On Monday, April 28 I met John Radovich at the Washington Marriott. He was there to cover the annual National Corridor Initiative Conference. I was on my way to Capital Hill for the first of three days of meetings with aides to congressional representatives whose districts are located on the South Central high Speed Rail Corridor and Congressman Michael Burgess of Denton who is on the House Transportation Committee.

My morning meetings were with Patrick Anderson from Congressman Henry Bonilla's office and Abe Breehe from Congressman Lloyd Doggett's office. Patrick worked on the Banking Committee during Senator Phil Gramm's tenure and Abe worked as legislative director for the chairman of the New York State Assembly task force on high speed rail..In that capacity he became familiar with the Empire Corridor which links New York City and upstate New York. They were both interested in the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor development. As in all the meetings that I'd have over the next three days, I stressed the following points:

1. Funding a study of the corridor will allow an independent consulting firm to examine freight and passenger rail potential and all aspects of the corridors physical alignment and possible improvements.
2. The Corridor's present freight and passenger service and future increases in no way competes with the Trans Texas Corridor, but actually could help in determining proposed alignments for it. The South Central Corridor is a Federally Designated project while the Trans Texas Corridor is a state project.
3. A connecting rail link between the South Central and Gulf Coast rail corridors would be most beneficial and is favored by Texas Rail Advocates.

Monday afternoon I met with Joe Guzzo, assistant Legislative administrator to Senator Kay Baily Hutchison. Since I met Joe last November, I used this meeting to give him a progress report on TRA's work on the Corridor issue. I asked him to convey our desire to Senator Hutchison that she would help us get an earmark from Senator Richard Shelby for $1 million in the 204 budget to study the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor.

In a meeting with Tiffany Turner from Senator Cornyn's office I explained that the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor and the Trans Texas Corridor are two different projects though both seek to improve mobility in Texas. The Trans Texas Corridor project must acquire large amounts of land. No additional land is needed for the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor. Pollution will be much less as the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor project is implemented.

At 3:45 pm on Monday I met with Glen Scammel, Senior Majority Counsel and John Brennan III, Majority Counsel to the Subcommittee on Railroads in the House of Representatives. Glenn suggested that we ask for funding through the Swift Rail Development Act. Though the act has expired ,its unused funds are still available. It was suggested that we ask Congressman Burgess to request an earmark of a $1 million appropriation from the House Appropriations Committee chaired by Congressman Don Istook ,Oklahoma, to study the South Central Corridor. Either Senator Hutchison or Senator Cornyn can make the same request of Senator Richard Shelby.

On Tuesday morning I met with Todd Metcalf with Congressman Max Sandlin, Dee Buchannan of Congressman Jeb Hensarlings office and Josiah Daniel , Legislative Assistant to Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. Before lunch I sat in on the last 20 minutes of hearings by the committee chaired by Senator John McCain. Testimony was given by David Gunn, president of Amtrak and Michael Jackson, Deputy Secretary of Transportation and FRA administrator, Allan Rutter. Meetings with Tom Lizardo of Congressman Ron Pauls office and Fernando Gomez in Congressman Martin Frosts office in the early afternoon were opportunities to give Corridor information and updates respectively.

My 2pm meeting with Tucker Anderson in Congressman Pete Sessions office gave me a chance to catch up on late transportation developments. Tucker has offered to help us get a short meeting with Congressman Sessions to go into a little greater depth on the Corridor issue. I reminded Tucker of our belief that a link between the South Central and Gulf Coast Corridors would be very beneficial.

It was great to stop by Ron Davies office at the Air and Space Museum. He continues to believe that Texas offers the prime location for a European style high speed rail demonstration. The demographics, geography and interest all favor such a project according to Ron. TRA is committed to arranging a meeting between Ron and state officials this Summer. I found Ron' s comments on McDonald Douglas, the SST, and Southwest Airlines interesting . Wednesday morning I sat in on the beginning of a hearing chaired by Congressman Quinn of New York . Representative John Mica gave opening remarks which supported the Amtrak Reform Council- I had left information at his office earlier in the morning as I did at the offices of Representatives DeLay and Don Young.

I met John Radovich outside Representative Michael Burgess's office shortly before 11am. In our meeting with him we asked Congressman Burgess to request an earmark of $1 million from Representative Earnest Istook of the House Transportation appropriations committee for the purpose of studying the South Central High Speed rail Corridor.

At lunch with John Cikota we learned more about the funding process. We took advantage of our Washington presence to meet Mike Revira of the High Speed Ground Transportation Association. Mike will have a link established to the TRA site. We already have one to their site.Our two final meetings were with Stephany Smith from Congressman Gonzalez office and Spencer Ritchie from Representative Sam Johnson's office.

I left Washington feeling that we had done some substantial educational work on the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor issue. Now we will contact the Chambers of Commerce along the Texas portion of the route.

We will continue to pursue an earmark of funds in the 2004 transportation budget to study the corridor. Texas isn't nearly as far along on this issue as are states like California. Florida, Illinois and the Mid Atlantic states of Virginia and the Carolinas and Georgia.

Count on Texas Rail Advocates to have the tenacity and stick-to-itiveness to catch up. Your financial support will be greatly beneficial and appreciated.