Month: June 2011

  • eNewsletter for June 27, 2011

    Truck collides with Amtrak train in Nevada  Reuters – Dan Whitcomb – Jun 24, 2011 The truck drove into the side of an Amtrak train carrying 204 passengers and 14 crew members at a railroad crossing east of Reno, Amtrak said in a written statement. The westbound California Zephyr was en route from Chicago to…

  • eNewsletter for June 20, 2011

    It would seem that the engineers working for the Los Angeles MTA think there is not enough room for a track 16. This 8.5 million dollar project will repair all the canopies and build matching ones for the restored tracks. There will be other upgrades and track 7 will be upgraded and used as a…

  • May CA Intercity Passenger Rail Performance

    Reported by David Kutrosky, Managing Director, CCJPA (Download:  May 2011 Performance Report)

  • eNewsletter for June 13, 2011

    “We don’t want the West to go and find alternatives,” Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, said in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” scheduled for broadcast today. “The higher the price of oil goes, the more they have incentives to go and find alternatives.”June 13, 2011

  • Capitol Corridor JPB June meeting report

    Reported by Bruce Jenkins, RailPAC Director Following are items of interest which were discussed and acted upon at the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Board meeting on June 8, 2011 in Suisun City CA. 1. WiFi service should be available at no charge to passengers by November of this year. This service will not accommodate down-loading…

  • enewletter for June 6, 2011

    There is still room for improvement of much of the planning of the CHSRA. But the Federal Government has made it clear that the money promised for HSR must be spent in the San Joaquin Valley with construction beginning next year or California loses the funding! NB enewsletter for June 6, 2011

  • Does a Railroad Need to Own its Tracks?

    Commentary by Noel T. Braymer Back in the 1960’s “everyone knew” that the railroads in the United States were going out of business. Actually the smaller railroads and the Class Is in the Mid-West and the North East were in trouble. My Father told me in the 1970’s that he thought that the solution to…

  • eNewsletter for May 31, 2011

    The plan to turn over planning and operation of High Speed Rail on the 437 miles between Washington and Boston to a private company is based on experiences in other counties. The 117 billion dollar, 30 year plan for 200 plus mile per hour service proposed by Amtrak is daunting at best. What is not…

  • AMTRAK Long Distance trains at 40 And, what they still need is more cars!

    Comments by Russ Jackson That was then: Forty years is a long time. In this report let’s first take a look at where the western long distance trains started for Amtrak, and then look at today. Charting will be for two trains that were in the Amtrak official timetable #1 for May 1, 1971, which…