The following post is courtesy of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association's Emy Louie.

Both NARP and FCRP were represented at this conference, held last Thursday and Friday at the J.W. Marriott in Washington, DC.

--Jackson McQuigg

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Observations from the U.S. High Speed Rail Association's Inaugural Conference

Amongst an internationally diverse and speculative crowd, national leaders in both the public and private sectors from United States and international leaders of high speed rail systems convened to lead the United States into the era of high speed rail. Financing, building the first high speed rail line, speed and historical government precedents were the highlights of the conference.

Financing High Speed Rail was one of the hottest topics at the conference. The first most important action to bring high-speed rail to America is to create a national infrastructure bank, said Mayor John Robert Smith from Reconnected America. "Sustained funding" for a "transportation trust fund" is the one thing we need to do. It should not be a once or twice appropriation measure. J D Stokes from SE3 echoed the same sentiment and said that there should be a "one infrastructure bank." In regards to the 8 billion dollars allocated for high-speed rail in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell was not satisfied with a meager amount and said it is a "drop in the bucket" and "we got to get serious" and address it at a level to make things happen.

Further discussion about financing of High Speed Rail started to run in circles, but Rick Harnish from Midwest high Speed Rail said it best and drew a line in the sand in a response to financing high speed rail and said, "It's not worth that discussion until it's being discussed with other modes" of transportation. Rick Harnish responded in a similar way when Jackson McQuigg from National Association for Railroad Passengers, who was in the audience, asked Harnish about how rail passenger advocacy efforts should be conducted. Harnish replied that there were no discussions of costs for federal highway spending in the 1950s implying that there was a successful national effort to build highways regardless of the cost of highways.

The second most important action item, gleaned from the conference, is to build the first high speed rail line as stated by Jean-Pierre Loubinoux from the International Union of Railways. The first line is the start of a national high-speed rail network.

Another notable topic was speed, which was set straight by several elected officials. Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell said, "There is danger in putting pockets of money into mid speed rail". In addition, U.S. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson from Texas said, "Speed up Amtrak...I don't believe in that."

Despite the history of attempts to bring high-speed rail to the US, U.S. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson from Texas seemed hopeful and said, "I think we are very prime for high speed rail!" Further optimism was drawn from successful government projects in the past. They include the Erie Canal as mentioned by Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell and U.S. Congressman Paul Tonko from New York. Norman Anderson by CG/LA said NASA is also good example of government efforts.

This conference was dramatically different from other rail conferences in the United State because of the presence of an international crowd of high-speed rail experts and related companies. During a conference luncheon, U.S. Congresswoman Corrine Brown from Florida was flabbergasted when she asked, "Who in this room have ridden high speed rail?" Almost all arms in the room were raised! Japanese, German, Dutch, Korean, Spanish could be heard amongst attendees as representatives from Spain, United Kingdom, France, Korea and Japan attempted to impress the attendees with their presentations of high speed rail systems already existing in their own countries.

There was a feeling of hope and speculation in the air as private high-speed rail companies figure out how to do business with United States.

I asked an exhibition company from the United Kingdom, "Would you exhibit at our next conference?"

He said, "Yes, if there is a market for high-speed rail in the United States."

Isn't that the big question? --Emy Louie