At its Aug. 3 advisory board meeting, the American High Speed Rail Alliance (AHSRA) announced Brian Caine of Lockheed Martin Corp. as its incoming chairman of the advisory board. Caine, director of rail program development at Lockheed Martin Corp., focuses on marketing and business development of communication-based train control and related technologies for passenger and freight rail applications. Caine has served on the advisory board for the past year and represented the Alliance as a featured speaker on U.S. high speed rail financing at UIC's 7th World Congress on High Speed Rail in 2010 in Beijing.
"It has come time to bring in a chairman from the business community," said Lewis Goetz, AHSRA founder. "Brian has strong knowledge in the rail industry and Lockheed Martin, one of the 50 largest corporations in the United States, is emblematic of the job creation opportunities in the passenger rail sector."
Along with Caine's appointment as chairman, the alliance has also recently moved its offices to Capitol Hill in order to be closer to the on-going activities of the government and to be more accessible to House and Senate members.
The recent changes in the political landscape, a renewed emphasis on deficit reduction, and calls to spend all available resources on maintaining existing transportation infrastructure have created serious challenges for high speed and intercity passenger rail (HSIPR) development. AHSRA's mission reflects this reality and its agenda focuses on the near-term issues most critical to developing high speed rail corridors and improved intercity passenger rail in the United States.
AHSRA will focus its efforts on the priorities of identifying public and private financing and funding for near term HSIPR project opportunities, working with Federal agencies to encourage the development of a U.S passenger rail manufacturing base, and working with the key rail corridors to understand their specific problems and help them attain the funding, attention, and support they need.
