WASHINGTON – Amtrak has successfully negotiated contracts with 19 state transportation departments and other entities to increase state control and funding of 28 current passenger rail routes. America’s Railroad is now poised to move forward with state partners to further exp [...]
WASHINGTON – Amtrak carried a record 31.6 million passengers in fiscal year 2013, delivering nationwide benefits, providing vital transportation services, advancing America’s economy and demonstrating the value and convenience of the national passenger rail network. It is the [...]
WASHINGTON – New polling shows that Americans across the ideological spectrum support more public funding of Amtrak passenger rail service. “We polled people who mostly do not live in large passenger rail regions and yet they overwhelmingly said they want the same level of or [...]
Armed with polling data obtained by SMART?Transportation Division?political consultant Dean Mitchell of DFM?Research, Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith and Assistant Legislative Director Charlie Skidmore Sept. 14 presented community leaders from Colorado, Kansas [...]
Amtrak, the U.S. intercity passenger railroad, may have trouble staying on track, literally, if a U.S. government shutdown is prolonged for a month or more. The Washington-based railroad, which has never made money, gets 12 percent of its operating budget and most capital and [...]
WASHINGTON – Amtrak is moving forward with a plan to eliminate its food and beverage losses over five years. It builds on successful initiatives implemented since fiscal year 2006 that have increased the cost recovery rate from 49 percent to 65 percent. “We have made steady a [...]
ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak and the state Department of Transportation have reached an agreement on a method for sharing costs on most trains in the Empire State, avoiding a shutdown of service that could have taken place as early as Oct. 17. The agreement, required by the fe [...]
Beginning Oct. 1, 2013, the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) will reduce railroad unemployment and sickness insurance benefits by 7.2 percent due to federal budget cuts first implemented in March 2013. The original reduction had been 9.2 percent since March. The adjusted [...]
NEW YORK – Federal and state authorities should investigate the utility and transportation authority responsible for running the nation’s second-busiest railroad following a power failure that has disrupted service for tens of thousands of commuters in New York and Conn [...]
What’s shaping up as a weeks-long service interruption on the Metro-North Railroad near New York shows how dependent the busiest U.S. passenger-rail corridor is on electric power and how easily a breakdown in single component can paralyze U.S. infrastructure. “The demand for [...]