Gilbert Carmichael

Gilbert E. (Gil) Carmichael is a leading international authority on railroad and intermodal transportation policy and is committed to a seamless, safe and secure, efficient and economical, freight and passenger transportation system for the 21st century. Carmichael served as the US Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administrator (FRA) in the administration of President George Bush from 1989 to 1993 and is currently on the Amtrak Reform Council. He is vice chairman of the Board of WABTEC Corporation, the leading independent manufacturer of after-market locomotive component parts and the leading independent locomotive remanufacturer in North America. In addition to managing the nation's rail safety and research programs as FRA Administrator, Carmichael supervised international railway technical assistance programs and sponsored the first World Railways Congress in 1991, which brought together senior government and railway officials from 60 nations. He also helped develop the national transportation policy to permit intermodal transportation initiatives and to formulate new federal policy toward the rail mode and Amtrak, the United States rail passenger system. He chaired the three-year, $29 million, National Maglev Initiative and was one of many contributors to the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA), proposing a network of regional high-speed rail passenger corridors, now under development. A graduate of Texas A&M University and a former Fellow in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, he presents and publishes papers on the transportation industry, promoting the need for a North American and global intermodal freight and passenger system, utilizing the world's rail network.