The Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay Railway received an award yesterday in Atlanta from the Association of American Railroads. The following is from the press release.

Washington, D.C., April 30, 2014 – The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today recognized highlights in best safety practices from around the industry at the annual Railroad Safety Leadership Forum, in Atlanta. The event brings together railroad teams from AAR’s full-member railroads to underscore achievements in personal safety and injury prevention and provide a venue to share best practices.

“Safety is at the core of the railroad industry, driving every day decisions and operations from offices in headquarters to the cab of locomotives moving across America’s 140,000 mile rail network,” said AAR President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger. “Through innovation and hard work, our employees continue to make the railroad industry one of the safest in which to have a career. We will continue to innovate and invest, and bring together teams from around the industry to listen and learn and take every opportunity to improve safety.”

Iowa Pacific Holdings: Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay Railway (Calif.)

Despite the challenges of being a start-up organization handling both passenger and freight operations, the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay (SCMB) team has managed from day-one to be injury and accident-free for 525 days and counting. This has been achieved with a very limited budget and a “from scratch” team of individuals that were completely new to this railroad. While getting underway, the railroad field tested the company’s new conductor certification training program and other part 230-compliant training programs. Since start-up, the team located a new customer (a biofuel manufacturer) and increased business from existing customers by 30 percent. The SCMB team’s efforts to operate two seasons of passenger events and grow the freight business have been successful.