James P. RePass - President & CEO
Phone:  617-269-5478

The Hon. John Robert Smith - Chairman

MA Office: 59 Gates Street, Boston, MA. 02127
CT Office, 8 Riverbend Drive, Mystic, CT, 06355
RI Office, 35 Terminal Road, Suite 210, Providence, RI. 02905

Fax (CT): 860-536-5482

For North American Transportation
Advocates and Leaders

Hyatt Regency Hotel
St. Louis, MO
January 28-29, 2008

Confronting the Nation’s Transportation Crisis:

Advocates Gather in St. Louis to Hear
American Airlines’ Bob Crandall, Dukakis, Busalacchi
And Other Major National Leaders
Demand A Future for American Transportation

ST. LOUIS, MO – 100 of the nation’s 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 Who’s 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 Monday’s opening.

“This critical conference has been called on an urgent basis to throw a greater spotlight on America’s growing transportation crisis, which is a major underlying cause of the nation’s 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 nation’s 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 nation’s 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 nation’s 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.

Sponsors / Supporters include: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials American Public Transportation Association Association of American Railroads Association for Public Transportation Bombardier Transit Connex / Veolia Transportation InTrans Incorporated: A New Direction in Transportation Advocacy Midwest High Speed Rail Association The National Association of Railroad Passengers The National Corridors Initiative National Association of Railroad Passengers Providence & Worcester Railroad The Sierra Club of the United States The Surdna Foundation Train / Riders NorthEast Victoria Transportation Policy Institute Virginians for High Speed Rail Washington Group / URS   View the Draft Agenda Here

Speakers: William Ankner, Secretary of Transportation, Louisiana John Businger, Co-Chair, North South Rail Link Commission Douglas Alexander, President, InTrans Inc. Frank Busalacchi, Chair, Passenger Rail Working Group, US Congress’ National Surface Transportation Policy      and Revenue Study Commission; Chair, States for Passenger Rail; Secty WiDOT Gilbert E. Carmichael, Former Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration; Senior Chairman,      ITI Board of Directors, Intermodal Transportation Institute, University of Denver James Coston, Chairman, Corridor Capital LLC Robert Crandall, former CEO, American Airlines Rod Diridon, Chair Emeritus, California High Speed Rail Authority Michael S. Dukakis, Presidential Nominee, Democratic Party David Foster, Executive Director, Rail Solution Tim Frank, Chair, Sierra Club of the United States Livable Communities Committee Art Guzzetti, Vice President for Policy, American Public Transportation Association Edward Hamberger, President, Association of American Railroads Rick Harnish, Executive Director, Midwest High Speed Rail Association John Horsley, Executive Director, AASHTO Cynthia Hoyle, Committee Member, Sierra Club of the United States Livable Communities Committee NARP Assistant Director David R. Johnson Craig Lewis, Senior Vice President, Norfolk Southern Todd Alexander Litman, Executive Director, Victoria Transportation Policy Institute Pete Rahn, President, AASHTO, and Director of the Missouri Department of Transportation James P. RePass, President, the National Corridors Initiative Larry Russell, Vice President, American Road and Transportation Builders Association Rep. Charlie Schlottach (94-MO), Chair, Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission and Chair,      House Appropriations Committee for Transportation and Economic Development Hon. John Robert Smith, founding Chairman, Reconnecting America; former Chairman, Amtrak Paul Weyrich, Chairman, Free Congress Foundation, (Via a Representative Due to Illness) Mark Yachmetz, Associate Administrator, the Federal Railroad Administration