AAR Names New President

Ian Jefferies has been named as the next president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads.

He currently serves as the organization’s senior vice president of government affairs.

Jefferies will assume his new duties Jan. 1, following the retirement of current AAR CEO Edward Hamberger.

“I am honored to work for a bedrock industry that delivers every day for the economy, and I appreciate the confidence placed in me to guide the AAR as we work to build an even stronger future for rail,” Jefferies said in a statement.

In a news release, the AAR said that as head of AAR’s government relations department, Jefferies has helped secure significant legislative victories, including managing advocacy surrounding the Surface Transportation Board Reauthorization Act of 2015, securing tank-car safety enhancements in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act and defeating multiple efforts to increase truck size and weight limits.

Before joining the AAR in 2013, Jefferies worked for more than a decade in government, including as a senior policy adviser to the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. Government Accountability Office before working on Capitol Hill.

Chao Confirmed as Secretary of Transportation

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Elaine L. Chao as the new federal secretary of transportation. The vote was 93-6.

Chao is the only member of the Donald L. Trump administration cabinet to have previously served as a cabinet secretary, having been secretary of labor in the George W. Bush administration.

She drew bipartisan praise during her confirmation hearings and on the Senate floor.

Chao also served as chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission.

Her confirmation was lauded by the Association of American Railroads and the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

Both trade associations are expecting Chao to take a railroad industry friendly approach to regulation.

“Ms. Chao has a deep appreciation of critical surface transportation issues. This includes the important role the rail industry plays in this country,” said Edward R. Hamberger, AAR president.

Amtrak Board Chairman Tony Coscia congratulated Chao, saying he looked forward to working with her to strengthen Amtrak. The DOT secretary has a seat on the Amtrak board of directors.

AAR Report Touts Railroad Economic Activity

The Association of American Railroads has issued a report that says seven of the largest railroads created $274 billion in economic activity in 2014.

The railroads also paid nearly $33 billion in state and federal tax revenue and supported 1.5 million jobs nationally, the AAR said in its second “State of the Industry Report.”

The report said the figures came from research conducted by Towson University in Maryland.

AAR said the report is the first of its kind to quantify the economic impact of investments by Class I railroads with U.S. operations.

“Significant capital investments by railroads and the steady presence of a coast-to-coast network that can reliably deliver goods at a cost effective rate generates a ripple effect seen in this study,” said Daraius Irani, the lead Towson researcher. “Railroad spending means job growth, dollars to communities and global competitiveness.”

According to AAR, key points cited in the report include:
• $28 billion in spending by freight railroads in 2014 is more than half of all federal spending on transit formula grants, federal highway construction programs and airport improvement programs combined.
• One job at a freight railroad supports nine others touched by the rail industry, including retail, manufacturing and transportation and warehousing.
• The rail industry’s state and local tax generation is greater than the taxes collected by 30 individual states in 2014.

AAR President and Chief Executive Officer Edward Hamberger said that the freight-rail industry’s economic impact requires “smart public policy that does not impeded day-to-day operations or diminish continued private capital investment.”

The AAR report also included data provided by the Brookings Institution, Competitive Enterprise Institute, the University of Oregon and R Street.