Monthly Archives: November 2012

What’s next for passenger rail in 2013? How do we ‘take it up a notch’?

Obama has been re-elected with an ongoing disfunctional split in power between the house and Larry on the train scenic area-smsenate, making any large new initiatives unlikely.

So what can we expect to see for improvements in passenger rail on the west coast?  incremental improvements at best, with some stimulas funds helping out in California, Washington and to a lesser extent, Oregon.

California is building the first leg of its’ high-speed rail system in the central valley.

Washington is buying trainsets, improving service and track.

Oregon is working on an environmental study and train-routing for the future, and has purchased a couple of Talgo train sets to improve service along with Washington.

Incremental improvements are nice (Casprail is pushing for track improvements, service improvement and ADA improvements on the Coast Starlight service), but how do we get major systemic improvements from San Diego to Vancouver BC?  Projects to vastly improve and re-route tracks, build passenger-only sections where appropriate?  Improve trainsets?

What is the way to accomplish this?

How do we get started?

Your ideas are welcome!

Thanks,

Larry, chief advocate at Casprail.org