Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
February 26, 1993
New York police are reporting that a bomb may have caused an explosion below the World Trade Center today, collapsing the ceiling of the PATH rail station and perhaps killing two and injuring 300. Very little is known at this time. Congress is under growing pressure to cut spending, rather than go along with the Clinton economic stimulus package. Some columnists are attacking such items as the ad...
February 18, 1993
President Clinton's economic stimulus package was revealed last night in the State of the Union address and it had good news for supporters of balanced transportation. Also, last night's address was the first to mention "high-speed rail." Of $4.2 billion in added 1993 transportation funding, Amtrak would get $188 million, part of it for recalling the laid-off Beech Grove maintenance workers. High...
February 12, 1993
"Time for Railroad Investment," by NARP Executive Director Ross Capon, is the leading opinion column in the February 11 Journal of Commerce. Capon urges President Clinton to make good on his campaign promise to improve America's passenger trains. For a copy of the column, send NARP a self-addressed, stamped envelope. President Clinton is to address Congress on February 17, unveiling his short-ter...
February 5, 1993
Congress is on recess until February 16, perhaps a good time to remind your legislators that you support a gas tax with a penny for Amtrak and that you want Amtrak included in any economic stimulus package. DOT Secretary Federico Pena told the nation's governors on February 2 that he has put Amtrak "on the table," but he won't know if Amtrak is in President Clinton's package until it is unveiled o...
January 29, 1993
Senate Transportation Appropriations Chairman Frank Lautenberg (D.-N.J.) this week unveiled his $6.7-billion supplemental transportation funding bill for 1993. He said it would create 300,000 jobs this year. He has $2.9 billion for highways, $1.9 billion for airports, $1.4 billion for transit, and a healthy $320 million for Amtrak capital and $220 million for the Northeast Corridor -- beyond exist...