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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. There…
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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…
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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…
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San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee
Fresno — Reported by Russ Jackson HOT RUMORS in Washington DC are that Norman Mineta will resign as DOT Secretary “in the next 30 days,” and Congressman Bill Thomas, (R-Bakersfield) who announced his retirement this month, will become the next Secretary of the Treasury if Secretary Snow resigns. No speculation about a replacement for Secretary…
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In America, Passenger Trains get no respect
By RailPAC Director and Review Editor Noel T. Braymer — One of my favorite TV shows is “Mythbusters” on the Discovery Channel. A group of eccentric but technically qualified people put “urban legends” and “common wisdom” to the test to see if they can be true. An example of this is the “fact” that “if…
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There are Many Challenges Ahead
By RailPAC President Paul Dyson — It’s a great honor for me to take on the duties of President of RailPAC. Our organization has been very effective in the past in uniting rail passenger advocates and politicians behind a policy of affordable, incremental investments in improving mobility in the state of California. We identified surplus…
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Capitol Corridor JPA Board Meeting Report
Sacramento City Hall — Reported by Russ Jackson CCJPB Officials Visit The UP HQ In Omaha Expansion To 32 Daily Trains In August RailPAC Urges Passage Of Legislation For More Rail Funds Good News For Oakland To San Jose Riders CCJPB’S Gene Skorpowski Writes To Riders About ‘On Time’ Eastbound Capitol train 724 has just…
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Transportation Agency of Monterey County
Reported by Chris Flescher, Associate Director, RailPAC — The status of the service to the Monterey Peninsula is that there still might be 2 trains a day running in 2009. The project is under environmental review and TAMC is examining alternatives. TAMC will be applying for FTA new starts money soon. Earlier that day (Feb…
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Transportation Agency of Monterey County
Reported by Chris Flescher, Associate Director, RailPAC — One very important thing is that the UP railroad has approved the proposed station track layouts for Pajaro, Castroville, and Salinas. There is a water company that people call Cal Am. I think the full name is something like California American Water. They are proposing a desalination…
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The Best and Worst of Times
By RailPAC Editor Noel T. Braymer — RailPAC’s annual meeting this January 28th highlighted the great progress we have had, and can look forward to in California. Along with this we have problems that never seem to go away which we must still fight. Since 1990 there have been no major sources of new funding…