NARP

NARP blog

TRAINS: A travel choice Americans want

» Visit the Official NARP Website

Counting Our Blessings

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Thoughts in light of yesterday’s Washington Metrorail disaster.

Our thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives and those who were injured in yesterday’s horrific Metrorail crash in Washington, DC. We are also keeping in mind the Metro employees who received a shocking reminder of just how important their jobs are and the awesome responsibility that is in their hands. That yesterday marked only the second train accident causing passenger fatalities in Metrorail’s 32-year history should remind the traveling public how safe mass trasit is. The National Transportation Safety Board has begun its investigation into the exact cause of the tragedy and, as with all such incidents, what we learn from their findings will make Metro and other transit systems even safer in the future.

My experience getting home from NARP’s Washington office yesterday, while harrowing, made me count my blessings. My plan was to take the 5:35 PM MARC Brunswick Line commuter train from Union Station. After almost half an hour waiting at the station hearing only that the track ahead was blocked, I learned via my mobile phone of the accident and determined that my train was not going to depart. I informed my fellow passengers and proceeded to find other means of transport. It took me two and a half hours, two bus rides and a lift from a kind stranger, but I made it home. Had I decided to leave only 15 minutes earlier, though, it could have been a lot worse, and I was lucky to be alive and unharmed.

Yesterday, I saw firsthand just how much a large city relies on its transit network. With a key segment of Metrorail and commuter service out of commission, the number of people forced into buses, cars and taxis, created huge traffic jams. If Metro’s trains and buses did not exist, there is no way the city of Washington would be able to function as it does. The subway network has only been around for three decades, but it literally consitutes the arteries that keep the city’s lifeblood flowing. When one of those arteries gets clogged or fails, the entire body is thrown into disarray.

This should serve a reminder of how indespensible our work is at NARP and throughout the rail and transit industries. We must continue our work to make trains—intercity, commuter and metro—a reliable, convenient, comfortable, and above all, safe travel method available to all Americans.

—Malcolm Kenton

Posted by NARP

Tags: commuting, disaster, metro, mobility, railroad, safety, tragedy, transit,

Flag Stops: Who’s Gonna Pay For It

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

  • The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Subsidyscope project—which put out an misleading look at Amtrak’s finances a month ago [top story]—last week unveiled a report we can add to the volumes of literature that debunk the myth that U.S. roads “pay for themselves.” Over the past 25 years, they found, the percentage of highway costs funded by means other than user fees (gas taxes and tolls) doubled. They point to two leading factors influencing this trend: the lack of a change in the gas tax since 1993 (combined with inflation) and the increased reliance on bonds to pay for new highways. Sadly, I doubt this report will gain as much media attention as its predecessor.
  • Along similar lines, the Texas DOT posits that, in order to pay the full cost of a 15-mile stretch of Interstate highway ($1 billion), the statewide gas tax would have to be $2.22 per gallon—not including the price of the gas itself. Yet that highway was built and is being maintained, with general US and Texas taxpayers paying the lion’s share. That same $1 billion could have paid for the construction of 333 miles of railroad track, according to California estimates.
  • Another example of the consequences of chronic underinvestment: The New York Post learns that a number of Amtrak-owned bridges in New York City are “in crumbling condition,” scoring “poor” or worse in internal inspections. Ironically, an effort to fix recent, delay-causing problems with the swing bridge carrying Amtrak’s Empire Corridor trains over the Harlem River wound up closing the bridge from Tuesday night until about 1:00 pm on the day before Thanksgiving. The Wednesday morning trains to Montreal and Toronto were combined and detoured via the Hell Gate Bridge, while passengers on the other trains had to use Metro-North’s Grand Central service for part of their journeys.
  • Fortune magazine documents recent high-speed rail advancements on the other side of the Atlantic, including the extension of TGV service from Paris to Strasbourg—and how trains are beating airlines on certain segments.
  • Office buildings in the Washington, DC area are sitting largely empty—except in the city center. In a region with the second-worst traffic congestion in the nation, employers are locating in areas more easily reached by transit. Downtown Washington’s offices are 10% vacant, while fringe area workspaces are around 30% empty.
  • “We are on the verge of jumpstarting ... [a] game-changing endeavor,” Secretary LaHood remarked, referring to the Recovery Act grant announcements coming within the next few months. LaHood is also throwing his weight behind making subway and light-rail safety a responsibility of his Department.
  • Two more newspaper columnists join the call for a passenger rail renaissance: the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Tom Belden, American Reporter correspondent Rudolph Holhut.
  • LCL: More high-speed rail rumblings from the Middle East. * * * Political leaders want to spend more money on transportation infrastructure—but there’s none to spend. * * * The Midwest High Speed Rail Association gets good vibes from Thanksgiving travel numbers, including a 6.7% decrease in the number of air travelers.

    • —Malcolm Kenton

    Posted by Malcolm Kenton

    Tags: congestion, costs, high-speed rail, highway, highways, infrastructure, railroad, ray lahood, subsidies, trains, transit, transportation, underinvestment, user fees,

    ©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website

    » Recent Entries

    » Blogroll

    » Terms of Service for Comments

    You may register to post comments in response to NARP-generated postings on the Blog. By registering you agree 1) that all comments will be relevant to the respective posting and 2) not to post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, or that violate any laws. We reserve the right to permanently block postings from any user who does not abide by the above terms. NARP reserves the right to remove, edit, or move any messages for any reason.

    » Monthly Archives


    RSS 1.0 | RSS 2.0 | Atom
    What is RSS?

    Add to Technorati Favorites