He also stated that four hundred thousand new jobs have been created in transportation. The government worked with two bankrupt airlines and today they are making two billion in profits and the industry is healthy. The aerospace, shipbuilding and auto industries have also improved. Last year was the first in a long time that the U.S. auto builders have sold more cars here than Japanese manufacturers. Now the Government is in a partnership with Detroit building a new automobile for the next century that is two times more efficient than cars of today.
Railroads have their best safety record in history and freight traffic is at an all time high.
The trucking industry is also healthy and will benefit by passage this year of the National Highway System. Mr. Pena went on to say that the Government is looking for ways to attract private sector investment in infrastructure. He wants transportation policies to be more innovative and flexible and he is challenging seventy-five of the most populated municipalities to have intelligent transportation technologies in place in the next ten years. He told the group that he intends to go to China and South America to try to synchronize transportation policies. He wants to advance transportation partnership with industry in the U.S. and open doors overseas to U.S. manufacturers.