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Dunsmuir Amtrak Stations
A Rail station and a Bus station at the foot of Mt. Shasta! PHOTO report by Russ Jackson. Dunsmuir is an historic railroad town 55 rail miles north of Redding. The Southern Pacific had shops and a yard there from steam locomotive days. Amtrak’s Coast Starlight continues to stop there, usually in the middle of…
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RailPAC President Dyson writes about LOSSAN
The following letter was sent to several recipients. The subject: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTER-CITY AND REGIONAL RAIL SERVICES Gentlemen: We are facing our annual funding battles, both in Washington and Sacramento, and whatever the outcome it seems clear to us that it will be some years before we put into service any new inter city rolling…
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Amtrak San Joaquins Come to Vacaville…by bus
A PHOTO story by Russ Jackson with generous assistance from Art Lloyd! The Past, Present, and Future: The Solano County city of Vacaville was served at one time in its history by two branch rail lines. Since they were abandoned trains roar past the city on what is now the Union Pacific/Capitol Corridor main line…
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CCJPB July meeting report
CAPITOL CORRIDOR JOINT POWERS BOARD July 18, 2007 Meeting Suisun City Hall Report and photo by Russ Jackson NOTE: Before the meeting started RailPAC learned some interesting news. First, and this was reported to us the night before the meeting by Gene Skoropowski, two newly rebuilt Superliner Coach cars that the State of California is…
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RailPAC President/LA Councilmember press conference re Amtrak
HELP KEEP AMTRAK GOING Los Angeles City Council Member Tom LaBonge and Paul Dyson, president of the Rail Passenger Assn. of California, held a joint press conference at LA Union Station on July 13. Councilmember LaBonge received unanimous council support on July 13 for a City resolution supporting U.S. Senate bill S 294 that would…
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June CA Corridor ridership/revenue reports
provided by Eugene K. Skoropowski, Managing Director, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority We have received the ridership and revenue results for June 2007 from Amtrak, and, once again, the Capitol Corridor is setting records. After 9 months in our fiscal year, we continue to AVERAGE a +13% growth rate in riders and more than +21%…
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How is the California Zephyr doing since its schedule was lengthened?
Issues Commentary by Russ Jackson, RailPAC We all know that Amtrak trains 5 and 6, the California Zephyr, have been late regularly. From August, 2006 to June, 2007, the combined on time performance of both trains at their endpoints, Chicago and Emeryville, was 0.0%. On June 21, 2007, after arduous negotiations with the Union Pacific…
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Are you go-ing to San Fran-cis-co this summer?
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the “summer of love?” 🙂 Go to a ball game? Go to Fishermans Wharf/Pier 39? Ride the cable cars? Let’s go! Here’s a photo story of rail in San Francisco in the summer of 2007. Photos and comments by RailPAC website Editor Russ Jackson A rail journey to San…
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Hybrid Technology for railroads
From Modern Railways with Comments added by RailPAC President, Paul Dyson The following is an extract from the June 2007 edition of Modern Railways, the leading UK railway magazine. It was written by Roger Ford, a former traction engineer with the English Electric Company, and now technical editor of MR. It is reproduced with his…
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LOSSAN Corridor Board Meeting report
LOSSAN Board Meeting, Los Angeles, 06/13/07 Report and IMPORTANT COMMENTARY by Paul Dyson, RailPAC President Although the meeting took place there was no quorum as Chairman Art Brown was taken ill en route to the meeting and there were too many other absences. The meeting could not therefore make any Board decisions, but heard the…