Amtrak

Amtrak, CHSRA issue trainset RFP

Amtrak and the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) on Jan. 24, 2014 jointly issued an RFP (Request For Proposals) for high speed trainsets that will be “essential to meeting Amtrak’s critical short-term need to expand the capacity of its current Northeast Corridor high speed service and meeting the long-term operational needs of both Amtrak and the CHSRA.”
Commentary

Blame aplenty for high speed rail woes

Don’t assume, based on headlines, an obituary for high speed rail just yet. A more accurate analogy is an induced coma brought on by poor planning and implementation amidst an increased necessity to pare federal deficits.

Amtrak adds its services to Super Bowl plans

Amtrak has announced it will utilize New Jersey Transit’s Secaucus Junction Station, located on its Northeast Corridor, to help deliver customers to and from Super Bowl XLVIII, being held at MetLife Stadium in nearly East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014.

FY14 appropriations good for TIGER, Amtrak

Congressional conference committee members cobbling together an actual fiscal year 2014 federal budget have reportedly agreed on budgetary numbers fairly favorable to Amtrak and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) programs. Federal high speed rail funding, however, is omitted entirely.

Amtrak’s Joe Boardman, Railroader of the Year: “We’re changing our direction, we have a strategy.”

Railway Age’s January 2014 issue features an extensive, in-depth interview with the magazine’s Railroader of the Year, Amtrak President and CEO Joseph H. Boardman. In a wide-ranging conversation with Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono, Boardman talks about his lifelong career in transportation, his tenure at Amtrak, and his views on not only the company’s future, but on the importance of transportation to the U.S. economy and the nation’s standing in the global economy.
Commentary

Amtrak CEO holds to focus on the future

To economists and financial analysts whose obsession is return on investment, opinion leaders advocating smaller government, and corporate executives captivated by stock prices, Amtrak President Joe Boardman is surely a curiosity.

Cuomo backs Metro-North line to Penn Station

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, considered by many to be lukewarm at best in his support for rail transit improvements in the Empire State, emphasized his support Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014, behind Metro-North New Haven Line access to New York Penn Station.

Amtrak stop eyed for Dakota oil boom town

Culbertson, Mont., may be added to Amtrak’s national network due in part to ongoing shale oil activity in the Bakken formation, primarily occurring in North Dakota, according to the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP).

Commentary

2014: Railroads face problematic Washington landscape

Take it from an iron horse’s mouth that if it ain’t one damn thing, it’s another, and 2014 will present for railroads a repast of challenges on Capitol Hill, before the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and federal courts, and at the labor bargaining table.
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