Epitome of the pure partnership. Its the most important event of the year for transportation, and it represents a group of people that go off and do their own business separately, but here theyre partners for the greater good of the overall. Were very excited to be a part of this. We would like to think that we can help in any way we can, but we hope to get to work with all you guys for the next two days and learn a little bit about where things are going, and hopefully make some impact for the greater good of the whole industry. So with that in mind, i have a couple things. One, dont forget while youre here that the purpose of this event, and it reads to direct the industrys advocacy efforts and legislative strategy. The key words i saw there were the advocacy, so everyone here is an advocate. And second is that youre doing it for the industry. And so please look out for your cohorts, your friends, the other guys who couldnt be here. Dont forget the rural folks who dont get to come to these things as often, and make sure you remember that as a partnership thats the way we believe it works and we would like to see that from everybody here. And finally, please participate if you havent signed up for the stand up for transportation day on april 9. We think that will be a great thing coming out of here in terms of momentum. Again, thank you, apta, thank you, phil, thank you, everybody, for being here. I do believe this is the most important event of the year. Thats why we come to sponsor and look forward to seeing you guys in the next two days. Thank you very much. [ applause ] thank you, joe. Really appreciate your sponsorship of this opening session. Before i get too far in the program, i want to recognize the apta executive committee, the board of directors and past apta chairs. If youre in that group, please stand up so we can give you a round of applause. [ applause ] thank you for all your work and all your service. Many of the leaders in this room i was let me say i was honored to share the apta Strategic Planning effort about a year ago or so. We got it approved by the full board of directors. This plan really sharpens our focus, guides our operation for the next five years. This is the cover of that document. I think the marketing folks did just a great job in putting this together. Five significant challenges that we put forth, and we were calling these mega trends, sort of the environment that we believe that we will be working in for the next five to ten years. Just very quickly, and you wont see them this is just the cover of the Strategic Plan itself, but safety and security was the first one. Resource advocacy or funding. Weve been talking about that all week. Work force development, demographic shifts and technological innovation. And so those five things we identified in our Strategic Plan as mega trends that we will be facing over the next five years. And i have to say, weve been having conversations about funding for quite a while. Weve been talking about safety and security. We had a great session yesterday that i sat in on positive training control. All of these things, these five mega trends that i just laid out are so, so significant. So youll see these off and on for the next year or so as we work on these issues and look to address these issues. You can go to the apta website. This document is on the apta website, and you can read it, support its objectives and help us address them. Let me talk just a little bit about funding, and ive been talking about this for the last six months or so. Youve heard me talk about rebuilding our countrys infrastructure. And this is one of the big reasons why were here in washington at the legislative conference, to advocate for a longterm transportation bill. This is about building our own country. This is about nation building right here. This is about Infrastructure Investment and rebuilding our infrastructure in this country. And so i have called for this national day of advocacy, this stand up for transportation that youve heard about. And this is the logo that weve put together. And, you know, this april 9 date this is actually the last conference that we will have before that april 9th date. Or is there another one . There may be another apta conference. No . All right. So this is it. We are gearing up for this. The strategy is collective power as we bring attention to our infrastructure and talk to congress. On this day, april 9, were looking to conduct media events, press events in as Many American cities as possible. And im happy to say that i believe we have about 140 events or so. That is a lot of events all over this country. Its time for us to Work Together, republicans, democrats, at the white house, its time for us to Work Together, as you know, to make sure that we address this what i call embarrassingly massive infrastructure deficit. The last time i looked, this infrastructure deficit was about 88, 90 billion. So its time to fund that state of good repair, its time to do all those things. As we move forward, and i always talk about the whole car analogy. Its almost like buying a car and not changing the oil for 10 years and expecting that car to continue to run. Its really ridiculous. I was at the board of directors meeting. I was talking a little bit about how ludicrous it is for us to have to beg for funding to maintain infrastructure. 10. 8 billion trips last year, 10. 8 billion trips were begging to maintain our infrastructure in this country. Its really a shame. I was talking about this at the board of directors meeting, and usually i get kind of worked up. I get pretty passionate about this infrastructure thing, and i was talking at an event and i was getting pretty passionate, and i told myself to slow down or my taxes would be audited if i kept talking bad about our great leaders. But this stand up 4 transportation day is very, very important. So if you have not signed up, please do. I think we have a board out front and we will continue to do that. A couple of things, and i think i wanted to show i was at the transit ceos meeting, and i talked to the transit ceos about signing up. At that transit ceos meeting in phoenix, we had mayor stanton there. Yeah, thats mayor stanton actually signing to have phoenix as a part of this stand up 4 transportation day. Everyone has a vital role in this. As i mentioned, 147 agencies and businesses from coast to coast have signed up. Look at that map right there. Now, if youre not on that map who is not on the map . Youre not going to raise your hand. Weve got to fill up this map. 147 agencies and businesses with over 100 events so far. So now is your chance. Grab a pen, sign up. A few things that i would just mention in order to sign up for this first, is act now. The second is identify your partners. Apta has a resource tool kit on the website where you can look, you can figure out who your partners are. We want to recruit all types of groups, bicyclist groups, environmentalists, seniors, veterans, students, people with disabilities. We want to have, in your areas, in your local areas, we want to engage everyone in this stand up 4 transportation day. The third piece is planning your event. A ribbon cutting, a rally, an employee roundtable, turning your buses into billboards, sharing stats, and the fourth big piece is looking to apta for support. As i said, apta has a resource tool kit on the website providing messages, resources, you can customize it to your area, talking points, suggested talking points, all of these kinds of things. Please do that. Let me end my comments with sort of a priority of mine. We were talking about the funding. I was talking about this yesterday in another meeting. We talk a lot about the funding, but i like to talk about the Career Pathways and growing our own qualified work force. I was talking the other day about if the money begins to flow because i do think were going to get a longterm transportation bill this year. I really believe that because i dont think that infrastructure apathy can last forever. And i dont think dysfunction at the highest levels can last forever in terms of infrastructure. So i do believe were going to get a longterm bill. But what i talked about is if we get that longterm bill, and if money and manna falls from heaven tomorrow and we have a longterm transportation bill, will we have the qualified work force to build and rebuild this infrastructure in this country . And im not sure. Im not sure that we have the track maintainers of the signal folks, even the run cutters. Im not sure we have the qualified work force in this country to maintain our infrastructure. And so this idea of building Career Pathways for the hardest to fill positions in this industry are very, very important. Because we have to grow our own, and that includes in this Career Pathway community colleges, that includes trade schools, building this type of Career Pathway where we can grow our own. So when the money does flow, we will have a great pool of folks that are already trained to do this work that is much needed in this country, rebuilding bridges and highways and legacy systems and all of those things. So get on board. Lets get started. And i hope to have 200 events by april 9, or on april 9, and i think we can do it. With that, please help me welcome aptas president and ceo, michael melaniphy. Please give him a hand. [ applause ] got to start out with some theme music in the morning. Good morning, everyone. How we doing . Didnt phil do a good job . Give him a big hand. Phil washington, our chair. [ applause ] each year at this time we gather here in washington, d. C. To share the message of Public Transportation with our elected officials in congress to help them understand the important impact that we have on the vitality of this nation, and i am so thrilled to have all of you join us here today. Your commitment to come here to the nations capitol to share our story is so important. Thank you for making that effort. Opportunity, as we come here together, is to meet with our colleagues, to share ideas, to share concepts, to influence decision makers. Well, this year is more significant. This year is more pressing. Mac 21 expires in a short 83 days. And the president ial election, thats only 610 days away. Not that far at all. The good news is we have a great message to bring to the administration and to bring to congress. You know what it is . Americans want more Public Transportation and the numbers tell it all. Its extraordinary. Look at the figures for 2014 hot off the press. Last year there were 10. 8 billion trips taken on Public Transportation say it with me 10. 8 billion its outstanding. That is 101 million more trips that were taken last year. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the highest Public Transportation ridership figure in 58 years the last time ridership was this high, gasoline was 23 cents a gallon. Isnt that extraordinary . The public revolution for Public Transportation is happening, its happening now, and its happening all across the country. This phenomenon isnt just in our largest cities, its happening all across the nation in cities large and small. Look at that, its not just on the coast. Some of the highest ridership happen in cities under 100,000. When you hear people ask, im in a small town, im in a rural area, why does this matter to me . The ridership increase in cities under 100,000 was actually double the National Growth rate last year. This is extraordinary. There are great things happening. From san diego to nashville, from harrisburg, illinois to bowling green, from wanache, washington to new york city, people opted for Public Transportation in record numbers. And riders are telling us they want more Public Transportation. And now you need to let Congress Know that we need to make the investment in Public Transportation to meet this growing need. Its incumbent upon all of us to educate our legislators. They need to know that this nation must have a robust, multimodal Service Transportation bill. We cannot continue to have shortterm extensions. In the last 10 years, weve had 23 shortterm extensions on the surface transportation bill. This is not how you bill the greatest country in the world. This is not how you lead a national economy. This is shortterm thinking. This is not how our country works. We need a big, longterm, surface transportation bill. Are you with me . Absolutely. When do we need it . Now. Absolutely right. Now, one other reason we need it now is because theres a president ial election coming, and that is going to suck up all the oxygen in the room. We need to focus now. We need to make it happen now. You need to get up on the hill and make these things happen. How do we achieve our goals . As chairman of washington shared with all of us, advocacy and local education. Sure, we could share the messages here in washington, d. C. You hire us to come up and see the experts. But you need to share that local message in your towns and your communities. It is so important. But when you go up on the hill the next couple of days, take this packet with you. It is loaded with information to help you educate our members of congress, to help them see the 10. 8 billion that or 10. 8 billion trips that weve got going on in this country. You need to show them how this investment is paying off in growing demand and how we need it to continue provide safe, dependable, Reliable Service each and every day. Congress doesnt need to go very far to see public infrastructure. Look at the capitol dome. Its happening right where they work every day. Now its time for you to help share the message how we need to make investment in our infrastructure as well. When youre up on the hill, some may ask you, how should we pay for this robust transportation bill . Certainly its our job to explain surface transportation and why its so vital to our nations infrastructure and our nations future. But congress, thats their job to find the resources. Now, you may hear that policymakers are asking that were going to tell you, hey, you should be grateful for the status quo. Its okay to just get what you get. You should be thankful for that. Do you know what you need to say to them . Good enough is not good enough. A shortterm bill, thats not getting it. We need a longterm surface transportation bill that is essential to operating a strong and a secure Public Transportation system across this nation. Remember that you all in this room, you are the subject matter experts. If we arent up there saying we need to make these investments, who will . Dont be shy. Dont hold back. Let them know we need to make these investments. Now, some people will suggest that the moneys that are going to transportation are a diversion of those highway dollars, that we need to get transit out. If we could just get rid of that, stop this diversion, then we could solve the nations highway problems. Dont you fall into that trap. You let them know that story is not correct. Remind your legislators that in 1983, president Ronald Reagan put forth a program to raise the federal gas tax from 4 cents to 9 cents. You know what he called it . A nickel for america. 4 cents for bridges, roads and highways, 1 cent for transit. Thats the origin of the 80 20 split. The dollars that go to transit in the Highway Trust Fund and the mass transit account have always been there for transit. Theyve never been a diversion. Set the record straight. Its about a system working together. Were here to defend the system to make sure the system works well together. Weve had a very long partnership. Partnerships are what makes this program work. Partnerships between passengers, state, local and federal governments. Thats what makes our nation so great and makes our Transportation Systems work so well. Let us not forget, it is an interdependent system. Our buses and trains take cars off the roadways so we can have the free flow of goods, products, commerce and services throughout our roads and networks. It all works together as a system. So removing us from the Highway Trust Fund, well, thats a bit like, i dont know, removing the Steering Wheel from a bus. It doesnt make any sense. It all has to Work Together. Now, d. O. T. , they have their own bill, a robust, sixyear bill called the growing america act. Its true, we may not agree with every single subpart or section of it, i have to tell you this bill does a great job of telling congress that we need to move in the right direction and that this stuff matters. But we cant do it alone. We have to Work Together. Were very pleased that joining us at the Conference Today will be fta acting administrator Theresa Mcmillan and joining her will be acting administrator director sarah feinberg. They will be acting on proposals and taking your questions from the audience. Were also thrilled that joining us here on the stage will be two great leaders in the transportation field that work tirelessly here in washington, d. C. When you see me testify up on capitol hill, there is very often two people standing right there next to me, Janet Kavinoky and dr. Pete ruane. Great transportation leaders. Theyre going to help tell the story about how we have to Work Together to move the ball forward. Now, passage of a surface transportation bill, its a lengthy process. The first stage, we passed that in december of 2013. We gathered the information, we gathered the needs, we put the data together, and we brought it to the hill and we brought it to our partners so we could all see together what those needs were. Now were in the second stage of that process when different ideas are put together that start to coalesce into a bill. There are lots of different bills out there, lots of different ideas. Do not be distracted by the shiny things in the water. Stay focused on