Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
May 16, 2014
By Jenna Jablonski The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on May 15 exploring the impacts that transportation investment has on states, local communities, and users of the transportation system. Unsurprisingly, the mayors in attendance—the elected officials directly charged with meeting the transportation needs of average Americans—were direct and unequi...
May 9, 2014
By Sean Jeans-Gail The House Appropriations Committee released a fiscal year 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill earlier this week that would further tighten the budgetary screws on the national passenger rail network, precluding any chance to improve service and grow the system. In the subcommittee draft, rail is funded at $1.4 billion, representing a reduction of $1...
May 1, 2014
By Sean Jeans-Gail Following the NARP national leadership meeting, held this week in Washington, D.C., we will be presenting an abbreviated version of this week’s Hotline. We’ll return with a full news roundup next week. President Barack Obama sent his $302 billion investment plan for road, trains, and transit to Congress this week. As NARP reported earlier, the Generating Renewal, Oppo...
April 25, 2014
By Sean Jeans-Gail Photo via Wikicommons (Author: Steve Wilson) U.S.Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Mark Udall of Colorado announced this week they are working to marshal congressional support for investment in long distance trains and the preservation of the Southwest Chief. The trio of Democrats issued a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Approp...
April 18, 2014
By Sean Jeans-Gail When Florida East Coast announced it was privately funding a fast and frequent train service between Orlando and Miami via the East Coast, there was widespread support for the project from all corners. In recent weeks, we’ve seen a small-but-vocal minority initiate a campaign to kill the train. NARP has launched a campaign to rally support for the project, because the fact...