United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 6, Number 51

1. It’s that time, again. Amtrak has put out the Fall 2009/Winter 2010 national timetable, and these things just keep getting better with every edition. Amtrak’s timetables are one of the few bright spots in the company; each one becomes more user friendly than the previous edition, and the design – which was stagnant for years – shows some zip and imagination. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 49

1. Finally, at last, after waiting oh, so very long (Too long, in fact.), SunRail, the 61 mile long commuter rail system in Central Florida serving the Metropolitan Orlando area is about to be a reality. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 46

1. Here is the text of a speech delivered to the Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers here in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, November 7, 2009 by this writer. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 43

1. If you are an airline, which pays landing and takeoff fees, plus user fees at every airport, plus user fees for the federal and international air traffic control systems, you make the most money operating long haul flights, preferably international long haul flights. As an airline, you stuff as many passengers as will fit in a tiny, tiny space known as “coach” class, and you make sure everyone knows you’re giving them peanuts, allegedly because so many people are allergic to peanuts and they don’t know it. You sell these people their “meals” and drinks, and hope many passengers purchase alcoholic beverages because you make a fortune from them, but – at the same time – don’t want any particular passenger to purchase too much and become drunk and disorderly. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 18

1. Here at home in an adjoining county to the south is St. Augustine, which bills itself as the Ancient City. St. Augustine, Florida has been around as a point of civilization since 1565, and was pretty much a sleepy, colonial town, even after Florida statehood in 1845. It wasn’t until the notorious Henry Flagler, business partner of John D. Rockefeller (Some historians say Flagler was the smarter of the two ruthless business partners.) came vacationing in Northeast Florida in the 1878 that he noticed sleepy St. Augustine. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 14

1. It’s the “little things” that often start the biggest stories. Progressive Railroading Online featured a story on May 19th about Amtrak launching construction on the much-needed new Auto Train station in Sanford, Florida. The story went on for four paragraphs talking about this new $10 million facility being paid for with federal stimulus fund monies. Read more…

1. The dog continues to eat Amtrak’s homework. Mayor Robert F. Apgar, Mayor of the City of DeLand, Florida, has written two letters to Amtrak in favor of restoring the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans. DeLand, a far suburb of Orlando, and the Amtrak stop closest to Daytona Beach, is an active Amtrak stop. It is also served by the Silver Meteor and Silver Star, which operate between New York City and Florida.The letter was written to Mayor Apgar on May 9, 2007, and is reproduced here in its entirety. Read more…

Volume 4 Number 20

1. Let’s continue our conversation about ways Amtrak can help itself – using current assets – to generate more revenue than expenses, widen its route matrix to provide a more appealing transportation product for its passengers, and lessen its long standing dependence on annual doses of free federal monies.The rules of this exercise are simple: Expand travel offerings by altering existing routes, terminals, and destinations without creating a need for many new stations (very expensive), or pioneering complete new routes (while desirable, new routes are an exercise for another time with another set of criteria and a lot of money), or creating a need for new equipment. A large part of this exercise consists of putting existing equipment to better use, or bringing warehoused equipment out of storage to become a product asset versus a stagnant asset. Read more…

Suggested Rationalization of Amtrak Florida Service

March 5, 1999

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