11/15/24 Washington State 2025 Legislative Priorities Now Available:
Please share with your networks.
8/13/24 Coming this September – Solutionary Rail’s new Reconnect America Podcast – watch the 4 minute teaser below.
8/7/24 Preference, rules, reliability, and lawsuits… – https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/amtrak-on-time-performance-woes-mirror-host-railroad-freight-service-shippers-say/
4/21/24 Seattle Transit Blog publishes the Cascades pre-SDP inadequacies.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Skg_4nAG57lkqW5osmvzglpI4UEE8Qo7/view?usp=drive_link
4/12/24 Thank you, WA members for getting the Amtrak Cascades pre-Service Development Plan issue to the Urbanist for print!
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/04/12/op-ed-washington-needs-bigger-amtrak-cascades-upgrades-on-a-faster-timeline/SDP to The Urbanist!
Hydrogen halted:
https://www.railjournal.com/financial/german-hydrogen-rail-project-funding-suspended/
Just prior to the WA State Transportation Budget being finalized, here’s a fairly common sense analysis of proposed spending on the bullet train:
Meanwhile, national highway expansion continues:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/29/biden-spending-highways-public-transport-climate-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
“So much of the decision making falls to state departments of transportation,” said Mary Buchanan, research and policy manager at TransitCenter, a foundation that aims to improve public transit in the US. “There are essentially 50 opportunities to get this right, I guess, or to potentially get it wrong, in terms of how money is being spent.”
FRA awards grants for nationwide rail projects. To view the full list of Fed-State National project selections and Corridor ID selections, please click here and here. Two WA State programs were included in the list of recipients for Corridor ID grants – note that the Cascadia High Speed Rail “bullet train” was never intended to run at the testing speed of 250 mph – 220 mph is the operational speed. The program failed to get the larger federal/state partnership grant.
Articles here, and here.
Amtrak Board to include membership from western states: https://rollcall.com/2023/10/11/white-house-to-withdraw-amtrak-nominee-to-lift-senate-blockade/
Climate: The 2021 heat dome was the deadliest weather-related disaster in Washington state history. University of Washington Report On Extreme Heat in Washington State https://cig.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/CIG-Report-Heat-202-pages.pdf
Understanding Ohio
February 25 2023 RWU Press Release: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/RWU-Press-Release—Railroad-Workers-Call-for-Immediate-Action–to-Prevent-Future-Train-Wrecks.html?soid=1116509035139&aid=IkM2ypOxc9Y
More: https://www.commondreams.org/news/rail-worker-alliance-nationalization
March 17 2022 Check out this blog, Transportation Matters, by Troy Serad
February 28 2022: IPCC 2022 Report and news.
February 17 2022 Please see all proposed amendments to this year’s transportation bills which have now been submitted by CRA to both Senate and House Transportation Committees: See also the link within to the position statement including rationale and citations for biennial budget revisions.
Table A. Biennial 2021-23 Supplemental Transportation Budget 5689/1786 Table B. Transportation Revenue Package 2021-22 (LEAP 2022-A Climate Commitment Act funds) 5974/5975 and 2119/2118
February 13 2022 Article by Arvia Morris: Let’s Re-imagine Regional Passenger Rail in the Transportation Package
February 13 2022: All Aboard Washington Press Release with Joint Statement on Washington State Rail Policy Recommendations: (see updated link to Joint Statement within)
February 8 2022: Washington State Senate 2022 Supplemental Transportation Budget Proposals: Note there is nothing for rail other than for one shortline and $150 M for a UHSR office, and this is for a 16 year period. That effectively abandons improvements to Amtrak Cascades and anything for East/West service in Washington state.
October 15 2021: Many thanks to Solutionary Rail for this press release showing broad support for Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman’s statements addressing the need for accountability on the part of the big RRs and better access to what should be a public resource.
Here’s the text of Chair Oberman’s speech referenced above.
October 9 2021: Excellent LTE in today’s Seattle Times from Brent McFarlane: https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/high-speed-trains-upgrade-the-rail-corridor-that-we-have/
Text:
LTE Re: Sept. 24th Op Ed column “Seattle to Portland in 1 Hour?”
The recent Op Ed promoting new Cascadia ultra High Speed Rail with 1 hour trains between Seattle and Portland amounts to a shiny advertisement. But this “ultra” high speed concept in no way responds to the urgency of the climate crisis. It would be 2 to 3 decades before we see jobs and service that would alleviate traffic congestion. We have 10 years or less to reduce our carbon emissions by at least half. There is a practical way forward for better passenger rail that makes efficient use of WA State’s past rail infrastructure investments. The Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan upgrades and expands nearly all existing rail right of way and serves 14 communities. Service between Seattle and Portland in 2.5 hours (10 trains /day) and between Seattle and Vancouver BC in 2.75 hours (4 trains /day), more accessible with Wifi, healthy food service and higher speeds than currently, comparable to train travel in most European and Asian countries. This project could be completed in 8 years. Service would continue and be upgraded incrementally with each phase of the project.
We have a solution in plain sight, to upgrade the rail corridor that we have, integrated with our community transit and ready for riders before 2030.
Brent McFarlane, Climate Rail Alliance Seattle, WA
July 9 2021: The situation in Norway can be improved. How much more urgent it is to fund, upgrade, and better utilize rail in the US!
February 21 2021: Wonderful article, clear, concise confirmation of the climate benefits of rail transportation. By Patrick Carnahan of All Aboard Washington, and Tim Gould of Sierra Club.
February 21 2021: USDOT should take the lead on federal funding for freight and passenger rail networks nationwide (although all highway development is sub-optimal for the environment – it’s not a matter of if or when.)
https://www.railwayage.com/news/usdot-should-take-the-lead-on-rail/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=22816
Be sure to read the Virginia Rail Policy Institute National Freight Strategic Plan Critique, February 16, 2021
February 13 2021
U.S. needs to build back better with rail. https://www.enr.com/articles/51181-viewpoint-us-can-build-back-better-with-rail?fbclid=IwAR0PJQNPNtPk4e6yOi2X0X32E_L0ibtAObzY9CvojPIOjXFlpFcFzZuHFDA
January 22 2021
We have a new contact for our efforts to improve rail service (from a post in www.trainorders.com). From Pete Buttigieg’s confirmation hearing:
I’m probably the second biggest passenger rail enthusiast in this administration. I enjoy long train trips as well as short ones, and I think Americans ought to be able to enjoy the highest standard of passenger rail service.
Source: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/01/21/five-highlights-from-pete-buttigiegs-confirmation-hearing/
January 13 2021:
January 7 2021:
Electric light rail and streetcars without overhead wire