eNewsletter for February 20, 2012 March 2nd, 2012
Amtrak keeps a back up locomotive in San Diego. This is a result of a series of locomotive breakdowns in late October and just before Thanksgiving in 2009 and the criticism that followed of Amtrak’s lack of planning to handle such emergencies. However Amtrak continues to have problems maintaining its equipment and is still having problems responding to emergencies. This has been an ongoing problem all throughout Amtrak’s history. Too many passengers LAST train trip were spent stranded for hours on trains with no power, toilets, food or information as to when they would get to their destination.
eNewsletter for February 13, 2012 February 18th, 2012
Inland Empire News – Feb 9,2012 SACRAMENTO – Governor Brown and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood are reaffirming their support for building High-Speed Rail in California. LaHood said he’s traveled throughout the state “and found a strong base of support, from workers who will ..
eNewsletter for February 6, 2012 February 10th, 2012
The only leg of the San Joaquin Valley HSR starter line that seems close to construction is by Fresno. The deadline for starting construction is this Summer! The lack of political consensus in most of the Valley will likely delay or prevent construction in the foreseeable future. There are several projects long in the planning stage on the Peninsula and in Southern California which have cleared all environmental studies and are only waiting for funding. Governor Brown seems to be very aware of this from recent interviews he gave over a week ago NB.
eNewsletter for January 30, 2012 February 2nd, 2012
San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee takes stand on Closing the HSR Gap at January 26 Meeting ; Passes Resolution Supporting Closure of the Southern Gap. The top priority for rail passenger service in California is direct service between Bakersfield and Los Angeles. Hopefully other government bodies will join the SJVRC with similar statements. NB
eNewsletter for January 23, 2012 January 26th, 2012
In the media the rule for running a story is “If it bleeds it leads”. The High Speed Rail project has bled a great deal. That doesn’t mean it is dead. There is still major support for this project by powerful interests. There is also strong support by the public for better and economical rail passenger service. Few politicians will give up money that has been allocated and they can be very flexible to prevent that from happening. The State has to start construction this year to qualify for the 3 billion dollars in Federal High Speed Rail funds. There are plenty of rail projects in the State that have waited years for funding that can qualify for this money. To create faster rail service in California will require realism about future financing and avoiding pointless legal battles to shave off seconds in the running time. … If we just had rail service between Northern and Southern California which was time competitive with the auto: under 6 hours and cost competitive as well it would be a great start and heavily used. NB
eNewsletter for January 16, 2012 January 20th, 2012
Amtrak admits that the average age of its equipment is older now than it was when it “inherited” its original equipment from the railroads in 1971. Most of the Superliner equipment is now 32 years old and even the newest is 19 years old. Of the 479 Superliner cars originally ordered at least 49 over the years have been lost due to accidents. The routes that have Superliner equipment have the highest occupancy rates at Amtrak and often turn away passengers because of lack of equipment. Yet Amtrak has no plans to buy additional equipment for the Superliner routes to even keep up with lost equipment let alone to increase ridership and revenues on existing trains. NB
eNewsletter for January 9, 2012 January 13th, 2012
Mr. Boardman (Amtrak President) is on record saying that there are no plans to eliminate Long Distance Trains in the face of reductions of Federal subsidies for Amtrak. Also on the record are claims by Mr. Boardman that the Long Distance Trains are the cause of much of Amtrak’s deficits. There are also reports that in private Mr. Boardman has said that he would sacrifice all of the Long Distance Trains in order to “save” the Northeast Corridor (NEC). If this is true then Mr. Boardman is delusional. The Long Distance Trains are the best thing Amtrak has to support the NEC. Not only politically but financially. When the Long Distance Trains system was at its greatest both in route miles and equipment under former Amtrak President W. Graham Claytor, Amtrak was at its best fiscal health of its history. NB
eNewsletter for January 3, 2012 January 6th, 2012
The State of California owns the locomotives and cars used on the San Joaquins, has paid with local governments for improvements or replacements of the stations on the route and paid for Amtrak’s maintenance base in Oakland which services the San Joaquins. And Amtrak thinks the San Joaquins are their trains?
eNewsletter for December 26, 2011 December 30th, 2011
Speed is attractive on any travel mode. Higher speeds can lead to greater productivity. But ridership is also determined by other factors such as price, comfort, safety, convenience and the number of markets served. Speed can be very expensive which can make the price of the service uncompetitive. By-passing towns to improve running times will also reduce the number of markets served unless there are good connecting services to express train which the TGV trains have.
eNewsletter for December 12, 2011 December 29th, 2011
This is from testimony by retired Republican Congressman and current Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood given on December 6th before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It didn’t get much media coverage… The effort to derail the California HSR Project is part of a larger partisan effort to derail the presidency of President Obama by giving him a “defeat”. At stake is more than the California HSR Project but also funding for most infrastructure improvements for passenger rail service.
