Reported by Chris Flescher, RailPAC Associate Director, Salinas November 2, 2009 Commuter Rail to Monterey County There are some advantages to serving Salinas with a Capitol Corridor extension instead of the proposed Caltrain extension. The Capitol Corridor trains would serve both the commute market and the long distance travel market. The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers…

Opinion By Noel T. Braymer The first modern High Speed Train was the Japanese Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka which opened for the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics. It had what was then the amazing top speed of 125 miles per hour. The trains themselves were fairly conventional electric multiple unit trainsets with an aerodynamic looking…

From: DAVID B. KUTROSKY, Managing Director, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority The Capitol Corridor November 2009 results are a mixed bag with a continued ridership decline compared to November 2008, yet revenue was above November 2008 with a strong on-time performance (OTP) result as well. It appears as the gap in monthly ridership declines is…

RAIL PASSENGER ASSOCIATION OF CALIFORNIA 1017 L Street PMB 217, Sacramento, CA 95814 www.railpac.org 5th December, 2009 Mr. Joseph H. Boardman President and Chief Executive Officer NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION 60 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington DC 20002 Dear Mr. Boardman: Once again I must write to you about the catastrophic service failures on the Pacific…

Commentary by Paul Dyson I have previously quoted New Zealand scientist Ernest Rutherford, “We had no money so we had to think”, and this struck a chord with a lot of readers. Regardless of the field of human endeavor to which you might apply this aphorism it is a good starting point. Try to do…

Reported by Eugene K. Skoropowski, Managing Director, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority October 2009 ridership numbers across the nation are beginning to show a ‘closing of the gap’. During this first month of the new fiscal year, the Capitol Corridor ridership was down significantly compared to October 2008, but again, still higher than October 2007.…

Reported by Eugene K. Skoropowski, Managing Director, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority September ridership numbers on the Capitol Corridor, in California and across the nation continue to be less than 2008, but still substantially higher than 2007. This is an indication that many of the 2008 ridership surges were refugees from high gas prices, and…

October 22, 2009 By Paul Dyson, President of the Rail Passengers Association of California Photos by Bill Kerby, RailPAC Treasurer Chairman Davis, Vice Chairman Fletcher, and Committee members: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have no money, therefore we must think”. These are the words of distinguished New Zealand Scientist Ernest Rutherford when asked how he would…

Report by Robert Manning, RailPAC Director It was suggested that I attend the TEMPO meeting which was held Saturday, September 26, 2009 in Temple, Texas. I had heard of this group, but their web site which I thought was rather bland did not give much detail or an agenda regarding this meeting. I was also…