David Laney • Amtrak Board Appointee

By Paul Mangelsdorf
June 13, 2002

David Laney, President Bush’s appointee to the Amtrak Board met with Texas Rail Advocates’ Dave Dunnigan, Mike Mackner, Paul Mangelsdorf, and John Radovich on May 29th.

Dave Dunnigan (DD) began with an explanation of how Texas Rail Advocates (TRA) was formed and his interest in its work of addressing high speed rail after the Texas TGV project. David Laney recalled the project and the participation of Ben Barnes and Glen Biggs in the project.

After mentioning that he and DD met during the project, Paul Mangelsdorf, followed DD’s remarks by giving David Laney a copy of A NEW TRANSPORTATION AGENDA FOR AMERICA saying that the white paper addressed many of the issues which TRA is working on.

The Mid West Regional Rail Project was cited mentioning the upgrade of track between Chicago and St. Louis and the cooperation of the nine states in the region working together for a common goal.

TRA’s work with Representative Tommy Merritt of Longview to get a ridership study of the South Central Corridor was addressed. David Laney expressed interest in this project’s progress.

Mention was made of TRA plans to testify at the June 20th Senate State Affairs Hearing in Austin. Recent meetings in the offices of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Representatives Martin Frost and Max Sandlin were also mentioned.

David’s mention of his involvement in the Amtrak "bridge loan" gave John Radovich (JR) an opportunity to let David know that TRA could offer him a local perspective that might differ from the "company line". JR commented that it was good to see representation from Texas on the Amtrak Board which we’ve missed since the days of Charles Luna.

David noted TxDOT is still necessarily a highway department first, and allocates resources to other transportation modes secondarily. He commented on the negative effects on highway infrastructure from the increase in truck traffic that resulted from problems with the UP-SP merger/meltdown.

JR mentioned that TRA meetings with Commissioner Nichols and Chairman Johnson had focused on rail as an alternative to truck traffic in the NAFTA corridor.

David Laney brought up the Trans Texas Corridor plan, commending Governor Perry on his vision and referring to the plan as a "conceptual step forward". David also noted that the initial presentation of the plan left a number of unanswered questions.

Mike Mackner (MM) commented that Matt Rose, President and CEO of Burlington Northern Santa Fe was very interested in the Trans Texas Corridor Plan and eagerly awaited further details.

MM pointed out that the brand new Alameda corridor, which David was familiar with, was proving successful in getting container trains in and out of the Los Angeles/Long Beach area.

PM will provide David with more information on the I-81 corridor and South East high speed rail developments.