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PBS “American Experience” Program on Grand Central Terminal
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The PBS American Experience program on New York City’s Grand Central Terminal is now available for viewing online. Penn Station’s beaux arts station building was demolished and plans to upgrade the busiest train station in the country to be more than a glorified basement after more than 40 years may be in jeopardy. Fortunately, Grand Central’s original station building was preserved and still serves hundreds of thousands of passengers (mainly commuters) daily.
—Matthew Melzer
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Annual NARP Membership Meetings Underway—Attend Yours!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Regional meetings for NARP members are getting under way. These meetings are a great way to meet other rail advocates, hear informative speakers, and also meet NARP staff, officers and directors. A full schedule of upcoming NARP membership meetings, with confirmed speakers can be found in the events calendar over on the NARP homepage.
I always look forward to attending regional meetings. I get to meet NARP members and tell them face-to-face what’s going on in Washington…both on Capitol Hill and within the organization they help support! This year I’ll be traveling to Schenectady (Region 2), Omaha (Region 10), and Milwaukee (Region 7). Ross has already been to Dallas (Region 9) and Philadelphia (Region 3) and will go to Tampa (Region 5), and Toledo (Region 6). Our Communications Associate, Matthew Melzer, just got back from Portland yesterday evening (Region 8) and will be speaking in Baltimore (Region 4) in a couple of weeks. Last, but certainly not least, NARP President George Chilson will speak in Boston (Region 1) and Sacramento (Region 12).
Attend your NARP Regional membership meeting; trust me, you’ll have a great time!
-Dave Johnson
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CBS Evening News: “Train Travel On The Rise”
Monday, February 11, 2008
In this piece from last night’s CBS Evening News Sunday, correspondent Michelle Miller highlights the inherent advantages of train travel, and Amtrak’s ongoing funding challenges. Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant says he feels Amtrak could grow ridership “between 50 and 100 percent in the next 15 years.” This story mainly focuses on the Northeast Corridor (and cites NARP-provided on-time performance statistics for inside and outside of the Corridor). But Amtrak services must continue to grow across the country to sustain the continuing renaissance that has made trains more widely accepted and popular than they have been in decades. Amtrak is a national system and needs to grow more relevant and useful on a systemwide basis.
—Matthew Melzer
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It’s Super Tuesday; Do You Know Where the Candidates Stand?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Because transportation has played such a minuscule role as a campaign issue thus far (as the Los Angeles Times has noted), it can be difficult for a concerned voter to gauge where the candidates stand on improving our nation’s transportation system. Even candidates that support balanced transportation do not necessarily elaborate with policy details. Nonetheless, here’s a roundup of the public record thus far.
NARP thanks member James Toy for pointing us to this St. Paul Pioneer Press feature that asked each campaign, “What would your candidate do to improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure?”
Streetsblog compiled statements of the Republicans and Democrats, and covered a transportation and infrastructure forum attended by candidates’ representatives.
Smart Growth Around America also compiled the positions on “energy, smart growth, and climate change” of the Republicans and Democrats.
Ultimately, candidate statements do not necessarily equal action in office. But the more citizens let them know that investing in a balanced transportation system is crucial to the future health of our economy, environment, and quality of life, the more likely they are to remember our cause in the future. A commitment to strengthen our transportation network, especially with more and better train service, is a highly beneficial policy that also happens to be politically rewarding.
—Matthew Melzer
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As Promised: Transportation Advocates Statement to the Candidates
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Following up my post from yesterday, here is the statement to the Presidential candidates that I referenced… —DRJ
To the Candidates for President and the Party Platform Committees, we submit:
The St. Louis Statement
on the Crisis in American Transportation
At The Carmichael Conference*
The silence of those now running for the office of President on the growing crisis in our nation’s transportation infrastructure is deafening. We have all heard about the crisis in the economy, and changes in the earth’s climate brought on by global warming, but we have heard nothing about one key element that underlies both of those issues: the movement of goods and people, our very freedom of mobility. Yet, few national issues offer a greater opportunity for imaginative change.
We speak to those candidates now, today. We are from both political parties, and from no political party. We are from New England, and California, and Louisiana, and Illinois, and places in between, gathered this day in St. Louis for the inaugural Carmichael Conference* on the Future of American Transportation, to advocate for the renewal of that infrastructure. We respectfully ask each one of you:
- Do you understand that transportation must be treated as a system, not merely a collection of competing modes, when setting and executing policy
- How do you propose to restore our transportation system to health?
- What are you going to do, specifically, to obtain the funding needed to do that?
As both advocates and professional executives, as both elected and appointed officials from around this country, as American citizens, we call on you to engage this issue, and make it an integral part of your campaign. As former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall said in his very powerful address to us: “It’s late in the game, and we are far past the time when our national leaders should have laid out, debated, and implemented an integrated, carefully thought-out and effective national plan for developing and deploying an optimized national transportation system.”
The American people need rational choices when it comes to transportation, and those choices must be adequately and intelligently funded and maintained to make it all work. In particular, an efficient transportation system and robust rail, air, coastal/riverine, port, and highway components will sharply reduce both our dependence on foreign oil, and the high price we pay for it. Highly fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly transportation modes, such as rail, should especially not be overlooked.
You are asking us to select you as the leader of our country. Very well: we ask you to lead. Seize this issue, and make it central to your campaign, as it is to every American’s life. Thus far it has been virtually ignored. We ask that to change, starting now.
* Convened January 28-29, 2008, at St. Louis, by the National Corridors Initiative with the help and support of the Sierra Club, The National Association of Railroad Passengers, and the following organizations: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, American Public Transportation Association, American Road and Transportation Builders, Association of American Railroads, Association for Public Transportation, Bombardier Transit, Connex/Veolia Transportation, InTrans Incorporated: A New Direction in Transportation Advocacy, Midwest High Speed Rail Association, Providence & Worcester Railroad, The Surdna Foundation, Train/Riders NorthEast, Victoria Transportation Policy Institute, Virginians for High Speed Rail, and named in honor of former Federal Railroad Administrator Gilbert Carmichael, one of America’s leading transportation advocates who continues actively to champion transportation intermodalism.
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NCI Conference Explores Outreach to Presidential Candidates
Friday, February 01, 2008
I had the privilege of attending the The Carmichael Conference On The Future of American Transportation For North American Transportation Advocates and Leaders this past Monday and Tuesday in St. Louis. The event, sponsored by the National Corridors Initiative, was named in honor of former FRA Administrator Gilbert Carmichael, who continues to this day to advocate for a strong, balanced transportation system that includes intercity passenger rail.
The main objective of the meeting was to “develop a unified Transportation Advocates’ Statement on the Future of American Transportation for presentation to all of the Candidates for the Presidency of the United States.” I’ll share that with you as soon as it is finalized. You’ll see that NARP was one of the sponsors of the conference and advocates’ statement.
One of the consistent themes of speakers and participants—including myself—was that the Presidential candidates have not given any attention to transportation in their campaigns. The group came to consensus that this was a) not a partisan issue as neither party has spoken out and b) there are two main reasons why.
First, transportation is neither an emotional nor a “sexy” issue. It doesn’t grab headlines. If anything, Americans have become complacent with the problems we have and while they may complain, they just accept it “cause that’s the way it is.”
Second, fixing the transportation mess we have will take money. A lot of money. It will almost certainly require raising the gas tax. How many politicians do you know that have run on a platform of raising taxes and had a successful campaign? If anything, the candidates have to compete to see who can go the lowest on tax cut promises. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t problems to solve. But, the bottom line is that it is incredibly difficult to drum up support for something that’s going to cost a lot of money in the context of a political campaign.
NARP has reached out to the Presidential candidates and, along the lines of my discussion above, have received no response. But rest assured we will keep putting the message out there. It’s quite possible that issues will become more focused and refined as the field shrinks to two viable candidates in each party and in the near future to one.
—Dave Johnson