First off, some unfinished business: Amtrak leadership.
We hear from the UTU that the contract of Amtrak’s President Joseph Boardman has been extended to 2013, leaving only the Amtrak Board incomplete for the upcoming year.
Positive news for commuter operations, and ponderings on the future of high speed and intercity operations. But let us begin with two brief preludes; first, a short poem, called a “Grook” by its author, Danish poet and philosopher Piet Hein. Read more…
This week: A brief report from each coast and then we look at some Amtrak finances.
On the right coast, some good news for the passenger rail manufacturing industry, and a lesson in perseverance. Around 1974 when I was in fourth grade my parents took me to a public meeting about Washington Metro. Even then, I loved studying maps; and one of the “future extensions” was to Dulles Airport. A mere 35 years later, that line may have a chance to finally be built — which is quite quick, really, compared to Boston’s extension of its Red Line past Harvard (proposed in 1912, with the Cambridge segment completed in 1985). In any case, here’s is part of WMATA’s press release: Read more…
National Train Day passed uneventfully in Phoenix. Union Station, the mission-style depot turned fortress, protected by its tall prickly steel fence painted cactus green, was immune to invasion by curious passers-by. No-one rode a train through the station, except one hobo who waved from the end platform of a covered hopper — all freight trains must now traverse the lone remaining passenger track, the bypass line having been removed a few years ago.
Our desks being at last clear of the beloved IRS instruction booklets, and with last year’s tax forms safely snuggled in their bankers’ boxes, we turn now to how a few of our hard-earned dollars are — refreshingly — wisely to be spent in Ohio.
This week we look first at Amtrak’s slow pace, then at continued nationwide wrong-think surrounding Amtrak’s new venture into high speed rail; and we wrap up with a guest commentary by our Andrew C. Selden. Read more…
As Amtrak continues to say the right things, and to do a few as well, the logic of incrementalism is making inroads… but the “old-think” that stunted our passenger rail network for half a century hasn’t gone away yet.
Before we begin this week, a note from Bruce Richardson:
Amtrak will lose one of its most important human assets at the end of this month. Cliff Black, long the public face of Amtrak and its long serving spokesman is retiring after decades of service. He will be greatly missed by all of us who have known him professionally, and by those who have worked directly with him.
Amtrak is now saying the right things. Will they start doing the right things, like correcting last year’s flawed route studies as the first step toward a dramatically expanded national system?
Jack Benny, one of America’s most beloved comedians and reputed tightwad extraordinaire, was perpetually 39 years old; Amtrak, this first of May, will join Mr. Benny at milepost 39. Benny’s radio and television persona never sold his ancient Maxwell automobile, but Amtrak does seem to have traded in some sputtering old ideas for new ones.
