Your daily source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the weekly NARP Hotline.
December 11, 2013
Written By Ross Capon Yet another important new high-speed rail service will begin Sunday, December 15. Twice-daily Paris-Barcelona through-trains will end a long history of changing trains at the international border. The running time will be six hours 25 minutes. The Financial Times reported that travelers starting from London St. Pancras will be able to leave at 9:31 AM and reach Barcelona w...
December 10, 2013
Written By Malcolm Kenton Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson is a conservative who recently sounded very reasonable notes on the subject of climate change, echoing arguments NARP has often made in favor of using higher taxes on the users of other modes to fund the ramped-up expansion and modernization of America’s passenger train network. He quotes MIT Economist Robert Pindyck, who s...
December 9, 2013
Written By Colin Leach Amtrak's Cascades outside of Seattle, WA. Licensed through Wikimedia Foundation. Our readers know that the major hallmark of U.S. passenger rail operations is that, in most places, Amtrak’s passenger trains run on track owned by the private freight railroads. This arrangement unfortunately can cause significant delays for Amtrak passenger as well as logistical difficul...
December 6, 2013
Written By Ross Capon The concept of treating transit users and automobile commuters equitably when it comes to employer-provided pre-tax parking and transit fares sounds incredibly logical, but Congress still can’t get it right. They do a periodical “fix” for transit, not always on time. By contrast, the parking allowance is permanent and keeps rising with inflation -- always on time becau...
December 6, 2013
Written By Malcolm Kenton To celebrate the successful work of citizen advocates on the grassroots level--with the help of NARP, the Midwest High Speed Rail Association and other organizations—to preserve Amtrak’s Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State by winning state support for its operation, and to thank Hoosier State riders for their patronage, NARP members Doug Yerkeson and Joe Krause, along...