Did a quick GOOGLE News search this week (as I often do) for AMTRAK... What did it reveal? Three stories in multiple papers regarding reviving the Pioneer (1), a line from Binghamton, NY through Scranton, PA and Hoboken, NJ to NYC (2) and expanded Virginia routes... Very interesting. Are we reaching a "tipping point" in passenger rail? Don't want to get too excited, but it appears so.
Would love to read other forum member's thoughts on this...
Also saw some of those articles.
Well, it looks like the Viriginia one depends on state funding. So who knows what the state legislature will do. The others sounded like they would be national network trains, but it doesn't look like there is a timeframe. With the Pioneer specifically, it looked like its ressurection might be legally mandated by Congress by whatever comes of bill S.294 (the Amtrak reauthorization bill introduced in the Senate in 2007).
I would be very excited to see at least two of these since I live in Illinois and know people in Binghamton and Portland, OR!
My belief is that if a bill is ultimately passed closely resembling S.294, a tipping point will be reached. There will be two keys: one, it has well more capital money, which Amtrak will need to purchase equipment and/or to some degree fix equipment. My impression is that fixing what they have might allow Amtrak to go for awhile adding corridor service, but that they're at the end of their rope on LD equipment and need to purchase. Second, S.294 has a rich pot of federal money that can be used as matching funds for state investment in railroad infrastructure. This really could open the floodgates. States find it much easier to pay the couple million dollars a year operating funds for state supported service than to come up with like $50 million capital funds for trackwork. There are a lot of states sitting on the sidelines waiting for this.
It looks like S.294 is also seeking to change the culture a little bit and articulate Amtrak's goals as providing efficient national passenger service, rather than to lose the least money. The best way to prevent Amtrak (or most any federal program) losing money is to shut it down, after all! And just last year Congress lifted the ban on Amtrak starting new national routes that will require a federal operating subsidy. All of this helps.
Write your Congressmen! Specifically at this juncture your representative in the U.S. House.
