National Association of Railroad Passengers: www.narprail.org

What’s New

Here are the most recent additions and major changes to our website.

This list does not include updates to the Action Alert center, Calendar of Events, NARP Blog entries, or our weekly news hotline (which is updated every Friday afternoon).  Click on the appropriate menu bar to the left to read these items.

• August 5: NARP’s Board of Directors issued a resolution expressing strong opposition to changing the law governing passenger train liability, labeling it a danger to passenger train service.
  
  
• July 1: NARP issues a news release lamenting the passenger train funding direction laid by House transportation appropriators this morning.
  
  
• June 30: NARP releases a new brochure [PDF] discussing the importance of expanding and improving passenger trains, describing what NARP is and does, and explaining the benefits of membership in the Association.
  
  
• June 14: In the Young Adults and Kids Corner: Check out this unique opportunity for high-school students to learn all about railroading and the intermodal movement of freight!
  
  
• June 11: NARP writes to Amtrak to offer support and advice for the effort to transform the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle into a daily Chicago-Los Angeles train with a connecting daily San Antonio-New Orleans run.
  
  
• May 20: The Spring/Summer 2010 Amtrak system timetable (effective May 10) made a number of changes to connecting Thruway bus service in California.
  
  
• March 22: The NARP Council of Representatives elected Robert J. “Bob” Stewart as the Association’s Chairman, succeeding George L. Chilson.
  
  
• March 22: President Ross Capon’s annual public-witness statement to the House Appropriations Committee on passenger train funding for fiscal 2011.
  
  
• March 12: International passenger train travel links added to “The Rest of the World” under “Info and Links.”
  
  
• February 4: President Ross Capon’s submission to the Wall Street Journal in response to Wendell Cox’s op-ed, “The Runaway Subsidy Train”
  
  
• February 1: Our statement on the President’s 2011 budget.
  
  
• January 28: We comment on the benefits each Recovery Act-funded project will bring to present and future travelers.
  
  
• January 27: We commend the Obama administration for its historic commitment of $8 billion toward “ready-to-go” passenger train projects, investments that “promise to bring Americans freedom to choose an attractive alternative to crowded highways and airports” and “stimulate economic development in on-line communities.”
  
  
• January 26: NARP unveils My Gulf Coast, a one-stop portal for getting involved in the broadly-supported effort to restore Amtrak service between New Orleans and Florida.
  
  
• January 8, 2010: NARP’s public letter to the head of the Federal Transit Administration, administrator Peter Rogoff, has elicited mulltiple responses, both official (a November 2, 2009 letter from Administrator Rogoff) and from New Jersey journalists (a Deceber 21, 2009 editorial by the Record that echoes NARP’s arguments).  Click through for links to both.

Important past entries:

• December 31, 2008, Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama.


• December 18, 2008, NARP’sYear End Letter to our member and stakeholders.


• November 6, 2008, News release regarding testimony submitted to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.


• October 1, 2008, Statement heralding passage of rail safety/Amtrak bill.


• August 15, News release touting energy efficiency of passenger trains.


• April 10, 2008, Letter to Governors John Corzine (NJ) and David Paterson (NY) regarding the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project.  NARP also issued a news release.


• March 27, 2008,  NARP’s website for National Train Day.  You can find out all about the May 10 celebrations nationwide here.


• December 12, 2007,  A letter from NARP President George Chilson to the (then) sixteen Presidential candidates


• September 25, 2007, A NARP-written report about aviation subsidies: both obvious and hidden


• April 27, 2007, A letter and resolution from the Southern Rapid Rail Transit Commission urging Amtrak not to discontinue the Sunset Limited and to work with SRRTC on establishment of corridor service.


• August 15, 2006.  On Board Food and Beverage Service Is Important, Report by NARP President George Chilson that discusses why Food and Beverage service is important to rail travelers and disputes charges that the service must operate at a “profit”.


• July 14, 2006. Letter to Surface Transportation Board regarding on-time performance, written by NARP Executive Director Ross Capon and discussing the many delays Amtrak trains face on freight railroads.


• June 22, 2006. Analysis of sleeping car costs: a report by NARP President George Chilson that shows that Amtrak sleeping cars generate a net positive contribution of at least $40 million a year.


• June 13, 2006. Letter from NARP President George Chilson to Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta regarding the lack of mention of passenger rail in the DOT’s “National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America’s Transportation Network” report.  Our June 23 release about this letter is also here on our website.


• May 3, 2006. A resolution passed by the NARP Board of Directors “urging Amtrak to restore the New Orleans-Orlando segment of the Sunset Limited now that CSX tracks have been restored to a higher standard than existed before Hurricane Katrina”.


• March 22, 2006. Notice of Proposed Rule Making, link to the Federal Register for February 27, 2006 which contains the NPRM for passenger rail platforms discussed in the March issue of NARP News (Requires Adobe PDF reader).  NARP’s July 28 written comments can be read here.


• March 3, 2006. (posted March 14) Letter urging restoration of the Sunset Limited, from NARP President George Chilson to Amtrak Chairman David Laney.


• February 10, 2006.Media Advisory: Harris Poll: Public Wants Rail, Results of a public survey poll that show that 2/3 of Americans want to see more passenger and freight rail service.