Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
February 13, 2015
Plowing out the MBTA's B Line after record snowfalls. Outrage over widespread delays led MBTA's chief to resign this week. Full story below. The House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure passed a rail reauthorization bill that caps investment in Amtrak by unanimous consent on February 12. The bill ignores the larger investment issues that have stifled capacity growth, despite stea...
February 6, 2015
A map of the potential location of Texas Central Railway's Dallas train station. Full story below. The House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure released the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act of 2015 (PRRIA 2015) yesterday. After analyzing the proposed legislation, NARP found many commonsense reforms but remains concerned that there are serious questions that are not addres...
January 30, 2015
The state of Indiana and Amtrak announced they have reached an agreement that will keep the Hoosier State running until April 1, beating an end-of-January deadline by a day. Amtrak’s 60-day contract extension with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) will give all sides more space to reach an agreement on a long-term contract. Early reports indicate that Amtrak will continue to ma...
January 23, 2015
President Barack Obama made a strong economic case for more investment in U.S. transportation in his January 20 State of the Union, saying "21st century businesses need 21st century infrastructure — modern ports, stronger bridges, [and the] faster trains" The call proved to be one of the few areas of bipartisan accord, with Representative Bill Shuster (R-PA) responding that there is broad...
January 16, 2015
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx appointed his chief of staff, Sarah Feinberg, as Acting Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration. Feinberg will replace Joseph Szabo, who left the FRA to join the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning as a senior adviser. Before she joined the U.S. DOT in the summer of 2013, Feinberg worked in the White House and as an executive in the tec...