Kendall Koff

Our team of professionals serve clients across North America, delivering design, construction management, planning, program and project management, inspection, safety and flagging, and staff augmentation support. We offer a full spectrum of services through our various business units; Engineering, Right of Way Management, Field Services, Training and Media Productions. Our contracts range from comprehensive and complex design services, and rigorous project requirements for large national (both public and private) clients to short-term construction management and inspection contracts for agencies and privately-owned rail lines. We offer clients decades of railroad experience. RailPros is a railroad-focused service provider. RailPros currently works with a variety of clients including Union Pacific Railroad, Kansas City Southern (KCS), BNSF, Canadian National Railway (CN), Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), CSX, shortlines, commuter agencies, and private companies.

As Executive Vice President & COO I worked with the Executive team to identified new business opportunities, mentored Managers and Supervisors, developed company strategy, and expanded the company’s service offerings.

OmniTRAX, Inc is a private railroad and transportation management company with interests in railroads, terminals, ports, and industrial real estate. OmniTRAX operates a network of 21 regional and short line railroads that cover 12 states in the US and 3 provinces in Canada. In this position, I was responsible for all corporate development initiatives for the company. My team oversaw and facilitated the project requirements of all commercial activity within OmniTRAX and its managed companies. I developed and led the project organization, plan development, financial analysis, and project financing decisions. In addition, I allocated and managed all new business capital.

RailAmerica, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida, was a holding company of over 50 short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada. I was responsible for overseeing all Engineering activities (Maintenance, Capital, and Environmental) for RailAmerica’s railroad holdings. The portfolio of properties totaled over 8,100 miles of route track, 3,500 bridges, 35 tunnels, and many yards and facilities.

The primary focus of the company involved acquisition and ownership of short line railroad properties and railroad consulting projects. The company, working with an investor group, sought acquisitions in the $3 to $30 million range and performed due diligence on several rail properties The consulting activities of the company involved cities, short lines, and labor relations issues.

I & M Rail Link (IMRL) was one of the largest regional railroads in North America, spanning five states and operating 1,375 route miles. IMRL averaged over 105 crew starts each day and employed over 700 employees. The railway carried a diverse traffic mix of over 190,000 revenue units (carloads) across its lines on an annual basis. As Vice President of Operation, I was responsible for overseeing the Operations group, which was comprised of the Safety, Transportation, Mechanical, Engineering, Dispatching, and Customer Service departments. During this period, I also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company.

I served as the Department Head for Amtrak’s portion of the Southern California Regional Rail Authority’s (SCRRA) Metrolink commuter operation. My team was responsible for the track, structures, signal, and communications. Duties also included cross-selling services to commuter agencies and responding to Request for Proposals (RFP) and hard-dollar-bid contracts.

As Project Engineer I was responsible for planning and execution of all phases of the $36 million, 250-mile rehabilitation project on the Chicago to St. Louis line. I prepared specifications for the line upgrading project for contract with the State of Illinois and handled all contract awards relating to the upgrading project. In addition to the rehabilitation project, I was responsible for the management of several public projects funded by the State of Illinois and the Federal Government which had an aggregate dollar value in excess of $50 million.

In this role I was responsible for all engineering maintenance and operations for this 632-mile main line railroad, the 339 bridge structures and all buildings on the system. Authored the engineering department's 3-year track maintenance and capital improvement plan and developed track programs using a variety of funding through the State of Illinois to restore 79-MPH operations for the 8 daily Amtrak trains on the Chicago to St. Louis route. Assisted in the successful sale of segments of the CM&W Railway to the Southern Pacific and Gateway Western railroads.

In this role I was responsible for right-of-way maintenance and production work on several different territories during my 12-plus years of service for the C&NW.