Ron Batory

As the story goes, Ronald (Ron) Batory’s father, a car checker with the New York Central Railroad, did not want his son to “waste a college education on a railroad.” Nevertheless, Batory found his calling in the rail industry, eventually serving as head of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) from 2018 to 2021.

Before leading the FRA, Batory spent his entire career with railroads, starting fresh out of college in 1971 with a union craft position for the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad Company (DT&I). At the DT&I Batory progressed into management and held various positions in operations and finance. After DT&I was acquired by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company in 1980, Batory continued to earn positions of higher responsibility in the new organization.

Batory departed the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company in 1987 to take on the Chapter 11 reorganization of the ill-fated Chicago, Missouri & Western Railroad Company. After Batory fulfilled his assignment to the court-appointed trustee, he joined Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1989, rising to general manager, Midwest region.

In 1994 Batory was appointed president of The Belt Railway Company of Chicago, where he became an active member of ASLRRA while leading the switching terminal company to an array of unprecedented safety, service and financial performance records.

These accomplishments in Chicago resulted in Batory being recruited by CSX and Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1998 in preparation for their Surface Transportation Board (STB) approved partitioning of Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), which later became a member of ASLRRA, and establishing what is now commonly known as their shared assets areas. Accomplishing the unique task of providing a proven plane of equality for joint competition among the acquiring Class I carriers favored Batory in being appointed president and chief operating officer for the entire Conrail corporate entity until his retirement in 2017.

After his retirement from Conrail, Batory was nominated to be the fourteenth administrator of the FRA and was confirmed in the Senate by unanimous voice vote. At the FRA Batory addressed and led accomplishment of many time-sensitive Congressional matters such as positive train control (PTC) and standards and metrics governing Amtrak, as well as various stimulus grant programs that were, in part, favorable to ASLRRA membership. In addition, Batory championed the need for the FRA to embrace and foster rail industry technological advancements that could reduce risk and enhance safety.

Since the end of his tenure as FRA administrator in 2021, Batory has continued to be active in the railroad industry. He fulfills various advisory or board governance roles at organizations with familiar names to ASLRRA such as Anacostia Rail Holdings, the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad, R. J. Corman Railroad Group, RailPulse, RailPros and Herzog. He has also taken on trusteeship responsibility with various common carriers awaiting STB decisions relative to acquisitions.