Other People's Rail: Amtrak, commuter rail, rapid transit news & views outside New England

Newsom to propose extending a landmark California climate law​

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday proposed a 15-year extension of California’s signature cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases — a cornerstone of the state’s climate policies and a reliable revenue generator.
[...]
Newsom’s plan would also address another California initiative under attack from the Trump administration. Specifically, it would convert the proportion of revenue that funds the state’s hot-button high-speed rail project from a 25 percent carve-out to a guaranteed minimum funding level of $1 billion annually.
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Lots of progress now on the purple line. This line is very important imo because its one of the first radial transit lines being built and if successful should have knock on effects for other cities to build their own. We see nyc has the interborough express planned as well and projects like these will give people the opportunity to ride them for themselves and see the benefit as well as cities to look at the data and ways they improve their networks after being built. I feel like its sort of flying under the radar, but is one of the most important projects right now and its nice to see how far along it is now.

 
www.theurbanist.org

Washington Legislature Greenlights Framework for Amtrak Improvements - The Urbanist

# One bill to make it out of the Washington State Legislature this session was House Bill 1837, which sets targets to boost Amtrak Cascades frequencies, reliability, and speed. Meanwhile, Amtrak’s soon-to-be upgraded SoDo rail yard built will host new and improved Amtrak Airo trains to one day...
www.theurbanist.org www.theurbanist.org
In 2024, only 48% of Amtrak Cascades trains arrived within the defined on-time performance window of 10 minutes. The bill lays out a long-range vision to bring that number up to 88% – and keep it there while expanding service.

HB 1837 sets a service target of at least 14 round trips per day between Seattle and Portland and a minimum of five round trips per day between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia. This would more than double service, as Cascades schedule currently tabs six daily round trips to Portland and two daily round trips between Seattle and Vancouver.
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stick n move said:
This line is very important imo because its one of the first radial transit lines being built and if successful should have knock on effects for other cities to build their own.
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I assume you meant non-radial, which is indeed exciting, but there have been examples of this for a few decades now in Los Angeles. Both the Metro (C and K lines) and MetroLink regional rail (IE-OC line) have at least one line that does not run through the core. I'm definitely a fan, and sometimes think our Urban Ring idea in Boston would work better as a couple of cross town lines, rather than a unified ring.
 
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HenryAlan said:
I assume you meant non-radial, which is indeed exciting, but there have been examples of this for a few decades now in Los Angeles. Both the Metro (C and K lines) and MetroLink regional rail (IE-OC line) have at least one line that does not run through the core. I'm definitely a fan, and sometimes think our Urban Ring idea in Boston would work better as a couple of cross town lines, rather than a unified ring.
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Yea LA’s metro is being assembled to have many cross town lines which goes very good with the way that LA is laid out. What I more meant to say was that the purple line is going to be one of the first new (partial) circle lines built in the US and hopefully that encourages more to be built in the future like the ibx in nyc or the circle line that was proposed in chicago a few years ago.
 
This really sucks, especially since the long-desired extension to Kansas was gaining some traction in recent years.
www.news9.com

Heartland Flyer to end service by October 1, 2025

The Heartland Flyer, a passenger train connecting Oklahoma City and Fort Worth since 1999, will end service by October 1, 2025, due to a lack of funding from the Texas Legislature.
www.news9.com www.news9.com
 
www.yahoo.com

North Texas leaders consider local funding to keep Heartland Flyer running to Oklahoma City

With just months left before Texas pulls its share of funding for Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer rail line, leaders on both ends of the route are scrambling to come up with a solution to keep the service alive.
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
On Tuesday, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG)—an alliance of more than 200 cities, counties and school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area—confirmed they are working to “figure out a long term funding solution” using local funds, once Texas’ funding is set to expire in September.

“It may come down to municipalities or counties that have to step up if we want to keep the service going,” Mann said.

He said he’s also working with the Oklahoma City Chamber to explore what other states have done in similar situations.
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“Progress continues at Portal North Bridge!

Recent construction includes the installation of catenary poles, ballast, tracks, and power wires to support future rail operation reliability along the Northeast Corridor.”

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#bancars said:
www.thetrillium.ca

How Metrolinx’s plan to deliver European-style train service went off the rails

GO Expansion will still transform Greater Golden Horseshoe transit — but likely won’t be as ambitious as what was planned just three years ago
www.thetrillium.ca www.thetrillium.ca
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There've been warning signs for awhile that Metrolinx had no clue how to manage the enormity of what they were trying to do, and that they were going down a mismanagement path similar to what Caltrain experienced with its modernization. The top-down management brain drain at North American transit agencies doesn't stop at the Canadian border.
 
Fuck Bernie Moreno.
www.cleveland.com

Sen. Bernie Moreno casts doubt on Ohio’s proposed Amtrak expansion: The Wake Up for Thursday, June 19, 2025

U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno has called for ending funding for Amtrak, arguing the government is inefficient at running passenger rail.
www.cleveland.com www.cleveland.com
Ohio’s brand-new U.S. senator just threw cold water on the state’s long-awaited passenger rail dreams. In a Senate hearing Wednesday, Bernie Moreno questioned why the federal government is even in the business of running Amtrak — and suggested it shouldn’t be.
Moreno, a Westlake Republican, said Amtrak’s service can’t compete with privately run lines like Brightline in Florida. He called Amtrak’s trains outdated and inefficient, comparing them to “a Russian car from the ‘70s.”
The timing’s notable, because back in Ohio, the DeWine administration is still studying whether to greenlight new Amtrak routes — including a big one connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati. If approved, those trains wouldn’t start rolling until 2030 at the earliest.
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Moreno, a Westlake Republican, said Amtrak’s service can’t compete with privately run lines like Brightline in Florida. He called Amtrak’s trains outdated and inefficient, comparing them to “a Russian car from the ‘70s.”
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You mean, the Brightline that runs the same exact brand new Siemens locomotives and coaches as Amtrak Midwest. Those yugos? :rolleyes:

Also, LOL at direct-comparing an hourly corridor service to a couple-RT's-daily starter service as "competition". And ignoring that Brightline's main profit center is the real estate development around the stations on land it owns, not the service itself which--like most public transit--does not cover all of its operating costs. Brightline hasn't yet come close to turning a profit; they're playing an extremely long game with full foreknowledge that the profits will come from elsewhere.
 
#bancars said:
www.thetrillium.ca

How Metrolinx’s plan to deliver European-style train service went off the rails

GO Expansion will still transform Greater Golden Horseshoe transit — but likely won’t be as ambitious as what was planned just three years ago
www.thetrillium.ca www.thetrillium.ca
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"Sources, however, say Deutsche Bahn pushed for ambitious, European-style changes, while some of the Crown agency’s leadership resisted, insistent that things work differently in Canada."

F%^*ing hell. Worse; did they mean worse? They meant to say worse, right? What an awful, unfunny joke. We're never fixing this problem.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
You mean, the Brightline that runs the same exact brand new Siemens locomotives and coaches as Amtrak Midwest. Those yugos? :rolleyes:

Also, LOL at direct-comparing an hourly corridor service to a couple-RT's-daily starter service as "competition". And ignoring that Brightline's main profit center is the real estate development around the stations on land it owns, not the service itself which--like most public transit--does not cover all of its operating costs. Brightline hasn't yet come close to turning a profit; they're playing an extremely long game with full foreknowledge that the profits will come from elsewhere.
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Also worth noting that there is no Brightline style proposal from anybody for Ohio, nor will there likely ever be one. So he's basically saying no to any kind of rail whatsoever.
 
HenryAlan said:
Also worth noting that there is no Brightline style proposal from anybody for Ohio, nor will there likely ever be one. So he's basically saying no to any kind of rail whatsoever.
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The apt comparison there is Iowa Pacific, Inc., which bid--and won--the right to run the Chicago-Indianapolis 1 round-trip Amtrak Hoosier State in 2015 on a 4-year contract...then begged Indiana to be let out of the contract early after only 1-1/2 years of service with Amtrak being brought back on an emergency basis because they lost their shirts trying to run it as a lone private outpost. IP superficially goosed the Hoosier State's topline ridership its first year by adding a full-service dining car (the only short-haul route in the country to feature that), dome car, and much-upgraded business class to the same basic Amtrak fare structure...then bled itself dry on the bottom line with staggeringly increased costs and scaling challenges of trying to run apart from the large Amtrak Midwest network and its large rolling stock and maintenance base. Passenger rail isn't supposed to be profitable; it's a public service. Only a few extremely high-density routes in the world meet that standard, and not even Brightline could count on that business model so it tried something very different and wholly unique to its home market with its real-estate-developer-masquerading-as-choo-choo scheme. Politicians who want free market purity for their transit expansion are basically banking on there being a bunch more suckers like Iowa Pacific out there when they parrot these "bRiGhTLiNe eVeRyWaRe, nO mO aMsUcK" talking points. That's not how private business works.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
The apt comparison there is Iowa Pacific, Inc., which bid--and won--the right to run the Chicago-Indianapolis 1 round-trip Amtrak Hoosier State in 2015 on a 4-year contract...then begged Indiana to be let out of the contract early after only 1-1/2 years of service with Amtrak being brought back on an emergency basis because they lost their shirts trying to run it as a lone private outpost. IP superficially goosed the Hoosier State's topline ridership its first year by adding a full-service dining car (the only short-haul route in the country to feature that), dome car, and much-upgraded business class to the same basic Amtrak fare structure...then bled itself dry on the bottom line with staggeringly increased costs and scaling challenges of trying to run apart from the large Amtrak Midwest network and its large rolling stock and maintenance base. Passenger rail isn't supposed to be profitable; it's a public service. Only a few extremely high-density routes in the world meet that standard, and not even Brightline could count on that business model so it tried something very different and wholly unique to its home market with its real-estate-developer-masquerading-as-choo-choo scheme. Politicians who want free market purity for their transit expansion are basically banking on there being a bunch more suckers like Iowa Pacific out there when they parrot these "bRiGhTLiNe eVeRyWaRe, nO mO aMsUcK" talking points. That's not how private business works.
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The really galling thing is that the exact same line of reasoning people use to build "lifestyle centers", single-family suburbia, and ever-widening highways is the same as that which we use to justify building rail and density.

It's news to no one here, but car infrastructure isn't profitable, either, and the economic activity that it enables could be enabled much more efficiently with a ped/bike/rail transportation paradigm.

At the same time, I'm also sure I'm not the only one here who's mostly given up on the U.S. being rational about this stuff.
 
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