United Rail Passenger Alliance

President; Jacksonville, Florida

J. Bruce Richardson is President of United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc., an independent, nonprofit policy research organization on issues regarding rail passenger transportation.

In the late 1990s and through 2000, Mr. Richardson worked with Amtrak’s Gulf Coast Business Group for five years, providing services relating to travel agents, special marketing projects, an audit of the Arrow reservations system, the creation of an internal marketing program aimed at the national reservations centers, and onboard services. He has also directed the special events for the opening of new station facilities and other projects, such as successful tests for the operation of 24 hour dining cars, a first class coach option, and sleeping car lounges.

In 2002, Mr. Richardson testified before the United States House of Representatives regarding the future of Amtrak and passenger rail travel in the United States. In 1994, Mr. Richardson chaired a meeting in the White House concerning the future of Amtrak as a private corporation. Prior to that in the 1989-1991 period, he led a team of consultants working in Canada to study the privatization, rebuilding, and future of VIA Rail Canada.

Mr. Richardson has created marketing, advertising, public relations, fund-raising, and political campaigns that have drawn successful responses nationally and internationally, as well as electing noteworthy candidates and receiving voter approval of referendums. He has directed domestic and international consulting projects on a number of topics related to rail transportation, the travel industry, medical practices, and computer software.

Some clients of Mr. Richardson’s have also included CSX; a travel agency consortium with over 1,300 member agencies; Ripley Entertainment, including Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in St. Augustine, Florida; a Central Florida theme park; a telephone/telecommunications company; financial institutions; an insurance company; a non-profit statewide medical association; a major chain of discount department stores; a hospital and related businesses; medical practices; a chain of travel agencies; a luxury motor car dealership; a major pest control company, as well as resorts and wholesale tour companies. Political clients have included candidates for the United States House of Representatives, Sheriff, Circuit Court Judge, other local offices, and a successful referendum on a single-issue ballot for a sales tax increase. Mr. Richardson publishes newsletters relating to travel and tourism, and authors This Week at Amtrak and the preceding twice weekly This Was The Week That Was at Amtrak, widely read throughout official Washington and elsewhere.

Mr. Richardson has written a book about the history of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in St. Augustine, has revised and edited two textbooks for training travel agents, and has written a manual used to train operators on an international airline computerized reservation system. He has also written and produced an extensive operations manual for use by purchasers of a travel agency franchise system. He is currently writing a new book, The Best of St. Augustine; People, Places and Things That Make The Oldest City Fascinating.

A former newsroom staffer of the now-defunct Jacksonville Journal, Mr. Richardson has an educational background in management and finance. He studied at Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida.

July 2003