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I have not posted much here lately, but I saw a news report on an announcement of a FY2018 TIGER grant award, so went looking for more reports. Yes, the TIGER grant program is still alive for FY2018 with a total $500 million in funding to award. The announcements so far are by various...

Amtrak posted its FY2018 Appropriations Request (55 page PDF) a few days ago. A number of interesting items and capital projects cost estimates in it. Surprised no one noticed it for discussion in a new thread. It should be noted that this is Amtrak's request which it submits to Congress...

The April 2017 Monthly Performance report is out. It was posted on the website several days ago, so Amtrak appears to be getting back to putting out the monthly reports around the end of the following month. I suspect the delays in getting the MPRs out were due to the new CFO and other new...

Yonah Freemark of the Transport Politic blog site has posted his annual summary of transit projects slated to start service and start construction in 2017 for US, Canada, and Mexico. Other than the Second Avenue Subway Phase which opened on January 1, only a few new rail transit lines or...

Phase 2 of the Los Angeles Metro Purple Line extension project received a total of $1.6+ billion in federal funds last week. I gather there was a push to get the Full Funding Grant Agreement signed off and done before the Obama administration left office. In this case, probably not so much out...

After many decades of proposals and halted construction projects, Phase 1 of the Second Avenue Subway in NYC is slated to start revenue service at noon on January 1, 2017 with 3 new stations. The MTA with considerable pressure applied to the agency by Governor Cuomo says they are going to meet...

FYI, the State Fact Sheets for FY2016 with station passenger numbers and other info have been posted. Two station numbers to start with: NYP: FY16 = 10,436,909; FY15 = 10,189,521 One that I had wondered about with the respectable ridership increase on the CZ. Denver: FY16 = 139,652; FY15 =...

Well, some good news. After a drawn negotiation process and some months after the new station was mostly completed, Amtrak has signed the lease agreement for the new Niagara Falls station. Mass Transit Magazine: NY: Amtrak and Niagara Falls Reach Agreement on Train Station. Excerpts:

The New York Times posted an editorial on October 29 on the large number of local transportation and transit ballot referendums being voted on next week. It is not just a straight up editorial, provides a chart showing how federal funding for rail and mass transit has stalled out, so local and...

The July 2016 monthly performance report has been posted. I don't have time this weekend to post much of an analysis; others can write their own take on it. The short story is that July 2016 was a good month financially with Amtrak running an adjusted net operating surplus of $10 million for...

The May, 2016 Monthly Performance Report (65 page PDF) has been posted. Amtrak is getting the MPRs out a bit earlier than they used to. Good month for ridership and revenue for the state supported corridors and LD trains. Ridership and revenue for the NEC show a large increase for May 2016, but...

Good news (more or less) that came out last week for the stalled Chicago to Quad Cities corridor service project. Gov. Rauner has agreed to support the service and ask the FRA for an extension of the FY2010 grant. But from the article, unless IDOT can spend only the federal funding portions to...

There is news about Australian study that found that many drivers significantly underestimate the speed of an approaching train at a grade crossing. I don't think this finding is much of a surprise given how common grade crossing collisions are in the US caused by drivers trying to "beat" the...

The April 2016 Monthly Performance Report has been posted to the website. I don't have time this morning to write a proper summary, but it could be summed up as "ouch". Not a good month for ridership and revenue for the NEC and the state corridors. An ok month for the LD trains. The improving...

The March 2016 Monthly Performance Report has been posted on the website. The ridership, revenue, and operating numbers for March and the first half of the fiscal year are available for review. I don't have time for a detailed post at the moment, so I'll leave that to others. Quick summary is...

On April 26, five northeast states will hold primaries which is being labeled as the "Acela Primary" as the political shorthand for the next week. Shows how the Acela has succeeded in becoming a key brand name and tag for the media & political class to use in the Northeast. I suspect it may get...

The NY MTA released 2015 ridership numbers for the NYC subway system with 1.763 billion rides total which is considerable growth since the low points of the 1970s and early 1980s. Subway ridership is steadily increasing along with the population of NYC (2015 Census estimate of 8.55 million). It...

I looked at Amtrak Status Maps this afternoon and saw that there were major delays on the Empire corridor across upper NY state. Saw on trainorders that there was a fatal grade crossing accident in Mentz NY, west of Syracuse involving Empire service #280(24) this morning. Syracuse.com: State...

Good news. Thanks to $117 million of Virginia funds, work has started on the long sought Richmond Acca Yard bypass which will speed up not only the Newport News and Norfolk Regionals, but also the Carolinian, the Silvers, the Palmetto, and the AutoTrain. There was $117 million of VA state...

The January, 2016 Monthly Performance Report (63 page PDF) has been posted. The pattern of recent months continues with ridership and revenue continuing to sag. One bright spot is the on-time performance on many routes is better than this time last year. System numbers: Not good. Ticket...