I attended the Women in Rail conference recently, and it was one of the most empowering and collaborative events I’ve been to in the industry. One rail leader commented that it was among the most “substantive” events they’d attended.
Throughout the conference, I heard a core theme echoed at other industry events: Rail has been struggling to grow. Its volume has been largely flat since 2014 (even setting coal aside) and it continues to cede ground to trucking, which benefits from publicly funded highways, door-to-door flexibility, and a regulatory framework that contributes to an uneven playing field between rail and trucking, especially when it comes to technology. For example, the Department of Transportation is helping to pave the way for autonomous trucks while railroads still face crew-size mandates.
Ida Posner, COO of the Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), said something during a conference panel that stuck with me: “Technology is great, it’s really exciting… and it’s not going to fix our growth problems if we’re not thinking about how we are changing how we operate.”
Posner discussed how rail is trying to strike a balance between innovating quickly and doing so in a system that is “moving big, heavy things” while prioritizing operational safety. And in order to innovate, rail needs “increasingly more diverse opinions in the industry trying to help us solve these problems.”
I agree. Diversity isn’t a nice-to-have in rail—it’s foundational and a necessity if the industry wants new ideas, new perspectives, and innovative energy that will help it remain competitive in the decades ahead.
Transformative then, and ready to transform again
Kris Hoellen, the Executive Director of the National Museum of Railroad History and Innovation, said during a conference panel that America’s railroad was founded about 50 years after the country itself. The railroad, she said, “changed American life socially, culturally, economically—and it was transformative.”
Rail is a proud industry built on tradition, integrity, and safety. Its practices have been refined over generations, and there’s a strong instinct to trust what’s proven. But if you work in this industry or talk to people who do, there is often the sense that the default preference is to do things a certain way because they’ve always been done that way. That instinct has served the industry in many ways—but in a world moving as fast as ours, sticking to what’s known won’t drive growth.
To underscore what Ida Posner said, rail does need to change the way it thinks and operates through diversity. So what does that look like?
I heard rail leaders at the conference embrace this in practice. Daniel Carter, the Chief Legal and People Officer at RailPros, said during a career development panel that he wants to hire people who can challenge him.
Michael McClellan, Senior Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer at Norfolk Southern, credits his career ascension to being “that contrary voice.”
And Pam Arpin, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of CPKC, made the same point with her own story. In her closing talk, she described starting in commercial roles and then ultimately rising to the top technology position at a Class I railroad. Her leadership philosophy reflects that path: with AI changing the landscape so quickly, she said, “always be a student,” and make time for your people. It’s a reminder that some of the most valuable perspectives come from people who don’t fit the “traditional” mold.
The industry wants and can benefit from diversity. I learned at the conference that women historically have made up around 5% to 10% of the U.S. rail industry workforce. By virtue of existing, however, Women in Rail is a celebration of the diversity rail does have. And it’s no surprise to me that the conversations I had there highlighted the industry’s need for even more.
The business value of diversity in a world where problems are only getting more complex
So what exactly can diversity do for the bottom line? Study after study points to the benefits of diversity: more diverse organizations enjoy more revenue from innovation, better overall performance, and higher employee retention. They’re more likely to exceed their financial targets. They make better decisions and they make those decisions faster.
The research is compelling. For me, the value of diversity is also reinforced by my lived experience. While I work at a technology consulting company, I didn’t start my career as a software engineer or “technologist.” I worked in state politics in Texas right out of college before transitioning to nonprofit and education.
After I graduated with my Master in Education, I found my way to TXI (starting with a LinkedIn message to Mark, our CEO) and began in a recruiting role before ultimately growing into my current role on our demand team. I find that I consistently bring fresh and novel ideas and perspectives to the table—and I do credit my unconventional background and unique lived experiences for that.
When you’re in a consulting role, your job is to understand and internalize the needs and problems of your customers so you can figure out the best solution. That work is much more effective if you’re doing it with people who have a different perspective from yours. Think of the parable of the blind men and the elephant: it was only when they worked together to combine what they could detect about the animal that they could figure out what they were dealing with.
Joan Smemoe, President and CEO of Railinc Corp, framed it this way when she was talking about what's needed to succeed in rail today: “Writing code is quickly becoming table stakes,” she said. So it comes down to engaging the customers well enough to understand their needs and helping them envision what’s possible in order to end up with the best product.
Getting a customer’s vision right means you have to be able to challenge assumptions—theirs and your own. You have to recognize the blind spots and find ways to see past them. Or have team members around you who can help do just that.
In a world where problems are only getting more complex, the people, teams, and organizations that are best able to solve them will be the ones that have the richest diversity of experience, perspective, and thought to bring to the table.
Rail’s growth will come from new ideas
One line from Women in Rail has remained with me: “You may not have taken the train here, but what’s in front of you did.” Your food, your phone, your laptop, the dishes in your cabinet. Rail moves the physical economy, and it does so more efficiently and with a lighter environmental footprint than the alternatives. But the needs of the shippers and communities it serves are changing fast, and keeping up will take new ideas.
We’re already seeing what that looks like. Coalitions like RailPulse are rethinking how the industry works together, pooling telematics data so shippers can get the kind of location visibility they’ve come to expect from trucking. That’s the kind of thinking that will win customers.
Diverse teams are how rail gets there
New ideas come from people who see problems differently. Rail has always relied on people from many backgrounds, and many companies are investing in the future workforce, from campus recruiting programs to initiatives that introduce new audiences to rail careers. That’s real progress, and there’s room to go further.
The industry’s next chapter will be shaped by teams that bring different experiences, disciplines, and perspectives to the table—as well as the people most likely to challenge assumptions and ask the unexpected question. Building that kind of workforce is one of the most durable investments rail can make in its own growth.
As someone who has come to deeply respect the industry’s integrity and the values of the people who keep it running, I’m excited to be part of that next chapter–and to help build a community where more people see a place for themselves in this industry.
