Your daily source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the weekly NARP Hotline.
July 3, 2012
Written By Sean Jeans Gail It’s no secret that high-speed rail has become a hyper-partisan issue in the past few years. What’s not always clear, however, is how this state of affairs came to be. Roger Rudick and Luke Mines, two journalists living in California, are filming a documentary called Train Wars that tackles this very issue. Here’re Rudick and Miles describing the motivation for t...
June 28, 2012
Written By Sean Jeans Gail After months of gridlock and bicameral bickering, House and Senate conferees unveiled a surface transportation bill compromise late on Wednesday night. And for train passengers, this unveiling will undoubtedly leave them with a resounding sense of disappointment. The compromise bill eliminates the Senate’s rail title entirely. The only real provision directed at rai...
June 28, 2012
Written By Sean Jeans Gail Following a debate on the House floor, two anti-train amendments were withdrawn by the Representatives offering them. An amendment offered by Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) would directly shut down Amtrak’s long-distance trains. This would end passenger train service in 27 of the lower 48 states and threaten the remaining trains, as certain fixed costs that wou...
June 27, 2012
Written By Sean Jeans Gail Last chance to speak up for trains! Votes on amendments to the transportation/housing appropriations bill could come as early as today at 4:00 PM Eastern. In an unusual move, the House is operating under an “open rule,” which makes it very hard to know for sure what amendments will be offered. However, NARP has identified two distinct possibilities passengers shou...
June 25, 2012
Written By Malcolm Kenton A sizable crowd came to Tallahassee, Florida's former Amtrak station on Saturday, garnering positive media exposure for NARP's joint effort to bring Amtrak service back to the New Orleans-Florida route that has been "suspended" since 2005. Tallahassee's former Amtrak station. Photo from Wikipedia.There was free food, live music and a party-type atmosphere, but most of t...