Amtrak
Adding a Dose of Honesty to the Congressional Job-Creation Debate
The House's $75 billion jobs bill was intended as a holiday gift to out-of-work voters, but transportation reformers were less than thrilled with lawmakers' decision to mimic the first stimulus law's use of outmoded funding formulas to send three times as much money to roads as to transit.
December 28, 2009
House Jobs Bill Could Make General Electric’s Amtrak Wish Come True
The House is poised to take up a jobs bill later today that provides $37.3 billion in new transportation spending, including $27.5 billion for roads, $8.4 billion for transit ... and a holiday gift for General Electric?
December 16, 2009
House and Senate Agree on $2.5B for High-Speed Rail — And More
After lengthy negotiations, the House and Senate agreed last night on a massive "omnibus" spending bill [PDF] that includes $2.5 billion for high-speed rail -- a compromise between the two chambers -- as well as $150 million for the Obama administration's sustainable communities effort and $150 million for the Washington D.C. Metro system.
December 9, 2009
Who Wants to Buy a New Locomotive? General Electric Hopes Amtrak Does
General Electric's Transportation division inked a high-speed rail technology-sharing deal with China last month, but the prospects on the home front for its fuel-efficient locomotives are downright "bleak" heading into 2010, as its chief executive recently told Dow Jones.
December 1, 2009
Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express, and the Future of Privately Run Transit
Virginia Railway Express (VRE), the commuter network that links northwest Virginia to Washington D.C., today refused a challenge by Amtrak to its decision to switch operating providers to the U.S. arm of Keolis, a private French transit company.
November 4, 2009
House GOPer Goes ‘All Aboard for Gun Rights on Amtrak’
Rep. Peter King (NY), the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, has strongly criticized a Senate-approved provision that would force Amtrak to allow guns on board -- but some of King's colleagues fired back yesterday by introducing a counterpart to the Senate's proposal.
October 15, 2009
Senior House GOPer: We Shouldn’t Force Amtrak to Allow Guns on Board
Rep. Peter King (NY), the House Homeland Security Committee's senior Republican, has joined panel chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) in urging congressional leaders to abandon a pending provision that would threaten Amtrak with loss of federal funds if it did not allow guns in checked baggage.
October 13, 2009
Bloomberg and Dems Blast Congressional Plan to Let Guns on Amtrak
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg teamed up with two Democratic members of Congress yesterday to blast the Senate for its vote in favor of forcing Amtrak to allow guns and ammunition in passengers' checked baggage.
September 21, 2009
Glaeser Goes Out With a Whimper
For those just tuning in, economist Ed Glaeser has been writing a four-part series on the potential costs and benefits of high-speed rail at the New York Times' Economix blog. He began three weeks ago with an introduction. The following week he addressed direct costs and benefits from a hypothetical line, and last week he attempted to gauge the environmental benefits of high-speed rail construction.
August 19, 2009
The Times’ Thickheaded Train Tag Team
The New York Times has now turned loose writers at two of its economics blogs to make weak arguments against the construction of high-speed rail lines.
August 14, 2009