As RTR Technologies’ new Vice President of Sales, Kevin Clyne is the go-to expert for mass transit and freight rail industries, as they get more aggressive in seeking technology to prevent cold-weather train service shutdowns. In fact, there’s hardly a cold-weather mass transit or freight rail system in North America without some of RTR’s technology in place—from Boston to New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toronto and beyond, the company says.
Clyne, a software, electrical and systems engineer with a wealth of success in aircraft and rail industries, is now heading up RTR’s sales of winter weather technology components for rail industries. RTR designs, manufactures and distributes components that prevent freezing of third rails, switch points and overhead catenary wires powering above-ground trolley lines.
RTR’s equipment prevents train doors from freezing open or shut, keeps outdoor station platforms from freezing, and provides interior heat for train cars, and other applications. RTR is also developing new telemetry systems offering improved remote control technology for enhanced safety and performance on the rails.
“When the trains keep moving in frigid conditions, it’s generally not news —but no news is good news for RTR in regions where our technology is in place,” said Clyne. “The secret behind your easy winter commute is an invisible power-house of technology and ingenuity for safety, comfort and on-time trains.”
“When trains shut down in winter, commuters and train personnel are late, cold and miserable, and a really bad winter can mean that the transit chiefs get fired,” said RTR President and CEO Rosalie Berger, who founded the company in 1994. In fact, that’s what happened in Boston in 2015, following a notorious winter of unprecedented snow.
Berger said Clyne “embodies the can-do spirit of RTR’s evolving technologies, he inspires confidence from our clients, and he absolutely loves to use public transportation.”
RTR’s market impact is substantial: The company’s heating systems for third rails, switch heat point heaters, catenary line heaters are in place on thousands of miles of track in the U.S. and Canada, and that mileage is growing every year.
The company is in the midst of a $6.5 million project to install wireless remote control heating systems for the MBTA transit system in Boston. This year, RTR will enter Phase II for installation of rail heaters and controllers for the Washington-Dulles Metro expansion project, a substantial preventive-measure job in a climate facing increasingly treacherous winters. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, RTR replaced damaged rail heater infrastructure and communications technology throughout the devastated New Jersey Transit system, and continues to upgrade the NJT system.
Clyne’s upward trajectory began at Grumman Aircraft and the Harris Corp., and on through GE, ID Systems and RailComm, among other employers. He holds a degree in applied mathematics from Adelphi University, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from City University of New York.
He jointed RTR in 2014, and serves as the company’s key sales contract for Amtrak, the MBTA, NJTransit, SEPTA, the Maryland MTA, PATH, Chicago Transit Authority, and the New York City Transit Authority, and the Canadian Transit Authority, among others. RTR’s freight rail clients include CSX, BNSF, CP, CN, UP, NS and Indiana Harbor.