North Carolina to explore Virgin Hyperloop One Technology
Global Railway Review, July 12, 2019

Estimates suggest that trips from Raleigh to Durham or Chapel Hill, a distance of nearly 30 miles, could be completed in under ten minutes with the help of Hyperloop technology.

North Carolina’s Regional Transportation Alliance (RTA) – the voice of the regional business community on transportation – kicked off an exploration of hyperloop as a potential regional and inter-city transportation platform. 

The report identified example hyperloop corridors that could seamlessly connect Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and RDU International Airport near the Research Triangle Park, and create a linchpin for a future hyperloop network across the southeastern U.S. The N.C. Department of Transportation also participated in the discussion.

Joe Milazzo II, PE, Executive Director, Regional Transportation Alliance, commented: “The Research Triangle area is uniquely positioned from a technology focus, spatial layout, and favourable mid-east coast location to benefit from a hyperloop travel solution that could quickly link America’s R&D cities of Raleigh and Durham with each other and with neighbouring regions in the southeast and mid-Atlantic.”

Other economic benefits to be considered include travel time reliability, direct linkages to the best-connected medium hub airport in North America, improved logistics for cargo shipments, and the effects of cities and economic centres connected by the system to have far more synergy by being connected within minutes. Interconnections with a proposed regional bus rapid transit network serving Research Triangle area counties and the existing passenger rail network would further leverage potential benefits of and connections to the system.

Virgin Hyperloop One’s technology proposes to transport passengers and goods at speeds comparable to airlines and enable regional cities to connect just as local city subways connect neighbourhoods.

Virgin Hyperloop One’s visionary technology features depressurised tubes that carry on-demand passenger or cargo “pods” at speeds up to 670 miles per hour, powered by magnetic-levitation. Its proprietary depressurised tube infrastructure essentially eliminates the impacts of air-drag and friction, requiring less energy and cost to operate the system and allowing travel to occur at exceptionally high speeds.

Virgin Hyperloop One is the only hyperloop company with an at-scale test track, known as “DevLoop.” Located outside of Las Vegas in Nevada, Virgin Hyperloop One has completed hundreds of test runs to date.

Delta names RDU airport as a 'focus city' 
Spectrum News, Friday, July 27, 2018 

Delta Air Lines has named Raleigh-Durham International Airport as a focus city and announced a continued investment in the region.

Delta Air Lines Senior Vice President Joe Esposito delivered remarks at the Regional Transportation Alliance business coalition’s transportation breakfast on Friday.

“Air service development is economic development. When companies invest in our market, whether it's a new manufacturing plant, a new business, a new pharma plant or a new airline, it says we're doing well because more jobs are being created. More jobs mean more economic opportunities,” said Joe Milazzo II, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance.

Delta exec talks up RDU opportunity 
Triangle Business Journal, Friday, July 27, 2018 

​​​​​​​Delta Air Lines’ growth plan for Raleigh-Durham International Airport involves bigger planes, more frequency and – Salt Lake City?

In an interview Friday after speaking in Cary at the Regional Transportation Alliance's 2018 Transportation Breakfast, Joe Esposito, Delta's senior vice president of network planning, talks through the carrier's West Coast strategy – and why a new nonstop in the network to Mumbai could improve connectivity from RDU.

RDU’s busiest airline expects to get busier. Here’s how it could grow at RDU. 
Raleigh News&Observer, Friday, July 29, 2018

“When we’re looking for markets, we’re looking for business markets for trans-Atlantic,” Esposito said. “Because almost any idiot can make money in the summer to Europe, but it really takes a partnership and support to make it work on a year-around basis. And the business community brings us that.”

Esposito was speaking to about 250 business people and others at an event put on by the Regional Transportation Alliance, a group affiliated with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

Major Road Improvements Set for Morrisville    
Cary Citizen, June 14, 2018

In a talk presented by the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, June 12, 2018, several experts involved in transportation work in the Triangle spoke with gathered members at a talk moderated by Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance.

Complete 540 project receives final federal approval
WTVD-TV, June 7, 2018

"The final approval of 540 - the regional business community's top transportation priority - is a great day for our entire extended market," said Regional Transportation Alliance Executive Director Joe Milazzo II, P.E.

More congestion coming to Triangle roads, with or without Apple
WRAL-TV, June 6, 2018

Traffic planners are bracing for another half million people in the Triangle and more than 100,000 new jobs in the next decade, even without Apple plunking a major campus down in the middle of the region.

"The business community will take this challenge any day," said Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, which is preparing for that growth.

Apple is reportedly considering an investment of $1.5 billion to $2 billion in North Carolina, including a Triangle campus that would have between 3,000 and 10,000 jobs.

"Whether you have 5,000 jobs or 500 jobs, locally grown or coming into the market, the region is well situated for growth," Milazzo said.

More congestion coming to Triangle roads, with or without Apple
WRAL-TV, June 6, 2018

Traffic planners are bracing for another half million people in the Triangle and more than 100,000 new jobs in the next decade, even without Apple plunking a major campus down in the middle of the region.

"The business community will take this challenge any day," said Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, which is preparing for that growth.

How a refinancing move could boost Complete 540
Triangle Business Journal, May 14, 2018

A refinancing move by the state could put a dent in what North Carolina has to pay for the Complete 540 project, the final section of the $2.2 billion highway that connects Apex to Knightdale.

And it’s been labeled a priority project by NCDOT Secretary Jim Trogdon, as well as the Regional Transportation Alliance business coalition.

Joe Milazzo, executive director of RTA, says the ratings upgrades are “huge,” and speaks to the quality of both management and the success of the highways.

Usable transit system takes time, wide-ranging cooperation, experts say
Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 21, 2018

Indianapolis and North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham region are in the middle of building and reforming their public bus networks after years of study and referendum campaigns, said Mark Fisher, chief policy officer for the Indy Chamber, and Joe Milazzo, director of North Carolina's Regional Transportation Alliance.

Milazzo said creating such a system the right way took time.

Can the Triangle support a nonstop flight to China? RDU thinks so. 
Raleigh News&Observer, February 18, 2018

China is one of several places the Triangle business community would like to be able to reach with a nonstop flight, said Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, a business group associated with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

Expanding existing roads would be better, cheaper than finishing NC 540, groups say
Raleigh News&Observer, February 10, 2018 

Environmental groups that oppose completing the six-lane Triangle Expressway across southern Wake County have proposed an alternative they say would do better at relieving congestion at a fraction of the cost.

“Not building 540 – and thereby jettisoning decades of plans by local, regional, and state governments from both a transportation and land use standpoint – would also result in asking local streets to serve regional travel purposes that they were never intended to perform, which area residents did not sign up for,” [Regional Transportation Alliance Executive Director Joe] Milazzo wrote in an email.

Frontier Airlines to announce major expansion at RDU with several nonstop flights 
Triangle Business Journal, February 7, 2018

Raleigh-Durham International Airport is expected to announce a major service expansion Thursday.

As talk emerged that RDU was making an air service announcement, transportation activist Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance business coalition, called any expansion “a tremendous sign of the confidence the carrier has in our airport, our airport’s leadership, and the overall vibrancy and trajectory of our market.”

New Wake County transit plan includes expanded bus service 
WRAL-TV, January 26, 2018

Wake County voters agreed to fund a countywide transit plan back in 2016 that would change the way residents and visitors use buses.

The Regional Transportation Alliance's Joe Milazzo says the investment will make it easier to attract business.

"People see that. They know we're taking our future seriously, and it stands out," he said.

Big News! Complete 540 highway project ahead of schedule 
Triangle Business Journal, December 22, 2017

Officials have signed off on the final environmental impact statement for a project known as Complete 540 – and it’s ahead of schedule.

Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance calls the project "critical" for the future of regional mobility.

Planner: Fixing Raleigh's Capital Boulevard requires 'bold' ideas 
Triangle Business Journal, December 18, 2017

Capital Boulevard – one of Raleigh’s busiest streets – could be a gateway to Raleigh, says Regional Transportation Alliance Executive Director Joe Milazzo.

GoTriangle to use state cash for paratransit technology 
Triangle Business Journal, November 20, 2017

In an email, Joe Milazzo, executive director for the Regional Transportation Alliance, calls real-time tracking for paratransit vehicles “a welcome addition.”

“This solution holds the promise of improved on-time performance, enhanced and more efficient schedules, and a better experience for both paratransit customers as well as GoTriangle professional operations staff,” he said.

The widening project that could snarl I-40 commutes as early as 2018
Triangle Business Journal; Wednesday, October 4, 2017

The traffic jams along nearly 12 miles of I-40 in the Triangle could start as early as 2018 – but they will be worth it, says N.C. Department of Transportation engineer Robert Deaton.

Joe Milazzo, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, says his group is supportive of the project.

Triangle leaders hope forecast transit improvements will help woo Amazon
(CBS North Carolina, WNCN-TV, Wednesday, September 20, 2017)

Amazon wants areas with skilled workers and strong job growth.

Joe Milazzo, the executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance Business Coalition and a member of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, said that expectation matches the same needs of other big businesses which recently picked Raleigh and its surrounding area.

Will Amazon bypass the Triangle because of mass transit? 
 (News and Observer, Wednesday, September 20, 2017)

At first blush, it looks like the Triangle has everything Amazon wants in a place to locate its second headquarters: An educated, high-tech workforce, a good quality of life, a strong local economy and a “stable and business-friendly environment.”

The two plans and the tax increases to pay for them show a commitment to transit, said Joe Milazzo II, executive director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, a business group associated with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.