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Michigan Rail Conference 2013: Topics
First Annual Michigan Rail Conference - Michigan DOT and the Rail Transportation Program at Michigan Technological University hosted the first annual Michigan Rail Conference on August 27 at the Lansing Community College, West Campus. Nearly 150 individuals attended the event in person, and another 50 participated by live web-cast. The morning featured a variety of plenary speakers including welcome notes from both the State House and Senate Transportation Committee Chairs, and a keynote address by Tom Carper from AMTRAK. The afternoon featured break-out sessions for passenger and freight rail activities.
Plenary presentations were given by Anne Camby from the OnRail Coalition, Tammy Wagner from the FRA, and the keynote address by Tom Carper from AMTRAK. This section also includes a recording of the panel discussion, Freight Rail Transportation and Economic Development, with panel members spanning the rail transportation industry, from railroads, to shippers, consultants, and academics. The panel included: Jim Byrum from the Michigan Agri-Business Association; Bruce Southerland from Michigan Agricultural Commodities, Inc; Dale Yates from CSX Transportation; John Rickoff from Lake State Railway; Roger Velliquete from Great Lakes Packing; Libby Ogard from PrimeFocus, LLC; and David Closs from Michigan State University.
The afternoon Freight Breakout session featured six presentations from a variety of freight rail perspectives. The list of presenters and their topics is shown below, along with links to each of the recorded presentations. Although many participants split their time between the freight and passenger breakouts, the typical split seemed to be around half of the group in each session.
The Passenger Breakout also featured six presentations, with a focus around transit and commuter activities in the Detroit and southern Michigan area in the first session. The second session focused on economic development activities that can, and do, occur around passenger rail projects. Again, the presenters and their topics are listed below with links to the recordings of each presentation.