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Full Text of NARP President Op-Ed in Charlotte Observer
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Why no national train grid?
Federal government inaction blocks creation of nationwide rail service
FOR THE RECORD (Op-Ed)
The Charlotte Observer
Posted on Wed, Oct. 24, 2007
http://www.charlotte.com/409/story/331575.html
From George Chilson, president of the National Association of Railroad Passengers:
The opening of Charlotte’s south light rail transit line next month is one of the nation’s most impressive municipal efforts to give people travel choices that conserve energy, combat congestion and address global warming.
Combined with commuter rail services planned for Charlotte, a strong commitment to pedestrian- and transit-friendly real estate development, and existing and planned intercity train services, the new light rail service symbolizes Charlotte’s emergence as one of the nation’s most livable areas.
Every American city should have a system as comprehensive and coordinated as the one Charlotte will have. Gasoline is approaching $3 per gallon and likely to rise further in the long run. Runways and roadways are more clogged than ever, and getting worse. Study after study predicts crippling gridlock at airports and in the skies, and the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials anticipates that, by 2020, 90 percent of urban interstates will be at or above capacity. Beyond the local and national concerns are the increasing worries that all those idling cars and planes are hurtling us toward irreversible climate change.
Department of Energy figures show that planes burn 20.5 percent more energy per passenger-mile than Amtrak (a passenger-mile is one passenger carried one mile). And, due to high altitude emissions, planes’ climate change impact is double or triple that of Amtrak’s, depending on length of trip.
The National Association of Railroad Passengers, whose board is meeting in Charlotte beginning Thursday, has laid out a vision for change that would connect Asheville, Hickory and Wilmington to a “grid and gateway” passenger train system networking across America, vastly expanding service between Raleigh, Charlotte and points beyond (including a direct Charlotte-Charleston connection). The major terminals would connect long-distance, commuter and high-speed train services, creating a networked grid connecting the Triad, Triangle and other major cities across the southeast and mid-Atlantic.
The beauty of NARP’s vision is that it is achievable. Almost all the rail lines or rights of way in our vision are already in place. Routes were chosen based on demonstrated demand—either from Bureau of Transportation Statistics data or from demand indications in the establishment of new air routes or roadways.
In fact, not only is NARP’s vision achievable, work has begun in North Carolina and across the country to provide multiple options for short-, medium- and long-distance travelers. Other states with notable intercity passenger train programs include California, Washington, Illinois, Wisconsin and Maine.
What’s keeping the network from happening everywhere? The federal government has failed to demonstrate leadership and commitment to funding an integrated national passenger train system. This shortsightedness has left us with too few passenger trains, serving too few destinations—almost two-thirds less service than America had in 1971 before Amtrak started.
North Carolina and some other states have tried to fill the void, but have been hampered because the federal government provides no matching funds for intercity passenger trains, unlike for highways, urban transit and aviation. It will take federal leadership and funding, in partnership with states and railroads, to create a national passenger train grid. What if President Eisenhower 50 years ago had left interstate highway planning and funding to the states?
For The Record offers commentaries from various sources. The views are the writer’s, and not necessarily those of the Observer editorial board.
Posted by NARP
Tags: charlotte, chilson, federal match, narp vision,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
Posted by NARP
Tags: capon, chilson, johnson, melzer, regional meetings,Rail Advocate Comments on WSJ Story
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
I commend to your attention this commentary by Fritz Plous of Chicago on a recent Wall Street Journal story.
On May 28, The Wall Street Journal ran a story “Europeans Protest Fuel Taxes but Accept High Prices.” Journal reporters Guy Chazan and Marcus Walker quoted anonymous “analysts” citing “fatalism” for the puzzling failure of European motorists to protest high gasoline prices. A named source, British trucking official Geoff Dossetter, was quoted describing motorists’ behavior as “dumb acceptance.”
Actually, the behavior of European motorists is not puzzling, but rational. Unlike Americans, Europeans are not dependent on their cars because fast, frequent intercity trains, commuter trains, rail rapid transit and streetcars connect most of their residential neighborhoods, workplaces, shopping areas and vacation spots.
In Dortmund, Germany, a town of fewer than 600,000, 130 intercity and commuter trains a day serve the downtown rail station, which connects with an extensive network of local light-rail lines that pass through the center of the city in a 6.5-mile subway. On the busier lines, the light-rail trains include a café car. Dortmund is not unique; scores of smaller European cities from Seville to Szeged and from Bordeaux to Bratislava make rail travel the centerpiece of their local and intercity mobility options. Some of those cities are on the fast-expanding European high-speed rail system, now carrying passengers at 200 mph—the equivalent of traveling from Chicago to Kansas City or Pittsburgh in about three hours.
Dortmund is smaller than Jacksonville, Nashville or Columbus, yet the mobility choices it offers to its citizens and visitors makes those three American cities look truly backward: Jacksonville has four Amtrak frequencies per day but no commuter rail, streetcars or rapid transit. Nashville has three daily commuter-rail round trips, but only from its eastern suburbs. All other daily work trips must be performed by car. There is no light-rail transit and, despite the city’s immense popularity with tourists, no intercity rail service (Amtrak reservation agents report Nashville is the most requested destination their company does not serve—what a huge missed opportunity). Columbus, the largest city not served by Amtrak, has no commuter trains or light rail either. Except for a small bus system it is completely auto-dependent.
Except for the very largest cities on the two coasts plus Chicago, most of America is stuck in the same car-dependent environment as Jacksonville, Nashville and Columbus. Not one American city in the 500,000-600,000 population range—not even Portland OR – approaches Dortmund’s level of rail mobility. In fact, a May 27 CNN poll showed that 78 per cent of 86,207 people queried said they had no transit options available to them.
If European motorists are responding to fuel-price increases with a “What, me worry?” attitude, it’s for a very good reason: They have nothing to worry about. The trains are running, the subways are running and the streetcars are running, most of them powered by electricity generated without oil controlled by hostile foreigners. The Europeans have cars, and they enjoy them, but their cars are a discretionary item, not a necessity. American policy makers need to look across the Atlantic and learn a lesson.
--George Chilson
NARP President
Posted by NARP
Tags: chilson, europe, fritz plous, oil,©2006 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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