Rail Safety Consulting, LLC Team

OUR TEAM

The RSC, LLC team consists of experienced people who have been involved with many leading edge projects in train control systems over the past 40 years. Each team member has technical design, analysis and project management experience and skills, and the team works together to make sure every project is properly executed.

These are the RSC, LLC people:

Jeff Twombly, PE – President and Principal Safety Engineer

With over 21 years of rail systems experience, and Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, Jeff both leads projects for RSC and contributes to the technical objective of projects. Jeff can ensure that you, the customer, are treated with respect and given useful, factual data about both projects entrusted to RSC and the actual results of our work. Jeff also coordinates the work of RSC staff, and manages our relationships with customers and independent suppliers of special skills used by RSC.

Dave Rutherford, Jr., PE - Principal Safety Engineer

With nearly 40 years of dedicated experience in fail-safe rail signals and train control, Dave brings a wealth of technical expertise to the team. Dave has been a leader in writing IEEE standards for safety verification, appears on 7 patents in signaling, and has presented many technical papers. He has guided NYCT, LA Metro, SEPTA, Alaska Railroad, and others in specifying and developing modern train control systems. Having created the idea of defined Safety Assurance Concepts for implementing fail-safe systems, Dave assures that system designs demonstrate rigorous safety throughout. Dave is a member of AREMA, and is active on their PTC committee.

Brian Burns – Senior Safety Engineer

Brian has over 14 years of experience dealing with the safety of hardware and software, with emphasis on knowing how to design, evaluate, and test circuits that provide “intrinsic fail-safety” to the train control system. Brian also applies Fault Tree Analysis to analyze complex system designs, which he develops into a full quantitative risk assessment where required.

Dr. Eric Cutright – Senior Safety Engineer

Dr. Cutright has been a leader in rail safety design and engineering for over 18 years, gaining experience with a vital signaling supplier, university safety center, and in the safety consulting field. Dr. Cutright has originated rail safety risk simulations, and provided solutions to technically complex safety questions on braking algorithms, location subsystems, PTC systems, risk assessments, and much more. Eric’s office is located in Charlottesville, VA, close to Washington DC, where he has been a participant in the FRA RSAC working group on PTC.

Ken Jackson – Senior Safety Engineer

A lifelong railfan, Ken has over 36 years experience with developing complex rail control systems, including hardware design, safety analysis, risk assessment, and project management. Ken has been active on the FRA RSAC working group on PTC. Ken also has significant background in solving client problems and resolving FRA-compliance concerns. He is a member of IEEE and its Vehicular Technology Society.

Tony LaPolla – Senior Safety Engineer

Tony also has a long background in rail systems, more than 30 years, beginning with supervisory control software, and continuing through project management, marketing, and safety assessment. Tony has led many safety programs for clients, and performed audits of processor-based control systems and their application software for several suppliers, major transit authorities, and railroads.

Jim Flanagan – Senior Safety Engineer

Jim is an experienced signal system designer and developer who is working part-time for RSC on software-critical system designs and analysis. Jim has over 28 years of prior experience with a signal supplier and independent design and consulting services. He is skilled in software systems management and test, rail system process integration, and project leadership.