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Federal Document Clearing House
Congressional Testimony
December 6, 2000, Wednesday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 1867 words
COMMITTEE:
SENATE COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION
HEADLINE: TESTIMONY RAIL PASSENGER SERVICE (F. H.)
TESTIMONY-BY: STEVE ROBERTS , PROJECT MANAGER FOR THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
AFFILIATION: GEORGIA RAIL
PASSENGER PROGRAM
BODY:
December 6, 2000 Testimony
of Steve Roberts before The Senate Commerce Committee Field Hearing Senator
Cleland, I am Steve Roberts, project manager for the implementation of the
Georgia Rail Passenger Program. I am formerly the Chief Operating Officer for
the Virginia Railway Express. I have 24 years of experience in the development
of transit and commuter rail operations. VRE's current success is based on the
day after day hard work of the management and employees of CSX Transportation,
Norfolk Southern and Amtrak. Georgia's Rail Passenger Program was adopted in
November 1999, one year ago. I am an employee of SYSTRA Consulting in a joint
venture with Moreland-Altobelli and Parsons Brinckerhoff. The joint venture
known as Georgia Rail Consultants was created in response to an invitation from
the Georgia Department of Transportation and now their partners in the Georgia
Rail Passenger Program, both the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority and the
Georgia Regional Transportation Authority. Just as the engineering community has
formed a joint venture, so the state agencies have signed a memorandum of
agreement distributing the responsibilities in the program implementation under
the guidance of the Program Management Team. PMT Vice Chairman Carl Rodenizer
has outlined those in some detail. During this first year significant activities
were initiated and advanced: - Much work has gone into assembling a phased
implementation concept for the Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal MMPT adjacent to
the Five Points MARTA station and many of the Federal agencies with Atlanta
offices. In early October the City of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress and the
Program Management Team hosted a planning charette of community leaders to
discuss the MMPT and to ensure that the needs of the Intermodal. partners:
MARTA, Amtrak, commuter rail, Amtrak, regional bus service and Greyhound are
fulfilled. Following the charette serious discussions have begun with adjoining
property owners - in particular Turner and Cousins interests - to knit this
important facility into the redevelopment of the downtown core area. - We have
just concluded a major milestone in the evaluation of transportation
alternatives to serve - Macon and Athens corridors., what may become the first
two commuter lines of seven recommended in earlier work completed by GDOT. We
met with the public in May and again in October to examine a number of routes to
serve those corridors. These public meetings have been well attended and reflect
a keen interest in the problems to be addressed and solved. Meetings were held
in Athens, Winder, Lawrenceville, Decatur, Atlanta, Forsyth, Jonesboro, Griffin,
and Macon. By this time next year we expect to have advanced each of these
corridors to a single preferred alignment, to have completed an environmental
analysis, made application for and received grants of the Federal funds either
appropriated by the Congress for High Priority Projects or flexed from highway
funds and to have ordered locomotives, coaches and buses and begun the critical
problem solving process of preliminary engineering. - In addition to the
substantial appropriations HPP $68,350,000 for the rail passenger program that
accompanied the enactment of TEA-2 1, the State Transportation Board has within
its 2001-2003 Transportation Improvement Program TIP $169,175,000 for a total of
$237,525,000 toward the initial capital investment for track capacity,
facilities and rolling stock. This is an unprecedented investment of flexed
funds, and a precedent we hope to engage throughout the twelve-year
implementation of the rail passenger program. As a result the federal
transportation agencies play a critical role in our program. Secretary Slater's
"One DOT" initiatives must be fully realized if we are to knit together the
administrative processes of Federal Highway, Railroad and Transit
Administrations - We have begun the important process of creating partnerships
with both CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern. As VRE demonstrated, a most
important attribute of commuter rail service is public use of existing railroad
rights of way. In Georgia these freight railroads are vital to the growth and
health of a vibrant state economy that is the envy of many. We expect
negotiations to lead to a "win-win-win" outcome. Overall the concept of customer
service represents a core value in our "win- win-win7 strategy. We have to be
safe, dependable and reliable. The railroads have each outlined a number of core
principles for our relationship that will be important to the rail passenger
program as well: 1.Capacity: Another term for this is "transparency," the
railroads need sufficient capacity to ensure that both freight and
passenger trains run on time, in this case we are working with the
freight railroads to develop both an overall program requirement as well as a
phased program of improvements and service. Senior officials of both companies
are pointing toward a much greater investment in rail capacity to handle
expanding freight markets as well. 2.Compensation: The Georgia Rail Passenger
Program is intended to be a valuable customer for the railroad companies.
Payments made by other commuter rail systems for passenger train access to
tracks represents extremely high leverage for the railroads. Measured against
return on investment the railroads' returns on passenger operations are well
above their cost of capital. 3.Indemnification: The freight railroads supported
the creation of Amtrak and several major commuter railroads in order to be
relieved on the risk of liability in the operation of passenger service. This
will be a difficult and costly process to resolve. In the main the freight
railroads have indicated that they are totally unwilling to assume the risk for
passengers. 4.Safety: knowing your many years of service to the state you are
aware of the significant number of grade crossings in the Macon Atlanta and
Athens Atlanta corridors. We would anticipate the installation of significant
protection and warning devices along with an extensive program of grade
separations in these two corridors. Commuter and intercity rail passenger
service in Georgia contributes to the smart growth strategies that you continue
to champion, rail is an important tool to enhance mobility in the Atlanta region
and intercity rail is an important link for the commercial and international
travel hub that is Atlanta. Passenger rail in the southeast is an untapped
resource in this high growth region of our nation. It will provide a new trip
choice to travelers dealing with already congested roadway and airport
facilities. On behalf of the Georgia Rail Consultants team, we are pleased to be
a part of this effort and look forward to extensive opportunities for passenger
train travel in Georgia.
LOAD-DATE: December 13, 2000,
Wednesday 
