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Archive for the ‘High Speed Rail’ Category

Guest on The Infra Blog: Michael Melaniphy, President & CEO, American Public Transportation Association (APTA)

Wednesday, February 24th, 2016
Michael Melaniphy on The Infra Blog

Michael P. Melaniphy is president and chief executive officer of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and president of the American Public Transportation Foundation. Melaniphy’s entire career has been in public transportation, with more than 30 years of both public and private sector leadership experience.

“As a kid growing up you had a binary choice: you were either a bus kid or you were a car kid. You were one of the two. And you look at today’s environment and it’s a multi-modal environment. We have evolved as a society to understand that now it’s about mobility choices…So as we look at what are the best utilizations of our scarce resources in a community, people are looking at the full assortment of choices, and as we look at the unbelievable growth that’s going to come in the population set of this nation we’ve found that paving our way to a solution is not the best choice.”

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Richard Harnish, Executive Director, Midwest High Speed Rail Association

Monday, February 1st, 2016
Richard Harnish on The Infra Blog

Richard Harnish is the Executive Director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association (MHSRA), a member-supported non-profit organization advocating for fast, frequent and dependable trains linking the entire Midwest.

Here in Illinois we’ve been seeing a lot more interest in doing true high speed rail and we think we’re close to an important next step there. And I was out in Sacramento two months ago and touched the first car shell for that line. That’s something that most people don’t know: those trains really are under construction, and the stations are under construction. So we’re very close to a major tipping point.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Jeff Morales, CEO, California High-Speed Rail Authority

Tuesday, January 26th, 2016
Jeff Morales, CEO, California High-Speed Rail Authority

Jeff Morales is the Chief Executive Officer of the California High-Speed Rail Authority and has a distinguished record of experience managing large and complex transportation issues and projects. As the former Director of the California Department of Transportation, Morales managed a $10 billion program and more than 23,000 employees working to build, maintain and operate the largest state transportation system in the U.S.

“California, with the leadership of Governor Brown and the legislature—we’ve taken the position that we’re going to advance this program with or without additional federal support, and we’ve committed to doing that and are doing that, and we’ve got major construction underway in the Central Valley on the first segment.”

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California HSR: Fresno River Viaduct Update

Tuesday, January 26th, 2016

Construction Manager Hugo Mejia offers an update on the construction of the Fresno River Viaduct in Madera.

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Interregional Travel: A New Perspective for Policy Making

Wednesday, January 13th, 2016
FIGURE 2-1 Factors contributing to increases in long-distance person miles of travel (PMT), 1977–1995. (Derived from Pisarski 2013.)

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
This study reviews the demand for interregional travel in the United States and the uncertainties that arise in supplying transportation services and infrastructure to accommodate it. Consideration is given to relevant experience in other countries, especially in providing intercity passenger rail. A central finding is that appropriate analytical tools and up-to-date data on long-distance travel in the United States are lacking, which complicates decisions about how to invest in the country’s interregional corridors in ways that will serve future travelers most effectively and further other policy goals such as protecting the environment, enhancing safety, and curbing energy use.

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California High-Speed Rail: Reasons to Ride

Monday, December 28th, 2015

Traveling from San Francisco to LA? Not as easy as you’d think. Find out the advantages high-speed rail will offer over driving and flying.#Iwillride

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The Great East Japan Earthquake: Lessons for California High-Speed Rail

Friday, May 29th, 2015
Figure 1. Comparison of the Moment Magnitude and Corresponding Energy Release of Large Earthquakes and Other High-energy Phenomena

MINETA TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE
Earthquakes are a reality in both Japan and California. Seismically active areas lie near and under high-speed rail systems in Japan and along the proposed route for the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s (CHSRA) developing system. Japanese high-speed lines have withstood significant earthquakes without a single loss of life. Their experiences are instructive for California as it develops its system.

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California High Speed Rail Could Earn the State Over $40 Billion in Profit

Monday, December 15th, 2014
ca_hsr_cover

Earlier this year I argued that the up-front cost of local transportation projects, like light rail and bus rapid transit, aren’t really comparable to the cost of California’s high speed rail system. While all of these investments are fighting for the same dollars to some degree, their long-term balance sheets look very different: Local transit typically requires a persistent operating subsidy, whereas even the low-ridership estimates for high speed rail forecast a consistent operating profit. As a result, longer time horizons favor high speed rail, as profits gradually eat away at the high initial capital costs required to build out the network.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Frank Vacca, Chief Program Manager, California High-Speed Rail Authority

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014
Frank Vacca, Chief Program Manager, CHSRA

As of Oct. 2012, Frank Vacca has been the Chief Program Manager for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. In his role, Vacca leads technical and engineering teams as they focus on delivering the high-speed rail project.

“I believe California will be the first high-speed-rail system in North America…We’ve overcome all the legal challenges before us…We have the first billion-dollar contract, and the designs are mature enough to start construction…So there’s nothing, no obstacles, in front of us right now.”

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Erik Steavens, Rail Division Director, Texas Department of Transportation

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014
Erik Steavens on The Infra Blog

Erik Steavens is a twenty-year transportation professional with a diverse background in multimodal transportation. For the past two years, he has managed his own firm, TIP Consultants, to assist public and private sector clients in navigating through the complex transportation funding and implementation environment. Previously, Steavens was the division director of intermodal programs for the Georgia Department of Transportation, where he managed the state’s rail, transit, aviation and port interests.

“Certainly we have been blessed with corridors in Texas that have the potential for the ridership and revenue growth that could sustain a high-speed rail operation…There are very few places in the country that could make those claims. So we are optimistic. We are hopeful that we can help facilitate a project that could be a true game changer for Texas.”

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