Our friends at Virginians for High Speed Rail were kind enough to pass this note along concerning a major upcoming transportation conference. Gil Carmichael is(if my memory holds right) a former president of Amtrak and has a distinguished political and transportation career. While his proposals are of great importance to “host” railroad operators of Amtrak passenger trains, those concepts would also make much new infrastructure available for rail passenger at a critical time.
Recently, an arm of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, the Passenger Rail Working Group recommended $357 billion of investment in passenger rail over the next 50 years. This study was the most forward thinking study that we have seen and it will be reviewed and discussed at the Carmichael Conference on the Future of Transportation, which is meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on January 28-29. We hope this conference will help set the agenda for American transportation for the next few decades.
If you would like to attend, click here for more information.
Filed under: Passenger Rail Transportatio Policy
Trains For America 
Point of clarification: Gil Carmichael is the Chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council. According to his bio on the council, “he is a leading international authority on railroad and intermodal transportation policy. Appointed to the National Transportation Policy Study Commission by President Ford during the Energy Crisis, he chaired its subcommittee on advanced technology and later served as Federal Railroad Administrator under President Bush. Currently, he is the Chairman of the University of Denver’s Intermodal Transportation Institute.”
Source: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/arc/membership.html
Larry Blow
http://maglevtransport.com