Kevin R. Day
Assistant Vice President, Engineering, Canadian National Railway
Office Location: Homewood, IL
Education
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Master of Science, Civil Engineering
- Kansas State University, Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering
Professional Associations and Committees
- American Railway Engineering Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) Member
- Railroad Research Advisory Committee of Canada (Co-Chair)
- Rural Railroad Safety Center Industry Advisory Committee Member
- KSU Civil Engineering Advisory Council (Chair)
Kevin Day serves as the Assistant Vice President, Engineering for Canadian National Railway (CN) in Homewood, Illinois. CN, a class one railroad, is a world-class transportation leader and the only transcontinental railway in North America. The 19,600-mile network spans Canada and Mid-America, connecting three coasts: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. CN offers fully integrated rail and other transportation services including intermodal, trucking freight forwarding, warehousing and distribution.
Mr. Day graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Kansas State University, and received a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he participated in the Railroad Engineering program. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Mississippi.
Mr. Day leads the Engineering Track team for CN’s Eastern Region, which includes the United States and Eastern Canada. His team of over 170 managers and 1,750 unionized employees are focused on working safely while maintaining and upgrading over 15,000 miles of track with an approximate annual budget of $800 million. He is responsible for creating long-term strategies to improve safety, efficiency and productivity of the Engineering Track team. Prior to this position, Mr. Day led the Mechanical Engineering and Reliability group at CN, where he guided a network team toward driving improvements in mechanical reliability of CN’s locomotive and rail car fleets. He was also responsible for developing advanced strategies to improve and optimize mechanical maintenance programs and performance.
Mr. Day has worked at CN since 2002. His career has included the following positions: Senior Director, Field Technology and Data Analytics; Assistant Chief Engineer, Technology, Testing and Standards; Senior Manager Track Services; Senior Manager Engineering, Senior Manager Design and Construction; Manager of Structures; Bridge Supervisor; Assistant Project Manager – Metra Project; Project Engineer. Mr. Day has been part of two separate teams that have won President’s Awards for Excellence: the first for safely replacing 26 timber bridges with concrete box culverts under rail traffic in a busy rail yard in less than three months, and the second for improving track safety by building a new track evaluation rail car with the latest technology to perform electronic geometry and optical inspections. He also led the team responsible for initiating CN’s autonomous track inspection program, which the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) approved as a test program in 2020.
He currently serves as an active member of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA), the Railroad Research Advisory Board of Canada, the Rural Railroad Safety Center Industrial Advisory Committee, and the KSU Civil Engineering Advisory Council. Mr. Day, his wife Tanya and daughter Julie reside in Highland, Indiana, where they enjoy spending time at Julie’s many activities including ice skating, gymnastics and swimming.
