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President’s Commentary – Key RailPAC priorities for 2020
By Steve Roberts – RailPAC President [Originally published in Steel Wheels, 1st Quarter 2020] Greetings! In early January, members of the RailPAC Board developed options and came to a consensus on RailPAC’s policy priorities for 2020. The two major ground rules were that the priorities had to be focused and actionable in 2020. A list…
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Our Most Important RailPAC Steel Wheels Conference Ever
2018 has become a critical year for passenger rail in California. The threat to the interstate network trains, California Zephyr, Sunset Limited, Southwest Chief and Coast Starlight, puts them on the brink of fading into history barring radical action by Amtrak management and the Federal government. Two decades of under-investment would have been enough to…
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Anderson and crew have it all wrong about Raton Pass
In their recent employee bulletin Amtrak management, (Anderson and crew) upped the ante by demanding over $100 million for the route of the Southwest Chief between Kansas and New Mexico, including “full PTC”. If you want to hold politicians to ransom you wave the safety flag. An elected official can be no more be against…
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Boardman Joins the Fight for the National Network
In a surprise development, Joe Boardman, former Amtrak CEO, has written a scathing article in Railway Age criticizing the policy of the current Amtrak Board and CEO. When I get permission I’ll reproduce it here. Boardman states that the national network, and especially the long distance trains, are threatened by a philosophy that seeks to…
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Amtrak CEO: Phasing out long distance trains in favor of “corridors”.
Report – Richard Anderson, Amtrak CEO – Remarks to California Rail Summit and Questions and Answers 19th April 2018 Richard Anderson, CEO of Amtrak, gave a keynote address to about 150 passenger rail officials and industry professionals, plus a handful of advocates. I have the feeling he had not counted on there being any advocates…
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Electrolink North – RailPAC’s vision for ACE and the Mega Region Of Northern California
By Steve Roberts, RailPAC Vice President – Policy and Research ACE – Well short of its potential to move more people – Photo By Arne Brown More Frequent Service Faster Trains Better Connectivity Electrification This post is being updated with new statistics and information and will be republished soon.
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RailPAC Responds to LOSSAN Business Plan 2018
One of RailPAC’s missions is to respond to the Business Plans of the State Rail Corridors. We have concerns about many of the policies adopted and hope that our experience is useful in pointing these Boards in the right direction. The reality is that RailPAC has a longer history of attendance at these meetings, and…