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Steel Wheels Conference This Saturday 9/29/18 – Sacramento State Railroad Museum
Don’t miss this year’s conference! We have over 60 people registered and it will be sure to be an interesting day. Coffee and light refreshments and registration/check in will be available from about 9.30am at the Stanford Gallery. The event itself is in the Museum Auditorium which opens at 10, the program will start at…
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RailPAC’s Senate Joint Resolution is Adopted by Both Houses
This was our first attempt for many years to obtain legislative support for our position re the National Network interstate trains. It was heavily amended by Assembly staff and some of the stronger language removed. I would have pushed back on some of the changes but we had only two weeks to line up support…
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Another unanswered letter – RailPAC to Amtrak Chair Coscia
In this letter I tried to be polite, and not as hostile as I might have been. At about the same time as this was sent the New Jersey ARP wrote specifically calling for Anderson’s dismissal. There is now a clear pattern, as reported by Bill Vantuono of Railway Age, of simply ignoring the media…
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Amtrak’s Accounting – George Chilson
Amtrak’s Route Accounting: Fatally Flawed, Misleading & Wrong August 23, 2018 The Rail Passengers Association (RPA) strongly believes that the ongoing debate concerning the future shape of Amtrak’s national network has been distorted by its use of fully allocated costs rather than avoidable costs as required by statute. The adverse outcome of using fully allocated…
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Anderson to California, Congress, and Amtrak Employees – ********
Just heard from an unimpeachable source that Anderson has told employees that the current operation of the Southwest Chief is unacceptable and will be changed. Here’s the full text, bold or italics are mine: We know many of you have concerns about the status of the Southwest Chief. Here’s an update: We are considering changes…
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RailPAC California State Legislative Resolution SJR-30
RailPAC initiates California State Legislature Resolution to support the National Network and invest in new rolling stock. Senator Mark McGuire today (Thursday August 9th, 2018) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 30 (SJR 30), drafted by RailPAC, with language that calls for an end to the Amtrak plans to break up the National Network into short corridors…
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ATK, CEO, OTP, PTC, F&B, BLT, UP, etc. Challenges, challenges.
Commentary by Russ Jackson Here we are in August, 2018. What a summer it has been on the nerves of rail advocates! Just how different has it been from August in 2008, 1998, 1988 or 1978? Not much. Each of the symbols in the title of this article are just as important to the future…
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RailPAC Letter to Amtrak Chair Coscia
Mr. Anthony Coscia 13th July, 2018 Chairman of the Board National Railroad Passenger Corporation 60 Massachusetts Avenue NE Washington DC 20002-4285 Dear Mr. Coscia: RailPAC is a 501c3 all volunteer California corporation that has, since 1978, campaigned for the improvement of mobility for all by increased passenger rail service. We support the National…
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Amtrak debt free says Anderson – Amtrak FY17 audited balance sheet says otherwise
At the now notorious Los Angeles Rail Summit in April one of Anderson’s most extraordinary comment was that Amtrak is, or shortly will be, “debt-free”. The FY’17 audited balance sheet, thoughtfully posted on their website, reports current liabilities of $1.6 billion, of which $136 million is the current maturities of long term debt and capital…
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SPLIT AMTRAK – The current structure is dysfunctional – Richard Spotswood
A 21ST CENTURY MODEL FOR AMERICAN PASSENGER RAIL By: Dick Spotswood. THE DILEMMA: It’s now obvious that Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, and its new management under former Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson, regards its principal responsibility as making the Northeast Corridor America’s first true high-speed rail route. That’s a worthy goal and…