Free Republic

More than 572,000 passengers took Amtrak between St. Louis and Chicago in the just-completed federal fiscal year, a 13.1 percent increase that made the route one of the fastest growing in the country. Springfield is among the stops on the route. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Monday some of the increase — including a record 28.7 million passengers nationwide — resulted from the addition of refurbished cars as the carrier tries to accommodate a steady increase in demand. “It’s certainly notable that, despite gasoline prices that were significantly lower than in 2008, and an economy that is in recession or...

If politicians in states such as California, Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin can’t stomach the idea of a high-speed rail system, the Obama administration should redirect billions of federal dollars to where they belonged in the first place: the busy Northeastern corridor, where population density and public appreciation for train travel both run high. When the administration handed out $8 billion in rail grants, New England came up mostly short, landing a mere 2 percent of the money. Yet many of the big winners in this competition hardly seem grateful. As The New York Times reported last week, Republican candidates for...

PARIS — In an effort to prepare for competition on cross-Channel rail traffic, Eurostar said Thursday that it had awarded a hotly sought contract to upgrade its aging fleet of fast trains to a Germany company, Siemens. The announcement did not sit well in Paris, which had been backing a French champion, and officials sharply criticized the decision. The £700 million, or $1.1 billion, contract will provide Eurostar — which is majority owned by the French state through its ownership of the national railway S.N.C.F. — with 10 of Siemens’ sleek new Velaro e320 trains. Siemens beat out the A.G.V....

The new Amtrak train in Charlottesville celebrated its one-year anniversary with a Thursday morning party that brought together state and local officials and revealed— sort of— that what might have been a subsidized extension of the Northeast Regional train is actually making a profit.“They’ve exceeded all our expectations,” said Mayor Dave Norris at the October 7 event.Last October, the wheels began rolling with a promised three-year state subsidy as Amtrak brought one of its New York-terminating trains though Charlottesville and as far south as Lynchburg.By July, the train had doubled its goals with $5.2 million in revenue from 103,351 Virginia...

The Wisconsin Association of Railroad passengers has been analyzing and advocating for continued and improving rail passenger service in Wisconsin for 40 years. The association consists of people from across the state who see this mode of transportation as a critical option to the state’s well-developed highways and air travel. Rail uses only one acre of land compared to five for roads to move a like number of passengers or tons of freight. Recent ads by a major railroad highlight the great advantage of rail, which needs just one gallon of fuel to move a ton of freight more than...

Just a year after helping to launch a wildly popular twice-daily passenger rail service, Amtrak plans to more than double the frequency of its Cardinal train, a run that currently connects to Chicago or New York less than once a day. Under a new proposal just released the quasi-public passenger rail company, the Cardinal would leap from 6 weekly passes through Charlottesville to 14. “People don’t even know about the Cardinal because it’s just three days a week,” says local rail promoter Meredith Richards. “To have a seven day a week afternoon train for Charlottesville is really big.” Under the...

I have to admit I was skeptical of the idea: Charlotte, N.C., serving as Tampa's model for building light rail and expanding bus service.Charlotte? Really?So here was the challenge: Could I could get by without a car on a recent four-day trip to check out Charlotte's transit system? Would it be a practical alternative for someone visiting for a meeting or conference?It was.I arrived in town on a Tuesday night. After a three-minute wait outside baggage claim, I hopped a ride on the Charlotte Area Transit System's "Sprinter," an electric-hybrid bus that runs every 20 minutes to downtown.Hailing a cab...

President Barack Obama’s six-year, $50 billion plan to upgrade the nation’s transportation infrastructure could give Pittsburgh contractors a much-needed boost — provided Congress is on board. The plan includes providing funding for roadways, railways and airport runways, and it calls for the creation of a government-run bank to finance projects via a combination of tax dollars and private investment so it does not increase the deficit over time. “We’re talking roads,” Obama said during a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee Monday. “We’re talking bridges. We’re talking about high-speed rail lines required to compete in a 21st century economy.” Steve Chizmar,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. HAMILTON — With measurable public support and federal funding legislation in the works, the movement for an Ohio passenger rail network is gaining steam after being batted around for years. Surveys and public hearings held by the Ohio Rail Development Commission across the state from September to May showed that more than three quarters of the participants would use service connecting Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland. The larger network proposed by the commission could include Ohio's Great Lakes cities and Detroit with connections to other systems to the west — serving...