Your daily source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the weekly NARP Hotline.
November 7, 2014
by G.E. Vann Following the demolition of Pennsylvania Station in New York City, Vincent Scully commented that passengers used to enter New York like gods, but now they scurry in like rats. New Yorkers might consider themselves luckier than citizens of Atlanta: at least they can scurry into their city. The residents of Atlanta do not have that option. When their two stations, Atlanta Union Stati...
November 5, 2014
The election results are in, and it’s official: the Senate now belongs to the Republicans, granting the GOP full control of Congress. So what does this mean for trains? Make no mistake: there are still individual Republican voices calling for deep cuts to Amtrak. Some of these voices, such as House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), are as powerful as they are dangerous. And while there are man...
October 28, 2014
by G.E. Vann For the past hundred years, the two North River and four East River tunnels have been a vital piece in our nation’s rail infrastructure. Completed in 1910, the tunnels, which are roughly 12,000 to 13,500 feet long, transport tens of thousands of people per day to and from North Bergen, New Jersey to Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan and onwards to Queens. Commuters from throughou...
October 8, 2014
By now, nearly everyone has heard about the delays plaguing Amtrak’s trains as they move people across the U.S. Things have gotten so bad that the on-time performance of Amtrak’s long distance services is down 21% when compared to the same period last year. Some trains are even worse, with the Capitol Limited (Washington-Chicago) arriving on time only 3.2% of the time in August! But sometim...
July 14, 2014
Written By Karl Haljasmets In a truly all-encompassing dialogue on train travel, one way or another the conversation is sure to pass by the Trans-Siberian Railway. This is because it is, with its 5,772-mile span, the longest railroad in the world, spanning over seven time zones. It is also considered one of the most beautiful train routes in the world, going places where most people have never...