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Capitol Corridor Monthly Report (February, 2014)
Reported by David B. Kutrosky, Managing Director Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority Service Performance Overview Capitol Corridor ridership and revenue for February 2014 were slightly below last February’s results: -1.6% and -2.7%, respectively. A total of 104,308 trips were made on the Capitol Corridor in February 2014 vs. 105,964 in February 2013. I attribute this…
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Amtrak budget request hits the Long Distance trains with a cost shift that doesn’t make sense
Report and Commentary by Russ Jackson and Andrew C. Selden, URPA Amtrak published its budget request for the year beginning October, 2014, on March 18. To read the full document, go to this site: http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/412/537/Amtrak-FY2015-Federal-Budget-Request-ATK-14-028,0.pdf In summary, here is what Amtrak has in store for the western Long Distance Business Line, which includes the Coast…
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RailPAC rail PHOTOS of the month (February, 2014)
Here are this month’s 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 Russ Jackson, RailPAC Photo Editor, at [email protected]. 1. After losing over 45 minutes between Roseville and Colfax, Amtrak train #6 the California Zephyr passes a Sunday…
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Amtrak drops amenities on long distance trains, and there’s bad news for the Southwest Chief
Commentary by Russ Jackson, RailPAC Associate Director On February 1, 2014, Amtrak’s General Manager Long Distance Services, Mark Murphy, spoke to the RailPAC-NARP meeting in Los Angeles. While this writer was unable to attend the meeting I have viewed the video of his presentation. In it, Mr. Murphy spoke of the future of the long…
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Capitol Corridor Monthly Report (January, 2014)
David B. Kutrosky, Managing Director Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority Service Performance Overview The service performance results in January 2014 for the Capitol Corridor were mixed. Ridership for January 2014 slightly increased 0.6% compared with prior year-month results, while revenue was 3.8% below January 2013. On-time performance (OTP) was once again a spectacular 97%, moving…
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RailPAC rail PHOTOS of the month (January, 2014)
Here are this month’s 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 Russ Jackson, RailPAC Photo Editor, at [email protected]. 1. This is the LaJunta, Colorado, station with Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, one of the endangered stations on that route…
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Neil Bjornsen, 1945 – 2014
Photo from about 2010 with RailPAC Director Neil Bjornsen on the left with then Chairman of SCRRA (Metrolink) Keith Mullhouse of Moorpark at center and at right RailPAC President Paul Dyson. The passenger rail advocacy community, the Los Angeles Count Metropolitan Transportation Agency (“Metro”) and the Citizens’ Advisory Council (CAC) are dealt a great loss…
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Capitol Corridor Statistics for December, 2013
by David B. Kutrosky, Managing Director Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority Ridership on Capitol Corridor in December 2013 was 111,722, an increase of three percent over December 2012. This was the first time in FY2014 that for a given month was higher than the ridership of its prior year month. As a result, revenues for…
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What Do The Long Haul Trains Really Cost?
By Andrew Selden, President, Minnesota Rail Passenger Association The great Amtrak myth is that long distance trains cost a ton of money (one recent report we saw, which loaded them up with shares of every cost imaginable, including NEC costs and all the non-cash ones like depreciation of fully-depreciated Superliners, alleged a net loss last…
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RailPAC PHOTOS of the Month (December, 2013)
Here are this month’s 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]. Russ Jackson, Photo page editor. And, a HAPPY NEW YEAR from the RailPAC Staff. 1. RailPAC member, Alexander Friedman, was on…