Commentary

RailPAC-NARP Meeting Report

William “Bill” Lindley of Scottsdale, Arizona attended the joint RailPAC/NARP meeting in Los Angeles and files this report and personal observations. Mr. Lindley is an Associate Director/website maintainer for RailPAC.

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INCREASED CALIFORNIA RAIL FUNDING FOR 2009

brontepic1 An interview with Caltrans’ BILL BRONTE
Reported by Bill Kerby, RailPAC Treasurer
with Russ Jackson, RailPAC.org editor
There is good news to celebrate and some not so good news as to the future of funding for the Caltrans Rail program for the year 2009 as of the publication date of this newsletter.

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BURBANK AIRPORT AUTHORITY PROPOSES TRANSIT CENTER

Commentary by Paul Dyson, RailPAC President, and member, Burbank Transportation Commission.
The facility would provide “moving walkway” link with the Amtrak/Metrolink station.

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Rail Safety Improvement Act will save lives

By Robert Manning, RailPAC Director
Printed in The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, February 8, 2009

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RIC SILVER: A real rail advocate!

A tribute with PHOTOS to RailPAC’s outgoing, one-of-a-kind former Executive Director, by Russ Jacksonpauldysonandricsilver
We first met Richard L. Silver sometime around 1995. RailPAC was still a small, but noisy, organization of rail advocates who were speaking our minds on California and Amtrak national issues. Alan Wimmergren was president, founders Byron Nordberg and Dr. Adrian Herzog, all now deceased, were very active in promoting our ideas.

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AMTRAK CAPITAL INVESTMENT AND THE WESTERN TRAINS

RailPAC President Paul Dyson writes to NARP Chairman George Chilson:

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RAILROAD PASSENGERS, 900 Second Street NE Suite 308, Washington, DC 20002, Via E-Mail, hard copy by US Mail              Dear George:  I am writing on behalf of RailPAC to express our deep concern at the future of Amtrak’s western routes. The trains west of Chicago have been starved of capital investment by Amtrak for many years, and the current 5-year rolling stock plan does nothing to redress this situation. The Superliner fleet is showing its age, now mostly over 30 years, and yet in spite of crowded trains and solid returns on investment from long haul ticket and sleeper revenue Amtrak continues to spend 95% of its capital dollars on the NEC. This should be as unacceptable to NARP as it is to us.

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RailPAC President responds to LA Times article

RAIL PASSENGER ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA
1017 L Street PMB 217, Sacramento, CA 95814    www.railpac.org  Danger in “Signal Gaps”?

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RailPAC President’s Message

 RAIL PASSENGER ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA  1017 L Street PMB 217, Sacramento, CA 95814  New Year message from Paul Dyson, RailPAC President:    I think it’s fair to say that RailPAC has had a moderately successful year in 2008, a year that has involved a lot of swimming upstream and around all sorts of obstacles.

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What’s the Holdup on the Sprinter?

By Noel T. Braymer

The PUC gave approval to start service for the Sprinter two days before the March 9th start up

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RailPAC’s Dyson writes Amtrak IG re Deely letter

28 February, 2008

Mr. Fred Weiderhold, Jr
Inspector General
NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION
P.O. Box 76654
Washington, DC 20013 6654

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