American High Speed Rail Alliance (AHSRA) Testifies at Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee Hearing
Sitting On Our Assets: Rehabilitating and Improving our Nation’s Rail Infrastructure
February 17, 2011
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Today, the American High Speed Rail Alliance (AHSRA) testified at the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials hearing per the request of Chairmen Mica (R-FL) and Shuster (R-PA).
The hearing highlighted the US Department of Transportation’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan program. The RRIF Program provides direct federal loans and loan guarantees to finance development of railroad infrastructure
Tom Loftus, Chair of AHSRA’s Public Private Partnership and Project Financing Council, provided witness testimony on behalf of AHSRA.
Mr. Loftus proposed a number of changes to the RRIF program that the Alliance believes would allow the program to better support the development of high speed rail and help leverage the private financing that is so badly needed if we are to make high speed rail a reality in this country.
The panel also included:
- John Porcari, Deputy Secretary of Transportation
- Richard Timmons, President, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association
- William Callison, President, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway
- John Fenton, Chief Executive Officer, Metrolink
- Michael Sussman, President, Strategic Rail Finance
Mr. Loftus is a partner with Seneca Group, a transportation consulting group that has worked extensively on RRIF loans both on behalf of individual applicants and as one of a number of Independent Financial Analysts used by the Federal Railroad Administration to analyze RRIF loan applications. READ MORE
