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The National Corridors Initiative, Inc.
James P. RePass - President & CEO The Hon. John Robert Smith - Chairman
MA Office: 59 Gates Street, Boston, MA. 02127 Fax (CT): 860-536-5482 |
The Carmichael Conference On The Future of American Transportation
For North American Transportation
Hyatt Regency Hotel |
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Confronting the Nations Transportation Crisis:
Advocates Gather in St. Louis to Hear
ST. LOUIS, MO 100 of the nations major transportation leaders and advocates will gather next week in St. Louis to confront the growing national crisis in transportation, and craft a policy to fight it. The first-ever Carmichael Conference on the Future of American Transportation takes place January 28-29 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St. Louis (the rehabilitated Union Train Station). Featured speakers include Robert Crandall, the outspoken former CEO of American Airlines, former Amtrak Director Michael Dukakis, Passenger Working Group Chair and National Surface Transportation Policy Commissioner Frank Busalacchi, and a score of other key leaders, AASHTO President and Missouri Secretary of Transportation Pete Rahn, and literally a score of others. The conference is being organized by the National Corridors Initiative (www.nationalcorridors.org) at the request of former FRA Administrator Gilbert Carmichael, with the help of a Whos Who of national organizations, including the Sierra Club, the American Public Transportation Association, the Association of American Railroads, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the National Association of Railroad Passengers, and a host of other organizations. Other significant national and regional organizations are being added daily to this conference, which aims to put transportation on the front burner of the 2008 Presidential Campaign. National transportation leader Frank Busalacchi, chairing the Passenger Rail Working Group of the congressionally-mandated National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission in the news this week, will keynote Mondays opening. This critical conference has been called on an urgent basis to throw a greater spotlight on Americas growing transportation crisis, which is a major underlying cause of the nations increasing congestion and its declining ability to compete in world markets, stated James P. RePass, President and CEO of the Boston-based National Corridors Initiative, which organized the Conference. The conference is named for former Federal Railroad Administrator and Senior Chairman of the Board for the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver, Gilbert Carmichael. Gil has been a long time bi-partisan advocate and spokesperson for a balanced intermodal North American transportation system and was appointed Federal Railroad Administrator by President George H.W. Bush, and also served on the Amtrak Board of Directors from 1989 to 1993, said RePass. Mr. Carmichael suggested the National Corridors Initiative (www.nationalcorridors.org) organize this event to help bring the nations infrastructure crisis to the attention of the 2008 presidential candidates. said RePass. The transportation crisis in this country has gotten well beyond the gridlock stage, continued RePass, and we have got to address it now. The nations ability to compete in world markets, the cost of living, air quality, and our very freedom of mobility are all being harmed or restricted by our continued failure to develop a national transportation strategy and implement it aggressively on a bi-partisan basis. That must end. To help achieve this goal, we have assembled more than a score of transportation industry leaders, advocates, and environmental leaders to take part in this important conference. Their recommendation will produce a white paper aimed at proposing solutions to this crisis. Secretary Busalacchi, who also heads States for Passenger Rail and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, will be joined by many of the nations recognized transportation leaders and advocates, including former Presidential Nominee and Amtrak Vice-Chair Michael S. Dukakis; former Amtrak Board Chairman and Reconnecting America Founding Chairman John Robert Smith; American Airlines former Chairman and CEO Robert Crandall; AASHTO President Pete Rahn (who is also Director of the Missouri Department of Transportation); Association of American Railroads President Edward Hamberger; AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley; Norfolk Southern Railroad Vice President Corporate Affairs Craig Lewis; a representative of Free Congress Foundation Chairman Paul Weyrich (who can not travel at present); Louisiana Secretary of Transportation William Ankner; American Road and Transportation Builders Association Vice President Larry Russell, and FRA Associate Administrator Mark Yachmetz. Also included are Rep. Charlie Schlottach (94th-MO), Chair, Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission and Chair, House Appropriations Committee for Transportation and Economic Development, Missouri; Douglas Alexander, President, InTrans; James Coston, Chairman, Corridor Capital LLC; National Association of Railroad Passengers Assistant Director David R. Johnson; Rod Diridon, Chair Emeritus, California High Speed Rail Authority; Art Guzzetti, Vice President for Policy, American Public Transportation Association; Rick Harnish, Executive Director, Midwest High Speed Rail Association; John Businger, Co-Chair of the North South Rail Link Commission; Todd Alexander Litman, Executive Director, Victoria Transportation Policy Institute; James P. RePass, President, the National Corridors Initiative; Tim Frank, Chair, Sierra Club of the United States Livable Communities Committee; Cynthia Hoyle, Committee Member, Sierra Club of the United States Livable Communities Committee.
Space is limited. Reserve now on-line at www.nationalcorridors.org
A special room rate is being made available through The Hyatt Regency St. Louis - www.hyatt.com
1 St. Louis Union Station
The purpose of this conference is to develop a unified Transportation Advocates Statement on the Future of American Transportation
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You may also register with a credit card by Fax, or use our On-Line secure server per below.
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Conference Press Release Plus Working Agenda (PDF) (Above Text ) |
Print and FAX (or mail) Conference Registration Form (PDF) ( Register With Hotel Separately ) |
Register For Conference On-Line Secure Server ( Register With Hotel Separately ) |