All around the world, 50 high speed rail systems are already working to help shrink international carbon footprints. High speed rail is proven to be one of the most sustainable ways of moving people quickly to and from metropolitan areas. Yet, the US has been slow to put this mode of travel in motion. Even as 13 congressional corridors have been approved, The State of California has managed to stay on the fast track. This seminar will examine sustainability and demonstrate how high speed rail can be utilized to meet its goals. Premier international high speed rail systems will be highlighted and discussed. The progress of California’s high speed rail efforts and accomplishments will be presented in detail. Finally, challenges and barriers to advancing high speed rail projects in the US and the NY regional will be scrutinized and consideration will be given as to what must still be done to ensure success.
Honorable Rod Diridon, the Executive Director of the Mineta Transportation Institute.
Rod Diridon, the son of an immigrant Italian railroad brakeman, is called the “father of modern transit service in Silicon Valley.” Raised in Dunsmuir, California, he worked his way through college on the railroad receiving a BS in accounting and MSBA in statistics from San Jose State University. His political career began in 1971 as the youngest person ever elected to the Saratoga City Council. He retired in 1995 because of term limits, after completing 20 years and six terms as chair of both the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and Transit Board. He is the only person to have chaired the San Francisco Bay Area’s (nine counties, 110 cities, 27 transit agencies) three regional governments: the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Association of Bay Area Governments. In 1992 he convened the “Bay Vision 20/20 Commission” to merge those regional bodies.
Rod has chaired more than 100 international, national, state and local programs, most related to transit and the environment. He served in 1992 as the chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in Washington DC and for five years as North American vice chair of the International Transit Association (UITP) in Brussels. He advised the Federal Transit Administration and in 1995 chaired the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board’s Transit Oversight and Project Selection Committee. Rod founded and chaired the Transportation Research Board's study panel on “Combating Global Warming Through Sustainable Transportation Policy.” He is frequently asked to provide legislative testimony.
Promoting international understanding, Diridon founded Sister County Commissions with the Province of Florence, Italy and Region of Moscow, Russia. He promoted the expansion of the county’s parks from less than 500 acres to more than 40,000 acres and co-chaired four parks-funding campaigns during his tenure. He’s provided sustainability keynotes, especially for high speed rail, in more than 50 US cities and a dozen countries and published numerous related articles.
Rod is on the regional boards of directors of the Wells Fargo Bank and the corporate board of Empire Broadcasting Company. In 1969 he founded the Decision Research Institute, which he sold in 1977, where he developed a “shared survey” research procedure later adopted by the United Nations.
In 1976, Rod chaired the state’s first successful half-cent sales tax for transit and subsequently chaired five successful regional transportation financing elections and a statewide transportation bond election. He has chaired nine major rail-related studies and construction projects. He was appointed in 2001 and reappointed in 2006, by Governors Davis and Schwarzenegger respectively, to the California High Speed Rail Authority Board, of which he is chair emeritus. He is also chair of the APTA’s High Speed and Intercity Rail Committee.
Rod is president and founder of the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation, chairs the area's League of Conservation Voters, is San Jose Rotary president-elect, Breathe Cal president, Lincoln Law School trustee and a member of other service groups.
He is especially proud of son Rod, Jr. (a two-term Santa Clara City Council member and vice mayor recently reelected city clerk/auditor) and daughter Mary Margaret (director of counseling for the Silicon Valley YWCAs). His wife, Dr. Gloria Duffy, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense managing nuclear disarmament negotiations, is now the president/CEO of the Commonwealth Club of California. Rod, Sr. is now the executive director of the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) created by Congress in 1991. He recently concluded a term as president of the national Council of University Transportation Centers.
After college Rod was a naval officer with two Vietnam combat tours. He was chosen one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of America in 1972, has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 1974 and was named one of the ten most influential Silicon Valley leaders in 1990. He was recently named one of the “Millennium 100” who contributed most to the success of Silicon Valley in the past millennium. In 2004 he was named by the international “Metro Magazine” as one of the 50 who most influenced transit in North America in the last 100 years. He also received the top service awards from the American Public Transportation Association, national High Speed Ground Transportation Association and others. Upon his retirement from elected office in 1994, the historic Amtrak/CalTrain station in San Jose was renamed the San Jose Diridon Station in his honor. He has received numerous other awards and citations.