Capital Region Business Journal

Company: The railroad operates on 675 miles of track in 20 Wisconsin and three Illinois counties, hauling 50,300 carloads of items last year that included lumber, coal, plastic, chemicals, sand, paper and canned goods. With headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin & Southern is the regional freight railroad in the capital region.

Professional history: Bought the regional railroad in 1988 after selling the family business, which manufactured electrical equipment for do-it-yourself homeowners and contractors. Wisconsin & Southern marked its 25th anniversary this year.

Family: His wife, Lucy, died last December after a four-month battle with cancer. He has a son, daughter and stepson.

A: In 1988, I was fortunate enough in selling the family business and, being 42 years old, I needed a place to go to work. I've always had an interest in the railroad industry and Wisconsin & Southern was available for sale at that time. With a lot of money in the bank and having no place to go to work, I purchased the railroad so I would have a place to go to work and be able to continue on what I enjoy doing, which is sales and marketing, and continuing to operate the railroad.

I sold the family business in 1987. That was called Gardner Bender Inc. It was a manufacturing concern that made tools and accessories for do-it-yourself homeowners that had anything to do with electrical wiring in the household. We'd manufacture voltage testers, wire markers, pipe benders for bending conduit pipe, cable ties, wire nuts � many, many items that a do-it-yourselfer or an electrical contractor would use in roughing in a job.

Q: Many of the tracks are owned by public entities, and Wisconsin & Southern, a private company, is licensed to operate on them. How does the system work?

A: Back in 1978 and 1979, when the Milwaukee Road was going to abandon a lot of the rail lines, the state of Wisconsin realized that if we lose all these rail lines, we're going to lose economic growth. They got together with the counties and purchased quite a bit of the rail lines that the Milwaukee Road was abandoning at that time. They set up commissions to be overseers and they went out and hired a private contractor to operate the rail lines for them.

I was working with three commissions at that time. We had a 99-year agreement with one commission and a 20-year agreement with another commission. I said to those guys: "This is crazy. Why don't we write a new agreement to where all the commissions have a mirror agreement?" This way everybody's abiding by the same rules and I'm working toward the same goals of what everybody wants to see us achieve � that's bringing more business, more economic growth and more employees into the region.

We were able to do that with the help of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which is kind of the guidance to the transit commissions to some extent because they have a bigger staff and more expertise.

We actually are in the fourth year of our 50-year agreement. I said, "Look, 99 years I'm not going to worry about renewal. With 20 years, that's a little quick. Why don't we do a 50-year agreement?"

I'm still not going to worry about a 50-year renewal at my age. ... We basically tried to get all the rail transit commissions on the same page. ... We actually were able to set up a coordinating committee among all the rail transit commissions.

Q: Has the continued upward spiral in fuel prices caused more companies to think about rail as an alternative to trucks?

A: Every week, we get somebody that we would have talked to maybe two years ago, gave them all the information and everything and then they kind of go dormant for a while. Then all of a sudden within a period of time they're back at it, very active and now we have them. Now they have made the commitment to go to rail vs. truck because the trucking cost has just spiraled too high.

A: In my spare time, I still think about the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad. I think about how to expand and how to solve problems. I enjoy fishing and when I'm fishing, I'm probably still thinking about a situation I'm trying to figure how to work around, to get it accomplished.

I enjoy cooking. I'm a very good chef in the kitchen. My mother basically taught me a lot of Polish meals, so I'm really good with Polish meals and probably my best is pot-roast dumplings. It seems when I do that, the whole family, all the kids, grandkids show up for that.

That's maybe my tension release, but as I'm doing this, something will come to me how we can solve a problem that we're facing. ... I'll wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning with a problem solved where I went to bed not realizing it. ... I guess entrepreneurs are a special breed. They never really walk away from their business even though they go home at night. They're always thinking.

A: I enjoy taking trips by the railroad because it gives me time to think, plan, set up what I'm going there for. ... As long as I still have a computer and a cell phone, I'm really in touch with the base operations. I have a chance also to see what's happening in the region with customers and looking at new possible customers. I guess I try to be a problem solver. My attitude is, "Why are we not serving that customer?" or "Why can't we serve that customer?" ... I also try to travel by train on vacation.

Q: Public officials in Madison and Dane County still seem very interested in a commuter rail system. Given the failure of the Middleton experiment, do you believe this is a realistic possibility or a pipe dream?

A: The Middleton Express really was more of an excursion. It really wasn't a commuter rail operation. You're talking apples and oranges here. I believe that Madison is a very good candidate for commuter rail because of the way the city is laid out with the isthmus, the lakes and so forth. With the surrounding community exploding at the seams for expansion and having limits of how you get into the city, commuter rail really is a perfect candidate.

A: You're going to see more and more freight moved by rail, which is going to tax the rail infrastructure. That's why we're working on upgrading our rail infrastructure so we can handle what's coming down the pike. ...

A: We're always looking at opportunities to expand the railroad in the state of Wisconsin or northern Illinois. My premise is I want to be able to touch it. I'm not interested in going to California and operating 300 miles there or going to New York and operating 200 miles there. Basically, I will stay in the Midwest area where I can drive from here to there to see the railroad and have it as a contiguous, continuous entity.

Railroad president has a one-track mind

Interviewed by Marv Balousek

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