Veteran railroad civil engineer and operating officer Alfred E. Fazio, P.E., has joined the staff of Railway Age as a contributing editor.
Fazio, who has 40 years experience in freight and passenger rail, retired in January 2015 as Amtrak Deputy Chief Engineer of Section Improvements, where he was responsible for the implementation of high-speed rail improvements to the Northeast Corridor. Prior to this, he was General Manager of New Jersey Transit’s Camden to Trenton River LINE diesel light rail system. Fazio also served with Raytheon and Washington Group International as President of Twenty-First Century Rail, the original DBOM supplier of the NJ Transit Hudson-Bergen Light Rail system. From 1989 through 1996, he was Amtrak’s Division Engineer for the New York Division.
Fazio holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Villanova University, a master’s in Environmental Engineering from Drexel University, a master’s degree in Applied Mechanics from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a registered Professional Engineer. He is a member of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) as well as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Fazio has also served as a member of the Engineering faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy and at Widener University.
Fazio’s first major feature article for Railway Age will be a three-part series on high speed rail. The first installment, “HSR in the Northeast: What next? Part I: Defining and Expanding High Speed,” appears in the September issue. Parts II and III will be published in the October and November issues, respectively.
Fazio has authored several books on light rail and rapid transit. His newest book, Elements of Planning, Engineering & Operating Light Rail, With Applications in New Jersey, is being published by Simmons-Boardman Books and will be available in September 2015. Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono and BRT Services President Bridget Hodgson are co-authors.
“Unlike modern rapid transit, which is highly standardized in design and operating practices, light rail employs a full range of technologies,” says Fazio. “Among these are significant differences in railcar configuration and capabilities. Operating practices are spread over a wide continuum, even on single routes. Thoughtful, expert service planning and applications engineering is essential. ‘Out of the box solutions are inadequate. This book’s main purpose is to review some of the specialized technical and operational issues associated with light and interurban railways. New Jersey’s experiences with these types of railways can benefit planners and engineers. This book also closely examines the relationship between transportation and economic development, in a modern urban environment.”