The Senate Appropriations Committee just approved money for Amtrak. Basically, status quo money. This is a close match to what the House did a few weeks ago. So, all the "you-know-who hates trains" crowd can relax a bit.
I think Amtrak is much safer now than it was when Reagan/Stockman ruled the roost.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
They can also vote for supplimental funding later in the year (although I realize this is rare). My concern with the status quo funding is Amtrak needs to either start with a rebuilding program on the Superliner I and Amfleet I cars or a replacement program.......some of them are looking very worn inside.
CMStPnP They can also vote for supplimental funding later in the year (although I realize this is rare). My concern with the status quo funding is Amtrak needs to either start with a rebuilding program on the Superliner I and Amfleet I cars or a replacement program.......some of them are looking very worn inside.
Status quo funding would only be desirable if Amtrak weren't in such dire need. As it is now, it is fundamentally inadequate as a national passenger rail system: shabby equipment in many cases, a ROW that is using 80-year old catenary and chronically late trains, sometimes as much as 12-20 hours because of dependence on using host freight RoWs as an unwelcome/incompatible guest.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
They also won't make major changes either so it will continue to slide further as the current status quo is a slow decline for the long-term.
I believe if Amtrak was willing to change its basic structure and try new ideas it would have far more support. But I wouldn't hold my breath. I only know one Amtrack employee but he believes that Amtrack exists to provide him a job and see nothing that he wants changed unless it puts more money in his paycheck. We have discussed the proposal to have someone else other than Amtrak provide the food service (which makes sense to me given its deteriorating quality). He doesn't care if the food service is given to a non-Amtrak company (doesn't affect him) but he believes all the unions would fight it because it might lead to other future changes.
Let me agree with oltmannd that Amtrak probably is safer today than it was 30+ years ago. That's a good thing.
It's another good thing that Amtrak is likely heading for status quo funding for another year.
But as First Assistant Deputy Vice Chairman on the "you-know-who hates trains crowd," I can not only "relax a bit," but console myself that the 2016 election will bring resolution to this issue: Either we re-build our infrastructure (e.g. trains & their infrastructure) or we don't. One party favors the former, the other party favors the later.
Politics, Politics, Politics! Can the 21st Century and 'I Like Ike' coexist?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
wanswheelThe politics is as much regional as partisan. The ancient northeast corridor states that lost dozens of Congressional districts to the sunbelt states still need trains because 1-95 can’t cope.
I'm not entirely sure the next President won't be influenced partly by this one on rail investments regardless of party. We'll see.
I do think there are some issues in House and the Senate though that need to be overcome.
dakotafredYes -- to me equipment is right behind the crumbling NE Corridor as the urgent problem. And what does Amtrak do with its one-time money gift for equipment a few seasons ago but buy a lot of baggage and baggage-dorm cars! That one still rankles.
That and the fumbling with dining service expenses are handing opponents a silver bullet.
The bottom line is congress is still killing Amtrak. Starving it of needed capital. A long term death spiral.
Wisconsin Plans from a 2013 Document. No idea where this stands now:
Expansion Planning Second Chicago-Twin Cities Train: Amtrak has been participating in all facets of a Minnesota DOT and Wisconsin DOT-sponsored effort for a second daily frequency between Chicago and St. Paul on the current Empire Builder route. An additional frequency would provide cities along the route two trains in each direction, seven days a week. Amtrak is conducting an analysis of potential ridership, revenue, and operating costs, expected to be completed in 2014. Discussion between the states, communities, Amtrak, and Canadian Pacific Railway are ongoing.
Additional Hiawatha Frequencies: The addition of three Hiawatha frequencies daily in each direction between Chicago and Milwaukee is in very preliminary discussions. This would make for a total of ten daily trains in each direction. Additional frequencies likely would be phased in one at a time in coming years.
Article about Richmond and how Congress not helping the city
http://www.richmond.com/opinion/our-opinion/article_8acd079e-fca4-5de9-945c-0d7baccf42bc.html
CMStPnP Wisconsin Plans from a 2013 Document. No idea where this stands now: Expansion Planning Second Chicago-Twin Cities Train: Amtrak has been participating in all facets of a Minnesota DOT and Wisconsin DOT-sponsored effort for a second daily frequency between Chicago and St. Paul on the current Empire Builder route. An additional frequency would provide cities along the route two trains in each direction, seven days a week. Amtrak is conducting an analysis of potential ridership, revenue, and operating costs, expected to be completed in 2014. Discussion between the states, communities, Amtrak, and Canadian Pacific Railway are ongoing. Additional Hiawatha Frequencies: The addition of three Hiawatha frequencies daily in each direction between Chicago and Milwaukee is in very preliminary discussions. This would make for a total of ten daily trains in each direction. Additional frequencies likely would be phased in one at a time in coming years.
In the deadest of dead letter backwaters, I'm afraid...until we have a complete political reversal in our state government.
Amtrak supporters said the potential presidential run by Biden could help raise the company's fortunes in Washington with budget fights looming. "He knows more about Amtrak than anybody else running for president, or anyone that is thinking about running for president," AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Ed Wytkind said in an interview with The Hill.
I like Joe Biden. I'm glad he rode Amtrak from Wilmington to Washington all those times over all those years.
But as a Democrat and an Amtrak passenger, I have to say Joe Biden has been Missing in Action since about Inaguration Day, 2009. After the videos on TV of the Amtrak crews on Acela wishing him well, I can't think of any important Amtrak initiative or support that can be linked to him. I wish I could. But I can't.
This is the conundrum of Amtrak: The GOP Presidents seem always to want to kill Amtrak, but don't. The Democratic Presidents seem always to say they support Amtrak, but don't.
Have a nice retirement, Joe. You served the nation well, even if you forgot about Amtrak once the black SUV's showed up to transport the Vice President of the United States of America.
As others have said Congress won't kill Amtrak outright but they will severly wound it by a thousand cuts, requirements, & por service and food..
NKP guy I like Joe Biden. I'm glad he rode Amtrak from Wilmington to Washington all those times over all those years. But as a Democrat and an Amtrak passenger, I have to say Joe Biden has been Missing in Action since about Inaguration Day, 2009. After the videos on TV of the Amtrak crews on Acela wishing him well, I can't think of any important Amtrak initiative or support that can be linked to him. I wish I could. But I can't. This is the conundrum of Amtrak: The GOP Presidents seem always to want to kill Amtrak, but don't. The Democratic Presidents seem always to say they support Amtrak, but don't. Have a nice retirement, Joe. You served the nation well, even if you forgot about Amtrak once the black SUV's showed up to transport the Vice President of the United States of America.
Thats true he could have taken a more active interest in $8-10 Billion HSR then letting it fall to pieces like he did. The big issue with that which was explained by Republican Governors but ignored by some here and by the MSM was the fine print.
I fully understand why the Obama Administration and Ray LaHood wrote the provisions into the fine print that they did. Because in the past grants to the states for rail improvements were widely abused and in some cases directed somewhere else..........Heck we had two to three Democratic bimbos in Wisconsin State Legislature attempt to redirect the $800 million in rail funding offered to highway funds (they did not read the fine print and backed off after someone brought it up).
The fine print stated that if the state did not complete a HSR rail system to which the money was applied in a given amount of time. The grant money would turn to a loan plus retroactively interest could be collected. Most rail projects extend longer than the 4 years a Governor is in office, additionally, there was no guarantee of follow-up funds and in most cases the funds offered were just a down payment from the Feds and nothing more and so I can see why both Kasich and Walker vetoed it. Nobody sat down and explained the rationale for the fine print. Likewise nobody guaranteed that their gubernatorial legacy would not be a state in muliple Billions of debt obligation because the interest was lost in HSR at the Federal Level.
However, I would agree entirely had there been more of the Obama Administration behind the proposal in the way of verbal promises made at the VP or Presidential level. We might be reading an entirely different story on the HSR initiative and it would have been one I think of a lot more success than what we have. It would not have turned out so partisan either. Biden could have stepped forward and taken ownership but he didn't.
My personal take on Biden is he is a nice guy but I was in uniform when he was a Senator and I have to agree with the right wing hawks. Just about every foriegn policy decision he made as a Senator would have been a disaster for this country if it was implemented including his support for a unilateral Nuclear Freeze which was undermining President Reagan's negotiating position at the time as well as NATO ally West Germany in it's deployment of the Pershing II's. Sounded sexy, sounded popular.........so he went with it without thinking about the damage it was causing. Classic Joe.
Amtrak should really paint the roof of all their equipment red.
They are the redheaded step child of American politics. Nobody wants them and nobody has the guts to kill them.
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