Northwestern University Transportation Center Hagestad Sandhouse Rail Group invites you to attend:

Burlington Northern Railroad's 1994 Texas Intermodal Business Withdrawal - The Bad, the Ugly and the Good

MARK CANE

Author / Former VP, Burlington Northern Railroad

Where: via Zoom Meeting

Summary:

BN Railroad’s prolonged debt-load induced locomotive shortage contributed to its Intermodal Business Unit’s withdrawal from the Texas market in 1994. The presentation will review what occurred before and after the decision. It will also emphasize timeless lessons retaught by this experience related to railroad industry growth, balance sheet leverage, operating leverage, financial vs. managerial accounting, operating ratios and return on assets that are as relevant today as ever.

Bio:

Mark Cane worked the bulk of his two-decade railroad career as an employee of Burlington Northern Railroad where his experiences included Vice President Service Design, VP Equipment Management and leader of BN’s Intermodal Business Unit, of which he was a founding member. He served on the board of directors of TTX Corporation while he led BN’s Equipment and Intermodal divisions. He was actively involved in the merger of Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe Railway, after which he served as President of Amtrak-Intercity where he led its last major route and service restructuring. He then served as President of Menasha Material Handling Corporation. He taught Global Logistics Strategy at Marquette University and authored Against All Odds – The History of Burlington Northern Railroad’s Innovative Intermodal Business and Wow! Did We Ever Make a Difference – How Burlington Northern Railroad and Its Ex-Cons Revolutionized the North American Grain Supply Chain. He has contributed articles to Trains Magazine as well the publications of the Burlington Northern and Union Pacific Historical Societies.

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Autonomous Transportation Services Take the Road

Workshop Agenda

2:00 PM Welcome

Bret Johnson | Interim Director | NUTC

2:10 PM Presentations

Tom Baroch | Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships | Waabi

Jay Campbell | Head of Product for Autonomous Mobility & Delivery | Uber

Lauren Harper | Chief of Staff | Kodiak

CJ King | Chief Technology Officer | Torc Robotics

Harry Zander | Chief Operations Officer | Intramotev

3:15 PM Networking Break

3:45 PM Panel Discussion

Moderator | Alireza Talebpour | Associate Professor | The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

4:30 PM End of Program

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Tom Baroch

Tom Baroch is a seasoned professional in supply chain management and strategic partnerships, currently serving as the Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships at Waabi since August 2025, focusing on OEM and Tier 1 technical partnerships. Previously, Tom held various leadership roles at Outrider, where significant contributions included developing a partnership ecosystem for autonomous yard operations and establishing the Global Supply Management and Materials Planning teams. Tom's extensive experience also encompasses positions at Waymo, Tesla, Apple, and Bosch, where expertise in global supply management, sourcing, and strategic negotiations has been demonstrated across automotive and technology sectors. Tom holds an M.B.A. in Finance from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Jay Campbell

Jay Campbell leads Product for Autonomous Mobility & Delivery at Uber, where he’s building a hybrid AV marketplace that blends autonomous fleets with human drivers to optimize AV utilization, network reliability, and rider experience at scale. His team builds Uber’s AV integrations and APIs, AV rider and delivery experiences, pricing and matching algorithms, and fleet-operations platforms for autonomous fleets. Previously, Jay built and scaled major consumer products at Airbnb, Instagram, and Cash App. He holds an MBA from Chicago Booth and a BA from UNC–Chapel Hill.

Lauren Harper

Lauren Harper is the Chief of Staff at Kodiak Robotics, a leader in autonomous trucking technology. She partners directly with the executive team to advance the company’s most critical strategic initiatives.

Prior to Kodiak, Lauren worked at TuSimple, the first publicly traded autonomous trucking company, as a member of the Corporate Strategy team focused on launching the company’s Autonomous Freight Network.

Lauren holds a BBA in Finance with a specialization in Alternative Assets from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, young son, and dachshund.

C.J. King

C.J. King is an industry-recognized technology leader with over 20 years of successfully delivering innovation across automotive, mobility, and cloud-based technologies. He brings deep expertise in product development, technology optimization, and large-scale system implementations.

C.J. began his automotive technology career at Toyota, where he built and launched Toyota Entune—the company’s first connected entertainment system—in both North America and Europe, establishing Toyota’s early presence in connected vehicle services.

At Ford, he led the development of the open-source SmartDeviceLink platform and launched the Ford Developer Program, enabling over 30 third-party apps to integrate into in-vehicle infotainment systems. He also played a key role in bringing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto into the Sync platform. Notably, C.J. led the development of the foundational hardware and software stack that was later transitioned to Argo AI, forming the technical base of its autonomous vehicle platform.

Following his work in automotive, C.J. joined Amazon as a Senior Software Development Manager, where he led the Native Cloud Re-Architecture Engineering team, delivering scalable cloud solutions aligned with long-term business strategy. At HERE Technologies, he continued to drive global technology innovation, managing diverse engineering teams and implementing large-scale system transformations.

C.J. has a proven ability to build and lead high-performing global software development teams, fostering cross-functional collaboration in fast-paced environments. His work has consistently advanced the connected car and autonomous driving landscape, delivering technologies that bridge complex engineering with real-world mobility solutions.

Alireza Talebpour

Dr. Alireza Talebpour is an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he leads the ILI-MOBILOGY group. His research focuses on autonomous and connected vehicles, traffic flow theory, infrastructure-aware automation, and quantum-enhanced transportation modeling. He led the FHWA-funded Third Generation Simulation (TGSIM) project, one of the largest naturalistic vehicle trajectory data collection efforts to date, capturing detailed interactions among automated and human-driven vehicles to advance modeling, calibration, and safety analysis. His work integrates real vehicle control logic into simulation environments, bridging the gap between experimental automation and large-scale traffic systems. Before joining UIUC, he led Texas A&M University’s team in the SAE/GM AutoDrive Challenge to develop a Level-4 autonomous vehicle.

Harry Zander

Harry Zander is the Chief Commercial Officer at Intramotev, a St. Louis-based manufacturer of battery-electric, self-propelled railcars. With over 30 years of experience in the rail industry, he has served as Chief Revenue Officer of Patriot Rail, a leading shortline railroad holding company with over 30 railroads, and as SVP of New Product Development at TrinityRail, a major railcar manufacturer. Harry also spent more than two decades as an executive in the rail asset leasing industry and has served on numerous boards and executive committees of industry trade associations, including as a current board member of the North American Rail Shippers Association (NARS). He is a past president and current board member of the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers (MARS). He has a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado and a Masters In Finance from Insead - Fontainebleau

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Richard Hornbeck
V. Duane Rath Professor of Economics and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Amplified Gains from Transportation Infrastructure Investments

Abstract:

Traditional methods of evaluating infrastructure investments assume that other sectors of the economy are functioning well and efficiently. In practice, this is generally not true. Some of the goods shipped sell in markets that are not very competitive. Firms may also have difficulty accessing financing to take advantage of new opportunities. Using the example of the expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s, the talk illustrates that failing to take these non-transportation distortions into account lead to a substantial understatement of the role of the railroads in the aggregate growth of the United States. This framework can be applied generally to reconsider the economic gains from future transportation infrastructure investments.

Bio:

Richard Hornbeck is the V. Duane Rath Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Rick is an economic historian and applied-micro economist, whose research focuses on the historical development of the American economy. He views history as informing why some places and some people have become wealthier, while others have remained poorer, which can provide perspective on what factors might drive widespread improvements in living standards. He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, affiliated with programs on the Development of the American Economy, Development Economics, and Environmental and Energy Economics.

Prior to joining Chicago Booth in 2015, Rick was the Dunwalke Associate Professor of American History in the Economics Department at Harvard University. He received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in 2014 and was selected for the 2009 Review of Economic Studies Tour. He received a PhD in economics from MIT in 2009 and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 2004.

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Abstract:

Intermodal and multimodal facilities are critical nodes in freight transportation networks, enabling the transfer of freight flows between different modes such as truck, rail, and water. This study presents a generalized hub location model for determining the optimal placement of intermodal and multimodal facilities, jointly with the routing optimization of freight flows within a multimodal freight network. The model is applied to the Continental United States freight network using real-world origin–destination demand flows, to demonstrate its ability to inform strategic infrastructure planning.

Bio:

Vasilis Volakakis is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Transportation Systems Analysis & Planning program within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University. He holds an Integrated Master's degree in Production Engineering and Management from the Technical University of Crete, located in his hometown of Chania, Greece. His primary research interests include freight transportation, optimization and operations research, aviation, traffic flow theory, and traffic control.

Impacts of Shared E-Scooters on the Transportation System

Abstract:

In recent years, shared e-scooters have rapidly gained popularity as a convenient mode for short-distance trips. Ensuring their successful and sustainable integration into urban mobility systems requires a comprehensive, multi-faceted analysis of their impact on both users and the transportation network. In this seminar we try to examine essential aspects of e-scooter use: (1) how individuals adopt e-scooters as a service, (2) whether current users continue using them, (3) what factors determine user satisfaction, (4) how services are distributed across regions from an equity perspective, (5) the extent to which e-scooters complement existing modes, particularly public transit, and (6) how to characterize traffic safety concerns for users. Analyzing these aspects provides critical insights for promoting the sustainable use of shared e-scooter systems.

To address these questions, we designed and implemented a three-phase survey of shared e-scooter users in Chicago. The first phase (June 2021, ~500 participants) examined early adoption patterns, combining socio-demographic data, travel preferences, and residential locations. The findings showed that younger adults and residents in households without a car were more likely adopters. The second phase (Nov–Dec 2020, 2,000+ users) modeled continued usage intentions, accounting for usefulness, reliability, social influence, and enjoyment factors. The third phase (2024, 420 users) focused on satisfaction and safety. Nearly 47% reported at least one fall or collision highlighting alarming safety issues. Analysis identified key factors contributing to risky riding behavior among users. Moreover, the satisfaction analysis underscored that safety and security are critical to both user satisfaction and long-term adoption.

Bio: Dr. Kouros Mohammadian

Dr. Kouros Mohammadian is a Distinguished Professor and Head of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. His research has covered various areas of transportation planning including travel behavior analysis, modeling of activity and travel patterns, travel surveys, computational analysis of transportation systems, agent-based microsimulation models, and freight and logistics modeling. He has advised 26 completed PhD dissertations. Kouros is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Letters and an associate editor of Transportation Research Records. He served as the former chair of the Traveler Behavior committee of TRB, and currently serves as a board member of Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

Dissertation Year Fellow Presentation

The Environmental Trade-offs of AI in Transportation Research

Abstract:

How the growing use of AI in transportation research brings both new insights and significant environmental costs. The talk focuses on the trade-offs between the computational footprint of AI methods (training, inference, large-scale simulations) and the value they add to transportation research outcomes, especially in sustainability-related work. My goal is to highlight how our field can balance methodological innovation with responsible use of computational resources.

Bio:

Deirdre Edward is a JD/PhD candidate in Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University. Her research sits at the intersection of quantitative modeling, law, and policy, with a particular focus on transportation systems, environmental regulation, and sustainability. She is especially interested in how emerging computational methods, including artificial intelligence, shape both research practices and broader societal outcomes in mobility and infrastructure.

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The ceremony will take place on Saturday, December 13 in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive.

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The Reverse Side of Online Shopping: Examining Sociodemographic and Built-Environment Determinants of Delivery Returns

The rapid growth of e-commerce has created new transportation challenges through increased product returns, yet the behavioral determinants of delivery return patterns remain understudied from a consumer-centric perspective. This research develops a comprehensive econometric framework to analyze online shopping frequency, delivery return rates, and return channel preferences using data from the 2022 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). We employ a multivariate modeling approach integrating probit ordered-response and probit fractional response models to examine three interconnected outcomes: (1) frequency of online goods purchases, (2) proportion of online purchases returned, and (3) distribution of returns across four channels (home pickup, post office, Amazon drop-off, and physical store). The results reveal significant sociodemographic heterogeneity in online purchasing and return behavior. Built environment factors also significantly influence return behaviors. The findings have important implications for transportation planning and urban logistics, highlighting the need for policies that ensure equitable return access and the importance of integrating e-commerce return trips into travel demand models.

Keywords: E-commerce returns, online shopping behavior, transportation planning, reverse logistics, consumer behavior.

Bio

Dr. Chandra R. Bhat is the Joe J. King Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in transportation systems analysis and transportation planning. He is also the Director of the USDOT-funded National Center for Understanding Future Travel Behavior and Demand. He also served as the Director of the Data-Supported Transportation Operations and Planning (D-STOP) Tier 1 USDOT University Transportation Center, the Associate Chairman of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, and the Director of the Center for Transportation Research.

Dr. Bhat is recognized nationally and internationally as a leading expert in the area of travel demand modeling and travel behavior analysis. His substantive research interests include land-use and travel demand modeling, activity-based travel modeling, policy evaluation of the effect of transportation control and congestion pricing measures on traffic congestion and mobile-source emissions, marketing research of competitive positioning strategies for transportation services, use of non-motorized modes of travel, and physical health and transportation. His methodological research interests and expertise are in the areas of econometric and mathematical modeling of consumer behavior, including discrete choice analysis, discrete-continuous econometric systems, and hazard duration models. His methodological works are widely referenced in the economics, marketing, geography, statistics, and transportation fields, and have been included in econometric textbooks and software packages. Many of these works, published as refereed journal papers, have been listed in journals as highly cited papers, and two of his papers were included in a book compilation of the 46 most influential and innovative scholarly papers in the choice modeling field in the past 60 years (the book title is Choice Modelling: Foundational Contributions, 2011, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd). He also has authored several book chapters focusing on improved methods for choice modeling in general and land use-travel demand modeling in particular. The number of times his work has been cited, as per the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database, is over the 19,800 mark with an h-index of 72. This citation index places him among the top of transportation professors in citations. The number of his citations in the Google Scholar database is over 44,690, with an h-index of 109. Dr. Bhat's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, State Departments of Transportation, including TxDOT, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Dr. Bhat received the 2004 Walter L. Huber Award and the 2005 James Laurie Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in recognition of his contributions to "innovative methods in transportation systems analysis and modeling." He also received the 2006 Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching, awarded by the College of Engineering at UT Austin, and the 2006-2007 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award, awarded by the UT Graduate School. Dr. Bhat won the 2007 Pyke Johnson Award from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) for the best paper in the area of planning and environment, for a paper he co-authored with two former PhD students. He was selected as the 2008 recipient of the Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He also is a 2008 Jefferson Science Fellow Selectee and was conferred the 2008 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award by the Texas Institute of Transportation Engineers. He was awarded the 2009 S.S. Steinberg Award by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), the 2010 Most Outstanding Faculty Award for Civil Engineering by the Student Engineering Council in the Cockrell School of Engineering, and selected as one of seven new 2010 members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at UT Austin. In 2013, he receive the 2013-14 Billy and Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award by the Cockrell School of Engineering, a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the 2013 Pyke Johnson Awardfrom the Transportation Research Board (TRB) for the best paper in the area of planning and environment, and was featured as a transportation leader in the PROFILES section of the November-December 2013 issue of Transportation News, the bimonthly magazine of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. In 2014, he was named as a distinguished scientist and visiting professor as part of the Highly Cited (HiCi) Researcher Program of King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. At the University level, Dr. Bhat was named as a 2013-2014 Longhorn Game Changer and featured in promotional videos at UT athletic venues and in the social media. In 2015, he was selected to receive the 2015 Hind Rattan Award from the Government of India, and the 2015 Frank M. Masters Transportation Engineering Award from ASCE "for his pioneering contributions to transportation systems analysis, his international leadership in bridging the gap between the research and practice of transportation planning, and his dedicated efforts to produce a new generation of high quality transportation professionals." In 2016, he was named as a Distinguished Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in recognition of his seminal contributions to the field of transportation and urban policy, and was listed on the Eno Center for Transportation's Top 10 Transportation Thought Leaders in Academia. The list, put together by Eno and the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC), features academics who "work in multi-modal disciplines that vary greatly from computer science, information systems, and engineering to public policy, planning, business and design. In addition to grooming the next transportation workforce, this esteemed group leverages their resources and expertise to help solve real world transportation challenges through ongoing research and thought-leadership." In 2017, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Transportation Research and Education Award (Academic) from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). This award is to "identify individuals who have had a long history of significant and outstanding contribution to university transportation education and research resulting in a lasting contribution to transportation." His paper with students entitled "Transportation Planning to Accommodate Needs of Wind Energy Projects" received the 2017 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Travel Analysis Methods Section Ryuichi Kitamura Paper Award. This award is for the best paper, authored by a student(s)-mentor combination, submitted to the Travel Analysis Methods Section (ADB00) of TRB, which gets over 500 papers each year. He also received the 2022 Theodore M. Matson Memorial Award from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) for "...a long and distinguished academic career focused on resolving the critical issues facing the transportation industry." Chandra in 2022 is ranked as one of the top three scientists globally in the subject area of transport and logistics. Along with colleagues and students, he is the recipient of the 2022 Pyke Johnson Award from the Transportation Research Board for the best paper in the area of planning and environment (the paper is entitled "The Influence of Mode Use on Level of Satisfaction with Daily Travel Routine: A Focus on Automobile Driving in the United States"). Recently, he received the 2024 W.N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award from the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and the 2024 Joe King Professional Service Award from the University of Texas�s Cockrell Engineering School.

Dr. Bhat has also made significant educational and scientific impacts on the transportation planning field by nurturing and producing a new generation of very high quality researchers. The results of his pedagogical efforts are evident in the quality of his graduate students. In each of the years 2000, 2001, 2013, 2018, and 2025, one of his MS students was awarded the prestigious Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award for the best North America thesis in the transportation science and technology area, and in 2013, one of his PhD students won the Milton Pikarsky Memorial Award for the best North American dissertation in the transportation science and technology area. In 2004, and again in 2008, one of his PhD students received the Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award for the best North American dissertation in the transportation policy and planning area, and in 2009, 2011, 2013, and again in 2024, one of his MS students won the Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award for the best North American thesis in the transportation policy and planning area. In 2009 and 2012, a PhD student received an honorable mention in the international Eric Pas Prize Competition for one of the top two dissertations in the travel behavior field. His students have been selected for the Eno Leadership Program, the International Road Federation (IRF) Leadership Program, the Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship, the Wanda Schafer Scholarship of the Women's Transportation Society, and the Herman Award, among other awards. Overall, since 2000, his students have received over 45 external (non-UT) awards for their scholarly research and leadership contributions.

Dr. Bhat has been invited and/or elected to serve on several international and national transportation committees, including the International Association for Travel Behavior Research and eleven Transportation Research Board (TRB) committees/task forces. He served as the President of the International Association for Travel Behavior Research, and was a member of the Board of Directors of this association. He is a current member of the TRB Committee on Statistical Methods (AED60), and served as the Co-Chair of the TRB Transportation Planning and Analysis Section (AEP00), Chair of the TRB Travel Analysis Methods Section (ADB00), Co-Chair of the TRB Committee on Transportation Education and Training (ABG20), and Chair of the Committee on Transportation Demand Forecasting (ADB40). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Transportation Research-Part B, an Associate Editor of Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR), and Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives (TRIP), a consulting editor of Travel Behaviour and Society, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Choice Modelling, Transportation Letters: The International Journal of Transportation Research, EURO Journal on Transport and Logistics, and Transportation in Developing Economies, A Journal of the Transportation Research Group of India (TRG). Dr. Bhat is on the Board of Directors of the Research and Education Division of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC).

Dr. Bhat has been a consultant for activity-based travel modeling for MPOs, has conducted research for the Boston MPO in the past on improvements to travel demand modeling, and is currently working with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) on an ongoing activity-based travel modeling project. He has worked with Parsons Brinckerhoff and Cambridge Systematics as a consultant for developing and implementing integrated land-use, transportation, and air quality models. He was on a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Panel to review the travel demand modeling procedures of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) in Washington D.C. He has served as a Peer Review Panelist for several MPOS, including those in the San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Calgary, and St. Louis areas. Locally, he was the technical advisor to a Blue Ribbon Task Force constituted by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce to review and assess Capital Metro's light rail proposal for Austin.