Foundations Of Rail Safety With Steve Ditmeyer Part 2, ITS

In Part 2 of this two-part series on railroad safety and
technology, Steven R. Ditmeyer takes a deep dive into ITS
(Intelligent Transportation Systems), specifically, highway/rail
grade crossing warning devices that interface with motor vehicles,
with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono. Ditmeyer has
had an extensive career in railroading that started in 1960 on the
St. Louis Terminal Railroad. He received a B.S. in Industrial
Management from MIT and an M.A. in Economics from Yale. In the
private sector, he worked for six railroads and a railroad
equipment manufacturer. In the public sector, he served as an Army
Transportation Corps officer on active duty in the Logistics
Directorate of the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in
the Reserves in the 3rd Railway Brigade, as Associate Administrator
for Policy and for R&D at the Federal Railroad Administration,
as acting general manager of The Alaska Railroad, as associate
professor of economics and transportation at National Defense
University, and as economist and rail technology expert at the
World Bank. His career has cut across multiple disciplines,
including freight and passenger railroading, engineering,
economics, research and development, policy, marketing, management,
operations, information technology, systems analysis, command and
control systems and education. In his early days at FRA, Ditmeyer
was involved in the creation of Amtrak, the preliminary engineering
and economic studies for the Northeast Corridor Project, and the
establishment of the Transportation Technology Center. As head of
policy at FRA, he initiated the sale of The Alaska Railroad by the
Federal Government to the State of Alaska and was involved in
developing the legislation for the deregulation of the freight
railroad industry. At Burlington Northern, he was intimately
involved in development and testing of the first PTC system (ARES)
and the first natural gas locomotives. Following retirement, he
helped structure and teach in railway management programs as an
adjunct faculty member at Michigan State University and the
University of Delaware, and HEC and EML Business Schools, both in
France.