 Good evening. My name is John Leopold. I'm County Supervisor. I'm lucky enough to represent Live Oak. Welcome to the Simpkin Swim Center, and thank you for coming out tonight to spend a little bit of time on a beautiful evening to talk about what the future might look like in the rail resources we have here. Guys get a show of hands. How many people here came here on two feet or two legs? How many people came here on two wheels? All right. That's me too. How many people came here on four wheels? All right. Well, I'd like to have us one day. I'd like to have us say one day that you can't hear. I'd like to have you say one day that you came here by train because the tracks are right outside. You know, our community has been talking about rail for quite a while. I won't start again. Our community has been talking about rail for a long time. The county has a rich history in rail service. The Regional Transportation Commission spent about 20 years talking about rail, or almost 20 years, before we made the move to actually secure funding. And with the help of hundreds of people who came out to public hearings, we were able to go to the state of California and get revenue from Prop 116, which the voters here in Santa Cruz passed along with the voters in the state of California. And since 2012, we've owned the Santa Cruz branch rail line 32 miles from Davenport to Watsonville. And in November 17th of that year, we had a rail celebration. And I'm not sure how many of you participated, but we had hundreds of people out here as one of the whistle stops for the train coming through our county. As we've done meetings both about the rail line and the trail next to the rail line, hundreds of people have participated. The Regional Transportation does a lot better work when you come out to get involved. And I'm very happy that our Executive Director, George Dondaro, who's been talking about sustainability for a number of years, has identified Anthony Pearl as a good speaker and someone who could talk to us about this. I just want to say that George has led our commission in terms of a new focus, and our most recently adopted Regional Transportation Plan is based around the concept of sustainability. That's a new way for us to look at transportation. And I'm very pleased that our Regional Transportation Plan looks at automobiles, bicycles, walking, and rail. And that's also very new, at least in the five years that I've been a county supervisor. So I think you'll enjoy hearing Anthony. He spoke to our commission this morning. He encouraged us to be leaders, and I think you being here tonight shows that you're community leaders on the issues of transportation. I'll be listening for a little while in the back, and then I have to go to another meeting. But I appreciate that you're taking the time, and thank you for coming out. And with that, I'll introduce George Dondaro, the Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Commission. Thank you, John. Well, welcome, everybody. Thank you for coming out tonight. I think you're going to find us to be a very interesting evening. A little bit of housekeeping first. When you came in the door, hopefully you got signed up to receive emails about future events regarding rail in the county. If not, please make sure you do on your way out. It's the best way to stay in touch with us and for us to stay in touch with you. Question cards are available if you didn't get one. Our staff is around the room, has some, and Karenna, hold up your staff that have cards. Let people know who you are, okay? So if at any time you may not have one now, but sometime during the evening you might. Restrooms are out the door to your left. Make a big U-turn. There's some pink signs to get you directed there. Drinks and snacks are at the table in the back. Please help yourself anytime if you need a little refreshment to stay awake. But hopefully that's not going to be a problem tonight. RTC has spent about a dozen years in the process of purchasing this rail line. And at some point the policy discussions about how to use this rail line were sort of set aside. For a variety of reasons that I don't need to go into tonight. We also spent the last two years completing our regional transportation plan, which John just mentioned. And this RTP for the first time did, among other things, set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We'd never done that before. We were required to do that by the state, but we did do that. We also included performance measures, which will help us gauge our progress in the future as to how well we're doing to meet those goals. It also included passenger rail in the mix of future mobility options in the county for the first time. And that's because we own the rail line now. In past years we did not. It was really hard to plan what we were going to do with something that we didn't own. Also recently we've completed the rail trail master plan, which is at the table near the back. And many of you participated in the development of that. That was another two year effort. So RTC has done and will continue to do some very high quality planning. And sometimes people don't appreciate the value of doing good planning. And it's a really important process because it's a time for our decision makers, our elected officials, and you to come together and agree on what projects we're going to prioritize for the future of transportation in this county. So all this good planning is hopefully going to produce some good fruit. And tonight we're taking another step in that direction to talk about passenger rail service. And also we are beginning this one year study of the feasibility of passenger rail service, which is another reason to get on our email list. We think at different times over the next year you might want to know about chances to weigh in or when the commission is going to discuss it, when presentations will be made, and when there's a series of public meetings that will also be held for your benefit. So I guess it's an understatement to say there's been no shortage of opinions on how this rail line should be used. But what I found sometimes in the discussions is that the larger context is missing. And so from those discussions. So tonight we hope to explore a little broader context in which to consider questions about future uses of the rail line and what is happening globally and in California in the world of passenger rail. So we're very pleased to bring you a respected author, consultant, researcher, and professor of urban studies and political science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. I met Anthony Pearl in 2010 at a conference in Washington, D.C., soon after his latest book, which had just been published in its second edition. And he'll mention that later. His academic record is very impressive and his practical experience is also quite notable. He was for over four years served on the board of Via Rail, which is the Canadian equivalent of Amtrak. He led the rail group of the U.S. Transportation Research Board, which is a division of the National Research Council. He chaired the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Intercity Passenger Rail. And he's advised governments in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, and the U.S. on transportation and environmental research and policy development. So after his presentation, we'll have plenty of time for your questions. So please give a warm welcome to Anthony Pearl.