Your daily source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the weekly NARP Hotline.
December 23, 2013
Written By Colin Leach Amtrak's Pere Marquette stops at Grand Rapids, MI. Photo Credit: Jim Hulsebus While millions of Americans are busy heading home for the holidays, opponents of passenger rail are hard at work rehashing tired attacks. One such attack appeared in this morning’s edition of the Detroit News. Michigan taxpayers, the newspaper contended, “should not be dinged” to keep Amt...
December 20, 2013
Written By Malcolm Kenton On Wednesday, we warned rail transit advocates not to fall into the trap of always accepting the mantra of “build it and they will come.” Successful transit services require careful planning to make sure they are serving a broad market and will make using them as convenient as possible. But there is plenty of evidence to show that, when planned right, increased trans...
December 19, 2013
Written By Ross Capon The pro-highway federal bias is clearly illustrated in these two ways, among others. First, when general funds are transferred into the Highway Trust Fund, they become encumbered with the same restrictions as revenues generated by the gasoline tax and the other ‘normal’ Highway Trust Fund sources. This means they usually cannot be used for intercity passenger rail proj...
December 18, 2013
Written By Sean Jeans Gail Smart transportation advocates often find themselves fighting against the “build it, and they will come” trope: the proposition that high ridership and real estate development will always result from the construction of new transit service. It is an idea that masks the hard planning work that underlies all successful transit systems, and is often used by anti-tran...
December 17, 2013
Written By Malcolm Kenton Many of the major national environmental groups are backing a campaign to pressure major institutions—local governments, universities, nonprofits, religious organizations and businesses—to divest their bank accounts, endowments, pension funds, etc. from fossil fuel companies. Some of the green groups are also calling for funds that are divested from fossil fuels to b...