Cascadia Prospectus

Two months ago we reported on the railroad industry's reaction to the FRA's directive setting forth the terms of the so-called "Stakeholder Agreements." Those are the agreements between state authorities and Class I railroads that will govern the shared-use freight-passenger rail service in rail corridors receiving federal aid under the Administration's high-speed rail (HSR) program. The FRA directive stunned and angered railroad executives by what they regarded as unreasonable demands, and burdensome requirements. For example, the government proposed to impose penalties on freight railroads for failing to meet on-time performance standards for passenger traffic. Railroad executives also objected to the peremptory manner in which the directive was handed down. Reportedly, they had no advance knowledge of the announcement nor did they participate in the preparation of the guidance. Although none of the parties would go on the record at the time as threatening to break off negotiations and walk away from the high speed rail program, senior railroad executives left no doubt that there were limits to how far they were willing to compromise their primary responsibility to maintain safe operations and keep commitments to their customers -- a responsibility that requires giving precedence to freight operations, especially in capacity-constrained corridors. As we wrote at the time:

Momentum continues to gather for West Coast leadership on climate change and transportation. 

Cascadia Center is co-sponsoring an important West Coast Corridor Coalition conference -- The Climate Policy and West Coast Transportation Conference -- at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., on Sept. 16-17, 2010. Federal and state policy makers will join private sector leaders to explore cross-border opportunities in exciting initiatives like the Interstate 5 Green Highway. 

Issues to be addressed at the conference include:

• An overview of the economic, security and environmental reasons to move beyond oil in transportation.
• Congressional action on climate and energy legislation and the effort to find bipartisan solutions that will benefit the economy, national security and the environment.
• The Bipartisan Policy Center's National Transportation Policy Project report on the metrics needed to measure success in transportation policy.