I’ve just made the last couple of reservations for my trip to Washington, DC, at the end of this month for the annual Spring meeting of the Rail Passengers Association. It’s a three-day affair, with the second day spent trudging from one congressional office to another, pleading the case for passenger rail. After a dozen…
I had an interesting conversation the other day with someone who has been around the intelligentsia, the rich, and the powerful throughout his professional career. Furthermore, he’s familiar with and sympathetic to what RPA is trying to accomplish: more trains, better trains, faster trains. Early in our conversation, I was complaining about the loss…
TRAINS magazine reports Amtrak’s Board of Directors will demand full implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) on any route over which an Amtrak train operates by the end of the calendar year or it will cancel those trains. If the board does indeed adopt this position, as a practical matter it would mean at…
It’s a little before noon on Wednesday as I write this, and a top Amtrak executive is appearing right about now before a Congressional committee. That’s not so unusual. Amtrak people are summoned to appear before our elected representatives regularly as, I suppose, are any organizations receiving support from tax dollars. But this time…