculty and industry professionals (both in person and online) attended and participants were worldwide.

The initial presentation of the seminar series was given on 30 August by Illinois RailTEC alumni Dr. Chen-Yu Lin.  Lin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Transportation and Logistics Management at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and he presented on “Adapting to Future Climate for Railway Systems”. Other speaker highlights included Michael Iden, Mike Cleary, Joe Szabo and Tyler Dick. Click here for a list of the presenters and their presentation titles.

The Fall series wrapped up on 06 December with Paul Vilter and Peter Swan and their discussion on “Long Freight Trains: Ensuring Safe Operations, Mitigating Adverse Impacts”. Their presentation, as well as a recording of each of the individual presentations for the semester, can be found on the William W. Hay Railroad Engineering Seminar page or on the RailTEC YouTube channel. A big thank you to all the speakers who shared their time and knowledge this semester.

Another exciting series of Hay Seminars is being planned for the Spring 2025 semester so check back soon for schedule updates.

Students, staff, and faculty from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s RailTEC program as well as other universities involved with the National University Rail Center of Excellence (NURail CoE), a federally funded consortium of nine universities led by Illinois, attended the University of Delaware’s Big Data in Railway Maintenance Planning Conference on 11 – 12 December in Newark, Delaware.

During the conference, Arthur Lima, a RailTEC senior research engineer, presented his research on “Cross-Correlation-Based Railway Change Detection: A Novel Approach for Maintenance Detection.” Graduate research assistants Augusto Ramos, Gustavo Ramos, Panshul Jindal, and Yash Kakde assisted with the research.

J. Riley Edwards, RailTEC assistant professor and senior associate director of NURail CoE, also attended this year’s conference which introduced new and emerging analysis techniques and how those methods can be applied to the large volume of inspection and operational data collected by railways to improve maintenance programs.

RailTEC is delighted to share that alumnus, Po-Yin (Paul) Liao, was part of the Arup-Jacobs project management team that won the 2024 Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence, along with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for its work on the Long Island Railroad Expansion Project. The four-year Long Island Railroad Expansion Project added a third, 9.8-mile stretch of track that alleviates congestion and allows more trains to travel in both directions, eliminated eight dangerous at-grade crossings, replaced seven bridges with taller structures, upgraded six stations with enhanced accessibility, and rebuilt the infrastructure with a new signal system, enhanced positive train control and mechanical and electrical systems, and new durable concrete ties.

The Hay Award for Excellence recognizes Arup-Jacobs joint efforts managing the project which included using creative construction methods to minimize service disruptions, such as Box Jacking, a steerable rolling gantry crane for track switch installation, and collaborative digital technology to accelerate design-build delivery. Awarded during the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) Conference held on September 15-18 in Louisville, Ky., this award was established by the directors of AREMA in 1999 to recognize outstanding achievement in railway engineering and to honor the memory and accomplishments of one of its members and leaders, the late Dr. William Walter Hay, a professor of railway civil engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. One of the highest awards in the rail industry, the criterion for the award includes innovation, safety, and service performance and reliability.

Liao is a senior track/civil engineer specializing in railroad engineering in Arup’s New York office. His experience includes mega rail projects, and his work with railroad track departments, railroad operation analysis, and geospatial technologies allows him to efficiently develop design schemes and visualize complex designs with the latest technology. Liao earned an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he worked as a RailTEC Graduate Research Assistant. His research focus was primarily rail transportation, rail simulation, and rail traffic capacity analysis.

Other RailTEC alumni also participated in the Long Island Railroad Expansion Project.

When RailTEC graduate research assistant, Vitor Alves, graduates next month from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign he will be continuing his family’s tradition of railroading.  “My first interest was in engineering, but now I’m the third generation of my family in railroads,” said Alves. “My grandfather, father, and I have worked for railroads.”

After earning a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 2021 from Federal University of Sao Joao del Rei in Brazil, Alves worked at a Brazilian railroad company, MRS, where he learned about RailTEC from a coworker.  “MRS has a connection to RailTEC,” he said. “My colleague, Josue Bastos, was a University of Illinois alumni, and his previous adviser (Assistant Professor J. Riley Edwards) was looking for someone to help with research.  I was excited about learning more about the country and the culture here, and I knew if I had the opportunity to study railroads here, I would take it,” Alves said.

“RailTEC is one of the most prestigious rail research centers in the world, and the University of Illinois is an outstanding university,” he added. Alves began his studies at Illinois in January 2023 and in December will receive a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering, with a focus in transportation and data science.

At MRS, Alves operated a drone and collected data that he used for track inspection work. “The drone captures overhead photos of the track. I collected these images, processed them, and created 3D models using a technique called photogrammetry,” he explained.

His knowledge of track inspection and data collection has been valuable to the RailTEC program where Alves uses different systems to inspect track condition, collect data, and create a metric for objectively assessing track. “I have traveled across parts of the U.S. to conduct track inspections,” he said. “With the equipment you can see specific points of track and see the condition, degradation, and maintenance of the track.” The data collected assists RailTEC research scientists who are investigating the main causes of train derailments and the longitudinal movement of tracks for possible prevention of track buckling.

Alves said his experience as a Graduate Research Assistant in the RailTEC program has been professionally and personally fulfilling. “I have made very good friends here with the faculty and team, and I’ve attended a lot of conferences with good networking,” he said. “RailTEC has definitely put me in a good place with job opportunities in the U.S. and Brazil.”

The Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC) celebrated its 26^th annual event this year on 29-30 October 2024. This two-day conference, held at the I-Hotel and Illinois Conference Center in Champaign, IL, had approximately 400 registrants who had the opportunity to hear over 60 different spoken and poster presentations. Many attendees were heard discussing the high-quality program and presentations as well as the networking opportunities among railroad professionals.

RREC featured two women keynote speakers. The conference speaker was Dr. Lee Kindberg, Maersk (retired). The title of her address was “Agility and Decarbonization – Nothing is Certain Except Change”. Janet Drysdale, CN Railway Senior Vice President and Chief Stakeholder Relations Officer, was keynote speaker for the AREMA Committee 13 Banquet.

During the conference the Association of American Railroads (AAR) honored four railroaders for their commitment to sustainability and advancing the industry’s environmental efforts. The 2024 John H. Chafee Award for Environmental Excellence went to Union Pacific’s Jason Fox, the Environmental Excellence Award to Canadian National’s Reid Bodley, and the Career Achievement Award to both Canadian National’s Seble Afework and CPKC’s LeeAnn Thomas. These are the highest honors for environmental professionals in the railroad industry and are presented annually at RREC. Detailed information on these awards and their winners were featured in Railway Age, Progressive Railroading, and on the AAR website.

Please join us on 12 – 13 November 2025 in Champaign, IL for the 27th RREC.

The preliminary program is now available for the 26th annual Railroad Environmental Conference (RREC) which will be held on 29-30 October 2024 at the iHotel Illinois Conference Center on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.  Registration is also open for attendees as well as exhibitors and sponsors. Exhibitor registrations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis until the Exhibit Hall reaches capacity so act soon.

RREC enables rail industry employees to meet with peers throughout the railroad environmental community to exchange views, learn about new techniques and technologies, and generally stay in touch with the direction of the railroad industry’s environmental programs. Over 50 presentations are expected by railroad managers, environmental engineers and researchers from all over North America.

Who should attend? Representatives from Class 1, Regional & Short Line Freight Railroads, Passenger Railroads & Rail Transit Operators, Railcar Manufacturers & Lessors, Operators & Maintenance Personnel, Environmental Consultants, Suppliers of Environmental Control & Treatment Equipment, State & Federal Regulators, and Environmental Engineering Faculty & Students.

Current RailTEC students and faculty attended the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) 2024 Annual Conference & Expo on 15-18 September at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville. In addition, many RailTEC alumni were also in attendance and played a key role in the schedule.

Three of the five panelist participating in the Meet the Next Generation Panel were Illinois RailTEC graduates. During the session Marcelo Suarez (Civil Engineer, Hanson), Dan Mueller (Associate Engineer, Metro North Railroad New York) and Manuel Ramos (Senior Rail Engineer, Arup) discussed the types of projects they have worked on, the career paths they have taken, and answered questions from the audience.  On Tuesday, 17 September, Tom Roadcap, PE, a Senior Engineer in Design and Construction with Brightline West, presented “Brightline Florida Project: Design and Construction of Higher-Speed Rail Infrastructure for a Shared Corridor” during the Passenger & Transit Technical Session and Nao Nishio, Manager of Engineering Technology with Brightline, gave a maintenance-of-way presentation on “Benefits and Challenges of Autonomous Track Inspection Technologies for a Higher-Speed Railroad Network” on Wednesday, 18 September.

This year the Dr. William W. Hay Award for Excellence was given to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Main Line Expansion Project which was led by Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Arup-Jacobs Engineering. Several RailTEC alumni participated in this project.

RailTEC is excited to announce the first William W. Hay Seminar of the 2024-2025 school year. Dr. Chen-Yu Lin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Transportation and Logistics Management at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, has the honor of being the initial speaker for the fall semester. The title of Lin’s seminar is “Adapting to Future Climate for Railway Systems” and will be given on Friday, 30 August at 12:15 p.m. (Central time). It will be available in-person at 2311 Newmark Civil Engineering Lab as well as online.

Lin’s research interests include railway safety and risk analysis, rail hazardous material transportation, shared-use rail corridors, and railway resilience and climatic risk. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University and a Masters and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in civil and environmental engineering.

The abstract for his seminar is as follows: Railway systems have significant and complex networks of assets which need to be managed. As part of asset management, it is important to consider the increasing risks from climate change. Climatic risks to infrastructure can be immediate short term risks (e.g. extreme weather forecast for tomorrow) or over a longer term (e.g. future adverse climates). A climate change risk assessment assesses the severity and likelihood of climate related risks over the near and long term. We can understand these risks and their impact by investigating hazards, vulnerability and exposure alongside impacts. Many railway assets have not been maintained and managed for the weather we are experiencing today, let alone in the future,and consequently they are not resilient to extreme weather or future climates. In order to become more resilient, we must adapt. By adapting we are managing the present and future risks associated with extreme weather and climate change. This can be done incrementally; this process is typically referred to as adaptation pathways and ties in with the idea of resilience over the lifecycle of railway assets. As the concept of adaptation is relatively recent and development of it is still in its infancy in many railway systems, it is crucial to properly define a comprehensive railway climate change adaptation framework. It is also important to develop a maturity assessment to properly evaluate whether or not a railway system is on an effective pathway towards adaptation and to what level of progress they have made.

Approximately 120 high school students from around the globe had the opportunity to learn about railroad operations and engineering during the Summer 2024 program, “Tracks to the Future: Railroad Transportation and Engineering,” which took place at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and nine other university campuses.

The week of 24-29 June, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign hosted 25 teens from Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Brazil who participated in hands-on activities guided by RailTEC graduate students who are AREMA student chapter members. Among the numerous activities, the teens had the chance to operate a train simulator, build a small-scale version of a ballasted track, and learn why railcars are different shapes and sizes.

The highlight of the Illinois visit was the 28 June trip to the Monticello Railway Museum where the high school students were able to experience rail operations from museum volunteers, rode the rails in a caboose and open railcar, and learned about rail sensors and monitoring equipment from RailTEC’s research engineers.

The Tracks to the Future program, which began with Michigan Technological University’s Rail Transportation Program, has grown to include weeklong sessions at 10 universities around the U.S. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) funds the program and all participant costs.

The 2024 program included two sessions. The first session took place 10-14 June at Penn State-Altoona and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The second session took place 24-28 June at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Michigan Technological University; University of District of Columbia; University of South Carolina, Columbia; California State University, Fresno; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; Oregon State University, Corvallis; and North Dakota State University, Fargo. The hybrid program featured a two-day at-home learning portion before traveling to one of the partner campuses for a two-day visit.