Ed Hamberger, President and CEO, Association of American Railroads
Biography provided by participant
Ed Hamberger serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of American Railroads (AAR). Prior to joining the AAR in July 1998, he was a managing partner of the Washington, DC office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell. He came to the firm in 1989 after having served as Assistant Secretary for Governmental Affairs at the Department of Transportation.
Hamberger began his career in transportation in 1977 as General Counsel of the National Transportation Policy Study Commission. In 1985, he was appointed as a member of the Private Sector Advisory Panel on Infrastructure Financing and in 1994 served as a member of the Presidential Commission on Intermodal Transportation. He currently serves on the Blue Ribbon Panel of Transportation Experts, appointed by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.
Hamberger received his Juris Doctor, and both a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
The announcement from Berkshire Hathaway last week signaled more than just the purchase of BNSF – it affirmed the importance of freight rail to the nation’s economy. Record investments in infrastructure and advanced technologies have helped make railroads the most competitive form of freight transportation today. Since 1980, rail productivity is up 144 percent while inflation-adjusted rail rates have dropped by nearly half. While traffic volumes currently are down in line with what is happening with the broader economy, freight railroads have leveraged what opportunities there are during this recession to improve efficiency and cost structure. We are retooling… Read more
One only needs to look to the successes of the Alameda Corridor in California and the CREATE Program in Chicago to see that the use of public-private partnerships for rail infrastructure projects has been enormously successful in relieving congestion, reducing emissions, jumpstarting economic development and creating a more efficient transportation system. Demand for both freight and passenger rail service will only increase in the coming years and successful partnerships between government and private companies will be critical to meeting this challenge. The FRA Preliminary National Rail Plan released last week was a step in the right direction; recognizing the critical… Read more
While most people think of intercity transit or bike paths when the terms transportation mobility or livability are used, freight rail has long been a partner in making the communities we serve more livable. We do this in two simple ways: by relieving congestion and by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Just last week, Newsweek recognized four of our nation’s biggest railroads – BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific – in the magazine’s inaugural “Green Rankings” of the nation’s 500 largest corporations. As the mover of 43 percent of our nation’s intercity freight, freight rail every day helps unclog our… Read more
The railroad industry is a model for how to improve security. Following 9/11, railroads took the initiative to create a comprehensive rail security plan working closely with the federal intelligence community and security experts. Freight railroads quickly enacted more than 50 permanent security-enhancing countermeasures, a security alert level system with corresponding actions and enhanced intelligence sharing between federal agencies and railroads. The freight rail industry has worked constantly since 9/11 to address threats, close vulnerabilities and train emergency responders, and will continue to do so to maintain a high level of preparedness and resiliency. Despite our best efforts, we can’t guarantee against… Read more
As a member of the Freight Stakeholders Coalition, the railroad industry strongly believes that there needs to be greater emphasis placed on the efficient movement of freight by rail across our nation. We agree with other contributors that the federal government should tie infrastructure investment to system performance measures like emissions and congestion reduction. America’s freight railroads would see increased federal investment under such a scenario, because of their ability to take freight off our highways and move it in the most environmentally friendly and cost effective way. Railroads do support increased flexibility and tax incentives as a way for the… Read more
We in the railroad industry believe that the transportation dollars provided by the stimulus bill have gone a long way toward our nation’s economic recovery. The stimulus bill provided increased flexibility, making freight rail projects eligible for transportation infrastructure funding. Unlike highways and other public works projects, which can take years to plan and begin – and even longer to actually build – freight rail projects can get underway much more quickly, often within a matter of months, which is why they are such a good choice for stimulus dollars. Numerous railroad projects with proven public benefits have been funded through this… Read more
Public policy that moves freight off our nation’s congested roads and onto the freight rail network will deliver significant public benefits: ease congestion, reduce pollution, save fuel, time and money. Congestion is expensive and costs the U.S. economy almost $90 billion every year in wasted fuel and excessive travel delays. Billions more are lost due to reduced productivity and cargo delays. The health of our nation’s economy rides heavily on the rails. From the food on our tables to the cars we drive to the shoes on our children’s feet, freight railroads carry the things America depends on cheaply, safely and… Read more
America's freight railroads make safety — of employees, customers, and the communities they serve — their top priority. And they have the track record to prove it: 2008 saw both the lowest train accident rate and the lowest employee injury rate in history. But safety is a job that is never done. That’s why railroads are constantly researching, developing and implementing new safety-enhancing technologies. Enormous public safety benefits can also be derived by shifting freight from already-gridlocked highways and moving it on the rails. Shifting just 10 percent of the long-distance freight moved by truck today to freight trains instead is like taking almost… Read more
America’s freight railroads are the best way to meet this increased demand for freight transportation. Clean and efficient, freight railroads are a key part of the solution to our nation's freight movement challenges. The next surface transportation bill provides us with the opportunity to shape transportation policy moving forward and freight mobility should be a high priority. While freight railroads are privately owned and maintained, the federal government can enhance our ability to move these goods by incorporating pro-rail policies into the bill. I fear that ignoring investment in freight mobility will handicap our nation in terms of domestic prosperity… Read more
We need to close the gap between our nation's transportation infrastructure needs and available funding sources and public-private partnerships (PPP) play an important role. PPPs offer a mutually beneficial way for private entities and governments to solve critical transportation problems. PPPs might not be the solution for every situation, though, as outlined by the Pew Center and U.S PIRG reports. However, we in the freight rail industry have had great success with PPPs on projects like the Alameda Corridor and the CREATE Program in Chicago. These projects have been so successful because the public and private benefits and associated costs have been clearly defined… Read more
In the railroad industry, taking trucks off the roads and moving them on rail cars is a large part of our business. For our customers, rail intermodal is the most efficient way to move their goods. For the public, increased rail intermodal means less traffic congestion and a cleaner environment. But, despite these enormous economic and environmental benefits, rail intermodal is still underutilized in this country. If we are looking to promote a more integrated and intermodal system in the next surface transportation bill, the flexibility provided in the recent stimulus bill is a great model to follow. The bill gave states the… Read more
President Obama's inclusion of high speed rail in his budget proposal signals that this Administration values the environmental and economic benefits that come from increased use of rail. As a member of the One Rail Coalition, the Association of American Railroads fully supports funding for both passenger and freight rail. Luckily, these are not mutually exclusive goals as many of the tracks over which Amtrak operates are owned by the freight railroads. As the reauthorization of SAFETEA-LU approaches and we begin to look at ways to build a transportation system for the future, I urge everyone to keep in mind the following: Maximizing… Read more
I'm glad that Governor Kaine mentioned the success that Virginia has had with public-private partnerships. There is no question about it -- public-private partnerships are good public policy. These projects provide major public benefits such as reduced highway congestion, cleaner air, improved safety, and enhanced mobility. And these partnerships are already working in places like the Alameda Corridor in Southern California, the Heartland Corridor from the Atlantic to the Midwest, the Capital Corridor in Northern California, the Gateway Corridor in the East, and the CREATE Project in Chicago. The railroads are also advocating infrastructure tax incentives as a way to… Read more
I applaud President-elect Obama's commitment to investment in transportation infrastructure as a critical component to economic recovery. Focusing on the nation's infrastructure will not only bring immediate benefits in terms of creating millions of jobs, it will yield long-term benefits in the form of expanded capacity to move both freight and people. With demand for freight transportation expected to double over the next 30 years, freight rail investment will be critical to keeping America’s economy moving without clogging our highways. Freight rail should be included in any infrastructure stimulus package for the following reasons: Freight rail projects get underway much… Read more
Biography provided by participant
