Q&A with … John F. Kennedy on the Mass Coastal Railroad
Mass Coastal Railroad will operate freight service on about 60 miles of track from Middleborough over the historic vertical lift bridge to Cape Cod beginning Jan. 1. What does this mean to Cape businesses and consumers?
Simply put, it means a valuable transportation option for the Cape's shippers and receivers. It should also translate into an extremely focused and efficient means of transporting goods and materials into and out of the region on a more predictable schedule. Mass Coastal will be focused squarely on its customers. In fact, we use the term "customer-driven" to describe how we will operate from stem to stern, top to bottom. In practical terms, this means we'll be doing a lot of listening to what current customers – and potential new customers – truly need from their rail freight provider in order to earn their business. We will be the customers’ “partners” in helping them succeed and thrive.
What freight will the railroad carry?
By their nature, railroads tend to be most valuable for transporting heavy, bulk products in relatively large quantities. For example, as Cape Codders know, the economics of rail have supported the movement of municipal solid waste off the Cape to SEMASS in Rochester for many years. We don't expect that to change. But there are also many products traditionally shipped by rail that Cape Cod has not seen on its tracks. For example, inbound lumber, newsprint and cement have been trucked to the Cape now for years. We are enthusiastic about revisiting these markets and seeing if rail can again provide value for the Cape's receivers of these products. Certainly the area of recyclable products is an exciting one, namely paper and glass. When you step back and look at the region from a 40,000-foot view, you will see that we are primarily a consuming region, not a producing region. A major resource of ours is our relatively dense population. Therefore, we need to focus on the environmental byproducts. Large populations like ours throw off significant amounts of waste. We call that waste byproduct “energy” since it will fuel the SEMASS facility to provide electricity (energy). There are also high amounts of recyclables such as plastics, cullet (crushed glass) and many others.
You say that a partnership with community stakeholders is imperative for long-term success. Can you elaborate?
This is one of our strongest statements of how we conduct our business here. In many businesses, management only focuses on the shareholders of the business. Too often, businesses begin to care more about the reaction of Wall Street and not enough about Main Street. We believe that there are others just as important (sometimes more important) as the shareholders – the stakeholders. The stakeholders of our new business are the customers, communities, the commonwealth and our valued employees. Mass Coastal, as well as Cape Cod Central and Cape Rail, believes that community partnership is important for any business, but especially for one located in Southeastern Mass, where communities share such a strong common bond surrounding environmental issues. Our communities and neighbors thoroughly cherish our rural character and way of life. We do, too. My partners and I all live here, school our children here, worship here, play here and love it here. We not only want to be good environmental stewards of the right-of-way we are licensed to operate, but also to help communities with their common goals as they pertain to care of the environment and economic development. For example, many of the products we are investigating shipping by rail have a clear environmental aspect to them, whether it be alternative fuels, or a recycled product of some kind.
Will this reduce truck traffic on the highways and bridges?
It most certainly will. That is one of the great benefits of rail transportation. Every railcar shipped means roughly three fewer trucks on our already congested highways and bridges. The preponderance of roadways in our region are two lanes wide, with little hope of ever increasing their widths or speeds. That is just our region’s character and geography setting limits. The existing roadway and bridge networks are, by all accounts, overtaxed and our rail line grossly underutilized in comparison. The trains already operate over the lines. Why not make longer trains that more efficiently and environmentally carry more of the regions freight? It is a win/win. Efficient freight and passenger rail networks help drive the economic engines of a particular region and contribute to its sustainability.
Is this a natural extension of your Cape Cod Central Railroad passenger, excursion and dinner trains? How will the two operations complement each other?
Certainly there are natural synergies as far as a single point of train dispatching, a unified approach to maintenance of the property, increasing economies of scale for us to better afford to do more in all aspects of the operation. The important thing is that both operating entities will work under the same umbrella with advanced and thorough training and customer-driven mentality.
Is this freight service a precursor to daily passenger service serving the proposed casino in Middleborough and the vacation and convention business on Cape Cod?
The Mass Coastal license and operating agreement with the commonwealth is strictly for rail freight. However, the natural synergies present in our current passenger operations will lend themselves to expanding what we already have in place. We fully hope to include Bourne and Wareham as stations where we will pick up passengers for the elegant dinner trains, family supper trains and scenic fun trains in 2008. Creating a connecting passenger rail service from Bourne and Wareham to the Boston-bound MBTA trains at Middleborough/Lakeville could easily be implemented within about a year’s time and for under $5 million with a small, private carrier as Cape Cod Central, versus the many years to overhaul the infrastructure and install high-speed MBTA commuter trains for many dozens of millions of dollars. I hope and believe that MBTA will one day arrive in Wareham and Bourne if the communities want them. I believe that Wareham and Bourne should be afforded the same convenient modal choices that other areas of our state enjoy. The Cape and Southeastern Massachusetts have been long overlooked. The new [Deval Patrick] administration seems to be more focused on transit equity for our area. State budget woes may actually enhance our ability to offer and implement a very low cost, environmentally benign connecting passenger rail service in less than a year’s time.
What other benefits do you see from reactivating freight service?
We hope that our service will bring many Cape businesses to question whether they could expand or improve their businesses by taking advantage of a partner to bring in more efficient quantities of goods, materials and product.
What about existing trash trains traveling to the SEMASS facility in Rochester?
Mass Coastal plans to continue this service for the Cape's towns. In fact, it is our hope that we can grow the tonnage shipped by rail, thereby decreasing disposal costs for the Cape's towns, and further reducing truck traffic over the bridges. We also believe we can make it more attractive for the non-railing towns to enjoy the benefits of efficient, environmentally friendly rail transport of their towns’ solid waste.
What are the financial details? Who maintains the right of way?
Our license and operating agreement outlines the details of how maintenance will be carried out. However, the simple answer is, ongoing routine maintenance and repair will be conducted – and paid for – by Mass Coastal RR, on track and right-of-way owned by the commonwealth. The condition of the track has deteriorated over the years and is in need of reversing that trend. Like anything else, you need to stay ahead of the maintenance needs to be successful at it. We are committed to doing just that.
Any other comments you care to add?
We intend to be a true community and regional presence for good, whether it is in rail or transportation, or whether it is with philanthropic and volunteer organizations to make our surroundings a better place to live, enjoy and serve. All business should try to improve its surroundings for the greater good. We hope others will also recognize the importance of doing good.
Our main driving theme with our businesses has been the simple, but powerful, “relationships are everything.” This is true in our personal lives, business lives, family lives, professional lives, everything. Business is no different.
We are driven to remember that theme about relationships. They only work with sincerity, honesty, openness and tolerance. Once a business can have repeated success establishing real relationships with the stakeholders, the business can then thrive on multiple levels. The side effect is that the business and all of the stakeholders get to enjoy the relationship and all of its potential. That is too rare in many businesses.
The relationship is everything.
Editor’s note: Mass Coastal Railroad recently won a contract to operate the freight rail sector of the business. Cape Cod Central was created in 1999 to run Elegant Dinner Trains, Family Supper Trains, Sunday Brunch Trains, Cape Codder Luncheon Trains and Scenic Fun Trains on the Cape. Cape Rail is the management and holding company that owns and operates all of the operating rail companies and owns the equipment.
John F. Kennedy is chairman and CEO of Cape Rail Inc., Massachusetts Coastal Railroad and Cape Cod Central Railroad.
Published in Cape Business January/February 2008
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