Hotline #941

Amtrak President Joe Boardman

Amtrak President Joe Boardman announced his retirement from the rail corporation in a letter to employees. He will leave in September 2016 after nearly eight years on the job.

“One of the reasons why I gave our board notice so far in advance of my planned retirement is because I want them to have the time to think about the next leader they will select and have a chance to think about the kinds of qualities this leader will need as we move forward,” Boardman wrote. “Having served on the board prior to my time as CEO, I know that the selection of a president and CEO of Amtrak is perhaps the single most important decision that a Board can make.”

Boardman also said he had things he still wanted to get done, including: placing an order for the next generation of high-speed trainsets in North America; overseeing the delivery of new ACS-64 electric locomotives; and advancing the implementation of Positive Train Control technology on the tracks that Amtrak owns outside of the Northeast Corridor.

In its press release on the announcement, NARP noted that it has worked with Boardman from his days as head of the New York State Department of Transportation, through his service as chief of the Federal Railroad Administration, to his nearly eight-year stewardship of Amtrak.

“We don’t see eye-to-eye on every issue, but Joe has always been willing to listen to passengers and respect their right to have a voice in the process,” said President and CEO Jim Mathews. “NARP has greatly valued working with an Amtrak president who understands that for the railroad to thrive, it needs to be a national service, and that long distance trains are—as Joe said himself—the ‘backbone’ of America’s national network.”

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) used the passage of the new transportation law to hold a press conference near the site of the new Hudson River tunnel will be built.

Sen. Schumer warned that the current tunnel may shut down in seven years without proper funding to rebuild it, reports AM New York. "There might be no tunnel under the Hudson," he said. "Imagine, ferrying hundreds of thousands of workers across the river."

On December 9, the Washington Post editorial board wrote about the recently passed transportation bill. In "The transportation bill would move Amtrak in the right direction," Post writers applauded a provision in the measure: "to separate the budget for routes along the popular Northeast Corridor from the rest of the network. Any operating profits Amtrak makes on the Northeast route, which people actually use, would be reinvested there rather than going to prop up lines elsewhere."

But in a letter to the editor submitted to the Post, and in a longer blog post, NARP President and CEO Jim Mathews replied thusly: "Newspapers and media outlets up and down the Northeast Corridor are once again buying into the mythology that Amtrak's NEC operation is profitable, and thus the railroad could be a going concern if it were just freed from its yoke of long-distance service.

"It's a tidy, compelling narrative. Trouble is, it's just wrong."

The Alternet website took a look at the infrastructure plans of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.). Clinton wants to invest $275 billion over five years in infrastructure, including a promise of “a faster, safer, and higher capacity passenger rail system.” In the same five-year period, Sanders wants to spend $1 trillion, including $75 billion to upgrade passenger and freight rail lines and $125 billion for a National Infrastructure Bank to leverage private capital to finance new projects.

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In the past two years, passengers on Texas Eagle trains have experienced delays or been forced to ride on buses due to construction of a third north-south mainline track in the Fort Worth, Texas, Tower 55 project, the higher speed rail construction between Chicago and St. Louis and significant weather events on the route.

So to celebrate the completion of track upgrades and anticipated reduction in track delays in 2016, the Texas Eagle Local Revenue Management team, in conjunction with the Texas Eagle Route Director and Amtrak Central Division Marketing, will begin a special promotion for passengers between January and March 2016.

Passengers will receive a free companion rail fare when they buy one regular (adult) fare. The ticket must be purchased at least one day in advance of travel between January 5 and March 15, 2016, for travel between January 6 and March 20, 2016. These fares may be upgraded to a sleeper after paying for an accommodation charge. The promotion is valid for travel only on the Texas Eagle. It is not valid for local travel between Chicago and St. Louis, or for local travel between San Antonio and Los Angeles. Fares are subject to availability, and seating is limited. Please use discount code V344 when booking the fare.

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Wake County, North Carolina, residents went to a Raleigh Convention Center exhibit hall to learn about a $2.3 billion county transit plan, try out the seats in a few buses and ogle Will Allen’s electric toy train set, reports the News & Observer. The set ran double-decker cars similar to those carrying commuters to work in Dallas, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

The cars are part of a push-pull train, where the engineer drives the train to the end of the line, stops and walks back to a second set of controls in the rear car, and drives back in the other direction. Commuter trains, running for 37 miles from Durham and Research Triangle Park to Raleigh and Garner, are a big part of a proposed 10-year transit plan that will be considered by county commissioners next spring.

Construction of the New Haven, Connecticut, to Springfield, Massachusetts, commuter rail line system will take another year and cost $135 million more than expected, but the state said that it has a commitment from Amtrak to keep the project on budget and schedule, reports the Hartford Courant. Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has complained about Amtrak being behind schedule and over budget on the project, which led to negotiations between the state, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to get the work completed.

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As the end of 2015 fast approaches, NARP would like to thank our members for your generous donations, along with your ongoing commitment to support the preservation and expansion of our nation’s passenger rail service. Your gifts and willingness to volunteer have helped us achieve major victories in 2015, but we need to keep the momentum going in 2016.

NARP is classified as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization by the IRS, so its dues and contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. We're asking you to consider making a donation before midnight on December 31, 2015, to ensure you are able to claim your deductible on your 2015 tax return. Please keep in mind, there are other options besides cash donations. Donating securities and stock gifts can give you an even more attractive tax benefit. This allows you to have a little more money in your pocket for the holidays!

Your contributions were a major factor in getting a new transportation bill passed after not having legislation lasting more than two years since 2005. They allowed NARP to create a new website so members can communicate their desire for better service to local, state, and congressional delegates. And they funded Neon, our new database that makes it easier to make donations, renew your NARP membership and make changes to your profile. So please consider including NARP in your year-end donations. For more information, please contact NARP Development Director Logan McLeod at [email protected]. Again, we thank you for your support in 2015.

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A planned high-speed rail project between Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Va., is moving ahead as the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation sends out letters to property owners about an environmental impact study, reports WTOP-FM. The Southeast High Speed Rail Project, also known as DC2RVa, is expected to be completed by 2025. The department has already held community meetings on the project in Fredericksburg, Springfield and Richmond.

Representatives from Texas Central Railway held a meeting with opponents in Grimes County to make the case for its proposed high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas, reports The Battalion, Texas A&M’s student newspaper. One of the proposed stations is 20 miles from the campus. “Our key message today to show the community members is, one, we want them to know who we are and what our process will be, and two, that we want to engage in conversation and understand all the specifics about each situation,” said CEO Tim Keith.

All Aboard Ohio hopes that the new transportation bill, which included money for expanded intercity rail service, will lead to funding for daily Amtrak service between Cincinnati and Chicago, reports the Cincinnati Business Journal. The group wants to go after a grant under a provision that offers $20 million a year to re-establish discontinued rail service or expand existing service. It says it will cost $2 million to re-establish daily service along the Cardinal route -- which runs from New York City to Chicago -- through Cincinnati, said Derek Bauman, southwest Ohio director of the group.

Washington, D.C. has spent up to four times what other cities have to build a maintenance facility for its fledgling streetcar system one, that has yet to begin operations, reports the Washington Post. That spending is a reflection of what the newspaper called the flawed planning and execution that have dragged down the transit start-up for more than 10 years. A major part of that project, the “Car Barn,” was supposed to be a simple garage and rail yard for light repairs and storage, but ballooned in ambition and nearly tripled in cost — to $48.8 million. And a section of track built in D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood has been all but abandoned, leaving the city with a multimillion-dollar, eight-tenths of a mile monument to good intentions.

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We encourage NARP members to use Neon, our new membership management system. After logging in here, members can manage all their details, including update a profile, make address changes, make and check on donations and change passwords. It’s a win-win for everyone: members can make their own changes to ensure accuracy, while NARP staff can focus on our the business at hand -- advocating for safe, reliable, convenient, affordable and enjoyable passenger train service. We thank you for your continued support of this new system.

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Public transportation advocates and union leaders are bracing for an array of cost-saving proposals from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority as it struggles to balance its budget, reports the Boston Globe. MBTA is looking at more than two dozen options to fill its budget gap, including fare hikes, offering retirement incentives to seasoned workers and delaying promised wages for its workers.

The West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition believes that the time has come to bring passenger trains back to Menomonie and the Chippewa Valley, reports Dunn County News. The coalition held a public meeting on Dec. 1 to discuss plans to offer passenger train service from the Twin Cities to Hudson, Menomonie and Eau Claire. The coalition believes the current travel atmosphere would welcome trains, beginning with the younger generation.

Two Maryland county executives have joined to appeal to CSX Transportation to allow full commuter train service at two stations in Laurel, reports the Baltimore Sun. A letter was sent to Brian Hammock, CSX resident vice president for state government affairs calling for an expansion of passenger rail service that would make it possible for commuter trains to stop at both the downtown Laurel MARC train station and at Laurel Park Station, 2,500 feet to the north. CSX owns the tracks, while the MARC commuter train is operated by the Maryland Transit Administration.

We’ll end the week with this video from the Associated Press, sent by NARP board member George Chilson, on a railroad conductor on a Metro North train going to New York City leading the Yale Glee Club in a rendition of the popular holiday carols "Here We Come A-Wassailing” and "Carol of the Bells."

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Although the NARP staff has access to a variety of media outlets, we can’t see everything. So we thank all our members who continue to send in news stories, op-eds, editorials or letters to the editor from their local media outlets. Your news contributions are used on our social media outlets and the weekly Hotline. Keep sending your media links to [email protected], and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.