Does the stipulation that Amtrak cannot spend any of its emergency appropriation on service improvements/expansion mean that the work currently being done to bring 110 mph speeds to the Chicago - Detroit and Chicago - St. Louis routes will be suspended? Is the "Midwest Regional Rail Initiative" essentially dead? Will the Cascades Talgos in the Pacific Northwest be stuck at 79 mph forever?
Is New York ever going to introduce the rebuilt Turboliners into service? Are the Empire Corridor upgrades solely a state project, thus being immune to the federal funding issue?
Posted by jimmymac (Member # 1182) on :
The emergency loan has to be spent on "operations". Upgrades in service must wait until after October. I would hope that Mr. Gunn will have a specific plan in place for next year.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
I have learned privately that the "moratorium" on news routes for the next 15 months is to preclude Amtrak from inauagurating a "strategic" route through a recalicrant Congressman's or Senator's legislative jurisdiction.
There are enough of those anyway - they're called the Nationsl System.
Posted by trainman1 (Member # 1392) on :
That's presuming a lot of the average "anti-Amtrak" Senator or Congressman: that they know where the trains go, and that they'd notice (or care) if Amtrak inaugurated service on a new route through their district. Didn't I read on this forum at some point that Senator McCain had no idea there were Amtrak routes across both northern and southern Arizona?