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Frank Busalacchi, chairman of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission's Passenger Rail Working Group and secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, will deliver the keynote address at the first-ever Carmichael Conference on the Future of American Transportation, which will be held Jan. 28-29 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St. Louis.

The conference is named for former Federal Railroad Administrator and Progressive Railroading columnist, and current Senior Chairman of the Intermodal Transportation Institute at the University of Denver Gilbert Carmichael. The event is organized by the National Corridors Initiative (NCI) with support from the American Public Transportation Association, Association of American Railroads (AAR), American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), National Association of Railroad Passengers and Sierra Club.

Carmichael, who suggested the National Corridors Initiative organize the conference, will open the event, which aims to develop a unified transportation advocates' statement on the future of American transportation for presentation to presidential candidates.

"The transportation crisis in this country has gotten well beyond the 'gridlock' stage and we have got to address it now," said National Corridors Initiative President and Chief Executive Officer James RePass in a prepared statement. "The nation's ability to compete in world markets, the cost of living, air quality, and our very freedom of mobility are all being harmed or restricted by our continued failure to develop a national transportation strategy and implement it aggressively on a bi-partisan basis."

Busalacchi, who also heads the States for Passenger Rail Coalition, will be joined at the dais by numerous speakers, including former presidential nominee and Amtrak Vice Chairman Michael Dukakis, former Amtrak Chairman and Reconnecting America Founding Chairman John Robert Smit, Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Boardman, AAR President and CEO Edward Hamberger, AASHTO Executive Director John Horsely and Norfolk Southern Corp. Senior Vice President Craig Lewis.

For more information on the event, call NCI at 617-269-5478, email RePass at jrepass@nationalcorridors.org or log onto www.nationalcorridors.org.