ROSS B. CAPON

Mr. Capon, 57, joined the National Association of Railroad Passengers as Assistant Director in 1975, becoming Executive Director in 1976. He edits the association’s newsletter, testifies before Congressional committees, and talks with the news media and on Capitol Hill about America’s need for a balanced transportation system which takes much greater advantage of the rail mode than does our present system. He is a member of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee.

His most recent Congressional appearance was April 30, 2003, at the “Current Amtrak Issues” hearing of the Subcommittee on Railroads of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (all Capon testimony from recent years is at <www.narprail.org>; all witness testimony from the April 30 hearing is at <http://www.house.gov/transportation/> -- click on Railroads Subcommittee).

He helped establish the Dr. Gary Burch Memorial Safety Award, which the Burch Family presents annually to the employee judged to have done the most to improve the safety of railroad passengers. He also helped establish Amtrak’s Customer Advisory Committee.

Groups he has addressed and shows appeared on in recent years include:

• 3rd World Congress on High Speed Rail, Berlin (October, 1998)
• Southeast High Speed Rail Conference, Richmond, VA, (November 2000)
• Half hour interview on C-Span’s Washington Journal (October 27, 2001)
• National Press Club’s Transportation Table (November 30, 2001)
  

• Public Interest radio program (National Public Radio, June 17, 2002)
• Panelist on Amtrak discussion for George Mason University Television (taped October 25, 2002, subsequently distributed nationally)
• Transp Research Forum (Annapolis, Nov. 2000; Washington, DC, March 6, 2003)
• American Public Transp. Assn. Rail Transit Conf., San Jose (June 10, 2003)
• CNN Financial; Answered questions at Washington Post On-Line (July 31, 2003)
• State Circle (Maryland Public Television, August 1, 2003)
• AASHTO’s National Conferences of Standing Committee on Rail Transportation (Burlington, Vermont, August 26, 2002; Buffalo, New York, September 15, 2003)
• Featured speaker at a meeting in the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, co-sponsored by Georgians for Better Transportation and Georgia Assn of Railroad Passengers (March 25, 2004).
• Hour-long appearance on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Ben Merens program (June 17, 2004—all call-ins were supportive of passenger rail).
• Railway Supply Institute Annual Spring Legislative Conference, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (April 15, 2004)
• Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee (several meetings, most recently Milwaukee, April 18, 2004)

From 1971 to 1975, Mr. Capon served the Executive Office of Transportation and Construction (Commonwealth of Massachusetts) as Special Assistant for Railroad Operations. He drafted a white paper that was presented to Gov. Francis W. Sargent and helped save the commuter rail network of Eastern Massachusetts. Earlier (1969-71), he worked in Philadelphia for the Religious Society of Friends.

He received his B.A. from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) in 1969 in History (minors: economics and music). A native of Newton, Massachusetts, he lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife Louise and their sons Thomas, Phillip and William. A daughter, Juliet Isele, lives in Arlington, Virginia.

DR. T. PETER RUANE

Dr. T. Peter Ruane is the president and CEO of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), a 102-year old national federation of public and private transportation construction interests with over 5,000 members headquartered in Washington, D.C. He has over 35 years of diversified experience in the economic development, transportation and construction fields.

Prior to joining ARTBA in October 1988, he served for nine years as President/CEO of the National Moving and Storage Association (NMSA) an international trade association with members in over 50 countries and its affiliate organizations.

Dr. Ruane served as the deputy director of the Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA), Office of the Secretary of Defense and the President's Economic Adjustment Committee where he worked on complex economic development projects stemming from military base closures or growth impacts in more than 30 states over the period 1970 to 1980.

He received numerous awards as a member of the Senior Executive Service, including the top two government-wide management awards available to a young federal executive.

Dr. Ruane is a graduate of Loyola College of Baltimore, and holds a master's degree from the Pennsylvania State University and a doctorate from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He also holds the professional designation Certified Association Executive (CAE).

He is a decorated Vietnam veteran, having served as an officer with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Dr. Ruane has also served as chairman of the Small Business Legislative Council (SBLC), a permanent coalition of some 100 trade organizations representing the entire spectrum of U.S. business.

He has held numerous volunteer and elective positions including six years as a Director of the school board at St. Mary's of Annapolis, four of which he served as President. He currently serves as a director of SBLC and the International Road Federation. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Calvert Hall College High School (Baltimore) and a trustee of the Transportation Development Foundation. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania State University Transportation Institute. He is the Vice Chairman of the U.S. Chamber-led Americans for Transportation Mobility (ATM), a broad-based coalition focused on major transportation legislation. He also co-chairs the Transportation Construction Coalition, a permanent thirty member market-oriented construction trade association and labor coalition working on industry legislative and regulatory issues. He is a frequent witness before Congress and guest on national news programs.

He is the first association executive to have been awarded the American Public Works Association Distinguished Service Award in 1999 and was voted one of Engineering News-Record magazine’s top newsmakers from throughout the world in 1998. Both of these awards were for his unique personal leadership in the passage of TEA-21, the largest public works legislation in the history of the United States. In December 2000 he was appointed as the only construction industry trade association executive to serve on the Bush-Cheney Transportation Transition Team. He also recently was selected as one of the Top 100 Private Sector Transportation Construction Professionals of the 20th Century.

Dr. Ruane was a member of the graduate school faculty at George Washington University for four years, and has been a guest lecturer at a number of universities including Oklahoma, Iowa, American and the National Defense University. He is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the U.S. Marine Corps. Heritage Foundation.

He and his wife Pat reside in Davidsonville, Maryland and have four grown children (Jeanne, Tom, Katie and Colleen) and four grandchildren.

WILLIAM W. MILLAR

William W. Millar is president of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), North America's foremost organization dedicated to the advancement of public transportation. Millar became chief executive officer of APTA in 1996 after 24 years in transportation operations and management.

Millar was Executive Director of the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT), the principal transit system serving Pittsburgh, PA, for 13 years prior to joining APTA. As head of one of the country's largest public transit providers, he directed a system that operates bus, light rail, exclusive busway, demand response and inclined plane transit service.

Before joining PAT in 1977, he developed and managed Pennsylvania's Free Transit Program for Senior Citizens as well as other transit aid programs for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation including rural and other community based transportation systems.

In his years as head of APTA, Millar has worked with a broad coalition of interests to vigorously make the case for transit to the Congress and the Administration. Under his leadership, APTA membership is at an all-time high and attendance at APTA meetings is at record levels.

Active in many professional organizations, Bill is an internationally recognized leader in public transportation and has served as chair or on the governing boards of the Transportation Research Board, the Transit Cooperative Research Program, Intelligent Transportation Society of America, The Transportation Technology Center, Inc. and several university transportation programs.

Millar is the recipient of many awards and honors, including APTA’s Jesse L. Haugh Award, the Transportation Research Board’s W. N. Carey, Jr. Distinguished Service Award and the Transit Cooperative Research Program Founding Father Award. Bill, his wife, Barbara, and their two children live in Falls Church, Virginia, where Bill commutes to the office on Washington D.C.'s Metrorail system.

JAMES M. BRUNKENHOEFER

James M. Brunkenhoefer is national legislative director of the 125,000-member United Transportation Union.

Brokenrail, as he is known, was born July 23, 1947, in Texas and began his railroad career in 1966 as a trainman for the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. on the Dallas-Sabine District. He was promoted to engineer in 1971 and currently holds seniority in train and engine service crafts over those Union Pacific lines in Texas and Louisiana.
Brunkenhoefer was elected vice local chairperson of Local 83 in Houston in 1969.

He has served the members of Local 83 as local president, local vice president, member of the local's board of trustees, local chairperson, local legislative representative, delegate and special organizer. In 1980, he was elevated to alternate Texas state legislative director, and in 1982 assumed the full directorship of the Texas State Legislative Board.
At the UTU's Fifth Quadrennial Convention in 1987, Brunkenhoefer was elected national legislative director. He was re-elected to that post at subsequent UTU conventions in 1991, 1995 and 1999.

In 2002, Brunkenhoefer was appointed by Surface Transportation Board Chairman Linda Morgan to the congressionally created Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council. Brokenrail and his wife, Judy, reside in McLean, Virginia.