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Just to keep you guys posted here, I just want to remind you that Amtrak makes their 180 "doomsday" announcement for all LD trains. Keep writting to your leaders! We need to keep fighting to keep passenger trains in this country!
Eric Member # 674
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What's the status with funding? Is Congress going to wait until Sept. 30 before they make up their mind? That's how they usually do it.
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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quote:Originally posted by Eric: What's the status with funding? Is Congress going to wait until Sept. 30 before they make up their mind? That's how they usually do it.
If they wait that long all of the good employees will already have left for better jobs. These people aren't going to wait until October 1 to start job hunting.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
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Good point, Mr. Toy. So when is Amtrak supposed to make this announcement? I haven't seen anything on their website, or Railnews.net.
Eric Member # 674
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Amtrak has changed the announcement date to April 4th, because March 29th was the Good Friday holiday.
sfcajon Member # 1451
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To Mr Toy What better jobs where? Certainly not in passenger RRing.
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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quote:Originally posted by sfcajon: To Mr Toy What better jobs where? Certainly not in passenger RRing.
Perhaps the term "better" was misleading. By that I meant a job that will definitely exist after October 1. As for what kind of jobs, they probably won't be in railroading. Maybe the hotel industry, or whatever industry they feel would be best for them.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
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Well... today's the day. I'm still hoping that they won't make the announcement. Still haven't seen anything. Will this decision be released to the public?
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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Today is April 5th. I believe April 4th was 180 days from October 1st. So if I am not mistaken we are in the clear, no?
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
An Amtrak spokesperson told Rail Travel News this afternoon that Amtrak will be making an announcement "soon" concerning the train discontinuance issue.
The announcement would not be today, she said, but she could not say exactly when it would be released. Thus, the most likely days would be Friday, Apr05 or Monday, Apr08. Or it would be later than those dates.
When asked about the contents of the release, the spokesperson said she did not know what the release would say, but the obvious implication was that it would have to do with the expected train-off announcements.
An important Amtrak hearing on Capitol Hill is scheduled for Thursday, Apr11, so one could speculate that the timing of the announcement would be aimed to have some impact upon that hearing.
Other Amtrak spokespersons could not be reached for comment.
The declaration that Amtrak would make no announcement on Apr04 will leave rail advocates speculating further as to why it would miss the last date for posting train-off notices that would still allow it to meet the October 1 train-off target date. -Gene Poon
As the above letter indicates, Amtrak will not be posting the 180-day train-off notices, since it has concluded that 180-day notices are not required by law when cuts are made on the basis of insufficient funding.
RTN staffer Gene Poon independently learned that only a 60-day notice is required when Amtrak decides it must drop a train due to lack of government funding. This is most likely true, but not yet formally verified.
In the letter, Amtrak president George Warrington also noted that good progress was being made in Congress on Amtrak funding, so that hopefully the full range of cuts that Amtrak had outlined earlier this year might not need to be made.
Eric Member # 674
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"I would like to make it very clear that no final decisions about Amtrak services in FY 2003 have been made at this time. Amtrak intends to make decisions after the federal appropriations process has been concluded this FALL." GDW
If decisions won't be made until this fall, we can assume that the Oct01 deadline no longer stands, so we have more time to ride, write, and do anything else we can to help save our trains.
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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quote:Originally posted by Eric: If decisions won't be made until this fall, we can assume that the Oct01 deadline no longer stands, so we have more time to ride, write, and do anything else we can to help save our trains.
I wouldn't assume anything yet. October is in the fall. Yes we must all do what we can to get the word out. One thing I've done is downloaded and printed the NARP Action Leaflet and made lots of copies. Our local libraries have literature display tables for such things and they agreed to put them on display. I've also given some to local travel agents.
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