APTA Committee Profile: High-Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail

Chad Edison, Chair
Rail & Transit Practice Leader
Kimley-Horn, Sacramento, CA

Julie White, Incoming Chair
Deputy Secretary for Multimodal Transportation
North Carolina Department of Transportation Raleigh, NC

APTA Staff Advisors: Art Guzzetti, VP, Policy, Mobility, Technical Services & Innovation; Jennelise Hafen, Senior Program Manager, Mobility, Access, State & Local Affairs

What attracted you to the industry and to your agency?

Edison: My entire professional career has been in the rail and transit industry. I worked for Amtrak, followed by consulting at AECOM, then serving the public at FRA and the California State Transportation Agency for 16 years, and finally re-entering consulting at Kimley-Horn. I have always been drawn to the industry due to its tangible contributions to making riders’ lives better and safer while contributing to vibrant communities across the country.

White: I was drawn to transportation because of its power to connect people to opportunity and improve quality of life. I was especially interested in helping small towns and rural communities develop better transportation solutions that not only improve mobility but also support economic development and give people the choice to live and thrive in the communities they love. Joining the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) gave me the opportunity to help advance those solutions at scale across North Carolina.

What is the purpose of the High-Speed & Intercity Passenger Rail Committee?

Edison: I see the committee as a convenor of industry leaders across both public and private sectors that share strategies on how to plan and implement intercity and high-speed rail projects, while recognizing that the industry faces scheduling and fiscal challenges. Expensive and slow-to-deliver capital projects can cause project sponsors to lose the public’s trust or make projects hard to advance. Putting our minds together to share how these challenges can be solved not only benefits existing and future rail projects, but many urban transit capital projects and the entire public transit industry.

White: The committee creates a space for public agencies, operators, consultants, and industry partners to share lessons learned, tackle common challenges, and shape the policies needed to expand high-speed and intercity passenger rail in the United States. Just as importantly, it helps ensure passenger rail is integrated into a broader multimodal transportation network and connected to the communities it serves. I’m excited to help lead the committee during this critical period of surface transportation reauthorization. I see this committee playing a vital role in helping ensure passenger rail continues to receive the investment and attention needed to meet growing demand and realize its full potential.

How is the work of the committee reflected at your organizations?

Edison: The committee provides both virtual and in-person opportunities for focused discussion of the current and future needs and challenges of public agencies, operators, and the professionals working for and serving them. This regular opportunity for collaboration allows for sharing lessons learned, providing a valuable setting to keep our skills sharp and relevant.

White: The committee has been an invaluable source of learning that directly informs my work at NCDOT. Through engagement with peers at other state DOTs and passenger rail agencies, I gain insight into how they are advancing intercity and high-speed rail programs, navigating complex project delivery challenges, and positioning themselves for federal investment. I also learn a great deal from our industry partners about the technical, financial, and strategic components required to successfully deliver these programs.

What are the main challenges facing the industry over the next few years?

Edison: One of the greatest challenges is delivering projects that add to or improve rail service on a timeline and at a cost that is seen as good value by the public. Once well-designed services are operating, seeing their success often motivates the public to ask for more service additions. Ensuring that we build impactful projects that deliver concrete network performance and ridership gains will help win the trust of both funding agencies and the public that uses the improved services.

White: One of our most important priorities will be ensuring we bring our collective voice together to advocate for a robust passenger rail program in surface transportation reauthorization. Passenger rail is unique among transportation modes in that it does not have a dedicated formula funding source, so advancing major rail projects often depends heavily on competitive discretionary grants. The record federal investment provided through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act created historic momentum for passenger rail; sustaining that progress will require us to come together as an industry and speak with a strong, unified voice.

How can an individual’s service on this committee add value to their career?

Edison: We have numerous young professionals involved in the committee, which provides opportunities for them to work alongside more experienced members. Committee leadership are interested in developing young professionals, who have developed agendas for our stand-alone high-speed rail seminars.

White: Serving on this committee has added tremendous value to my own career, both through the knowledge I have gained and, perhaps even more importantly, through the relationships I have built. The connections I’ve made over the last nine years have been instrumental to my work in North Carolina and to my professional growth as a leader.

The high-speed and intercity passenger rail community is relatively small, and because of that, this committee feels like a family. It is one of the few places where you can truly get to know the leading experts from across the country—people with deep experience in planning, funding, policy, and project delivery.

Learn about APTA’s more than 130 committees and subcommittees, including how to join, at www.apta.com/committees-subcommittees.