Hotline
Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
November 4, 2016
Growing demand for high-speed rail throughout the U.S. is leading to stronger support from the general public for HSR projects nationwide. Multiple states and regions across the country are looking for HSR service and equipment upgrades, including California, Minnesota, the Northeast Corridor, and of course, Texas. A new poll in Texas by Survey USA highlights the trend, revealing that 76 percent o...
October 28, 2016
In important news for California high-speed rail, the state’s high-speed rail authority has announced it will cut planned capacity to manage costs. The change by California's High Speed Rail Authority will result in the HSR system running fewer cars per train than originally proposed, 10 cars instead of 20 cars. This change is significant as it will reduce cost, time and labor for development an...
October 21, 2016
With several billion dollars of federal stimulus and railroad improvement funds invested in high-speed rail in California through the U.S. Department of Transportation, Secretary Anthony Foxx made a visit to the San Joaquin Valley to get a peek at how work has progressed on the system. More than $3 billion from the Obama administration – much of it from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestmen...
October 14, 2016
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for Amtrak released a new report that highlighted the Amtrak’s need to budget appropriately for live-saving technology throughout its rail network. The report found that Amtrak has made strides in implementing automated braking technology known as Positive Train Control (PTC), but that the passenger rail agency still has several tasks to complete before it r...
October 7, 2016
In a week since the train accident in Hoboken, NJ, the New Jersey Transit and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been moving forward with investigating the cause of the crash. According to a preliminary report from the NTSB, which is based on data pulled from a the train’s data recorder and video, the commuter train was traveling twice the 10 mph speed limit just before it cras...
