October 28, 2026
15 Years Through Their Eyes
Fifteen years ago, just ten Modern Railway Systems (MRS) employees joined the Stacy Witbeck team. Since then, MRS has grown in both size and capability, evolving into an integrated team delivering design, engineering, systems integration, testing and commissioning, communications, and electrification services. Behind that growth are the people, projects, and relationships that continue to define who we are today.
Designing What We Build
As our projects have grown, so has the role of our design teams. We began with traditional signal design and have since expanded into communications and broader systems design. In the early years, the team was small and primarily focused on task order projects supporting existing systems.
Today, our teams are taking on large scale designs for complete systems while continuing to expand into newer technologies, including wheel sensors and bus control. We are also getting involved earlier in the design process through progressive design build projects. This allows our teams to work alongside clients as concepts take shape, support OEM selections, and help navigate the interfaces between different technologies and systems.
“Seeing what you designed on paper come together just as planned can really make you forget about all the challenges. On the RTD Welton project, our team designed three cases, tested them in the factory, helped in the field to get things up and running and commissioned. It ended up being a very rewarding experience.” - Andy Smith, Lead Engineer
Engineering Through Change
“MRS has brought signal, communications, and office software design under one roof. It is exciting to see what our teams are capable of together when we leverage our full talent sets.” - Jesse Knaak, Manager of Systems Engineering
Our expertise spans a wide range of rail infrastructure systems, including signaling, communications, office systems, and systems integration across wayside, office, and onboard environments. Our engineering teams have experience in the initial deployment of rail systems, incorporating operational planning and safety considerations early in the design process. These same considerations guide the final implementation of systems in both greenfield and brownfield environments, helping ensure safe, efficient execution while minimizing disruptions to railroad operations.
Our teams are made up of experts in software, design, integration, and certification of these railroad systems so that we can provide a complete vertically integrated solution from concept through implementation.
That ability to look at the entire system has grown significantly over the years. In the past, MRS subcontracted much of its signal, communications, and office design work. Today, we have approximately 50 in-house engineers across those disciplines, giving us the expertise to develop solutions internally and coordinate the integration required to make them work together.
Testing and Commissioning
Testing and commissioning is where all the pieces of a system come together. MRS touches nearly every aspect of railroad systems, managing the entire lifecycle from cradle to grave, ensuring all components work together seamlessly.
Our capabilities span communications, signaling and wayside systems, traction power, and OCS. For communications, that means testing end to end, for the end device to the networks the information travels on. For signaling and wayside, our teams test everything from equipment inside signal houses to the infrastructure supporting it in the field. Our growing traction power and OCS capabilities have expanded that work even further, bringing the integration of power to the train into the testing and commissioning process.
At every stage, the goal is to make sure each component performs as intended, and that all of the critical safety and control systems work together as designed.
“What truly sets MRS and Stacy Witbeck apart is a culture that prioritizes people over mere project delivery; we build genuine relationships and invest deeply in one another's success. Throughout all of the ups and downs, we continuously share insights, optimize our processes, and show each other a better way forward. Not just within MRS but with our clients as well.” - Bobby Hammond, Manager of Testing and Commissioning
15 Years Through Their Eyes
Projects can tell us what MRS has accomplished, but our people can tell us what it took to get there.
Dan Meservey, Alternative Delivery Leader
Dan Meservey's first MRS project was the Sugar House Streetcar for Utah Transit Authority (UTA). While relatively small compared to the projects MRS takes on today, it represented an important step forward as one of the company’s first projects to expand beyond signaling into OCS and fiber optic cable installation and testing.
Over the years, the projects grew in size and complexity. One Dan remembers most is UTA FrontRunner North, where the team faced a major technical issue with vehicle braking just eight months before revenue service. Working alongside the signaling supplier and project partners, the team innovated and optimized braking curves and distances, allowing the system to be delivered safely and on time.
Experiences like that have shaped some of Dan’s biggest lessons over the past 15 years.
What was once a team taking on primarily signaling focused projects is now delivering projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars with broader scopes across communications, electrification, design, construction, and testing.
Shon Tulik, Vice President
One of Shon Tulik's earliest projects was TriMet WES, a commuter rail system operating on a freight corridor using technology that had never been put into revenue service before. He learned fast that "first" means the manual hasn't been written yet — and that you can't test your way out of a plan you didn't make.
Years later, Caltrain Electrification showed just how much the work had grown. With more than 50 miles of live railroad, a technical solution requiring FRA buy off, and a schedule that never blinked. But what Shon remembers most is the relationship that helped the team work through those challenges.
That experience reinforced a lesson that has followed him throughout his career.
“Relationships are everything. Every job we were awarded, every problem we've solved after hours, came from someone at an agency or a partner who picked up the phone because they trusted us. Contracts define the work; relationships decide the outcome.”
Those relationships have remained important as MRS’s role in the industry has evolved. Fifteen years ago, MRS was primarily a signal company working within someone else’s plan. Today, our teams are leading progressive design build pursuits, sitting at the table when the scope is written. The work is bigger and the opportunity to change its course is ours.
Through all that change, Shon says the foundation has remained the same.
"We've grown, the names have changed, but the instinct hasn't: do what's right for the railroad, even when nobody's checking and the contract doesn't require it. That's what MRS has always been."
