gildone

KJP wrote: "A few months later in the Fall of 1994, Amtrak discontinued the Chicago-New York City Broadway Limited!" Actually, it was the fall of 1995. My first Amtrak ride was on the Broadway Limited on Memorial Day weekend in 1995. I boarded in Fostoria (I was living in Bowling Green at the time) and went to Johnstown, PA to visit my mom and grandfather. I actually still had the ticket stub until a few months ago. The train was discontinued a few months later-- fall 1995 along with all of the other Mercer cuts that were made at the same time which included the Toledo-Detroit Pontiac, and I think the Desert Wind, and Pioneer too.

Private cars are profitable. Some are offered for charter. Some are offered as common-carrier transportation but for a high-end clientele Amtrak is not pursuing. But most are a cross between private jets and mobile homes -- a vehicle owned and used by wealthy people for private transportation and hotel at the same time. I've heard that Amtrak charges $2500 just to hook up the car to the back of a train plus a mileage fee (I don't know what that is, though). The cars are expensive to re-hab and maintain too. If I were rich I wouldn't want a private jet but I might want my own railcar.

My impression of "most" RTA employees (I am sure there are exceptions) is they are not there to push forward an agenda. They are there to collect a check until their pension starts. And then maybe they'll collect another check somewhere else. They are not idealistic folks--they are bureaucrats collecting checks. We (the citizens) need to push for these initiatives, via our politicians and neighborhood organizations. Then RTA needs more inspiring leadership at the top. We recently got a new director at the public agency I work at and he has managed to demoralize staff with both a lack of communication skills and recent dumb decisions, some of which are potentially unethical. As a result, more people have begun "watching the clock" because they don't feel valued anymore. I've been there 20 years and seen more and more bureaucracy and Dilbert creep in and seen innovative ideas shot down. If an agency has this problem, top management is probably the culprit. You can only ignore the bull***t for so long before it wears you down. I have heard complaints that RTA seems to too easily and too often find reasons why things can't be done rather than trying to find ways to at least help them happen. This, in my opinion is a leadership problem. I hate to say it, but although Joe Calabrese has done a good job in some key areas at RTA, I'm not convinced he has much vision-- an important thing to have as the transportation environment is changing toward greater demand for public transit. And, I wonder how much he actually gets out of his office to see how things are going on the front lines. Someone told me that when it has been brought up that the Health Line buses are bunching up in places, his response has been along the lines of: "no they aren't, I can see them from my office window". He's around until 2020, however. I don't think the RTA board should have such long contracts for its CEO.

Anyone know how much the signal prioritization for the Health Line cost? I know it has never been activated, but I'm curious as to how much it cost.

Not actually good news, but I think necessary to point out the cost of killing rail projects: It is recommended that you go to the link to read the full article. Wisconsin may be out $112 million plus lost jobs and economic opportunity for killing train expansion: http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=43235 You thought Wisconsin losing high-speed rail was bad? It actually just got worse Dave Cieslewicz on Thursday 07/24/2014, (3) Comments Credit:David Michael Miller It's hard to get your head around the rapid turn of events that has taken Wisconsin out of the lead for a 21st-century transportation system and plunged us into the Dark Ages. Let's get caught up.... ...Walker won and trains lost. He quickly moved to kill the Milwaukee to Madison part of the project, but he claimed to support upgrades to the Hiawatha line. Meanwhile, Talgo was already well along in the construction of two sets of trains to serve that line. In fact, the state has already paid Talgo $40 million for those trains, and it paid another $12 million to other vendors, for a total cost so far of $52 million. http://www.isthmus.com/isthmus/article.php?article=43235

ODOT completes $75M sale of railroad track Passengers could go from Tulsa to OKC next year tracks By The Associated Press The Oklahoma Department of Transportation on Monday completed the $75 million sale of nearly 100 miles of railroad track between Sapulpa and Midwest City to Stillwater Central Railroad, which plans to introduce passenger rail service connecting Tulsa to the Oklahoma City... Read more at: http://m.krmg.com/news/news/local/odot-completes-75m-sale-railroad-track/ngtqD/

Texas Central sees 90-minute Dallas-Houston commute at 205 mph A Texas company hopes to create a high-speed rail corridor to move passengers at speeds that would leave Amtrak’s Acela in the dust — all with private funds. Texas Central Railway, a private company working with Japan Railway Co., wants to build a closed high-speed rail corridor served by a bullet train that would get people from Dallas to Houston — the Lone Star State’s two biggest cities — in 90 minutes. The company is eyeing a 2021 date for starting service, and though the exact route isn’t yet pinned down, the company is hoping the rail line will run from downtown to downtown... Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/texas-central-sees-90-minute-dallas-houston-commute-at-205-mph-107392.html#ixzz33id2AXXM

Opposition to All Aboard Florida planning a May 4 rally at Flagler Park. Rail opponents are nothing new, but opposing a mostly privately-funded project is complete idiocy:

Parochial politics is getting in the way of All Aboard Florida: http://narprail.org/news/narp-blog/2552-parochial-politics-all-aboard-florida

Tennessee appears to be turning its thinking backwards: Koch brothers behind bill to kill BRT project in Nashville: http://www.salon.com/2014/04/01/why_are_the_kochs_trying_to_stop_a_transit_project_in_nashville/ Read more: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,22318.70.html#ixzz2xmPiPUIU

Car-centric sprawl hurts social mobility but walkable, transit-friendly neighborhoods increase it: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57764440-90/areas-compact-costs-growth.html.csp

Interesting perspective that even tangled in the recent events in Ukraine, there is a relationship to peak fossil fuels: Ukraine Crisis Highlights Ugly Global Energy Truths by Andrew Nikiforuk, originally published by The Tyee | Mar 27, 2014 Anyone who thinks the crisis now unsettling Ukraine is purely about a people's quest for democracy and "the madness" of Vladimir Putin would be mistaken. Ukraine, a semi-failed state due to energy debt and corruption, merely illustrates the new energy politics now unsettling governments from the United States to Crimea. It represents our collective global future, should governments and citizens continue to ignore energy flows and budgets. The story should be familiar to most North Americans. In U.S. political lingo, Ukraine is a blue state dependent on energy imports from Russia, the powerful red state next door. They share a tense master-slave relationship. The West, including the fantastically indebted G7 club, thinks it has some moral authority in this dispute, but has its own shackles to worry about. It doesn't export much energy these days, and it is singing the economic stagnation blues because cheap energy is disappearing. Moreover, Western leaders ignore the realities of a shrinking global economy that can't grow on high-cost energy... Read full article at: http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-27/ukraine-crisis-highlights-ugly-global-energy-truths And then there is this one: Export Stupidity by Richard Heinberg, originally published by Resilience.org | Mar 27, 2014 Congress is holding hearings this week on the possible lifting of a US oil export ban instituted in the 1970s to promote national energy self-sufficiency and has invited a number of “experts” with dubious ties to the oil and gas industry to explain to them why it’s such a good idea. Following Russia’s near-annexation of Crimea, American politicians are intent on undercutting Russian president Vladimir Putin’s greatest geopolitical asset—his country’s oil and natural gas exports. If the US could supply Europe with large amounts of fuel, that would reduce the Continent’s dependency on Russia while depriving Putin of needed revenues. Lawmakers from both parties are also using the hearings to urge the Obama administration to speed up natural gas exports as a hedge against the threat of a conceivable Russian cutoff of gas supplies to Ukraine and other countries. Four Central European nations—Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic—have already made formal requests for US exports. There’s just one tiny problem with all these fervent desires and good intentions. On a net basis, the US has no oil or gas to export.... ...This is what all the oil and gas export fuss is really about. As for the notion of making Vladimir Putin quake in his boots in fear of a tsunami of American crude and natural gas—forget it. Putin is indeed probably quaking right now, from laughter. Perhaps America should instead consider exporting stupidity. It’s a commodity we seem to have in surplus. Full article at: http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-27/export-stupidity

^Another reminder of how absolutely useless our legislature and governor are on transportation issues.

All Aboard Florida to start by late 2015: President and Chief Development Officer Mike Reininger spoke with the Orlando Sentinel about his role and when you can expect to ride All Aboard Florida. Read what he had to say here, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/cfb-talking-with-reininger-20140316,0,6875626.story.

Post peak countries: the collapse of Yemen by Ugo Bardi, originally published by Cassandra's Legacy | 03/05/14 When I saw for the first time the data about oil production in Yemen, I was so impressed that I wanted to know more. I found a news source in English - the "Yemen Times" and I placed the link in my feed. For several months, by now, I have been reading the news from a place where I have never been and, probably, will never go, but that I find incredibly fascinating. The stories in the Yemen Times read as a tragedy written by Shakespeare: for a taste of this feeling, you may read the article titled "Carrying out a death sentence," but it is just an example of a never ending series of disasters taking place in the country, which include some 4000 people murdered every year, including a few taken as target by American drones flying over the country. Surely, not everything that's taking place in Yemen is to be attributed straight to crude oil but, surely, with oil production now crossing consumption, with the government getting about 70% of its revenues from oil, and with Yemen producing very little that can be exported apart from the "Qat" drug, then some kind of disaster is to be expected. And consider that population continues to grow: Yemen has now about 25 million people (and 50 million guns)... Read more at: http://cassandralegacy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/post-peak-countries-collapse-of-yemen.html

Mayor vetoes council resolution backing passenger rail By JARREL WADE World Staff Writer | 29 comments The mayor on Monday vetoed a resolution passed by the City Council urging the state not to sell the state-owned rail line connecting the Tulsa area to Oklahoma City, favoring instead the private sector’s ability to bring passenger rail to Tulsa. In a memo to councilors, Mayor Dewey Bartlett explained his decision, saying the resolution reached too far in expressing an opinion for the whole city -- an opinion Bartlett said he does not share. http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/mayor-vetoes-council-resolution-backing-passenger-rail/article_65dcd000-a3dc-11e3-857b-001a4bcf6878.html

"The path toward US energy independence, made possible by a boom in shale oil, will be much harder than it seems. Just a few of the roadblocks: Independent producers will spend $1.50 drilling this year for every dollar they get back. Shale output drops faster than production from conventional methods. It will take 2,500 new wells a year just to sustain output of 1 million barrels a day in North Dakota’s Bakken shale; Iraq could do the same with 60. (2/27)" ~Peak Oil Review, March 3, 2014, Tom Whipple http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-03/peak-oil-review-mar-3

Beginning of the End? Oil Companies Cut Back on Spending by Gail Tverberg, originally published by Our Finite World | TODAY Steve Kopits recently gave a presentation [link to presentation at resilience.org] explaining our current predicament: the cost of oil extraction has been rising rapidly (10.9% per year) but oil prices have been flat. Major oil companies are finding their profits squeezed, and have recently announced plans to sell off part of their assets in order to have funds to pay their dividends. Such an approach is likely to lead to an eventual drop in oil production. I have talked about similar points previously (here and here), but Kopits adds some additional perspectives which he has given me permission to share with my readers. I encourage readers to watch the original hour-long presentation at Columbia University, if they have the time. Controversy: Does Oil Extraction Depend on “Supply Growth” or “Demand Growth”? The first section of the presentation is devoted the connection of GDP Growth to Oil Supply Growth vs Oil Demand Growth. I omit a considerable part of this discussion in this write-up. Economists and oil companies, when making their projections, nearly always make their projections depend on “Demand Growth”–the amount people and businesses want. This demand growth is seen to be rising indefinitely in the future. It has nothing to do with affordability or with whether the potential consumers actually have jobs to purchase the oil products. Kopits presents the following list of assumptions of demand constrained forecasting. (IOC’s are “Independent Oil Companies” like Shell and Exxon Mobil, as contrasted with government owned companies that are prevalent among oil exporters.) ... Full article (pretty long) with charts and graphics at: http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-04/beginning-of-the-end-oil-companies-cut-back-on-spending

Louisiana delegation meets with feds over New Orleans-Baton Rouge passenger rail A small but high-profile group of south Louisiana politicians met with federal transportation officials last week about the possibility of starting passenger rail service between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. State House Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, and Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, among others, talked to the Federal Railroad Administration on Thursday about potential funding sources for the project. Leger said Andy Kopplin, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's chief administrative officer, and John Spain, Baton Rouge Area Foundation's executive vice president, also attended the meeting in Washington... http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/louisiana_delegation_meets_wit.html

Iowa Pacific has a website for the Eastern Flyer: https://easternflyer.com/

Letter-to-the-Editor about All Aboard Florida: http://www.theledger.com/article/20140223/EDIT02/140229748/-1/RSS18?Title=Passenger-Rail-System-For-Florida-Finally-Coming-to-Fruition

NARP adds this cautionary note: ...What can rail advocates learn from this case? First, we should state that, no matter the success of the Eastern Flyer, or Florida East Coast’s All Aboard Florida between Orlando and Miami, private passenger rail operations are no substitute for a publicly-supported, robust national network. The long-distance trains that are a vital lifeline to hundreds of rural communities throughout the country cannot be operated without substantial federal operating support. NARP has long maintained that continued federal support of Amtrak must be a cornerstone of federal transportation policy, and we will continue to defend the railroad against baseless congressional criticism. But what services like the Eastern Flyer *can* do is expand and complement the national network...

With All Aboard Florida coming to fruition and now Iowa-Pacific Holdings expressing a desire to operate 8 round-trips per day between Tulsa and Oklahoma City in 2016 (The Eastern Flyer) on state-owned track, I thought it might be time for a thread on privately-operated intercity rail services: "Since the introduction of Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer in 1999, Oklahomans have once again seen the benefits of passenger rail service as a fast, relaxing mode of transportation. Rather than having to contend with frequent traffic jams and other congestion on Interstate 35, residents of Oklahoma City, Norman, Ardmore, and other towns can comfortably speed to Fort Worth. And, once they arrive at Fort Worth, passengers can then transfer to Amtrak’s Texas Eagle and continue to points east and west on the train’s route between Chicago, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. While the Flyer has proven extremely popular with passengers, the service does not help those Oklahomans living outside of the I-35 corridor.... That is, of course, until Ed Ellis entered the picture. As the President of Iowa Pacific Holdings, a major operator of short line railroads throughout the country, Ellis has maximized the potential of lines that have been typically neglected and ignored by larger railroads. Building on this experience, Ellis has offered a bold vision for privately-operated passenger rail in Oklahoma with the Eastern Flyer. By 2016, Iowa Pacific believes that it will be able operate no less than eight trains a day [emphasis added] connecting Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and intermediate communities without any direct state support..." Read more at: http://narprail.org/news/narp-blog/2510-trains-return-to-tulsa

Just out of curiosity, what's the current price tag on this? And is NS even interested?

Hey, why not? I don't care who runs the trains as long as the service quality is good and the fares affordable.