Your daily source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the weekly NARP Hotline.
September 11, 2013
Written By Cliff Dunn Rumblings of a coming capacity constraint on the Northeast Corridor connote unpleasant implications for the rest of the system. Amtrak has a habit of basing what long-term planning it does on very conservative estimates of ridership growth. This is done to prevent Amtrak’s critics from accusing the railroad of overestimating the number of people who will turn to trains fo...
September 9, 2013
Written By Malcolm Kenton The Summer of 2013 may mark a meaningful rediscovery of the cultural significance of Long Distance Train Travel The late summer of 2013 may mark the beginning of a new era that could see American transcontinental journeys used as vehicles for encouraging expression, generating ideas, and making statements. And this can only be a good thing for our cause as it raises bro...
September 6, 2013
Written By Malcolm Kenton Michael Huber, a cardiovascular health consultant with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, made an important, often overlooked point at the 24th Annual CTS Transportation Research Conference in St. Paul, which focused on the role of transportation policy in improving human health: I would like to see a more conscious balancing of the transportation modes. It’s no...
September 5, 2013
Written By Ross Capon Bad things happen when a train dies. Communities depending on the service loose their connection to the world around them. Men and women who support themselves and their families working on the train lose their livelihood. And it can happen quickly. A blink of an eye compared to the decades it took to build up the service, maintain and improve the stations and the equipme...
September 3, 2013
Written By Colin Leach A recent feature on The Economist’s blog attempted to answer the age-old question of why Americans do not travel by train as much as Europeans. But in doing so, the paper did not take into account certain realities concerning Americans’ changing travel preferences as well as current use of rail travel. Ultimately, The Economist’s analysis presents an incomplete pictur...