Rod Diridon, executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute, will address the US High-Speed Rail Association's (USHSRA) West Coast Rail Conference in San Francisco.
The event is set for June 2-4. As a leading advocate for high-speed rail, Diridon will be part of the opening panel on Monday morning discussing "Bringing High-Speed Rail to America."
"The panel topic will cover the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of a major new infrastructure project for America," Diridon said. "The panel also will address high-speed rail successes from around the world and how they can be applied to America, the progress being made, status of the program, and what's coming next. Californians can be proud of their place at the head of this new transportation mode for the US."
Other experts on the panel include Lisa Campbell, vice president of Autodesk; Andy Kunz, president and CEO of USHSRA; and Fiona Ma, former California Assembly Member.
Keynote addresses will be delivered by Jeff Morales, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority; Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan, executive director of Transbay Joint Powers; and Takis Salpeas, senior vice president and director of global rail at Parsons. Other conference speakers include Cathleen Galgiani, California Senator; James Ledford, mayor of Palmdale Calif.; Jim Ziglar of Deloitte Corporate Finance; Kevin Wedman of Bureau Veritas; Michael DePallo of Metrolink; Katherine Perez-Estolano of ELP; and many others.
"This annual conference brings together some of high-speed rail's most knowledgeable people," said Diridon. "Anyone who wants to know more about this transportation mode will learn not only about the California high-speed rail project, but also how private investment capital will be brought into the projects, how Americans can advocate for high-speed rail, how to bring multi-modal transit centers into the mix, what the 21st century rail stations will include, and much more."
Diridon added that this will be an excellent venue even for those who may be questioning the projects or who may be non-committal. "The experts will be here, and they can put everything into context," he said.
