Hotline #909

Image via Flickr user Lee Rentz

NARP President and CEO Jim Mathews used an upcoming editorial in Passenger Train Journal to urge Amtrak to change course on its Silver Service food and beverage experiment on the Meteor and the Star. Amtrak’s so-called “Experiment” will test how full meals and their prices affect ridership, Sleeper bookings, and the overall revenue of the train, writes Mathews.

“The premise is that because the two Silver Service trains – the Meteor and the Star – run roughly similar routes, dropping the diner from the Star and lowering the corresponding Sleeper charge is a good way to prove or disprove what most of us have been saying for years: that without a reasonable food option, long-distance revenue crumbles.”

Instead of just drastically cutting food service, Amtrak should try a different experiment on the City of New Orleans, said Mathews. “See if we can source high quality locally procured food with contractors or caterers, and figure out how to get it to the travelling public in a way that makes better financial sense to Amtrak's bottom line,” he said.

The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee is calling for cuts to passenger rail and the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) FY 2016 budgets.

Amtrak funding was cut by $262 million, transit funding was cut by $161 million, and funding for the intermodal TIGER grant program was slashed by $400 million.

If this budget becomes law, Americans will be faced with more congestion, more crowding on trains, and longer delays. The U.S. transportation system will lose even more ground compared with other developed countries, hurting our ability to compete economically.

America's passengers must mobilize in support of predictable and sufficient funding for passenger trains. ACT NOW to make sure other Members of Congress hear this message!


The committee also recommended slashing federal funding for Washington, D.C.’s Metro subway system, from $150 million annually to $75 million, reports The Hill. Metro funds are usually matched by about $50 million each from the governments of D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

“Providing anything less than the federal commitment of $150 million would jeopardize rider safety and the successful partnership with Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia to fund the purchase of new rail cars and vital safety improvements throughout the system in response to [National Transportation Safety Board] and [Federal Transit Administration] recommendations,” said area lawmakers in a statement.


The Indiana Department of Transportation has signed another extension agreement with Amtrak to grant more time to finalize a three-party partnership between the state, Amtrak, and Iowa Pacific, LLC to introduce a new operating model.

“[July 1 is the] target we’re shooting for,” said INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield. “We’re getting closer day-by-day to getting everything in place, but there are still a lot of pieces to be put in place.”

In spite of a commitment from all the parties to advance the Hoosier State under a new private-public operating model, the state legislature almost killed that progress when House and Senate Republicans eliminated state funding for the route.

Elected officials and passenger advocates sprung into action, flooding offices in Indianapolis with phone calls supporting the train. As a result, funding was restored mere hours later.

“I made the case that we’re funding a new model, a public-private venture, and all the other states are watching what we do here,” said State Rep. Randy Truitt.

An editorial in The Times says there’s more to the story than bringing Northwest Indiana residents to high-paying jobs in Chicago when it comes to extending commuter rail service in Northwest Indiana. “Keith Benman’s series on commuter rail last week shows that expansion of South Shore service in Northwest Indiana, coupled with improvements along the existing line, has the power to bring improvements to host communities, and those benefits spread far beyond those communities,” said the editorial. Rail detractors who are focusing on bringing jobs to the region should open their eyes to the many benefits of the investment in commuter rail. “Commuter rail isn't just about sending workers to jobs elsewhere. It's also about reducing pollution, improving the quality of life and revitalizing communities.”


Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is using his official visit to the United States to tout the benefits of his country’s high-speed rail system. He is also urging three projects considering high-speed rail links -- Los Angeles-San Francisco, Dallas-Houston and Washington-New York City -- to partner with Japanese firms to complete them, reports the Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for Abe tweeted a photo of the prime minister discussing high-speed rail technology with California Gov. Jerry Brown, reports theWall Street Journal Asia.


The privately held North American High Speed Rail Group, which hopes to build the Zip Rail between Rochester, Minnesota, and the Twin Cities, made its case during the recent United States High Speed Rail Association conference in Washington, D.C., reports the Post-Bulletin. Olmsted County Commissioner Ken Brown noted that the train is able to travel up to 225 mph, cutting commute times for Rochester riders. He noted that nearly 35,000 employees at Mayo Clinic in Rochester who could benefit from high-speed rail service and avoid a glut of cars on the U.S. 52 corridor as the facility expands.


An Earth Day report in CNN Money asked which mode of transportation is best for the earth. The answer was city-to-city buses, like the Greyhound. But coming in second was trains, particularly Amtrak. Despite service speeds, Amtrak trains get 56 mpg per passenger. City trains and commuter rail are pretty good too. A city train gets 52 mpg per passenger, while a commuter train -- usually used to connect the suburbs to a city -- gets about 44 mpg per passenger. “Driving is pretty bad, and it's largely because we drive alone. The average car contains just 1.5 passengers, and the mpg per passenger is 39. This equation changes, of course, if you've got four people in a 50 mpg hybrid,” said the report.