Regional of the year: Conrail

Conrail (known officially as Conrail Shared Assets Operations or CSAO) is a switching and terminal railroad serving the Detroit, North Jersey and South Jersey/Philadelphia Freight markets. CSAO began life on Jun 1, 1999, with the NS/CSX split of "Big" Conrail. It is the eighth-largest railroad in the US, measured in hours worked. Conrail's unique two-owner culture delivers a robust service product: The operation makes up, originates, terminates, classifies and dispatches more than 100 trains a day for its owners off a network of 22 serving yards and some 140 daily crew-starts (average crew-size 1.8 persons with zero utility positions). Change and growth come at a large capital cost. Public-Private Partnerships and grants since 1999 represent nearly a third of total Conrail capex, evidencing strong federal, state and local government support. In less than 20 years, CSAO has reinvented itself, becoming a high-performance, service-driven joint facility for CSX and NS.