Your weekly source of fresh takes on news affecting America's passengers. See also the NARP Blog.
September 6, 1991
There is still no progress on the conversion of the Hotline to a 900 number, so it will be at least another two weeks yet. Congress returns on September 11. We expect the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee to mark up its DOT funding bill on September 11 or 12. The fate of the House surface transportation bill is still very dicey. House and Public Works leadership will be discussing...
August 30, 1991
The earliest that this Hotline service will be converted to a 900 number now is Hotline #686 of September 13. We regret any confusion that may be resulting from the numerous postponements of this service change. Five people were killed in a New York City subway crash the morning of August 28, just after midnight. The southbound #4 IRT night-time Lexington Avenue local was crossing over from an ex...
August 23, 1991
The earliest that this Hotline service will be converted to a 900 number is now Hotline #685 of September 6. We regret any confusion that may be resulting from the numerous postponements of this service change. Hurricane Bob battered New England on August 19, affecting the operations of several railroads. Several Amtrak corridor trains were diverted to the Inland route via Worcester, causing dela...
August 16, 1991
The conversion of this Hotline service to a 900 number is being postponed by another week, until Hotline #684 of August 30, to give callers a chance to call next week's message to hear what the new phone number will be. A tri-weekly extension of the Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Miami may happen in 1993, after recent negotiations between Amtrak and the states along that route. Using the Fede...
August 9, 1991
An important message about this service will appear at the end of this message. The National Transportation Safety Board made no additional comment this week on the cause of the July 31 Silver Star wreck at Lugoff, S.C., which killed seven* passengers. A week ago, inspectors said there did not seem to be a problem with the Amtrak rolling stock and that they were concentrating on a switch that the...