RailPAC: Rail Passenger Association of CA & NV

Year: 2013

  • eNewsletter for October 14, 2013

    Re: Amtrak no bargain for the States    The states that fund their own intercity services, including California, will go on getting gouged by Amtrak to the limits of credibility only as long as they continue to treat Amtrak as a sole supplier rather than put these services out to competitive bid.      …

  • Capitol and other CA Corridor Statistics (September, 2013)

    By David B. Kutrosky, Managing Director Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority Year-over-year ridership on the Capitol Corridor trains was even with last September. 132,937 passengers rode the Capitol Corridor trains in September 2013, closing out FY 2013 with a total of 1.70 million riders and representing a 2.6% decrease in riders compared to FY 2012.…

  • How to Operate Passenger Trains at a Profit

    By Noel T. Braymer It is no secret that the key to being profitable is to bring in more money than you spend. To run a profitable passenger railroad the keys are maximizing productivity and increasing revenue with increased ridership. Here are basic steps that other successful transportation services use to do more than just…

  • eNewsletter for October 7, 2013

    Dan Richards, Chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority addressing the RailPAC/NARP Joint Meeting in San Francisco on October 5, 2013. Mr. Richard gave the funniest and most charming talk of the day about the many problems he has faced at the High Speed Rail Authority. He admitted that in 2008 the Authority was…

  • Notes on the October 5th’s RailPAC/NARP Meeting San Francisco

    By Noel T. Braymer I wasn’t in the mood this time to ride buses for 2 night in a row for this year’s meeting in San Francisco. So I got a flight out of San Diego at 7:56 AM for an arrival at 9:35 AM at San Francisco. Since the first Coaster Train to San…

  • The Future of Wireless Electric Trains

    By Noel T. Braymer Recently there was excitement among techno-geeks about a patent application by the Tesla electric car company for a hybrid metal-air/lithium ion battery car. The speculation was this could be Tesla’s 400 mile range electric car it has been working on.  So what is a hybrid metal-air/lithium ion car? The idea is to…

  • eNewslettter for September 30, 2013

    We’re holding ACE in drive for SJ Valley employment Manteca Bulletin- Sep 28, 2013 The real game changer for the economically challenged in the San Joaquin Valley won’t by California High Speed Rail. It’ll be well-run traditional rail modeled after the Altamont Corridor Express service. That’s because high speed rail will serve one of three classes: Upper income…

  • RailPAC PHOTOS of the Month (September, 2013)

    Here are this month’s 5 photos by RailPAC photographers. Click on each photo to see it full size! Contributions to this page are welcome. Send your jpg rail photos to RailPAC Photo Editor, at [email protected]. 1. Two Metrolink trains connected together, at the Oceanside Transit Center. On September 20 RailPAC’s Noel Braymer was on board.…

  • How to Save the Chief

    By Noel T. Braymer The prospects for the future of the Southwest Chief don’t look good. The BNSF has made it clear that they will not spend more money on the route between Albuquerque, New Mexico and Newton, Kansas to maintain the tracks to passengers standards with so little freight traffic on them. BNSF wants…

  • eNewsletter for September 23, 2013

    BART was the first of several subway systems over the last 40 tears to operate with automation. Except in yard limits at slow speeds with operators at the controls BART trains have been mostly run by computers for over 40 years. The primary job of the operators is to check the doors at the station…