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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
Posted by NARP
Tags: capon, chilson, johnson, melzer, regional meetings,Liveblogging National Train Day
Saturday, May 10, 2008
The first annual National Train Day is underway at stations all across the country today. Amtrak originally conceived the event to make a marketing splash in four of their biggest cities, but thanks to the tireless work of rail advocates and civic boosters working on the local level, communities all across the country are celebrating National Train Day as a call to action to increase train travel options in cities large and small. Google News current shows 255 articles on the event, a sign of the great interest it has generated.
NARP Vice President Jim Churchill and I are staffing our table at Washington Union Station today. I’ll be updating this entry as the day progresses. If you’re in the area, please feel free to stop by! And if you have photos or tidbits from other events, please feel free to e-mail me at mmelzer (at) narprail.org.
UPDATE, 10:32 AM: Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant opened the event with a brief speech thanking the event partners, including NARP. AAR President Ed Hamberger remarked on the environmental need to move more goods as well as passengers by rail. But the crowd was mostly anxious to get a photo with Al Roker!
UPDATE, 11:19 AM: The turnout so far is great, with many families who are not traveling. The line to tour an Acela trainset and private cars is stretching well into the station. Amtrak’s ARTE environmental mascot and Screech, the Washington Nationals mascot, are greeting fans. Amtrak also has computers with Microsoft Train Simulator in Acela mode set up.
—Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: amtrak, churchill, melzer, national train day, washington union station,NARP On the Air Following Chatsworth Tragedy
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
In the wake of the tragic Metrolink-Union Pacific freight train collision in Chatsworth, CA last Friday, NARP staff have been interviewed by several media outlets. NARP’s overall message has been strongly in favor of industry-wide installation of Positive Train Control (PTC) or any other collision-avoidance system that prevents accidents like Friday’s.
On Saturday, NARP Executive Director Ross Capon and NARP Board member Ken Briers (a rail operations expert and former locomotive engineer) were interviewed on KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, as part of their “Off-Ramp” program. An archive is available both in Real Audio and Podcast format here. Capon’s interview occurs about half way through the program, starting at 25:45, and Briers’ starts at 44:05. (Note that despite the program’s name, it is not usually about transportation.)
Last night, NARP Director of Communications Matthew Melzer was on “Which Way, L.A.?” on KCRW, another Los Angeles-area NPR affiliate, advocating for collision-avoidance technology such as PTC. Streaming and Podcast archives are available here.
Sunday and last night, Capon also briefly appeared in segments on NBC Nightly News, pointing out that most of the nation’s passenger trains operate in shared-trackage situations, comingled with freight trains, and that Congress and regulators will need to examine the costs of implementing PTC.
—Dave Johnson
Posted by NARP
Tags: briers, capon, kcrw, kpcc, melzer, narp on the air, nbc nightly news, news media, positive train control, safety, tom costello,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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