Free Republic

Everybody has been watching Brightline, the bold upstart operator of private-sector passenger trains in a nation where every other scheduled train is operated in the public sector, either by Amtrak or by a local transit authority. There has been a lot of news about Brightline lately, and this writer originally intended to focus on the customer experience and the railroad’s plans for the future.Then came the news that Virgin Group’s Richard Branson is buying a position in the company and the brand will be sacrificed in favor of Virgin Trains USA. This news raises more questions than it resolves, and...

Reflections on the May 12, 2015 Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia... First Day at School You’re a gym teacher at a new school, in charge of 30 kids in a gym, on your first day at work. You can’t keep your eye on all of them at once. While you were helping a couple of kids improve their free throws at one end, you hear a shout at the other end of the gym; one kid knocked another down. Scenario 1: You don’t know either kid at all, so you objectively ask the kids to all explain what happened. You...

You are our Ruler. An entrepreneur tells you he wants to create something he calls a "skating rink." Young and old will strap blades to their feet and speed through an oval arena, weaving patterns as moods strike them. You'd probably say, "We need regulation -- skating stoplights, speed limits, turn signals -- and a rink director to police the skaters. You can't expect skaters to navigate the rink on their own." And yet they do. They spontaneously create their own order. At last month's State of the Union, President Obama said America needs more passenger trains. How does he...

While officials from Iowa City to Washington, D.C., have lauded a proposed rail from Iowa City to Chicago as a way to boost a struggling economy, some argue the rail simply will not work. "I think there are a number of demographic and economic hurdles to overcome before [the rail] would be viable," said Sam Staley, the director of urban and land-use policy at Reason Foundation in Los Angeles, Calif. Staley was part of a 2006 study on the economic effects of numerous rail lines, including the Hiawatha line between Chicago and Milwaukee, which found that rails might not result...

FOX6 News has learned the Wisconsin Department of Transportation has shut down the project to build a high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. The DOT issued an e-mail to all contractors working on the high-speed rail project not to proceed any further. Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.

The drive to expand commuter rail across Northwest Indiana seems to have died sometime over the last year, yet there was virtually no recognition of the loss. There was no wake. No funeral. No obituary. While some knew the movement was ailing, few apparently knew the seriousness of the situation. And no one seemed willing to accept responsibility. Now, five years after the Regional Development Authority was created to, in part, jump-start commuter rail expansion, the proponents are quietly trying to bring the cause back to life. Rather than continuing to embrace the full build-out of rail lines to Lowell...

Busway Is A Dead End — Restoring Rail Would Serve More People BetterThe proposed 9.4-mile New Britain-to-Hartford busway — a paved corridor exclusively for buses that would connect only four communities: New Britain, Newington, West Hartford and Hartford — could cause the permanent loss of rail rights-of-way and deal a drastic blow to the state's passenger and freight rail service. The busway is estimated to cost $570 million. And that's just the estimate. This costly project will harm passenger and freight rail systems in Connecticut and throughout New England. It would pave over an existing rail right-of-way between Newington and...

Restaurant chain rolls out new breakfast menu WASHINGTON, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- SUBWAY® Restaurants are joining Amtrak to celebrate the importance of trains as the premier sponsor of the third annual National Train Day on May 8, 2010. SUBWAY® will brand the Northeast Regional, Hiawatha and Pacific Surfliner trains with vibrant imagery of the restaurant's new breakfast sandwiches and National Train Day. SUBWAY® branded Amtrak trains will run from April 23 to May 21 and cover the northeastern states, Chicago to Milwaukee and Los Angeles to San Diego routes. "National Train Day celebrates the train's impact on our country and...

Note: The following text (minus the graph) is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-cleveland-columbus Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 27, 2010 Fact Sheet: High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program: Cleveland - Columbus - Dayton - Cincinnati Awardees: Ohio Department of Transportation Total Approximate Funding (entire corridor): $400,000,000 Benefiting State: Ohio Miles of Track: New - 250 miles This new corridor connects four major metropolitan areas in Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati. This significant route, named the “3C Corridor,” has a length of 250 miles and will serve...

Passenger rail, Amtrak in particular, has been a conservative whipping boy for decades. This point of view needs serious re-examination, because national transportation strategy is an issue of US national competitiveness, and passenger rail has a significant role to play. In short, the US has no transportation strategy, while the fragile air transportation network, decaying roads and bridges, crushing highway congestion, and wobbly urban transit systems only add cost and dysfunction to an already struggling economy. A major federal government role in building and maintaining significant national assets that make the country competitive is entirely consistent with conservative philosophy. The...

Driving down to Austin lately has become a real trip. I-35 is usually packed for most of the 185 miles, and what used to take three or four hours now can take five or six. Flying down can take almost as long, when you figure in airline security delays, more flight delays, and the time it takes getting into and out of crowded airports. But what if it took 45 minutes to travel from the Metroplex to Austin by train or an hour to make a trip to Houston? Advocates of high-speed rail lines are floating these ideas once again...

More and higher tolls won't be enough to pay for the nation's highway needs, a bipartisan study panel chaired by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation said today in a long-awaited report. Instead, Congress will need to raise the federal gas tax by 25 to 40 cents a gallon over five years, according to the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. The 12-member commission is a bipartisan panel formed by Congress in 2005 to rethink the way the nation builds and pays for its highways and transit systems. "There is no free lunch," Jack Schenendorf, vice chairman of the...

The Trans-Texas Corridor, and the TTC-35 component that will parallel Interstate 35, is the best solution to the congestion facing Texas highways, and I-35 in particular. Not only would it relieve traffic congestion, it would also expand economic opportunity along its path. What citizens need to realize also is that from the start, part of the long-term answer to relieving that congestion, and part of the TTC plan, has been passenger rail. Ottis Foster is correct in his Dec. 16 guest column, “Trucks on rails, off I-35” regarding rail being a key part of the solution to the increased traffic...

The Trans-Texas Corridor project, proposing four to six toll truck lanes and four to six toll passenger lanes from Laredo to Oklahoma, may be as near as five years. Greg Massey, a member of the Oklahoma Highway Authority, recently met with the Texas Department of Transportation. “We really didn't get any new information. The project is still proposed to cross over and connect with I-35 to come into Oklahoma. TxDOT did say they are five years out on the project,” Massey said. Ten different routes are proposed for the corridor. The major variations in the routes follow the three represented...

It is time to “TTX” Amtrak – to sell Amtrak back to the freight railroads much as TTX is owned by the major carriers using its pooled freight cars. The manner in which Amtrak has been financed and operated since its creation in 1970 is no way to run a railroad. Amtrak's annual trek to Capitol Hill and ensuing begging mission – habitually impeded by conservatives anxious to kill it – begets barely sufficient funds to achieve mediocrity and discourages the best and brightest from seeking employment. Alas, the electorate won't permit Amtrak to die; conservatives won't permit Amtrak to...

If ridership doesn't improve, Sound Transit's operating expenses this year for its new Sounder commuter train between Everett and Seattle could add up to more than $38 for each one-way passenger. Adults pay $3 for each one-way trip on the train. At current ridership levels, that amounts to a taxpayer subsidy of more than $35 for each passenger. Sound Transit officials say the expenses per rider will come down as more trains are added to the route and more people learn about the system. The current subsidy is just for operating costs such as train crews, equipment maintenance and insurance....

MONTREAL (CP) - Canada's Bombardier Inc. will roll out this week - in Washington - a jet engine-powered locomotive it has been quietly developing for years in partnership with the U.S. Federal Railroad Administration. Bombardier believes its 240-kilometres-an-hour JetTrain is the answer to providing high-speed rail service throughout North America using existing track and without the prohibitive cost of electrifying rail networks. It calls JetTrain the first high-speed, non-electric locomotive designed for the North American market. It uses a turbine engine to generate power, instead of the diesel engine used in nearly all locomotives in North America for the past...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. NEWARK, Oct. 9 — A decade-old proposal to build an additional rail tunnel to carry passengers between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan got a boost today as state officials said the project would now top their list of transportation priorities. To emphasize that decision, the board of New Jersey Transit voted to spend $4.9 million on an environmental impact study of the project. Transportation experts said that by doing so, the agency was taking the lead in a planning process that has been going on for 10 years without clear direction....

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. mayors urged approval of Amtrak's $1.2 billion budget request on Friday, saying that a proposal in Congress to reduce spending on unprofitable long-distance routes would devastate service to dozens of cities and hurt regional transportation investment. In a letter to congressional leaders, the U.S. Conference of Mayors criticized the plan moving through the House of Representatives that would cut long-distance funding to $150 million this fiscal year. Amtrak says that amount is wholly insufficient. The spending plan approved by the House Appropriations Committee last week would provide...