Blog Archives
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APTA Expo Ready to Begin
By Leah Harnack - Monday October 3, 2011Day 1 of the American Public Transportation Association’s Annual Meeting was spent full of committee meetings and exhibitors finalizing their booth setups as they gear up for tomorrow’s start of Expo . There are about 17,000 attendees here for Expo with 66 countries represented. There are 2,800 booths in the exhibit hall, including 51 DBEs. With 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space in the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center , there’s a lot of ground to cover. There was a whirlwind of activity on the exhibit floor as people were finishing their booth set up and prepping for tomorrow when the show floor opens. While set up isn't even complete, it's evident there are some really amazing things to see with vendors... -
Part II of The Value of Sustainability
By Leah Harnack - Wednesday August 3, 2011I’m back home from the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) Sustainability and Public Transportation Workshop, which was held in Los Angeles earlier this week. There were many great sessions to pick from, a variety of exhibitors and of course a lot of people to network with to hear firsthand what’s happening in the industry. A focus was on what the value of sustainability really is and how it can be measured. It was also great to see that there was a balance of this information coming from the private side, as well as the public side. Seeing it from the private side, the data they shared in how sustainability helps their bottom line, really helps to shift the value beyond tree-hugging planet-helping to being... -
The Value of Sustainability
By Leah Harnack - Tuesday August 2, 2011Day one of the APTA Sustainability and Public Transportation Workshop held in Los Angeles, Calif., provided insight on common trends in sustainability, shared challenges and new solutions that are making a difference in the industry. APTA President William Millar said, “We need to keep pushing that investment in transit is just that, investment, it’s not spending.” With Washington being “a bigger zoo than usual,” it’s only going to get worse as everyone will be trying to push their programs and agendas through with all of the cuts, he said. King County Metro General Manager Kevin Desmond, also the APTA chair for the Sustainability Committee, said the workshop is about how the value of sustainability is being measured and... -
Progress of the Midwest High-Speed Rail
By Leah Harnack - Friday June 10, 2011Last week I was at the US High Speed Rail Association's conference in Chicago where people came together to discuss the progress of HSR development in the Midwest, the U.S. and a look at the international scene. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) opened the conference stating that better days are ahead and railroad service is just beginning to develop. One of the points he also talked about was how much time senators spend talking about airports and then when you look at the sheer economics, any thing less than 300 miles should be serviced by train. Andy Kunz, president and CEO of US HSR talked about the five serious problems the US faces: peak oil and energy security, climate change, mobility paralysis, failing economy and job loss, and... -
Evolution of All-Electric
By Leah Harnack - Monday May 2, 2011Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) conference. It was held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The Electric Drive Transportation Association represents battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric drive technologies and infrastructure. EDTA conducts public policy advocacy, education, industry networking and international conferences. Aside from the fun of getting to test drive some of the latest all-electric cars, it was a great opportunity to talk to the people developing this technology. A number of reoccurring themes came through loud and clear. They are looking at fleet conversion as large-scale implementation will help lower costs... -
Know Your Demographic
By Leah Harnack - Friday April 1, 2011At a recent show someone was flipping through last year’s issue of our Top 40 Under 40 and asked when we were going to have a top 50 over 50. Since we first started doing the Top 40 a couple years ago, it’s a joke we hear often. What I didn’t realize is that he wasn’t joking. He said to look around; we’re not going to find too many people under 40 and added that we should know our demographic. This will be the third year we’ve done the Top 40 and for the past two years it was the top viewed article on our website and something that people often bring up when we’re out at conferences and trade shows. When you spend months focused and working on something each year, it’s easy to forget that when other people first see it... -
Facing Government Cuts
By Leah Harnack - Friday March 18, 2011This past week many industry leaders convened in Washington, D.C. for APTA’s Legislative Conference & Capitol Hill Summit. And from everyone I talked to at the conference and since returning home, it sounds like everyone got a lot of great information and some really good meetings with legislators were had. Meeting with a communications director for a representative on Tuesday, she said she hadn’t seen a line to get into the Rayburn House Office Building in a long time. The line went down the stairs, across the plaza and down the sidewalk. Of course not everyone in line was with transit, but a lot of them were - which was great to see! Monday and Tuesday were a buzz talking about speakers that had been addressing attendees. The... -
The Transit Community
By Eric Myers - Friday March 11, 2011Last week the Southwest Transit Association (SWTA) held their annual conference and Expo. This year it was held in tandem with the Texas Transit Association’s conference. With exhibit space and sponsorships sold out and great traffic throughout the conference, it was a successful event for both exhibitors and attendees. Drawing attendees from not just one state but an entire region helped to broaden the conference experience. What I mean is while all transit professionals share similar challenges, there are differences county to county, state to state, etc. Add to the mix the backgrounds of all the different exhibitors and you have a wide variety of backgrounds to hear about and learn about. People always asked two questions when they... -
Now is the Time to Fight
By Leah Harnack - Friday March 4, 2011“The outreach we have to do at the federal level can not be overstated,” Michael Scanlon, American Public Transportation Association (APTA) chair, general manager/CEO of San Mateo County Transit District and executive director of Caltrain, said when speaking at the opening session of APTA’s Marketing & Communications Workshop in San Diego, Calif., this past week. The conference always shares what latest in what marketing and PR professionals are doing but this year it was also stressed throughout the conference that everyone needs to be doing what they can to educate legislators about the benefits of public transit. With authorization looming, industry leaders shared what they were doing and ideas for how we can work together to... -
Are We Going to Move Forward?
By Leah Harnack - Friday February 18, 2011Miami passed Los Angeles as the second busiest international airport. The state of Florida is heading for third in terms of population. It is a growing state that needs to stay competitive. If you’ve seen or read any bit of news in the past 24 hours, then you are aware that Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that he is rejecting the federal funding from the Obama Administration for the state's high-speed rail project. In his prepared remarks he said that it “came down to three main economic realities: “Capital cost overruns from the project could put Florida taxpayers on the hook for an additional $3 billion. “Ridership and revenue projections are historically overly optimistic and would likely result in ongoing subsidies...
