RailPAC: Rail Passenger Association of CA & NV

Year: 2013

  • What’s Needed for Great Rail Passenger Service

    By Noel T. Braymer When  rail service is good, people will take the train in droves. When there is great rail service, many traffic congestion problems can be solved or reduced. The problems today with depending on cars for transportation are: they take up lots of space, we can’t build enough roads or parking lots…

  • eNewsletter for December 23, 2013

    Expo Line leads to drop in driving USC News-Dec 16, 2013    Los Angeles residents who live near a Metro Expo Line station on Exposition Boulevard reduced the number of miles they drove and tripled their rail ridership since the rail line opened last year, according to a new USC study. December 23, 2013 The above…

  • November 2013 Capitol Corridor Service Performance

    Report by David B. Kutrosky, Managing Director Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority The performance results for both ridership and revenue continued to decline in November 2013 when compared to November 2012. For November 2013, a total of 117,891 passengers rode the Capitol Corridor trains, representing a 6.8% drop in ridership and an 8.2% decline in…

  • Amtrak opens the Los Angeles Metropolitan Lounge

    Report by Paul J. Dyson, RailPAC President Los Angeles, December 19, 2013 Today I attended the opening ceremony of the new Amtrak lounge for sleeping car and Business class passengers. In spite of being Amtrak’s 5th busiest, Los Angeles Union Station has never had a facility of this kind and it is much to be…

  • Getting Derailed on the Crescent for Thanksgiving!

    Story and Photos by RailPAC member Alexander Friedman I love traveling cross-country by train and I have done so every year for over a decade. For this Thanksgiving holidays I decided to take, for the first time the Sunset Limited. Then after visiting New Orleans for a day, I planned to transfer onto the Crescent…

  • I Hate Driving in LA!

    By Noel T. Braymer I Love LA, and I love going to LA. But most people, particularly those who live in LA know that its traffic is a mess. I and others would love rail alternatives to driving to get around to more of LA. But the worst traffic in LA is where there are…

  • eNewsletter for December 16, 2013

    To try to reduce the number of homeless at LAUS, LA Metro now only allows ticketed passengers to sit in the station for 2 hours max with separate sections for Amtrak and Metrolink passengers. Transit passengers can’t sit in the main station. December 16, 2013 The above copy of this enewletter is on a PDF…

  • Amtrak Monthly Performance Report

    Reported by Anthony Lee, RailPAC Associate Director Each month Amtrak compiles a Performance Report, covering many financial and financial items. Their full (unaudited) report can be found on www.amtrak.com by going to the list of items at the bottom of the home page and selecting “News & Media” then select “Reports & Documents” and then…

  • Filling Up Passenger Trains with On-Line Ticketing

    By Noel T. Braymer Even the busiest passenger train lines don’t have full trains all of the time. More passengers on trains translates into more support for improved rail passenger service. It also brings in more money which is always needed for passenger rail service. So how can rail passenger providers fill up trains that…

  • eNewsletter for December 9, 2013

    A 220-mph NEC? A contrarian weighs in RailwayAge Magazine (blog)-Dec 3, 2013 But as a contrarian points out, the infrastructure improvement costs of upping maximum Northeast Corridor speeds to 220 mph is equivalent to almost $1 billion per minute saved, and when one arrives a half-hour earlier at origin to await boarding, and then stands in a…