April 1st, 2006

What Amtrak Should Be Doing to Improve its Food Service Revenue

SPECIAL REPORT — Food and beverage service on Amtrak doesn’t have to be something akin to a national shame. It has the potential to be pleasant, profitable, and nourishing. It has the potential to be good, rather than a necessity begrudgingly dished out by a common carrier with no ambition for good passenger service.

Continue Reading »

Take the Train to Catch Your Plane!

By RailPAC Director and Review Editor Noel T. Braymer — Major airports generate lots of traffic. LAX alone averages over 160,000 passengers a day. Airports are also major employment centers, with many airport employees commuting to the airport every day. Further, airports are commercial centers with many businesses that want to be close to the airport. Traffic congestion is common around airports, and parking at most airports is expensive and hard to find. Airports are often second “downtowns” in their region. Caltrans Rail Division has been getting many letters for years asking about connections to California airports via Amtrak trains. Caltrans has on their web page an extensive list of the transit connections between rail stations and California airports at www.amtrakcalifornia.com/airports/access.htm.

Continue Reading »

Grade Separation Projects a High Priority

By RailPAC President Paul Dyson — I’m writing this on 24th of February on a typical news day; an attack on a Saudi Refinery, controversy over a toll road route through a state park, and Burbank is the sixth sootiest city in the US. Everyday there are reminders of the wrong direction of our transportation priorities. Everyday there seem to be new battles to fight, all too many of them re-argued actions against the paving over of more of California.

Continue Reading »