Texas Rail Advocates

2009 Theme:

Fast Tracking Texas Trains

We are happy to announce that this year's conference is being held in conjunction with the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance annual conference. We enourage participants to attend both conferences. You can find more information on RPCA conference on their web page.

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Presenters

Tom Leppert, Mayor of Dallas, former Construction Executive.

DJ Mitchell, BNSF Railway Assistant Vice President, Passenger Services

Gilbert Carmichael: Senior Chairman, Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver; Former FRA Administrator.

Hal Cooper, President, Cooper Engineering - "Why the first try at High Speed Rail in Texas failed and what we can learn from it"

Joseph Hughes, Senior Organizer with Go21 and a public policy expert.

Jungus Jordan, Council Member with the City of Fort Worth.

David Laney, former Texas Transportation Commission Chair and former Amtrak Chairman of the Board

Phil Russell, Assistant Executive Director for Innovative Project Development TxDOT

Clint Schelbitzki, Director of Public Affairs, Union Pacific Railroad

Michael Welch, Chairman, International Air Rail Organization

Linda Koop, Chair of the Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments

Tim Vaughn, East Texas Corridor Council

Agenda for Jan 15-16:

Optional Thursday Evening Pre-conference Dinner and Speaker:

Tom Leppert, Mayor of Dallas

Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Welcome:

Jay Barksdale, Dallas Chamber of Commerce

Opening Remarks:

Gil Carmichael, former FRA Administrator and currently with the University of Denver

A Texas Vision:

Phil Russell, TxDOT

Rail Expansion to Accommodate Increased Traffic:

Joseph Hughes, GO21

North Texas Perspective:

Linda Koop, Chair of the Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments

Union Pacific Railroad:

Clint Schelbitzki

BNSF Railway:

D.J. Mitchell

Lunch:

David Laney , former Texas Transportation Commission Chairman and former Chairman of the Board of Amtrak

Encouraging Cooperation between Rail and Air Transport:

Michael Welch, Chairman International Air Rail Organization

A Bright Future for High Speed Rail:

Hal Cooper, Cooper Engineering

Talgo, a Key Player in the Development of High Speed Rail:

Nora Friend, Talgo

Tower 55: Improving the Flow of Rail Traffic:

Jungus Jordan, Fort Worth Councilman, and Michael Haverty

Tim Vaughn, East Texas Corridor Council

East Texas Corridor Link

Linda Harper-Brown

High Speed Rail in Texas

Corridor Map

Who should attend?

Civil Engineers, shippers, local, county and state officials, Politicians, Chambers of Commerce, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Commercal real estate developers, architects, Council of Governments, rail industry suppliers, and advocates for improving freight and passenger rail in Texas.

Location

The Sheraton Dallas Hotel in downtown Dallas (formerly known as the Adams Mark Hotel) at 400 Olive Street.

A block of rooms has been set aside for Conference attendees. Our Conference room rate is $124 + tax per night (single, double, triple, quad). Make your reservations directly with the hotel, by calling 1-888-627-8191. Since this is a joint conference, you must and tell the reservationist that you are participating in the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance Conference to get the special discount rate.

What to Expect

The conference is the 5th of a series of annual conferences supporting the federally designated South Central High Speed Rail (SCHSR) Corridor. The conference brings together government professionals, private industry, and the general public to discuss the future of improved rail in the southwest, and in particular, along the SCHSR Corridor.

This corridor is one of eleven federally designated corridors, but Texas is in last place for development, our goal to have transportation studies completed, the first step to realizing improved rail. We recognize that for all practical purposes, public/private partnerships are the future. Rail companies own Right of Way and their trackage infrastructure that they pay hefty taxes on while roads and other transportation modes are largely underwitten by government and are tax exempt. consideration to the Railroads (and their online shippers) in terms of tax relief would go a long way towards enhancement of today's physical plant. The industry has been in a shrink, consolidate mode for 50 years due to the tax burdens, double tracks and alternative routes have been shed in an effort to lighten the regulator load. Today we need that lost capacity and TRA works to enlighten the stakeholders.

Technology today enables operation of more trains on these tracks with enhanced signaling and train controls. Enhanced operations will provide opportunities for passenger train traffic in concert with the exploding freight volumes. Rail expansion is primarily on existing row so environmental and NIMBY boondoggles are largely avoided and happen in the 1-3 million per mile range versus most other modes that often average 50 million a mile (while shrinking local tax bases).

The conference offers speakers from rail companies, government officials, planners and rail advocacy groups. This promotes better communication and understanding of the steps necessary for high performance rail to become reality along the SCHSR Corridor.

TRA Conference History

2007 Conference (includes presentation materials and online video)
2006
- 2006 Conference Brochure
2005
- Video:
  - Channell 11 Media Coverage of first conference (long version) (Google Video)
  - Same as above, but short version.

Registration

You may register for the conference, which includes membership in TRA, by sending the conference registrar an e-mail at Taylor@TexasRailAdvocates.org with your name, e-mail, address and phone, and then by paying for your registration. You should expect a reply confirmation within a day or two. You may also download an printable registration form in Adobe Acrobat format that you can print out and mail.

You are not considered registered until you send your payment. Registration is $120 until January 11, 2009. After that date, registration is $145.

The registration prices on this page are subject to change and may go higher. Check this web page to confirm pricing when you register.

There will be a pre-conference dinner on Thursday, January 15th. Early conference registration with this dinner is $190. Conference registration with this dinner is $215 after January 3, 2009. The Thursday evening (January 15th) dinner cost for non-conference attendees is $70.

If you belong to a non-profit rail association such as RPCA, NARP, TXARP, NHRS or AOS, there are discount conference rates listed below.

For more conference information, contact Mr. Paul Mangelsdorf, Executive Director, at 972-601-7853 or PaulM@TexasRailAdvocates.org.

For media coverage and co-ordination, contact Peter LeCody at Peter@TexasRailAdvocates.org or call 214-803-7285.

Note: You can download an IRS W-9 form from us if you need it for the conference registration.

Payment

Payment can be made through PayPal, which allows the use of most major credit cards. Registration payment is non-refundable.

Note that you do not have to create a PayPal account to use your credit card with PayPal. Once you click on a payment link below, it will take you to a PayPal page. On the right will be the login for PayPal if you have an account. But on the left, it will say "Don't have a PayPal account?" and you can click that link and all you have to do is provide your credit card information without creating a PayPal account.

Click on the following graphic to select the appropriate conference registration payment and initiate payment with PayPal.

The following prices only apply to individuals who are a member of a non-profit rail association such as RPCA, NARP, TXARP, NHRS or AOS. Please bring some form of membership confirmation such as a copy of your membership card or a newsletter with your mailing label on it.

You may also register by sending your payment to the following address, along with the registration form. Make sure early registration payments are received or postmarked no later than January 11th.

Mr. Taylor Sharpe
Registrar
Texas Rail Advocates
Attn: Registration/Membership
7615 Kenwell St.
Dallas, TX 75209

If you have questions about using PayPal, you may contact PayPal at their web site (www.PayPal.com), or feel free to contact Taylor Sharpe with Texas Rail Advocates at TaylorTaylorSharpe.com or (214) 522-5525.

Below are pictures from the January 2008 conference at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas.