AASHTO - Freight Transportation Network

Chair -- Astrid C. Glynn, New York
Vice Chair -- Kenneth Uznanski, Washington State
Secretary -- Leo Penne, AASHTO

Coeur d'Alene Meeting

Meeting Material

2005 Idaho AGENDA FINAL

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Location:

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Aug. 28-31, 2005

Click on logo above or click here to Visit Idaho's Rail Page

Rail Committee Addresses Intercity Passenger Rail Corridors,
and Freight Investments

Meeting August 28-31st in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, AASHTO's Standing Committee on Rail Transportation (SCORT), chaired by Bob Flanagan, Secretary of Transportation for the State of Maryland, considered ways to help develop and operate intercity passenger rail corridors, and making productive investments in freight rail projects.

The meeting achieved record attendance for a third year in a row with a little over 168 participants, including staff from 33 state DOTs.

The agenda included a wide variety of speakers and subject areas including speakers from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), short line and regional railroads, Association of American Railroads (AAR), and a number of other private industry representatives including-Norfolk Southern (NF), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), and Union Pacific (UP).

Chairman Flanagan proposed that the Committee place increased emphasis on rail financing. The Committee decided to create a finance working group that will include committee members as well as other public and private transportation finance experts.

A workshop on rail finance will be conducted later this year.

Program sessions covered a variety of topics, which are as follows: The Washington Report, Rail Initiatives: West and East/State and Local, Intercity Passenger Rail: Getting to Yes, Lessons for Multistate Rail Corridors, Rail Financing: So You Want to Finance a Rail Project?

A session on shipper requirements was keynoted by John Ficker, President of the National Industrial Transportation League (NITLeague). Ficker and speakers representing the timber products and sugar industries of the Northwest discussed how shippers cope with their multi-modal shipping challenges.

At a set of roundtable discussions on public/private freight rail projects, state staff and railroad representatives shared experience and ideas on how the public and private sectors can collaborate on projects that are mutually beneficial. Projects discussed included the Shellpot Bridge, the New Orleans Gateway, the Colorado Front Range Railroad Public Benefit and Costs Study, Bridging the Valley, Iowa Interstate Railroad, North Carolina Railroad Improvement Program, Eastern Shore Rail Infrastructure, and the Tupelo Rail Relocation. Representatives of the I-95 Corridor Coalition explained the Mid-Atlantic Rail Operations Study (MAROps), which identified rail bottlenecks in the five-state mid-Atlantic corridor and projects to open them. The speakers also addressed the Northeast Rail Operations Study, which focuses on the north end of the I-95 corridor and the Southeast Rail Operations Study involving the states on the south end.

Several speakers discussed the Senate rail legislation (S. 1516) reported recently by the Senate Commerce Committee. The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2005 reauthorizes Amtrak, creates a federal capital financing program for intercity passenger rail and contains a rail planning provision that requires states seeking aid under the Act to prepare a comprehensive, long term rail plan.

A copy of S. 1516, "Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2005", and other bills pertaining to SAFETEA-LU, Rail Transportation, and Amtrak can be found by going to the Freight Transportation Network page. » » »

Chairman Flanagan moderated a session on rail financing, which was facilitated by Emil Frankel, former Assistant Secretary for transportation policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, currently with PB Consult.; Gary Maring, Cambridge Systematics; John Gray, Vice President and General Manager of Business Development, Union Pacific Railroad; and Bill Harsh, Director of Mercer Management Consulting spoke. They explained the various ways that states could successfully engage in financing for public benefit rail projects. The committee unanimously supported the initiative of AASHTO's President to create an AASHTO Intercity Passenger Rail Leadership Group to advocate AASHTO's position on long-term passenger rail policy.

The agenda and presentations may be downloaded at: Freight Transportation Network page, and will also be available on a CD. Contact Juan Flores at: jflores@aashto.org for more information. The 2006 meeting has been set for San Antonio Texas, September 10-13 2006.

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SCORT PROGRAM PRESENTATIONS:

MONDAY, AUGUST 29^th
Washington Report

Obie O’Bannon &
Jennifer Macdonald, Association of American Railroads
Mark Yachmetz, Federal Railroad Administration ---(Coming Soon)

Keith Borman, American Short Line & Regional Railroad Association ---(Coming Soon)

Rail Initiatives: West and East/State and Local

Tom Norton, Colorado Department of Transportation

Joan McDonald, New York City Economic Development Corporation

Perspectives on State Rail Plans

Tom Atkinson, Louisiana Department of Transportation

Bill Schafer, Norfolk Southern Railroad

Bill Bronte, CalTrans ---(Coming Soon)

David Hunt, Cambridge Systematics

Lunch Speaker:

Gil Mallery, Amtrak, Vice President, Strategic Planning and Contract Administration

Amtrak Strategic Reform Initiatives FY08 Grant Request, Overview May 2005

The Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act/Amtrak Reauthorization, S. 1516

Intercity Passenger Rail: Getting to Yes

Craig Lewis, Norfolk Southern Railroad

Mark Yachmetz, Federal Railroad Administration ---(Coming Soon)

David Ewing, Public Policy Consultant

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30 ^th
Roundtable Discussions of Public/Private Rail Projects.

David Simpson, TranSystems Corporation

MAROPS/NEROPS/SAROPS: Lessons for Multistate Rail Corridors

I-95 Coalition
Mary Grace Parker, I-95 Coalition
Steve Slavick, New York Department of Transportation
David Ganovski, Maryland Department of Transportation
Steve Yost, Georgia Department of Transportation

Rail Financing: So You Want to Finance a Rail Project?

Gary Maring, Cambridge Systematics

John Gray Union Pacific Railroad

Bill Harsh, Mercer Management Consulting

Lunch Speaker:

Ed McKechnie, Watco Companies, Inc.

Shipper Requirements

John Ficker, National Industrial Transportation League

Bryan Whipple, Amalgamated Sugar Company

Dave Weisel, Potlatch Corporation

Other

Safety Task Force, Grade Crossing Safety--Innovations in Motion

Peggy Baer, Altoona Rail Spur Intermodal Pilot Project Program Appication

Elaine King, TRB--Rail Related Activities and Publications (August 2005)