What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?

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What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?

December 30, 2010

As 2010 winds down I'm guessing most of us won't miss it much. If you want to get a jump on 2011, how will you do it? What's your New Year's resolution?

Mine? Blogging about High-cost Rail will need to be less than half of my total posts on the Voice. High-cost burn-out is in effect. I liked Ken Garcia's finale to his annual "Gaffes and Laughs" round-up

After years of planning, the California High-Speed Rail Authority decided to spend its first $4 billion or so on a connection between Borden and Corcoran, two cities that have a combined population of 25,000. Is it a real train or a Disney ride? At the last minute, it included a stop in Bakersfield. Operators are standing by to, well, stand by.

But clearly there is more work to be done since Time magazine of all pubs–a journalistic Titanic after the iceberg–is highlighting as a postive thing that the HSR strategy is

The master builder Robert Moses had a legendary strategy for ambitious public-works projects: start now, and figure out how to finish later. "Once you sink that first stake," he liked to say, "they'll never make you pull it up."

They can't even publish a magazine at breakeven and they somehow thing they know anything about high-cost rail financials??? OK, OK. New Year's resolution–less than half the posts. Got it. What about yours?

Posted in High Speed Rail

One response to “What’s Your New Year’s Resolution?”

jennifer

January 6, 2011

January 5, 2011 “Caltrain News”
Caltrain’s Head of High-Speed Rail Partnership Moves to Private Sector
Robert L. Doty, director of the Peninsula Rail Program, a partnership between Caltrain and the California High Speed Rail Authority, has accepted a senior executive position with the engineering firm of HNTB.
Doty’s last day as Director of the Peninsula Rail Program will be Jan. 21. His new position at HNTB will be Vice President and Director of High Speed Rail Programs. He will work on a variety of projects, most immediately the high-speed rail program in Florida.
By agreement with Caltrain and the CHSRA, Doty will do no work on the Peninsula section for a year.
“We created the PRP to take full advantage of Bob Doty and his unique experience and expertise across the globe in designing and delivering large-scale rail projects. It is no surprise that a man of Bob’s talents and expertise is being snatched up by one of the firms that wants to be a player in the domestic high-speed rail competition,” said Caltrain Executive Director Mike Scanlon.
“His departure means we will rethink the structure and the personnel to go forward with high-speed rail,” Scanlon said. “We entered into the agreement with High Speed Rail to help save Caltrain. We still have to save Caltrain.”
“This is a significant personal and professional opportunity,” said Doty. “I can’t resist the chance to do this work with a firm for which I have high regard.”
Doty would not discuss the details of the compensation associated with his new position in the private sector, except to say it is expected to be “substantially more” than the $178,000 per year he was paid as director of the Peninsula Rail Program.
HNTB is among the nation’s leading engineering and design firms and is under contract to provide consulting expertise to high-speed rail projects throughout the United States. In California, it is designing the Peninsula segment of the California High Speed Rail project.
Doty has been director of the Peninsula Rail Program since its creation in 2008.
The PRP is a partnership between the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board and CHSRA to develop mutually beneficial programs on the Caltrain right of way.
As director, Doty has reported to both Caltrain Executive Director Scanlon and CHSRA CEO Roelof van Ark. Doty’s position has been funded 50-50 by the two partner agencies.
Doty’s position has made him the lead figure in the development of the programs that would initiate high-speed rail on the Peninsula and advance Caltrain electrification and modernization programs.
In that capacity, he led the effort to design preliminary high-speed rail alignments and to advance the Peninsula high-speed rail segment through the environmental review process.
He led a successful effort to obtain an unprecedented waiver from the Federal Railroad Administration for the operation of mixed rail traffic on the Caltrain right of way. The waiver clears the way for a signal and control system that would dramatically enhance the safety of rail operations, improve the performance of the Caltrain system and provide critical infrastructure for the operation of high-speed rail on the Peninsula.
From 2003-2008, Doty was Director of Rail Transportation, Engineering and Construction at Caltrain. He managed the operations of the railroad through a contract operator workforce of 450 personnel and was instrumental in developing the highly successful Baby Bullet program that resulted in increased service, ridership and revenues.
Doty is 64 and has more than 40 years of experience in the rail transportation industry, designing, building and operating rapid transit and heavy rail systems in the United States and abroad.
His prior positions include Manager of Train Operations for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District, Director of Systems Engineering for the Taipei Rapid Transit System, Project Manager and Chief Negotiator for the Korean High-Speed Rail project, and Project Manager for Systemwide Works for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Section 1.

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