to hear testimony on have we really in the united states the dream of high three real in america is finally coming true in two thousand and seven this subcommittee held a hearing to listen to the experience of international world in other words build it and they will come the american recovery and reinvestment act of two thousand and laid the foundation it included eight billion dollars for high speed rail and one point three  good year two thousand to an appropriation bill that passed the house included in addition of four begin and the surface transportation bill being developed by this committee includes another fifty b n for development of high speed rail corridors over the next six years since the next in the reid recovery act interest in history really has been phenomenal the federal railroad administration has received numerous applications from the state for the development of high speed and ensure rail passion and ra projects these include forty five applications from twenty four states tolling fifty billion dollars they also received two hundred and fourteen applications from thirty four states to seven billion dollars for core planning and small projects would just like to caution the better ministration that you choose two to three systems that will truly work if you spend the money around in two ministers and the money will not work the way it's supposed to and i don't want to see bridges to nowhere when it comes to high speed rail we really want to system that were these numerous requests clearly indicate a very strong and growing interest in how we reel in the united states they also make clear that the federal government needs to invest in hypes we are in order to make the president and this congress  reality and we need to plan delicate source of funding it the private sector including international operators and foreign governments like spraying france and italians aren't want to hear if they don't see a true commitment about a hundred and ten thousand jobs and is planning a new must roll and channel economic recovery i know that the u s based major challenges that are faced by chana central government but it shows that one of the main international conferences in making has to be really a key component to their economic development and recovery we need to give credit where credit is due and i want to personally thank president obama for his vision and vice president biden for his longstanding commitment to rail in the u s eight years we've bailed the bush administration zeroing out funding for real and it's refreshing change to hear real leadership in the white house they support r nearly six million manufacturing jobs we should seize this opportunity to buy ways to incentivize productive right here in america we can work on replace them in other man approaching jobs that have disappeared in this country will so thank you very much and as the chairwoman pointed out we had a standing room only crowd here today which is obviously an indication of the importance and the great interest that there is in this town in this country with high speed rail i also want to welcome my colleague from ohio and good friend mr t very thanks for being here to introduce one of our panelists and all of us welcome everybody else here today since the passenger signed into law a year ago friday high speed rail has emerged as a central issue on the transport and transportation planning of this country and consensus the high speed rail should be a part of the national transportation strategy as a long time it's a long time with support of the administration in a strong bipartisan agreement congress and this committee the stage is finally set for high speed rail in the united states still there are many questions about just how high speed rail is going to be implemented  the united states d o t f r a control the dispersal of huge amounts of money i would like to learn more about how they're planning to distribute the eight billion dollars that was appropriated for high speed rail in the stimulus cannot be overstated how important these decisions will be in the future of high speed rail if the funds are spread too thin lee among the the seven billion worth of applications as the chair alluded to the award and to many different places i fear that they may end up failing to focus on developing a few key high speed lines improve the value of this initiative leading to more investment second point i'd like to make is that i believe we should be looking for projects that leverage nonfederal funds we need to make sure the private sector is involved along with commitments from states and local governments in order to fully leverage federal investment i'm interested in how the f r a is planning and evaluating the funding sources for projects that are being considered for grants and i look forward to hearing from the witnesses soon from cintra on how they see private partnerships working in the context of high speed rail final point i'd like to make is that we need to make sure that high speed rail does not have a negative impact on the national rail and the national freight rail network our freight rail system is the best in the world some of the plans that emerge from high speed rail involving running faster trains on track this currently used for freight operations we need to ensure that we have explored any possible detrimental impacts to freight operations opposed by trains running faster than the current seventy nine mph the top speed on hosted tracks again i'm very pleased with the progress we have made in a very short time but we've already reached a critical juncture for high speed rail in the united states and we must ensure that this large stimulus investment generates real result we can afford to misstep we are already falling behind the rest of the world in developing high speed systems china is spending three hundred billion to develop a thousand miles of new high speed track by two thousand and twenty that's enough rail to go from here to los angeles three three times over amazingly the chinese budget for high speed rail in two thousand and nine is fifty billion and we must continue to work together to keep momentum going i want to thank all of you good for being here i'm going to have to excuse myself i'm going back to pennsylvania senior night to the hollies were high school my son's a senior player in a soccer team so i've got to be there and since the fact that i have a good many headlines in the paper and he's been on the sports page weekly in the headline i figured i had to keep the perception people think that their congressman is a soccer player so so i got ahead offensively so i'm very sorry i believe but the duty calls in pennsylvania so thank you very much feel back thank you madam chair and thank you for holding this very critical meeting is best for the state of california we of course are in evaluating high speed rail in california which was funded bonded and approved by california voters recently in my area the last train passed a high speed rail would go through quite a few portions of my district there would be two tracks they would have to about high speed rail first of all that the state does not divert any funds that are already committed to mass public transit in the state of california going to high speed rail and we've discussed these in many hearings and meetings in california  with some of the proponents and some of the councils of government who have concerns over this high speed rail cannot work without a good transit system in place and it is expensive i still am for mass transit i sure it will be worth king on that with our leadership in california how to work collaboratively with our councils the government and with our city so that with this can become a reality my concern is for the local communities and the safety impact their noise impact their road congestion impact and of course the issue of eminent domain which in california i don't know but other states is a dirty word you don't talk and i'm an eminent domain this is something that people will not allow will not tolerate and of course the impact on freight and regional passenger rail the high speed rail will take away from the current freight and regional passenger rail quarters because it will need a dedicated are on the verge of entering the era of high speed rail the united states is a third world country when it comes to high speed transportation systems and is pleased to work with my colleagues in passing the first rail passenger reauthorization in eleven years which we did the last two months of the bush administration and the president  dollars which we now have available we do have a slight delay in the wording as i was grandson in a way i'm pleased that all three now are going to be awarded at once rather than dribble this drabble this thing out but it is important that that money be expended on what i consider a true high speed rail i don't want this high speed rail effort hijacked and  we can't we cannot take people's money and spend it and not give them what others take for granted in europe and asia far as high speed rail  right now some of the average speeds put up i've got a little clip here put that clip up here this is just take a second but this is high speed rail this is a t g v train in france contrast this is a salad now hold on put your tray tables in an upright position and secure your seat belts and you're going to go forward at eighty three miles an hour this is not high speed rail spending ten billion dollars and getting it up to eighty nine miles an hour is not high speed service so i don't want to fund hijacked i think that also we have to look at the quarters in the united states that deserve service first of all amtrak the only quarter it owns in the united states it owns about ninety eight percent of it from washington authorization in the next surface transportation bill still sounds like a lot but listen to this in japan the concent high speed system is being expanded by four hundred miles with a total estimated cost of forty billion dollars in spain country about the size of oregon the government is committed to a national high speed rail network that will cost one hundred forty billion if we do not develop high speed rail in the northeast corridor not only will it serve some of the densest population in the united states it will help us with our aviation  delays eighty three percent of the chronically delayed flights in the united states emanated from new york and that that airspace the northeast their space so we have got to have a concerted effort not to fool people and say we're putting in high speed rail we've got to have real high speed service that travels at least competitively hundred fifty used to be the standard now you're looking at one hundred sixty one hundred eighty around the world so i wanted to come today and make that statement and if you know me you know m brown or rather tenacious that we will get it done so our labor people who have money to invest to work with us we do need to leverage money there's no need to put all federal cash out we can take a small amount of money all here and leverage it one dollar of federal money and we can match it with eight dollars of private sector investment if we do this the right way and get thank you i'd really like to echo a lot of the concerns and the hopes that have been raised high speed rail is really a game changer this country we've been watching as we lose competitive advantage globally and certainly part of that has been because of an under investment infrastructure our inability to move items but also to move people increased lost time from work and other things this is a chance for us to look for those game changers through the high speed rail system and we're not going to get that many bites at this so while we all have certainly our own a parochial interest in this i'm very interested in seeing this pass through southern virginia what's most important is that we match the dollars to regional and national priorities that we're looking at ways to put the most investments the most dollars into the areas of greatest need whether that's of congestion or areas of the country that we can open up so certainly the quarter stretching from charlotte maybe even atlanta up to d c is of great interest i think there's been increasing cooperation between states which is encouraging so that we can build on some of the lessons that have been learned and other things right now in this economic crisis you can look around the world and see countries that are focused on where they were twenty years ago and those that are focused on where they could be twenty years from now we've heard some of the staggering numbers of investments that other countries are making  high speed rail and related infrastructure investments we are not matching that at a time that we've already seen manufacturing in other jobs go overseas this is a chance this is a moment for us to really reinvent our comparative advantage and i think high speed rail done right can be a component of that i think we are stewards of this moment if we can figure out how to use these dollars effectively and efficiently i think the american people will continue to support more work in this area if we blow it to be honest that holding this important hearing today and i have to say that i'm a very big supporter of the high speed rail project and i believe that the high speed rail is part of the solution for moderniz ing transportation in the united states too many communities are on the verge of a level of connectivity that would bring together economic opportunity while i have the same time reduce the impact on our environment this is especially the case in louisiana where we have been where we have been working on developing a rail system for decades local state and federal officials particularly between our major from houston texas through baton rouge through norlin to atlanta and i believe that this project will provide a huge economic boost to the region as well as to the great city of does not have the money to do so but besides that particular fact i hope that there will be future and continued funding for the high speed rail project because i believe in this development much markey yes thank you man a chair for holding this important meeting and i also do believe that high speed rail has been integral part of this nation's future i joined several of my house and senate western colleagues in supporting a high speed interest city passenger rail program grant application that would conduct a feasibility study for a high speed rail corridor between el paso texas and denver colorado if you look at a map of the designated quarter as the intermountain west which is growing rapidly a lot of our population growth in this country is in the west but the intermountain west is completely left out of the high speed rail system and in a region with burgeoning development and population a high speed rail corridor would provide for both sufficient and environmentally friendly transportation options as we continue to develop in this area currently going from el paso to denver a traveler must first go either to los angeles or chicago and change trains the existing rail lines in the area the california zephyr sunset limited and southwest chief would be could be connected by north savile's high speed rail corridor high speed rail in both the west and in other parts of the country has great potential to spur both job creation purpose of advancing high speed rail is a national priority was also proud to support the american recovery and reinvestment act that included an unprecedented investment in high speed rail in this country i represent the state of michigan in the state legislature worked on supported amtrak and passenger rail and even supported the midwest high speed rail strategy fortunate y my state has been a leader and the midwest midwestern states including michigan has submitted an aggressive application for high speed rail stimulus dollars my district which is southern michigan includes two amtrak lines which both would be converted into high speed rail lines one is a wolverine line which goes from ann arbor on the eastern part of my district through battle creek on the western part of my district district on the way to chicago the other is a blue water line that originates in port huron go through battle creek and even county to alternately chicago this is a jobs issue for my state and for our country we will put people to work and spur economic activity we will immediately put people to work through improving our tracks are signaling and our  rail infrastructure we will put people to work by building high speed rail engines cars and in michigan i hope we can at least build components for those will provide an economic boost to communities along those high speed rail lines like many some of which i've mentioned already in my testimony and this hasn't been s investing in high speed rail since all the right signals to knowledge based workers and those knowledge base jobs we're working hard to create and two new technology knowledge based companies that we are creating throughout the country and we are creating in my district in michigan so i'm very excited about the testimony we're about to hear and the steps we can take to invest in high speed rail in this country and i yield back m in this united states congress and chairwoman brown whether it's talking about stimulus or wherever it is even just a secretary an apollo tunnel she was advocating on this issue so we should know that we're in good hands and and she's helping us move forward into the future let me say that the united states has fallen tragically behind in the development of high speed rail while we consider eight billion dollars was put in the stimulus and many of us were surprised and excited about it as has been reported it's alarming when you consider our other neighboring countries when you look at europe just recently this year i had an opportunity and south america to ride on the high speed rail and it's really embarrassing to be an american citizen where we lacked this basic form of transportation while we were excited and jumped jumped up and down about eight billion dollars when you consider for example china intends upon investing seven hundred thirty billion that's again seven hundred thirty billion by two thousand and twelve we have a much longer way to go high speed rail will yes assist us it will help us with travel but it will also help us with jobs as some of my colleagues have alluded to but it will also help us with air quality congestion relief on our roadways and in our skies reducing gas emissions and it will most importantly enhance the mobility for people living now just on october night two thousand and nine the wall street journal had a report and it was listing information from the brookings institute talking about considering the country's busiest air routes and a call for high speed rail and on that the state that i'm from california three key sections were listed in that top ten consider six million people fly between los angeles basin and san francisco basin each year this is something that we cannot wait we must make the investment i don't want to hear anything about a second stimulus we need to put the money into our roads and our infrastructure and get people moving so i w holding this meeting and letting me speak here and i just want to concur with everyone else here about how important i think it is that we have speed rail to remain competitive and also for our national security but  especially would like to associate myself with the remarks made by mr markey from colorado because of think it's terribly important that we have the rail service between el paso through los crucis in santa fe new not have much chance to participate and i think it's very important not only that we have it for the country but especially for the inner mountain region north out of el paso thank you thank you and now the last one thank you chairwoman brown and ranking member schuster and thank you for holding this hearing on clearly what is to all of us an important issue and of course to the chairman of the overall committee chairman always thank you for your continued leadership in helping us get the infrastructure and transportation of america back to where we have to get it as many of you know i represent staten island and brooklyn new york and each week i travel by amtrak back to my district from washington i consider myself lucky to be able to do that rail is no doubt the fastest most energy efficient environmentally responsible way to travel between our largest cities takes cars off the roads and helps relieve the air traffic congestion is reliable and relatively comfortable amtrak has made great strides in upgrading the northeast corridor and other lines throughout the country but we are far far behind the rest of the world when it comes to high speed rail and it is time for that to change we need only to look to our competitors in europe and japan and china to see the possibilities that high speed rail can bring to our own economy and to the convenience of passenger travel in the united states think about it we have the technology to make trains run at a speed of over two hundred miles an hour at that speed it would take just over an hour to get from washington d c to the heart of new york city japan and europe have had high speed trains for decades but we're now just starting to get in the game china is in the process of building a train line scheduled to be ready by two thousand and thirteen that can travel between beijing and shanghai the less than four hours even though the distance is almost seven hundred miles america does not need to settle for a second rate rail network america deserves the best passenger rail network in the world and we can do our part in congress to make this a priority both the two thousand and eight passenger rail initiative an improvement act and the american recovery and reinvestment act that we passed in february of this year made some strong down payments for high speed rail the eight billion provide in the recovery act is a great start but we need to think much more strategically about the benefits of high speed rail and what it can bring to the nation as a whole and make our investments accordingly and so i commend you chairwoman brown and chairman over safiyah tireless advocacy to give our country a truly first class integrated high speed rail transportation network the proposed same mark for th would provide fifty billion for high speed rail which would help us catch up to where we should be with a forward to working with you all on the leadership chairwoman brown and all of our colleagues to give america a top notch high speed rail system thank you  an unrelenting effort during the years when amtrak was faced with bankruptcy budgets to keep amtrak funding alive harry truman just extraordinary and we're grateful to you that's why we're at a point where we can have a hearing on high speed rail on developments that will happen not that may happen but that will happen i also want to thank mr mike who has been a long time strong advocate for high signature by president bush in the last congress which i will always be mindful but i just want one thought this is back to the future back to seventy five years ago burlington railroad wasn't called that in time but there's effort trains and the chicago and northwestern trains move between the twin cities and chicago at over a mile a minute there were a train or a passenger trains steam powered that moved at one hundred miles an hour there was the pioneer zephyr that set a speed record between chicago and denver thousand and fifteen miles in thirteen hours and five minutes seventy seven miles an hour the standard we're setting today seventy nine miles an hour is the threshold that's an eon ago that was when i was born for gosh sakes we ought to do better and that's why we're here and i thank the witnesses  members for their support chairman brown and chairman oberstar mr michael members of the subcommittee for allowing me to testify before you today for the purposes of introducing mr michael prac president and c e o of u s rail car i applaud you for including mr practise part of the hearing today he has years of experience in the rail industry in addition his company represents the future of rail car manufacturing in the united states u s rail car is considering proposing to build a diesel multiple multiple unit manufacturing facility and get a handle on heil in the heart of the congressional district and i represent it would be the first of its kind in the united states and would represent an historic opportunity for the united states the facility would bring new jobs to ohio as congress continues discuss the opportunities and challenges of expanding passenger rail infrastructure we must also discuss how to establish a rail car manufacturing base in our country i'm proud of the work being done by mr practice and us railcar to achieve this goal and thank you for giving me the opportunity madam chair for introducing mr practice before you today thank you the development of high speed rail in america this initiative builds upon the foundation laid last year by congress in the passenger rail investment and improvement of our federal investment in transportation over the last sixty years has been focused primarily on highways aviation and transect investment in high speed rail is an opportunity to bring balance to our transportation network many states have been engaged in planning rail while they've waited for a federal partner when f r a took pre application from the states to gauge interest in our rail program we heard from forty states in the district of columbia with projects exceeding one hundred three billion dollars in interest was from every region of the country discussions of high speed rail tend to begin with the fundamental question what is high speed rail is a peak speed say two hundred mph we need remember that we're about moving people not just moving trains so top speed is not necessarily the end all i prefer a more market oriented definition and that is rail service the cost effectively provides trip times that are superior to auto or air in a given market so making high speed rail a reality we need to be talking about a range of speed and investment options that each has their own sets of opportunities and challenges the president's vision to invest in efficient high speed passenger rail networks of one hundred to six hundred mile corridors that connect communities and regions across america this aligns well with the d o t strategic goals that ensure safe and efficient transportation choices promote energy efficiency and environmental quality build a foundation for economic competitiveness and support interconnected livable communities but while the potential for high speed rail is great in achieving these goals so are the challenges in delivering on that potential challenge number one sustainability in managing expectations we're committed to making sure the eight billion dollars are spent wisely on the very best projects that produce real results the goal is to ensure the system's long term viability the challenge for all of us is to make sure that this program is sustainable for the long term the model i like to point to is development of the interstate highway system a program that took over four decades to complete we have to manage expectations interest by the states in high speed rail far exceeds the funds available today just as it was in the beginning of the interstate system but public support for the interstate system didn't wane because citizens could see early successes and knew that ultimately the interstate system would serve them too of all of our challenges managing expectations maybe the most important one for us to address challenge number two is capability of the states a handful of states have been engaged in railroad issues for many years fortunately we have a couple at the table with us but unfortunately the number of states with the strong and experienced real staffs capable of implementing complex real improvements are the exception rather than the rule and that is why f r a has engaged the states early and often and is committed to continuing that effort to enhance the ability of states to manage rail projects freight railroad partnerships is another challenge america's freight railroad system is the envy of the world but while we build a world class high speed passenger rail system we cannot do that at the expense of degrading our world class freight rail system f r a believes there are opportunities to develop partnerships between freight railroads and states to address common interests like requirements for positive train control and safety of highway rail gr crossings and finally we have safety f r a's mission is first and foremost safety and if i speed rail is to be successful it must be safe ensuring the safety standards evolve as necessary  critical farai is recently made available for comment a draft high speed passenger rail safety strategy which is appended to the testimony the strategy endeavors to achieve uniform safe rail passenger service regardless of speed and conclusion the f r a of two years from now will be a significantly different agency than what you see today while safety will always be our most important mission we will also be playing a leading role in making the investments that position our country's transportation system for the future i'm incredibly proud to be at f r a today and to have the opportunity to lead the dedicated team through this transformation i look forward to a dialogue with you on chairwoman brown ranking member mica members of the committee my name is frank was a lockie i'm secretary of the wisconsin department of transportation and chair of the stage for passenger rail coalition i'm here today representing the coalition and appreciate the opportunity to share my views on achieving our national passenger rail vision the passenger rail investment improvement act of two thousand and eight in the american recovery and reinvestment act of two thousand and nine provided a policy and funding basis for significant expansion of the nation's passenger rail network through president obama's federal two thousand and ten budget request and the action of the house and senate appropriations committees congress has shown its commitments of passenger rail states to seize this opportunity by submitting era passenger rail applications that have far exceeded the eight billion that arrow provided but the challenge facing us all is to build the right projects use the available funds wisely and plan for the future when past priya legislation employed the new starts model for funding distribution however under that program funding is competitive on a year to year basis income competition among the states for funding would be intense it doesn't have to be this way i strongly urge congress to adopt the interstate model to build the national passenger rail network many states want to develop their passenger rail networks and can support projects on an eighty twenty federal state funding split but they need that federal share the federal government in the states need to think strategically about expanding the passenger rail network and to work toward a long term vision the reality is this states are at a different phase of development a phased approach allows states that are ready to go to start their projects well states are not ready can work on their planning and environmental process with some confidence that they will be able to fund their projects in a later face this issue should be addressed to the national rail plan that f r a is developing whether you are building a whole school or a rail network you have to know when you begin your planning that you will have the capacity to pay for the project through completion the state for passenger rail coalition has been inconsistent in pursuit of a federal funding partner that can make a long term commitment to passenger rail in our view elements of a funding policy include a recognition that passenger rail is critical transportation element provision of an eighty twenty federal state funding programme to plan design and implement passenger rail provision of an ongoing source of federal revenue and establishment of program and funding policies similar to the highway program in the coalition's view the next surface transportation authorization bill must contain a multi year authorization for passenger rail funding with a strong federal partnership so more states can develop and deliver passenger rail service because of the growing interest in passenger rail states are in fact coordinating with each other now for example eight midwest governors and the city of chicago  memorandum of understanding to create a steering group to align efforts as we develop our passenger rail network recently wisconsin agreed to by to tell go train since these fourteen car sets will be manufactured in spain but assembled and finished here in the united states wisconsin is investing forty seven million dollars in these train sets with the goal of bringing manufacturing jobs back to the midwest to make this happen elsewhere train manufacturers need the reliable revenues stream a long term federal commitment provided so they can justify their economic investments in plants and equipment since most expanded a new service will run on privately owned freight and will need to be addressed we have all been frustrated with the pace of the surface transportation authorization bill but its passage is critically important to the nation if we want to define a policy that will allow the nation to build a twenty first century rail network for that reason i think it's imperative that we pass forward with the development of the national rail plan we should not wait another six years to complete that task i also encourage the subcommittee to take another look at the national surface transportation policy and revenue study commission's passenger rail working group report it outlines a fifty year vision for what passenger rail could be in this nation a copy of the report is attached to my written testimony states are ready to be partners in the development delivery of new passenger rail service in our nation we have proven that the partnership works in the highway and transit modes there are many opportunities and challenges ahead but i believe that through a solid federal state partnership we can maximize this golden opportunity to create a twenty first century passenger rail network that will benefit the citizens of our nation for decades to come thank you madam chair ranking member mica and members of the subcommittee i am pleased to be here today to discuss funding for high speed and other interested in passenger rail projects under the american recovery and reinvestment act the eight billion provided by the act for high speed other inner city passenger rail projects have focus more attention on and generated a great deal of anticipation about the possibility of developing high speed rail in the united states my testimony has three parts i would discuss some principles that could guide the effective use of these funds some challenges that states will need to surmount in establishing high speed and other inner city passenger rail service and the nature of our ongoing work on recovery act high speed rail projects first several principles could guide the effective use of recovery act funds and any future investment in high speed rail these principles include establishing clear federal objectives and stakeholder roles clearly identifying expected outcomes basing decisions on reliable ridership and other forecasts and reexamining how interested the passenger rail service fits and with other federal surface transportation programs while each of these principles is important the third principle will soon come into play as f r a decides which projects will receive and national recovery act funding as you know f r a has received applications totaling almost sixty billion for its six for eight available recovery act funds determining which if any high speed rail project may have benchley be economically viable will rest on the factors such as ridership potential costs and public benefits high speed rail is more likely to attract riders and densely and highly populated corridors especially when there is congestion on existing transportation modes and where it compares favorably to travel alternatives and terms of door to door trip times price frequency of service reliability and safety costs largely hinge on the availability of rail right of way land use patterns and it corridors terrain to stay within financial or other constraints projects sponsors typically make tradeoffs between cost and service characterised we are pleased to note that every notice of funding availability of high speed rail projects generally ask applicants to address those factors on the turn to my second point once chooses projects for finding projects sponsors face several significant challenges these include securing significant upfront investment for construction costs sustaining public political and financial support and resolving outstanding liability issues we found that in other countries with high speed intercity passenger rail systems the central government generally funded the majority of upfront costs of high speed rail lines a billion in recovery act funds represents a significant increase in federal funds available to develop new or enhance inner city passenger rail this amount however represents only a small fraction of the estimated costs for starting or enhancing service on the federally authorized high speed rail corridors furthermore the challenge of sustaining public and political support and stakeholder consensus is compound by long project lead times the diverse interests of numerous stakeholders and the absence of an institutional framework for coordination and decision making finally several stay in industry stakeholders have told us that outstanding questions about liability coverage for passenger rail providers on freight railroad tracks is a major barrier to entry for service providers and for host railroads moving on to my last topic our ongoing recovery act work on inner city passenger rail projects our work is focused on determining how states that have recently and initiated passenger r service have met these challenges how the rail industry can accommodate this increased investment and how f r a is planning to oversee the use of recovery act funds for inner city passenger rail service we are in the beginning stages of our work and plan to report any issues early next spring we would be to discuss our work with you or your staff as we progress in conclusion the infusion of up to a billion recovery act funds is only a first step in developing potentially viable high speed passenger rail projects the principles we have identified can be applied to promote the effective investment of recovery act and future federal funds for these projects surmounting these challenges will require federal state and other stakeholder leadership to champion the development of economically viable high speed rail corridors and the political will to carry them out it will also require clear specific policies and delineations of expected outcomes and objective realistic analysis of ridership costs and other factors to determine the viability of projects and their transportation impact madam chair this concludes my statement i would be pleased to answer any questions you or members of thank you madam chairman and ranking member members of the committee for this opportunity to be here today represent the american association of state highway and transportation officials today that's in way from my daily job is directing a rail division at the state level we interact there would end passenger interest we manage safety programs we conduct industry inspections we partner with class one railroads amtrak in short wants to make economic development opportunities occur in our states around the country north carolina is the lead state in developing the federally designated southeast high speed rail corridor which we refer to as caesar today my boss jane conti secretary conti could not be with the committee so asked me to stand in for him secretary conti chairs the standing committee of rail transportation officials across the country through ash so we advocate for improved transportation policies and we share with one another we provide each other with technical assistance this is not third time this year to appear before the subcommittee each time we've had a valuable dialogue we've had city passenger rail and we have interest across the country in that of course with the new express the higher end projects of one hundred fifty miles an hour and above there are a number of emerging and regional carders around the country looking at top speeds of ninety to one hundred ten miles an hour and then there are projects that are looking to get into the game states that do not have service or are looking to upgrade reliability for conventional operations that's really the last time momentum engine speed itself but i'm going to refer to mobility and travel time u s d particularly f r a has a tough job i can't tell you how refreshed i am to have completed the task of submitting their application and i know that my colleagues around the to to compliment the agency in the work that they are now doing last week in north carolina we had the announcement of a new another factory one that we had invested a lot in as a state and it closed in that presented a thousand jobs that went away that hurts anywhere that happens but clearly the main the opportunity for the reinvestment opportunity reinvestment act is to create jobs we need that in our state we need that in states across the country we need that across our nation we also need to partner to make capacity investments  prior to the downturn in the economy passenger service across the country suffered from all poor on time performance it did so because we didn't have the capacity in our national network these investments in partnerships with the freight railroads can help ensure mobility for freight and passenger services now's the time to put people to work making meaningful long term infrastructure investments and a speed rail is a lead policy element it will help guide our transportation future but it challenges us also to consider energy and the environment and land use in putting forward these projects challenge the committee to also think a little more broadly rather than a single project single project would be a big lovely signature project for our country but it will not recover the nation nation's economy nor will it foster pos partnerships across the country that will leverage mobility are poised on an era of change our department is the second largest highway department in the country but we now need to build broader mobility options in transit and with with rail we'll need to broaden our partnerships with the freight railroad companies to improve both passenger and freight throughput that's important perea are our great starts we know that we need to be transparent in progress in these initiatives and we need to be prepared to make adjustments as we learn more as we go forward all elements of our society will be challenged to grow and to manage the capacity they will have with us opportunities as states we need a couple of tools i want to echo i've got a somewhat sector of use lot you said about the need for investments in planning fund so that we can states can help design a national network that will serve our country well into the future secondly it is in addition to the new authority that u issue letters of intent for projects to build over a period of time states will need the program stability and contract with already to be able to deploy this scale of infrastructure improvements thank you on behalf of ash to and stay real programs across the state for this opportunity today states have risen to the challenge and have presented f r a with proposals for real mobility investments real partnerships real agreements with our freight railroads across the country states are ready to build today and we hope to have the opportunity soon thank you we're going to stand and we've said we go to vote we have five votes and then we will start up thank you and we have ok well the committee please come back to order and close the door i understand that mrs able have a plane at five thirty so we want to start with you with the questioning and i know my colleague i saw him juggling down notes quickly when you were speaking  on the question of the and what constitutes high speed and you know i know there's much discussion but would you discuss with us what you what you all visualize as high speed and what are some of the elements that you are using to make the decision and you know i had the secretary less than a week ago down in florida and he was saying  well would you tell us some of the criteria is because there is such excitement throughout the country i mean in the california texas florida tennessee all of the committee members  everywhere is said to interest and one of the things we've got to make sure that we put in a system that really work and the american people can see it most american people and we can ask this audience how many that would you answer that question we have other questions and if the other members don't mind i will ask him questions and then we'll let him get just one is that ok with the committee thank you i think the first important point to note is that virtually all speeds are eligible under the grant guidance and if you go back to my written testimony in  the vision for high speed rail in america that was released by the white house there sensually are four areas that it talks about which is conventional rail which operates in that seventy nine to ninety mile an hour range  emerging high speed rail which are developing corridors of roughly one hundred to five hundred miles an hour in length with the top speeds of ninety to one hundred ten mile an hour and then high speed regional rail which of course is more frequent service between major and moderate population centers roughly one hundred fifty or i'm sorry one hundred to five hundred miles apart with top speeds roughly in the range of one ten to five hundred and then high speed rail express which is that service between major population centers more in the range of two hundred to six hundred miles apart with very few stops with top speeds in excess of one hundred fifty miles an hour i think it's real important to note first off that all of the speeds in all of these services are important and we talk quite a bit about the european model and this is in fact the model that is used in europe and asia not every single train is going to hundred miles an hour and it's important to understand how these pieces fit together depending on the market being served and i like to compare it to our road and highway system where you have local streets you have county roads you have state highways you have u s highways and then you have the interstate system and all of them are very very important components that fit together to make a comprehensive road and highway network and so what we need to ensure is that we build out a comprehensive an important incremental step into the ultimate build out for example if you go back and look at what spain did you know they didn't start out at two hundred miles an hour they started out roughly about one hundred ten one hundred twenty five mile an hour with a bought a half dozen trains a day and the ridership grew it was so successful that from there they were able to go up to whatever it is roughly twenty trains a day it speeds of two hundred miles an hour and so it's  about what can you most cost effectively achieve immediately to build the ridership base before you take that next step certainly i don't want to leave the impression that we're diminishing one hundred fifty miles or two hundred mile an hour service certainly that is a standard that we expect to be achieved and that we intend to make happen but again not every train everywhere will be running two hundred miles an hour the other question that the that you asked i think the second part to that was the criteria that we will be using and as we went through the first round of applications  we put together panels we we gave them a strong orientation one day of orientation to make sure that all members of the panel around the same page understood the criteria that there was a consistency in how these projects were judged and then we divided those panels up and on a random basis assigned to them applications to review so nobody knew whose applications from where they were given it was it was a lottery the approach will be obviously similar as we go now into the major corridor hours i think we ended up with a dozen panels in the first go around and obviously we won't need that many this go around it will be a smaller handful but they'll be a little bit larger because they're going to need a higher level of technical expertise and we need to make sure that that technical expertise is available to those those panels and quite obviously it's going to be a longer process a much more intense process and say take a look at those markets that have the strongest value you have an idea and when you are going to and now i'm so ranking member mica made and other members of the committee about making sure this is done right is much is you know it was painful to delay because we had given our word and it's always very painful not to deliver on your word particularly when you do have the ability to deliver on your word but a three month delay or so we're talking about the birth of a new program and so in the grander scheme of things to make sure this is done right and that we look at all these applications holistically to make you know make sure that all the pieces fit together is the only corridor that amtrak owns i mean we've got a couple of small pieces but we have nothing as extensive as that that heavily traveled corridor and i always consider it one of our most important assets and i always joke about us about sitting on our ass that the northeast corridor doesn't have a high speed designation right now but you have the ability to to designate that and qualify for some of these funds what's your thought there well i think the first and most important point is that that designation is not necessary in order to to you know be the recipient of any of the high speed grant you're  saying you can without and how i don't want to get you into prioritizing but certainly when when you own that kind of asset when it is so plan where where would the northeast corridor you think fit into the to a future plan well i think that's the key second part that i want to state while it's while it's not necessary to have the designation to receive the grants today the important news is the designations will be better fleshed out as we do move forward with our national rail plan and we are far raised required to deliver to congress a preliminary draft do you want to give us an a pulmonary sense most only a day or two away and we may be gone friday you'll get the briefing tomorrow but they know that that is where we will start fleshing out these these issues of the additional potential doesn't nations you know where are the best potential markets how does it fit together with freight rail national rail plan is not strictly a passenger rail document well there will be a comprehensive rail th heard today well first of all eight billion is a significant amount of money bedded in the scheme of these larger investment projects and systems it's not a lot even with the fifty and we'll hear from another panel that leveraging is possible they do it with other infrastructure projects as much as eight to one but you give you a huge capacity and you have huge revenues if it is a huge success the good news is that the states have the flexibility to choose the provider of their choice there is dialogue that is going on between the states in various private entities you know and we do have other components and rail in place but i think it would be beneficial based on the fact that we really have no high speed rail system  have one or two successes not just at the seventy nine to ninety mile an hour or a ninety to one ten but something that would be competitive with the rest of the world and also but we're not parochial about this but we're not campaigning for any you haven't heard us we're looking in our district or our area and we model pretty much we're looking for a success for the memphis memphis is the transportation hub of the nation's largest cargo airline highways rail yards mississippi river no high speed rail last year marion barry and i worked together and got a portion of a bill passed that would have a feasibility study for the south central high speed rail corridor which we go from little rock to memphis it's been a year and the study has not come in memphis is no closer to a high speed rail service to be a very important thing we've got a hub airline there people like to come in for that they like to come in and barbecue sing the blues after they watch our football games and things like that and  it is it can i ask you if there can be if you give me an insurance is if you're going to get that study commenced and started so we can foresee somehow speed rail the good news is that we have requested those resources in the fiscal year ten alex was eighteen and wrote that song number one hit number one hit the box give me a ticket for an airplane got time to catch a fast train my baby just wrote me a letter and will write you a new song  saver you have the time limitation you have to get on underway the question is the buy america requirement going to create problems in the development as we move into implementation phase if you evaluated the availability of rail car locomotive subassemblies trucks rail it is not a problem it's in but most of it's in place so may need upgrading switches is using the same track in the same quarter what's your assessment of the availability of parts equipment subassemblies and other under the buy american provisions well an absolute goal out of this whole process is to ensure that we reinvigorate domestic manufacturing and are the buy american provision is going to be a problem absolutely not because there a requirements that are going to have to be met we're going through right now the development of a strategy about how we can better bring together both the foreign and domestic manufacturers how can we you know how the biggest thing that we need to ensure that we reinvigorate domestic manufacturing is knowing that there's going to be a sustainable long term program you're not going to see the investment into plant and equipment you know if the businessman doesn't believe he's going to get an appropriate return on his investment so unfortunately at this point so many of the opportunities rest with foreign manufacturers we need to bring the parties together to make sure that there are joint ventures to make sure that if it is a foreign manufacturer that it's more than just simply assembling you know the cars  locomotives in this country but that there actually is a downstream supply you know the suppliers involved the domestic supply on the right you're on the right agenda here is going to the right track but stretching things to i'm going to send you relevant pages of testimony from hearings i held in one thousand eighty six on my america in our highway and transit corps of engineer programs but we found in in the course of that this set of hearings was that the federal highway administration was in full compliance hundred percent rebar every i beam every guardrail every fence post was steel made in america we got to the transit program we found that abandonment of public transit by our fellow citizens from the one nine hundred twenty s through the early post war era trackless pulled up locomotives sent off passenger cars were sold to central and south america they manufacturing capability went offshore the only major u s companies manufacture was allied signal in they were bringing subassemblies in from overseas and assembling them in the u s so there was a it was a dismal picture not that federal transit was avoiding the law there just wasn't a market  for those products for the buses for the rail passenger rail cars and for the locomotives appropriate for passenger rail service now there is that's right we have a robust federal transit program there are manufacturers for light rail commuter rail intercity passenger rail bus manufacturers that left have been replaced by those who have founded their american facilities are and are producing american parts some imported but well below the threshold required i asked the question because you know there is there there  some passenger rail car manufacturing capability in the united states but certainly not sufficient to supply what what we hope will be a robust outpouring of projects that you and the secretary going to have to decide on in the next month and a half or so and i just because i want you to to pay attention to that i want you to we have a we have american rail car we soccer that's located somewhere in the united states we have bomb body a tile go has has made a commitment with the governor of wisconsin to locate a manufacturing facility constants should they be awarded a portion of the stimulus to do the chicago to milwaukee to madison to minnesota segment there are others like but we had a problem in the current stimulus with valve manufacturing capability in united states good many of those products are produced in canada we had to work out exceptions that delayed the implementation of the e p a portion of stimulus in many states about twenty states have nothing going and no contracts underway so i don't want to see that happen i want you to take a close look at that aspect of it make sure that when you  wore these there's going it's going to be compliance and that's not going to be an impediment german the good news is that the secretary clearly shares your point of view and has made that message very clear to us and we are in fact trying to get ahead of the curve on this and again we're just starting our strategy now in the format that we're use that we're going to use but we're probably going to call some type of summit with the with the manufacturers and suppliers and again secretaries made very clear that he expects a down stream benefit on this of all the suppliers that are providing carpeting for the rail cars leather for the seats you know light bulbs whatever the components are in making that's that's very good and the secretary given to all my sent my compliments started out well started his career in congress here in this com is one of the considerations in making these awards under stimulus going to be sustainability of the project absolutely and by that what do you mean well i mean obviously the that's exactly the type of criteria that we're going to be looking at in the type of marriage that will be judging the projects on you know again we have to know what we do here supports the long term vision and that's why you know the evaluation criteria that will be using is not only the obvious like the transportation benefits you know the and livable communities but then the applicant's track record of you know comparable projects the thoroughness of their management plan the reasonableness of their financial estimates the quality of their planning process a detailed review of their financial plan clearly we understand that it has to be sustainable everything we're talking about doing is based on that long term vision but also be careful about the legacy of the previous administration in the transit arena and their cost effect in this index was invented out of whole cloth for the purpose of denying rather than affirming transit projects that don't get caught up in and deterred by by those  invalid premises we spend a great deal of time studying the transfer process to learn both from best exam ples as well as perhaps mistakes anticipate at this time that it will be more comprehensive announcements that it won't be sequenced that will come out with comprehensive announcements there are lots of other questions i have but those making and i'm sure you heard my comments before we recess but is there anything in your plan to require the rails involved to mitigate not only the noise the congestion the safety impacts of the high speed rail that's question number one and how do you plan to work with those communities or are you only going to work with the state the key is the important news in the good is what gets flushed out during the environmental process and the development of the environmental impact statement and that's the very reason why that document is required to be created you know that you must go in and work with the communities and understand the effect upon them the effects upon them and noise and you know analyzing various routes and understand on the effects pros and cons of of of those routes and so you know that's an important part of the process it's something that federal law requires you know we require it in you know when we review it you'll be working with the communities themselves we  won't be directly involved with the communities per se but again we will be reviewing the work that the states do in developing and make sure that it's a document that's going to be legally support e so there aren't suits from the communities great the fact that many of the railroads are opposed to government local government taking the right of way for the high speed rail and other ways to build profit corporation that answers to a board of directors and to shareholders and so we have to understand that it truly is their property however i do think we have the opportunity really comes back to what i talked about in my testimony to form partnerships and it has to be partnerships cheve win win solutions the worst thing we could do is to advance the president's agenda for high speed rail to get passengers you know on trains at the expense of forcing freight off the rail and onto the highways and creating even worst congestion and  pollution and use of fuel so we're going to have to find the careful balance i think it'll come in a couple of places first off we will touch on this in the development of the national rail plan but i also think probably more important than that it will be part of the work that f r a continues to do with the state d o ts you know to strengthen their level of expertise their level of experience in negotiating these types of agreements you know you tend to find less problems in those states where there's a mature relationship between the freight railroads and the real hero of the d o t and it's a lot more challenging for a new left open land so there will be a lot of need of rail separation and the railroads will not support very much of that financially it's only about three percent so that leaves the locals and the state and the county and others to come up with the funding that's a big issue yes it is and that's when we have to continue to work through thank you i have a couple of quick questions i want to will be applied yes madam chair we believe the laws are very very clear the intent of congress is very very clear essentially if you touch our money you know you will be deemed a railroad you know and fall under all of those federal laws that applied to railroads and rail workers the railroad retirement act the railway labor act you know and any of these other applicable federal laws and certainly we intend to make that a part of our grant agreements to just reinforce what the law already states christmas no i'm fairly certain it will not come until after the first of the year i i would rather promise little and deliver much make a promise i can't keep so i think it's safe to say after the first of the year well thank you very much and i understand that maybe mark will take your place thank you very much mr administrator  i just want you to know that there is if you look around in the room a lot of interest it is a very positive person right now ok we have some of the questions for the of the first off you are correct one of the oversights in the recovery act was planning was not eligible expense and so all we had was the nine million dollars in our fiscal year two thousand and nine appropriation we have been working with the appropriators to make sure that that oversight is addressed in the two thousand and ten bill and i believe both houses so difficult increase the amounts of funds believe the house may cause between state and however there's really no cookie cutter approach and our work has found is that it really varies depending on the freight railroad and the commuter rail who owns the track the speed of the trains when they would be running so this it's a lot of different nuances but we have found that it's in the mutual best interest for both the freight and the commuter rail or in this case would be high speed rail projects to work studies foreign high speed rail systems what can you report back to us about lessons learned as we develop i mean because we're at the baby stage well there are several in the countries we visited which with spain france and japan there was a commitment and a priority to develop high speed rail and that commitment basically started out as a financial commitment so the majority of and taken the time to develop a vision and plan for high speed rail as well as with the goals and objectives very much led to the successful development of high speed rail a second lesson learned is that in many of these kind trees the initial investment was to build a trunk line between two inner city paris where dense populations and existing market of inner city travelers and other modes well as some of the initial investment and i think our last lesson would be that high speed rail systems are reliable and safe and a very often designed to free time and price competitive with other mo and that's the same as you want to respond to that that's one of the observations that we have of the development internationally of high speed rail several first they've been at it for decades so there's a whale developed industry deployed the dedicated true high speed lines i think we should learn from the lessons that we see from abroad recognize it's going to take us a while to overcome a forty or fifty year head start i think we can make some constructive investments and i'll give you an example of one that we're working on and it is that today our top service speed is seventy nine miles an hour and we can't go faster until we make some improvements to the railroad primarily until positive train control is implemented then we'll be able to hit top speeds of ninety to one tenth as we have designed our quarter and i believe as other states have design their corridors they design them for even higher speeds but we need to wait on technology and policies to change so that with our particular carter you will later be able to go faster on the same tracks within the same  but with a different machine an electrified locomotive so i think one should observe what's happening around the world learn some of those lessons carefully figure out how to apply them learn from some of the technology that's been developed elsewhere that can help us here in america and figure out how to do it in our mixed passenger environment i think we've got some good opportunities to do that you know i have been on several of the systems but i have never been on a high speed system that you know at what the freight so i would like to know we look at separate tracks we certainly have to be looking at positive train control one of the things that we have right here every year we go on a trip on the train and we share course with the freight and it's kind of embarrassing that we're you know we go out to our children we get their boilerplate but we share in the track so these are some of the about high speed rail versus the regular rail i can speak for what we do in our state and and we we work on a host railroad we work for the freight track now is that a good situation for us for us it works they work very very well the key is that our trains are ninety percent on time we have a great working relationship with amtrak we have a terrific working relationship with canadian pacific so in our particular situation it does work we seem to get in this push and push and shove about high speed versus you know what mohawk a lot hundred hundred ten mile an hour or whatever and i believe that you know we need to walk like pat said we need to walk first and work our way into this before we really get into the true high speed the concern that i have and it's been my main concern is that we're spending a lot of money here in the public is looking at all of us you know we understand this stuff all of us here we know what's going on but the average public well i'm not so sure and and we have to make sure that when we spend these dollars and then we get a long term commitment from congress that we do it right this is going to be the key here that we do it and we do it right we need to listen to the experts f r a we need to listen to the they are in together we need to work these situations out man i'm sure we can do it i'm not saying that we can't the the worst thing that can happen to us is that this these trains are not on time if we get into that situation where people are sitting at these stations and they're waiting and waiting and waiting people are going to abandon these trains are going to go back to their cars that's not what we need to do here and that's why you know pat and i talked coming out of the gate we needed we need to do it right you know if you listen to the testimony that had from the international people one of the things is the top of the some people would like to see i'm going to hundred miles an hour well maybe that's not the best thing maybe i mean i don't know maybe the best thing is that we can improve some of those tracks and some of those bridges and some of those tunnels and be able to go from traffic is on there right now what is the right and what are the other issues that would affect these decisions and i think that is part of the good planning that needs to be done cooperatively between the freight railroads the found that in order to be competitive with other modes that that time is of the essence in order to be time competitive it's likely that high speed rail would have to be on dedicated track i think the other day and  should have yes it's likely that high speed rail service would have to be on dedicated track again to be time competitive with air or highway and the factor is i think that when you're talking about the alignment you would want to lime it to be service i don't necessarily even view it that way i mean i don't know what we're trying to do as we develop it but maybe we try to not clogged up some of the aspirates between here and there well i think that one of our points which is that it's very important to really lay out a vision for the national high speed program particularly as it fits in with our whole transportation system and it's very important that we lay out well what are the goals and objectives we're trying to achieve with our high speed rail projects and then again identify and i'm looking to identify the expected outcomes and then put together some metrics so you can see what progress we're making toward achieving those goals so for us that's the starting place for  signal that we don't have the capacity that we need to build and it's more than embarrassment it is a cost to our society the cost of congestion as a true expense that we can get beyond that we get beyond that through partnerships with the class one railroads the capacity that's necessary to have the throughput in the network that can do that and my personal definition of a partnership is when i'm willing to reach my pocket and you're willing to reach into your pocket and make an investment that we can we can both honor and feel good about it and use it and i know that there are those opportunities around the country today i think as we move forward is the vision that we need to we're going to get that and is that surely get to be a and there's lessons that you've touched on but is it true that most of those systems are built on government owned land so they can create additional tracks lines of necessary or be able to do all the things they need to do so i'm not quite sure and this is i guess the mystery is whether or not this is part of the consideration of being able to help communities be able to work on well the if we're looking at very high speed lot of what you would find in europe or japan and they have gone off and generally bought new right away and or acquired new right of way under their country's laws to to develop their systems if you look at the european model the european model is basically new rights of way right until you get to the outskirts of town and then shifting over that the historic real routes into town and the japanese model was sort of building their system in what was then the suburbs but it's now the new center cities of many of them of the community u s and japan we see there being a mix we see you know as an example california high speed rail has most of its system would be acquired acquired on new rights of way but as an example between san jose and to san right that way except in a large part of north carolina where the state actually continues stone and is always on the rail line between raleigh and charlotte so we see it as being a mixture but getting back to it  key element of this is the environmental process and while our partner in doing the environmental reviews are the states part of the environmental reviews do require the engagement of the communities and other interest groups in evaluating sions and opportunities fleming i would have to get back to you in terms of the countries that we visited whether or not it was public land or not but one of the things that we did hear time and time again was that one of the challenges they did face was having to try to make sure that their rail system was going to be connected with the our other parts of the rail in the country that was a big part of their vision was to make sure that they had connectivity as mark said it's very important to upfront kind of figure out what your goals are and to make sure that you are going to build in that connectivity from city center to city center so that is why many of the european countries decided to go with steel wheel and steel rail rather than maglev in order to be able to do that but i can get back to  terms of the public land a percentage that was in the three countries that we went to with you because my understanding is in southern california in the high speed rail the n s f is quite willing but very unwilling so while we say that there is a great deal of support for it unless the railroads play ball it's not going to be an easy movement i think it can be a deal breaker  did not include any new positions for any of the agencies implementing the programs and in particular f r i and also one of the challenges of the recovery act is it provided us a lawyer the opportunity to take the one quarter of one percent to fund oversight even though the legislation that came out of this committee that was passed last year the pre authorized one percent and so we are using those funds right now doing the application reviews and if the situation isn't addressed we're going to have a serious problem when it comes to oversight of project manufacturing base in the u s we have so many areas that are faced with economic downturn and high unemployment is there a way that we can be able to entice  but the chairman i heard talked a little bit about it but we actually purchased two train sets for the the built in spain well that's what i'm going to get to from those for the chicago milwaukee corridor that's in operation and we will have those sets in two years ago has agreed the wheels the steel wheels and the shelves will be made in spain but the rest of the trains are going to be made in the united states seventy percent just to start with congresswoman and that's going to increase if we're successful in our grand then we will also purchase two  i believe that we have coming out of the gate with tell goal we have shown that we're willing to take this gamble and get get these trains my speech i talked a little bit about it but there has to be a long term commitment here you're absolutely right and we're not going to we're you know i don't want anybody to think that eight billion dollars is chump change because it's not but but in order to get people interested whether it's jalil or any of the other train manufacturers there has to be this attitude that we're going to implement this program and we're going to a to put additional people to be just handle the applications what are we looking at which you got much can you respond to my question yes we we are strong strongly committed to implementing the buy america provisions our manufacturing base and we are looking for opportunities to help that i meant no we're committed to we we don't want to go through the it's made over there and assembled here type by america we want to make sure that the components the subcomponents are are also domestic manufacture and and so you will see that reflected in our grant agreements and and but as secretary says the key is going to be showing that there is a sustainable market that that will justifies continued domestic investment and and with that we will and they how has been generous so far in the two thousand and ten appropriation for research and development in high speed rail and part of that is designed to help develop north american solutions to high speed rail issues that could also help support  most manufacturing process thank you sir thank you madam chair you've been very generous thank you and i just want to be clear that i think there is not only a commitment in the congress for re a passenger but the commitment and time to be involved and i want to commend the secretary what you all have done in wisconsin and you participated in a roundtable discussion where we're standing room and put some of those people back manufacturing that was interested i mean there is the interest there and what we can do to retrain and implore a lot of american people and so as we move forward we will be looking for recommendations on what we could do in congress partnering with these local communities do you want to respond to the or go into my last question well to let me just give you one example  in the office at seven a m the next morning working with her team reviewing applications that is genuine excitement about where we're at with this program  we have on a state's ability to bla a high speed rail system and i mean i think that is one of the major problems that we have we have a lot of interest in local even though we say we got a lot of interest in the state system they have not put up the money and that is several states so i know we will be with you in that when we look at applications but mr secretary what do you say know i said on the national commission we made a recommendation our recommendation to congress through the year two thousand and fifty is three hundred fifty seven billion dollars that we need to invest in this country in passenger rail now i know that's a big number but in order to get this done madam chair we will have to make that commitment we're certain of it and if we do that you know mark will get all those people that he needs and you know everybody will be everybody will be appy but we do have to commit to it well i don't want to build on what he said you know we had past attempts in this country and they failed in large part due to their inability to sustain political public support financial support enough to carry the projects through multiple political cycles as well as the lengthy project development timeline they also struggled  overcome the challenge with securing the upfront investment needed to get these projects going so absolutely echoing that sustaining this commitment over the project timeline will be critical at all levels at the federal state local and private sector and i would just i would just echo that and and i'm familiar with communities particularly in our state and state level that is working towards setting up dedicated funds to provide the matching dollars and it will take the leadership the national level the regional level the local level to make the commitments and invest in infrastructure that we need to build our communities you all have been so gracious with your time any closing remarks that you would like to make  either one madam chair i want to suck up to right now i don't know but i just i just want to say thank you you've really you've you've really been a breath of fresh air you know i've been around that's been around this of we've all been around passenger rail here for years we were in the gloom and doom days where we couldn't get six people in a room to have a meeting now we have a meeting it's the any room only and it's because of people like you think you think and do you know that is true everywhere i go along with the country i mean it's just amazing the interest i don't care what city what state what hamlet is that the engine is a backhoe you know whatever thank you very much ok thank you first of all for your patience we're very excited as you all know about what's going on in transportation in the way longer than we anticipate members of the committee thank you for inviting me to testify on the important and timely topic of high speed rail i am director of america two thousand and fifty a national urban planning initiative to develop an infrastructure and growth strategy for the united states were based at the independent regional planning association in new york america twenty fifty strongly supports the creation of a national network of high speed rail corridors organize around the nation's mega reach mega regions our networks of metropolitan areas like the northeast like the florida mega region the texas trying all southern california that are connected by travel patterns economic links and large natural systems spanning areas of roughly three hundred to six hundred miles apart across mega regions are the ideal size for high speed rail networks and have densities comparable to asian and european countries with high speed rail over seventy percent of america's population and jobs are concentrated in the eleven mega regions that we've identified across the country by the year two thousand and fifty america will grow by more than one hundred forty million people a greater number of people than we added from the one hundred fifty to two thousand during which we built the entire interstate highway system just as limited access highways made daily commutes within metropolitan regions possible high speed rail will open the possibility of daily commutes within mega regions and high speed rail stations when located in city centers will support the type of energy efficient land development patterns that will reduce carbon emissions and save households and businesses money on transportation and electricity bill however going from virtually no high speed rail system in america to a robust national network is not without its risks therefore the federal government should proceed strategically and invest first in corridors that show the greatest promise for generating ridership that will offset long term operating costs america twenty fifty offers one mechanism for assessing which potential high speed rail quarters will have the greatest writer should demand in our recently released study where high speed rail works best we evaluated twenty seven thousand possible pairs of cities of at least fifty thousand people or more located between one hundred and five hundred miles from each other  against the following criteria we looked at population size favoring cities with large populations in large metropolitan region distance between city pairs with distances of one hundred fifty to three hundred miles receiving the highest value presence and size of local and regional rail transit networks to account for access to high speed rail stations at the beginning and end of the trip economic productivity measured by per capita g d p auto congestion measured by the texas transportation institute travel time index and whether the city pairs were located within a mega region to account for the benefits of connecting numerous metropolitan hubs by weighting these various criteria and calculating them in a formula we produce a score and a ranking for all twenty seven thousand city paris the list of the top one hundred city pairs with the greatest potential for ridership demand is provided in my written the money the three mega regions with the most high ranking city pairs were the northeast california and the  midwest but the presence of any city pair in the top one hundred indicates a potential to support high speed rail service in that quarter many on the ground factors will make the difference in whether ridership will materialize we think the most critical factors will be the integration of high speed rail within existing local and regional transit networks the location of stations within walkable dense environments with easy access to major destinations and the existence of inner city travel markets as demonstrated by current auto or air travel patterns our analysis did not take into account on the ground factors such as existing rail infrastructure matching funds local political support preliminary engineering we're confident that these are factors of the f r a will strongly consider and they have access t information through the grant applications therefore we intend for a ranking system to be considered as an additional factor for the f r a can to consider not the only factor we hope the f r a will develop its own guidelines and methodology for comparing ridership demand across corridors and determining the quality of the financial plan submitted by real applicant we hope our study will spur additional research and public discussion about what factors must be in place to create the conditions to maximize high speed rail investment since releasing the report we've already collected suggestions on additional criteria that would improve this analysis such as looking at existing air travel patterns and i'm sure members of this committee may have suggestions as well in closing i urge this committee to think about ways to secure new long term revenue sources for high speed rail in america high speed rail needs a dedicated source of funding and a long term commitment in order to succeed similar to the process we put in place to build the interstate highway system unfortunately we no longer have the luxury of unjoin excess capacity built into the infrastructure systems of the twentieth century that capacity is now used up we must begin building the infrastructure of tomorrow today thank you very much the co a small illinois college town that was heavily dependent on amtrak for us mobility needs i know the opportunities rail networks offer to communities that wish to develop urban livable urban living structure and transportation solutions they need for survival and for growth and tractors ideally position to address those needs we fully support the administration's vision vision for high speed rail and we have strong partnership with states the federal railroad administration and freight railroads we are positioning ourselves to aggressively be the inner city provider of choice i'd like to talk a little bit about the expertise that underpins that strategy before i turn to a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for slide please illustrate something important amtrak is a high speed rail provider more than half of our daily trains exceed one hundred miles an hour it is a unique system that mixes high speeds a cell in regional trains with a commuter and freight service to provide a broad range of public benefit slide to when people term the term high speed rail this is what they have in mind very fast trains running on brand new grade separated straight arrow rights of way this is one of the very successful e services in spain which operates at one hundred eighty six miles an hour slight three here's a slightly different picture this is the northeast corridor and you can see an amtrak a cell a train built on a bridge that was built on a bridge that was built in eighteen thirty five although it now carries one hundred twenty five mile an hour trains and here you see the difference between these two approaches they decide they design the effort structure to realize the potential of the equipment and we designed the equipment to operate within the constraints of the infrastructure slide for please both have their merits the development of high speed service on the northeast corridor begun began in the one nine hundred thirty one thousand nine hundred sixty s successful high speed services of all kinds are built on incremental improvements but whatever the approach the constraining factors are the same cost and environmental impact five slight five please explain here's a comparison of two complimentary high speed projects on the left we have an amtrak harrisburg line which underwent a round of incremental investment that culminated in the introduction of one hundred ten mile an hour service in two thousand and six on the right we see a brand new dread service high speed line finished in two thousand and seven and is up in design to carry trains at one hundred eighty six miles an hour this comparison highlights the importance of relating the investments to benefits we want to make sure that we get as much return for him on our money as we can and we want to do it in a timely manner next slide please the northeast corridor or has undergone several rounds of incremental improvements since  six on the right you see the results in terms of the travel market we share with all the airlines we have also invested in other cores putting positive train control system on amtrak don't michigan line laying the groundwork for one hundred ten mile an hour service on our st louis to chicago line and track wants more high speed rail but we always need to remember that the goal is a competitive trip time sometimes that means raising speeds from seventy nine to one ten sometimes that means raising speeds for one ten to one fifty and it also could mean the development of much higher speeds where we need to be competitive next slide please this slide breaks out the funding programs from our which will finance the next round of development these grant programs are a tremendous first step but we need definitely need help to develop long term funding streams support to support future needs the high speed rail initiative chairman oberstar proposed would be a potential source of funding and we strongly support this program we have partnered with states to apply for funding just slide highlights some of the major track through projects some will be new service we have also applied for funding to improve service and then speed up in speed up trains on existing routes projects to increase frequencies and stopping p t c will improve capacity in trip times and equipment is a vital need and we are working with vendors and therefore and our state partners to develop specifications and funding plans for new equipment procurement last slide and track will deliver we must help our nation retain its economic competitiveness and communities and transportation are a vital component of that then that you have to let me just ask you one quick question and what you think i know is dedicated sources of revenue and we've been struggling with you know amtrak you know trying to move forward and work out some of the problems and i can say you know from new york to d c i think we can do an end to two and half hours and if we fix some of the  tunnels and trains we could do it maybe in two hours but from new york from boston to washington is eight hours and so is other factors other than the conditions of the tracks i mean we're talking develop high speed on this already developed what do you think we need to do to move forward what are some of the recommendations in other words we're starting out in the towns and so we need to do some things in those communities so that we can have the real going through well first of all in the northeast corridor i'm not sure of the total time between boston and washington d c but i think  eight hours but the mail on the train and they wouldn't do it i believe on his sell or service or even on the regional service it's somewhat somewhat lower than that but i will get back to you on that let me simply say we can cut some trip time down on on ne quarter service and i can provide we can i we can we can ok certainly can if you go back to one of the comments i made about with the amount of billions of dollars and when you look in the incremental approach out in the other parts of the country the things that we can do to help accessibility in our stations and to bring some new service online and to put some service in the midwest we could get many things done with that amount of money and those are the things that we're balancing that will need to be balanced on how we allocate limited resources i am not disagreeing with you i just want to point out that ok trance and freight in my part of the country in the midwest and throughout the system we work with our state partners and there are some good investments to be made that can ensure a much much better on if we're going to attract continue to track to new writers and not only give them one time but have them continue to come back we need to be able to arrive at the station leave when we say arrive at the destination when we say and we are working towards that are putting good use of you see in your own map there's very little on the west side of the united states there's hardly anything in the central how do we connect all of those to be able to ensure that people have options for travel and be able to get where they need to go well that it's interesting that you bring that up as one of the things that we are looking very seriously at is amtrak is not only improving the system we have seen where we can make incremental investments in the system and looking for operate unity is through the system that's in place that the f r a will be rolling out here this winter will be a start with that and i couldn't agree more with the comments that were made  the previous panel success early success and measurable success will be very helpful in expanding that system again coming from a it's important to understand where i come from i come from a community that had no air service no scheduled bus service and was two hundred fifty miles with the state university from chicago illinois this was the motive transportation for students we doubled the service in illinois  years ago with tremendous success in ridership it did not diminish the morning service now we have to run trips a day we went for three decades with one round trip a day and doubling that service was a monumental success i've seen it work i've seen economic development spurred by these incremental improvements and this is a seventy nine miles an hour with improved on time performance better quality equipment and increased frequency we can really add and be a tool in economic development revival of my part of the country and the rest of the country so i commend you for german for what you have done i was in the battle in the ninety's as a mare trying to is that people have is a train service if it wasn't for the train service they don't have bus service they don't have air service they would not be connected at all and i tell people it's not just the train is homeland security we've got to be able to the incremental approach of improvement without giving up the vision of of higher speed and high speed rail is a good use of taxpayer dollars i believe and will show some immediate results question today to be able to answer this but from my perspective wasn't just trying to do with amtrak is put together a management team and start laying the groundwork for for well beyond my tenure on the board into the future and understandably we need to do that it will allow us to plan and to rotate equipment and it out and to do some planning and in scheduled maintenance rather than waiting and hoping for a funding mechanism so to run any successful business or any concern we need to have the resources to plan so and that will allow us to look into the future and the payback we believe and know from from past experience will be should be a good payback to the systems upgrading or the new systems in europe versus the systems that you have that you contend with on amtrak yes have there been a concerted effort to look at what it would take to be able to upgrade to to address those areas to be able to utilize higher speed instead of just one hundred one hundred ten but rather one hundred eighty or more to be able then to truly be a high rail i mean  rail i don't want to speak out of turn or i i'm certain i can bring you information on what it would take to upgrade the northeast corridor which is right now the only quarter that we have control over the other quarter is would would would perhaps likely be more in line with what you saw on the slide so and would be happy to get that information i would love to be able to have that madam chair because be patient with us mr really you know a bank has a plane and we're running late so i know everybody probably got somewhere to go but if you could go next please and then  opportunity my name is nicholas rubio i'm the president of scenes for us transportation infrastructure developer we've been in this business now for fifty years in the united states we are currently sector and a clear advantage in efficiency on usage on the side of the atlantic and its beginnings high speed rail in europe and japan as has been mentioned as what was shown on developed through cost actually rate its implementation on much in mice delivered each with limited public funds public private partnerships ship the financial risk of transportation projects to the private sector on their way from the asked to come here and one of the questions was what do private developers need to see happen to bring them to the table for us high speed rail development and there were many things said today their reliability safety of the investment mostly the development of a high speed rail network in the united states will face many challenges but we do the show you are on the commitment of both the public and private sector working together i strongly believe that those challenges rough estimate of the percentage that each one has been able to help with contribute the part of the percentage of your percentage into making it happen the county the state  supposed to be profitable and ended up not being profitable so pardon me if i ask because those are one of the things that we've found to be evident not just of thank you madam chair that's it our union together with other real unions represent over one hundred fifty thousand workers on america's freight passenger commuter alliance t c u i am is the largest union i'm track representing six crash all railway were has long supported high rail work will create and sustain thousands of good jobs the passage of korea and the appropriations in iraq is a good start for what can be a great opportunity for high speed rail in our country labor protections and requirements to preserve existing collective bargaining agreements must be administered fairly and consistent with the law davis bacon prevailing wage requirements must fully apply to all covered construction work by america requirements must be applied and strongly enforced and track and its workforce must be fully utilized as the backbone of high speed rail in america amtrak is by law america's national passenger rail carrier and the only current provider of high speed rail through a cell express service in the northeast corridor and track has an established national network which includes an extensive reservation system existing rolling stock statutory relationships with the freight railroads for trackage rights and decades of demonstrated compliance with all federal laws federal relevance and track is also partnered with states and local governments to provide passenger r service for decades and jack has a track record of hearing to various grant requirements imposed by the federal government most importantly and jack has a dedicated and very experienced workforce collective bargaining has existed with the answer back since it's in the creation in one nine hundred seventy one and current labor agreements are in place with all the companies unions high speed rail is just that rare road work and jack should receive credit for complying with alright statures and not be placed at a competitive disadvantage for example amtrak as a real key carrier as financial obligations to its employees to the rare retirement act if another entity seeks to provide railroad statues so that all applicants will be judged on a level playing field all relative or supports a strong buy america requirement as contained in both the amtrak statute and ira almost all existing major high speed rail equipment manufacturers are foreign by america in this context must mean that even if the developer is foreign owned any equipment must be assembled entirely in the united states and track with its skilled and united shop craft employees should be the first choice to repair and maintain all new high speed rail equipment foreign companies should not be allowed to avoid the application of various statues and play protections under law should be seen as a means of integrating the existing workforce into high speed rail and expanding inner city service existing collective bargaining agreements can assure that new operations have access to experienced and trained employed workers operating needs at its currently authorized level and and new high speed rail programs must be fully funded we must be committed to the long haul good labor policy and sound transportation policy are not inconsistent propositions in fact high speed rail in this country will succeed if workers brought into the process and treated fairly fairly the benefits will be the best high speed rail system in the world i'm the president and c e o of u s rail car newly formed american owned a while based company with a business plan to resume manufacturing american made passenger trains in the united states it is a real privilege to be here thank you for this opportunity as an almost thirty year veteran of the rail transportation industry i have never seen the level of excitement support and commitment for passenger rail that exists today in both houses of congress on both sides of the aisle and with such determination put forth in the current administration prior to taking this position i held several key positions at two of the world's leading rail transportation companies and salvo from italy and siemens from germany six months ago i became involved with a group of investors from columbus ohio led by barry from and an entrepreneur with a passion for trains the desire to make a difference in a vision for putting american passengers back on america's tracks i'd like to just take a minute and  cknowledge barry back there for his leadership in this in this area barry owns and runs and is the founder of a company called value recovery group which works at several levels of federal and local government in areas that include distressed asset management brownfield and economic development energy management and energy management two of barry's larger accounts include the u s department of energy and education earlier this year barry acquired the assets of colorado railcar this company entrepreneurial in its own right developed a modern version of a bygone self propelled train set called a diesel multiple units were d m u this product was originally developed by the bud company back in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven like many other american innovations d m use went on to become a core component in the fleet pools of just about every modern industrialized nation around the world unfortunately as with the bud company and other iconic manufacturers like pullman and st louis car colorado railcar fell victim to a market with insufficient investment lack of priority and missed opportunity the original colorado railcar d m u was developed in two thousand and three and is currently the only f r a compliant d m u in production today ten of these units operate in daily revenue service in florida oregon and alaska each meeting and or exceeding their customer expectations i have traveled extensively in these last few months welcomed by transportation agencies across the country with renewed interest in purchasing the u s rail car d m u this assumes of course we can attract sufficient investment to secure our business plan in so doing we are not here seeking public subsidy for a private venture rather we are encouraging continued public investment in passenger rail and support for american manufacturing and american jobs are willing to put our business plan to the competitive test with sufficient resolve and entrepreneurial spirit however we are concerned about doing so on an uneven playing field with deep pocketed foreign suppliers some of whom receive home government subsidies and others of whom practice predatory pricing it is important to note that there are currently no american owned passenger rail car manufacturers in the united states all existing rail cars are produced by foreign suppliers from europe and asia these companies assemble locally however typically imports forty percent of their content from abroad and export most if not all of their profits back home where they are then reinvested in foreign technology my company's investors are committed to reestablish ing an american own company that engineers designs manufactures and develops in america we believe several elements will be prerequisites to the success of u s rail car and the country's renewed passenger rail initiative as a whole we encourage strong federal leadership in the following five areas won approval of the ohio rail development commission's tiger application u s rail car has joined with the ohio r d c in a public private partnership to produce and ultimately maintain trains that a new rail car manufacturing and maintenance facility established just outside of columbus to support for the f r a's proposed two thousand and ten high speed rail research and development program this important initiative will help new start and new entry american companies develop in advance the state of american technology to better compete with foreign suppliers three effective implementation of the preah next generation of quitman pool that must include d m use made in america by american owned companies this program will this will assure product standardization adequate sources of domestic supply and reduce much of the wasteful costs associated with the water of vehicle pretty armaments all too typical in the transit sector for consistent administration of prayer by american standards implementing these new by america standards with resolve will test our national commitment to establishing a new american railcar manufacturing industry five the sustained commitment and funding for high speed intercity passenger rail perhaps the most critical in the mix sufficient levels of capital cannot be attracted from the private sector with out confidence in a sustainable and reliable market u s rail car applauds the leadership of this committee and encourages the establishment of a dedicated funding source assure continuity thank you again for this opportunity to testify i'm happy to answer your questions and i am really excited about these times them brown members of the committee we thank you for the opportunity to testify here today and i'm speaking for the ten million members of the a f l cio and the affiliates of the industrial union council which are the manufacturing unions of the a f l cio with high speed rail the nation stands at the crossroads of opportunity for domestic investments in innovation new technology and energy efficiency that will save jobs create new jobs and new industries and revitalize american manufacturing however while we can be certain that the rail lines will be built here there is no guarantee that they and all the related technology will be made here what is needed is an environmental economic development policy to guarantee that these investments are made the united states and that they result in good sustainable jobs it's been commented on this committee earlier today the situation in this country is dismal we're at ten percent unemployment the real number is closer to fifteen percent unemployment we've lost jobs for twenty one straight months it is frankly a continuation of what has happened in the last decade of manufacturing we lost five million manufacturing jobs we saw forty thousand manufacturing facilities close in this nation and over one million of those jobs were professional technical jobs engineers designers developers people with the skills t give us the technical capacity as a nation to make things these came with record trade deficits seven hundred one billion dollars in two thousand and seven which it was driven by an eight hundred fifty billion dollars deficit and manufactured goods five hundred billion of that was in manufactured goods alone the rest was boil even with record oil prices manufacturing deficit was been driving a record trade deficit we are looking at another record deficit this coming year with china and china will account for seventy five percent of the manufactured good deficit in our overall trade deficit it's shocking and we ought to be concerned about it the industrial midwest of the state of michigan with real unemployment approaching twenty five percent so the ground zero surrounded by an army of dislocated discourage skilled workers engineers designers scientists and closed facilities and they represent the best of our nation skills and technical capacity to create innovate and manufacture the goods needed for a sustainable future we have ignored the maxim that matters were things that are made it's time to change direction our nation is stumbling towards an economic development policy one that says we want auto one that says we are making in the investment in energy policy and now we have a manufacturing strategist for the country which is a first ron bloom that's a good thing is what our competitors internationally do we have got to start acting like them as a nation and think about the economic development policies of their country high speed rail investments like ones like the ones in new energy infrastructure must be designed to create the jobs here and this is the challenge three decades ago we lead the world in renewable energy technology today we built last year a record eighty three hundred megawatts of wind turbines in this nation less than half were made here these are technologies the rest of the world the last three decades went ahead of us  generation of high speed rail technology we have some limited experience in the northeast corridor with high speed rail and these are examples of the broad range of technologies an advanced manufacturing economy is like ours should be capable of delivering but as has been noted the leading technologies in the world are another countries that have been doing this for several decades we have joined with the less really unique council joined with our transportation labor brothers and sisters in support of a broad program of vestments in our transportation infrastructure and in particular in high speed rail and the recovery act made an important statement about that with the inclusion of buy america this is been a very enlightening discussion here this afternoon we supported that we work very hard on it but i think we have to recognize that as a tactical move not a strategic move it doesn't do what we need to do the challenge is to develop a high speed rail industry get the entire production system from the supply chain to engineering to r and d that takes scale that takes financial  takes cooperation right now the money will be spent in many places around the country it doesn't give you the leverage to negotiate an entire production system from another country and that's what you want to capture not just in the rail car assembly operation we want to talk about the entire technology in the system and we've got to be able to move and and and the goshi eight at scale to achieve those opportunities and have these things done here it requires the ability to think in that larger context to be able to say we want to do something about the midwest and target societal capacity and within the macro context of this the goal should be to leverage and encourage comparable systems and calm of the sides really by seeking the best technology in the world we have a set of recommendations to for buy american other domestic investment questions including putting the waivers on the internet so people can see them and even compete on this is a silly we have the technology with a series of other recommendations on how to strengthen those provisions we believe must act other forms of investment criteria for making these products here and finally we think that what the congress needs to use its financial leverage here to encourage regional national collaboration to achieve a set of goals common design systems comparability attracting the world's best how to allergy mobilizing private capital and establishing a domestic state of the art high speed rail production system for the united states and finally we would join with other scarlatti saying that we must actually obey our own labor laws in this country to protect the interests of the workers that work in these industries we look forward to working with this committee to develop a high speed rail system in this country that is made in america thank on behalf of the members of the i r thank you for the opportunity to testify the saving on the opportunities and challenges flowing from expanded high speed passenger rail in america madam chairwoman you opened this hearing by praising the president for his leadership in this area and that is certainly well deserved but having worked with you in this committee and having seen you run this hearing this afternoon i believe be remiss for not making sure we get on the record that there has been leadership from congress in this and the full committee for that leadership in the past and look forward to working with you in the future let me start by saying that i want to emphasize that our nation's privately owned freight rail freight railroads support development of passenger rail and our actions to date prove this fact we are all right successful partners with passenger rail across the country outside of the northeast corridor almost all amtrak trains operate over tracks owned and maintained by freight railroads in addition hundreds of millions of commuter trips each year occur on commuter rail systems that operate at least partially over tracks or rights of way owned by freight railroads as the f r a recently released vision for high speed rail in america points out both freight and passenger roads provide enormous public benefits to our nation including reduce traffic congestion reduce fuel consumption lower greenhouse gas emissions and less pollution railroads both passenger and freight by the smart sensible way to help solve america's twenty first century transportation challenges and that is why a r is a member of one rail a new coalition that brings together both passenger and freight rail stakeholders including labor and environmental representatives to advance railroading nationwide one rail supports increased public and private investment in freight rail and also supports state efforts to seek an ongoing dedicated funding source for enter city passenger rail expansion and one of the reasons that we were able to coalesce around these goals is jobs one billion dollars of capital investment in the freight railroad industry conservatively  produces twenty thousand jobs in the economy that's using department of commerce bureau of employment administration multiplier effects so we believe that that the money should be spent and i want to size that these are  jobs that stay within our borders we do not there is no way to do in any way outsource those jobs all of us involved in this effort know that reshaping the nation's passenger transportation system with expanded rail choices will bring significant challenges administrators able said it best earlier this afternoon when he observed that america deserves the world's best passenger rail system but not at the expense of impairing what is already the world's best freight passenger system mr zabel understands that the economy depends on freight rail the combination of safety efficiency and veyron mental friendliness and affordability of our freight r network is unmatched by any other freight rail system in the world and provides a huge competitive advantage for america's farmers and manufacturing yours as they compete in the global economy no ideally freight railroads in inner city passenger railroads would operate in completely separate worlds but that's not practicable at this time as a result high speed passenger rail will in many cases have to share tracks or at least the right away with freight railroads clearly each passenger rail corridor is unique and is governed by its own circumstances but i would like to highlight for general principles that we believe should apply in all circumstances of joint use first safety must be the top priority railroads are an extremely safe way to move both people and freight and everyone involved in railroading wants to make sure it stays that way second capacity concerns must be properly addressed increased demand for rail transport will require more capacity for both freight and passenger rail notwithstanding the recent downturn in the economy freight rail will be forced will be asked to carry as much as one hundred percent more freight by the year two thousand and thirty five third freight railroad should receive full compensation for use of their assets it should be remembered that no comprehensive passenger rail system in the world operates today without significant government assistance once u s policymakers agree on the scope of passenger railroading in this country you must be willing to fund both operating and capital on a long term basis for freight railroads must be adequately protected from liability risks that would not have resulted but for the added presence of passenger rail service to their networks these are critical challenges but they're hardly insurmountable freight railroads are committed to working with members of congress the administration the states and passenger interests to implement a strategy that will allow both freight and passenger rail to grow in the national interest thank you for allowing me to be here to clarify issues of liability that i mean the major ones and they have you engage the freight line and no we pay discussion with respect to liability and that's why i of course mentioned it in  testimony liability is one of the key issues g a l s is to report and that i believe earlier this year we are not seeking legislation at this point to clarify what is already in the statute limiting liability of two hundred million dollars for a passenger rail accident and i think that each of our members has been able to work out with their their state and local partners the ability to to address that issue i was talking earlier with the representatives of the states for passenger rail and i i believe will be getting together and talking about it on a on a broader scale to see if there are other areas of agreement that can be reached but primarily it is a contract issue worked out between the host railroad and the passenger provider how do you think positive train control fit into this as we move forward well congress of course mandated last year positive train control on all passenger on a track that has passenger on it i think again that is an area where the host railroad will have to sit down with amtrak and with the commuter rail operators and try to allocate  thank you madam chair and it's great to be able to listen to the dialogue from all the panelists and to mr bob i've questioned some of the folks that are working on the high speed rail in california whether they consider my need to tell me is prohibitive yet i heard one of my mayors from say that in europe some of them were considering transferring from the current system to maglev question you have any information on that as i know is that the next generation of rail technology and it is being used in germany and it is being used in china and is being used in singapore and it's a technology that's out there  and our point is that they're not here with some minor exceptions and that it should be in our interest to utilise our financial leverage from the investments we're going to make as a government in a country to capture the best technologies will have them have them this is no different frankly coming from manufacturing and having dealt with trade this is no different than what's been done to us for the last decade by governments that actually have strategies around developing and targeting industries in their country and where that's all we're asking is we're going to spend the money and let's do it here well my concern is that i'm hearing that is more expensive yet if this is the future then why are we not going  finding what there is and how to how to work with it or how to implement in the future or build the system so that in the future there may be incorporated that i'm sure  would beg off on this one to actually talk to the people who know more about the technologies and i think that's really the point let me just clear out my position because i have made sure that i have not advocate it once another i don't think i should be in the position to tell the state or the federal government which system to use i'm sure when we negotiate and when we partner they will we will get proposals but every last one of those countries have been to they have proposals there are they want to participate they're ready to cut deals and so is the what is the best deal for the taxpayer and i would never want to put myself in the position because i like all of them and what we get is get the one this tailored to have a system i mean you know whether it's the french or the english or is the italians or the germans or you know i've been in all the systems and it's just so exciting to be able to go from one place to another three hundred miles in two hours and a half or two hundred miles in one hour and fifteen minutes but keep in mind all of those tracks in that system was invented for the lamb and so therefore there wasn't running there is not run over those systems not those factories systems you know where i've been and so i don't know that we should be in the business to tell and the trade agreement violations and that to me is a great issue because in the past you know there's been no wanting to have the inspection of some of the real cars in south of the border which by technicians and we don't know whether the train to the to the  ll that our men and women are trained in the us are required to have training and have we done a good job of getting the state department to go after the violations so that we are ensure that the cars that the  those operating whether they're carrying hazardous material or not are actually going safely through our communities where they're high residential areas congresswoman i would defer to the people who have the expertise i will get that question answered and get you the information back thank you and i know that mr hamburger you knew i was going to talk to you but i'm very concerned about the union pacific in california not really coming to the table on working with the high speed rail authority and hopefully also with the councils the government of through which the system is going to go through and i'm wondering whether or not there's other options what do they feel we need to do to be able to get them on board i'm going to answer that question but my answer your last question first because it's a very important point  there is no there was a bus testing facility in altoona pennsylvania don't know how it got there and and the a r runs the technology test center and probably colorado where we test other i don't know exactly what specific issue you're talking about but i do know that they run hundreds of passenger trains a week in california alone probably thousands throughout their whole system every week and i know those in my district thank you line in california that we've talked about in the past that because of the volume of traffic and the physical characterization characteristics of that right of way there just is no more capacity and so i think that it's not a reflection of their desire not to cooperate it's just that in that particular case the physical restrictions of the of the right of way preclude the passenger which then my comment is what are the options they would recommend and that's one of the things because i mentioned before l a county being twelve million there is no more open land to be had unless you go to eminent domain and that's going to be very hard for anybody to pass through so essentially if  and they've got to be able to ensure that where they're going to be affecting a lot of residents especially through the alameda quarter east that they assist in being able to help fund the rail step the great great separations which are critical for fast movement of trains and they tell me they're going before crossings that are going to be covered through funding hopefully with the high speed rail in my area which is wonderful except what about the rest of  is a safety issue it's an employee safety issue it's a community and citizen issue especially if they're going to be carrying hazardous materials toxic cetera so those are the things i'd like to share and maybe later go when we move the we authorization bill i'd like to make sure that the committee understands the importance of fully funding the section one third grade crossing program the program notwithstanding the desire to skinny down the number of  programs that's one that i think deserves extra special tension to keep in keeping alive and if i might go back to your question madam chairwoman i somehow missed the most important member of the one real coalition i have a question for both of my labor people here do you support a dedicated source of revenue funding for high speed as we do th of you know i don't know what we're going to call it this time but as we do the reauthorization bill and also do you think you talked about technology do you think that the workers need additional training to ensure they can operate the new equipment and to the new transportation infrastructure technology so they can keep up with as we move forward we have a very safe system and one of the reason why it's very safe is the workers are well trained and a lot of times you know we all want to talk about jobs jobs jobs that is the key but as we develop a system we need to make sure we develop a safe and we need to have that built ll never worked at all just drop off the line somewhere with the new administration like you train somebody to do something that's really that new because they're already where they've been working on cars or whole life so they have that whole background and whenever something something's new broad and you know we're out we're trying they was able to intervene and now in the new plan we're going to expand that system and we're going to fix it up and best wishes we already own that property we can upgrade that property and it could be a model  very consistent we said in all the climate testimony we've delivered as we look at these things there has to be a set of an aggressive long term investment policy on the side of this country to do these things and you know concurrent  have to train these workers as well to be able to do that again to build existing skills from the past but we recognize that the technologies that we use in making things have changed and continue to change and therefore you're constantly have to deal with the upgrades of the skills of your workforce and i'm not just talk about the front line workers i'm talking about as we talk about a high speed rail system we have to develop the engineering expertise that lots of engineering expertise is unemployed it will require some specialty adaption to move to higher speed rail so that we can actually not only just work on the stuff we can innovate but we become an innovation leader as we learn and adapt to these new technologies so i think you have to think of training and education that runs the gamut from the people that are in the engineering side of the business to the people who are actually down in the trenches maintaining the equipment and upgrading it modernizing it and i think you  a discussion about as we move forward with what we're trying to do in this area i want to keep in mind that what we're trying to do is to move people goods and services so we can compete with our that's what they're doing so they can get their goods to services so they can move their people around so that you can live in maybe our land and work in miami so we can move people around the country apple competitors are already and that's where we get to get quickly so that we can compete i was in japan year ago this time i was working with somebody who commuted from a tour and i went on to madrid and spent the day but i did it and it was the first of the new system and i did it in two hours and a half i did three hundred miles and it was just like we're sitting here so that the technology there is but the same those are the competitors and we can't forget it and we've got to be able to get our people and goods and services then move them around where the jobs are many cases we have jobs but the people are not there so we need to be able to get there where the jobs are and of course is the only real people the only real stimulus that work is transportation because we know for every billion dollars we invest in transportation it generates forty four thousand permanent jobs and part of the problem suggest that the ministration have a report card in every area we're doing in transportation but in every single area we need that kind of commitment to power through and then get off the subject a little bit did you want to respond i'm sorry yes my yes madam chair  i agree with the previous speakers that a sustained commitment by the federal government and a dedicated revenue source is the surest way that we can build out a national system but i do want to encourage us to think about all sources of revenue for high speed rail including one of the oldest  public private partnerships for transportation infrastructure which is the relationship between transportation and real estate investment and i haven't been to japan but i understand around the train stations around the  walk out and you're in the middle of a department store major retail center and those are owned by the train companies as we move forward we must realize that these stations will create tremendous value particularly if they're planned right with transit oriented development and walkable communities and people will want to be close to these services so let's provide an opportunity for the real companies to capture some of that value that is created to help fund the transportation services are i mean we need to figure out how we can partner because everywhere that i've gone where the train station around that those communities have the belt whether it was from you go from paris to lose all of those book sales everywhere you have a station you have a development and we don't have to go there for even here if you go to chris the city i mean that's the city that was was built around that metro stuff so that's true all over absolutely yes that brings up would you mind commenting on those how it affects labor well certainly everything we've said i didn't go into detail because about the need to recognize existing labor law and to comply with it and comply with all the requirements under the federal labor laws and that and we believe the public private partnerships when it involves the public dollar is certainly required to live by those laws and i'd be happy to provide our resolution on green jobs  discuss these matters that we just passed with our convention but we remain on target with the idea that we want two things out of this one we we want to greener economy we want to do things more efficiently more effectively why speed rail for the same reasons at the same time we want to be sure we create good jobs and this doesn't happen because we've got good intentions that actually happens because you have standards and you live by them that is our expectation and that's what we believe is the idea as mr hammer said having all the stakeholders at the table to arrive at a conclusion about how we're going to get this done and the people are treated decently in this process i have one last question for you know if you've got an answer he wants to comment will recreate them and that leads also mr hamburger to prior hearings where i've mentioned that the training that the railroads give the employees has to be training that is going to be able to  chair one of the last questions mr brett you mentioned that the d m u operating in both asia and europe where are you operating now you have operated and what species of the service and do you have a lesson learned that you can fort lauderdale on the tri rail service south florida that's after the five train is not there i rode on the train in august is nothing wrong with the train it's just so wrong with we've got to make sure we get the system of life chance that we need to the state as partners to make sure this system is up and operational and the federal government has told the state of florida you must run those trains and you must run capacities well thank you the train is fine i would just like to add general comment we have this groundswell of interest in high speed rail and it's significant and it's important but let's not forget incrementalism let's not forget incremental rail all of these nations around the world and i've worked for many of them in my career that have the high speed rail networks they didn't have this sort of hiatus back in the twenty's and thirty's and all of a sudden wind up with high speed rail in two thousand and nine they got to high speed rail as through an incremental approach similar to what we did with primary secondary and tertiary roads with the interstate highway program i think in terms of jobs bang for the buck and acquainting americans around the country with high speed rail or higher speed rail so that we get public support i think we have to not discount the incremental approach in many of these corridors you get outside the northeast corridor and you talk to somebody in wyoming about supporting trains and there's no interest whatsoever because they don't know what a train is if we begin to run seventy nine mile an hour trains ninety mile an hour trains one hundred ten mile an hour trains in places like wyoming in the middle of the country in these population centers and they see what modern trains are not not the long distance forty year old amtrak equipment but modern trains are we will get a lot more support and building the trains to support those cars around the country will create a lot more jobs i'm not going to disagree with you and i just want to add that there is a population culture that is very interested in riding the trains we just got to make it more convenient i mean there is the older generation that want to move and they don't like the plane and they would if it was possible they would move around the country if it was convenient and and of course we've seen the rad ship go up with amtrak so there is a real interest in the in the service absolutely is there any let me just thank you all for your patience is almost seven o'clock w