New chief chosen for high-speed rail project
A senior private-sector executive with extensive international rail construction experience was named Thursday to lead California’s $43-billion high-speed rail project from the drawing board toward the start of construction.
Roelof van Ark, 58, president of Alstom Transportation Inc., a subsidiary of a French-based conglomerate, was unanimously approved as the new chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority at an agency board meeting in Sacramento.
Van Ark succeeds Mehdi Morshed, who led the agency since its inception in 1996. Van Ark heads the North American division of Alstom SA, a maker of high-speed trains and builder of Europe’s TGV bullet train system. Alstom also operates the largest train manufacturing plant in the United States, and the firm has expressed its interest in contracting for part of the California project that Van Ark will now direct.
“Roelof van Ark is the world-class manager and engineer we need to take the reins of this project and turn the promise of high-speed rail into reality for the people of California,” said the authority’s board chairman, Curt Pringle of Anaheim.
Van Ark has headed major divisions of Alstom and Germany-based Siemens AG, another high-speed rail developer. His salary was set at $375,000, considerably less than his current compensation package, the authority said.
California is leading the nation in high-speed rail development and “the place to be,” Van Ark said in a statement. “I have seen how high-speed rail projects transform the places where they’re built.”
He is taking over at a critical juncture for the voter-approved project. After years of quiet planning, the authority is trying to rapidly move to building the most ambitious public works project in recent state history. But it is confronting a multitude of challenges and a growing array of skeptics, including influential state lawmakers. The latest blow came in a highly critical audit released last week by state Auditor Elaine Howle.
Routing and financing controversies continue to boil. But the agency is committed to breaking ground on the Bay Area-to-Anaheim line in two years so it can collect $2.25 billion in Obama administration stimulus money.
Van Ark will begin June 1, assuming Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger signs off on the appointment as expected.
The authority Thursday pointed to Van Ark’s management leadership on several large, complex transportation projects, including high-speed rail lines in Germany and subways in China.
But that same background could invite questions about possible converging public and private interests. Van Ark has indicated that his firm may want to invest in or bid on California’s high-speed rail project as part of a French team. Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D- Long Beach), chairman of the Transportation and Housing Committee, said he expressed concerns over conflict of interest directly to Van Ark on Thursday. “I need to be able to be convinced that he’s going to be fair and he’s not going to act in a way that provides any kind of … special benefit to people he’s worked with,” he said.
Authority officials said they do not anticipate a problem. Finding someone with the skill and experience to direct such a massive and technical project required turning to executives in the global rail development industry, they said.
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