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Flag Stops: New Ideas, New Challenges
Monday, July 19, 2010
A roundup of news and views on passenger train issues.
- The Housatonic Railroad has commissioned a Massachusetts research firm to study restoring passenger trains on its line between Danbury, CT and Pittsfield, MA—essentially extending northward the Danbury Branch of Metro-North’s New Haven Line from New York City. The railroad’s vice president of special projects, former Connecticut transportation commissioner Colin Pease, told the Danbury News-Times: “If the study’s finding strongly indicate a passenger market, [the Housatonic Railroad] is prepared to spend, along with other private investors, $100 to $150 million to improve the tracks and infrastructure along the line.” Housatonic has become the first private “freight” railroad to formally study getting into the passenger business since 1980.
- A national passenger train network as a key component of mobility, and it’s equally important to our national security. The impetus to invest in trains in order to cut the transportation sector’s oil consumption becomes more urgent as the US military warning of serious oil shortages within five years.
- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood touts the outlay of stimulus funds for augmenting North Carolina’s passenger railcar and locomotive fleet as another step towards completing the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor. 34 jobs will be created immediately, while the transit-oriented development the corridor continues to attract will generate an estimated 19,000 jobs. The Secretary also comments further on how better automobile alternatives work to combat obesity.
- The CEO of JetBlue acknowledges that hundreds of his airline’s short-haul flights won’t be needed as high-speed train service increases—and he’s fine with trains being a complement to air travel.
- The American Prospect lays out the challenges before the new reform-minded leadership at the Departments of Transportaton and Housing and Urban Development—challenges worsened by public pressure for reduced deficits and against tax increases, which have led the White House to impose a 3-year freeze on discretionary spending. Luckily, former Reconnecting America President Shelly Poticha and other New Urbanists in the administration have a “can do” attitude and are breaking down decades-old barriers to interagency communication.
- A graphic designer has reimagined the national Amtrak network as a subway map. This conceptualization gives one a better perspective on how Amtrak works as a network—and shows where connectivity is sorely lacking: the Gulf Coast, Boston North to South, and between North Carolina and Memphis, to name a few spots. Importantly, the Florida-New Orleans route is left off of this map, although the “suspended” line remains on Amtrak’s official map and on the US DOT’s “existing services” map.
- Hoping life will imitate art: The author of a novel featuring a train across North Dakota and Montana (a NARP member) is using his book to promote restoring the North Coast Hiawatha in real life. A friend of his discusses on YouTube.
- LCL: Support for the fight to prevent the Princeton Dinky from being replaced by a dedicated busway grows. * * * A National Journal panel of transportation experts expounds upon the potential for high-speed rail to generate economic activity. * * * Planning for rail systems and transit-oriented development, long the exclusive domain of government, is generating interest from private funders. * * * The Quiet Car movement reaches New Jersey Transit.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: amtrak map, danbury, high-speed rail, housatonic railroad, jetblue, mobility, national security, network, north coast hiawatha, oil shortage, passenger train, pittsfield, ray lahood, shelly poticha,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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