House Panel Releases Freight Transportation Report

In a rare display of bipartisan functionality on Capitol Hill, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Panel on 21st Century Freight Transportation has released its final report on the current state of freight transportation in the U.S. and its recommendations [...]

Americans' appetite for Amtrak service growing

While politicians can’t agree on much, Iowans and the majority of Americans surely agree on one thing: They want more Amtrak service, not less. On the heaviest traveled passenger rail corridor in the nation, the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak keeps breaking ridership records. But [...]

SSA, RRB benefits to rise by only 1.5 percent

WASHINGTON – Social Security benefits for nearly 58 million people will increase by 1.5 percent next year, the government announced Wednesday. The increase is among the smallest since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975. It is small because consumer prices haven’ [...]

Boardman to Senate: Invest in NEC

The Northeast Corridor is a national transportation asset and Congress should stop taking it for granted, Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Boardman told a Senate committee yesterday. The corridor is aging, failure prone and lacks redundant systems to keep it o [...]

Americans Love Amtrak

The following op-ed appeared in the Des Moines Register and was co-authored by SMART Transportation President John Previsich and Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department. “While politicians can’t agree on much, Iowans and the majority of America [...]

Hersman, Hart retain NTSB seats

On Monday, Deborah Hersman was sworn in to serve a third two-year term as chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Chair since 2009, Hersman was nominated for a third term by President Barack Obama on Aug. 1 and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate [...]

Pueblo steaming toward Amtrak stop

Support for saving Amtrak’s Southwest Chief passenger train and making Pueblo a route stop is picking up steam. The Pueblo Area Council of Governments passed a resolution Thursday pushing the importance and need for Pueblo to be added on to the Southeastern Colorado route, an [...]