Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Amtrak

Biden’s Homage to Amtrak

By Elana Schor | Jan 6, 2010 | No Comments

The nation’s Amtrak rider-in-chief, Vice President Joseph Biden, has penned an op-ed for the rail network’s monthly magazine entitled "Why America Needs Trains." The Vice President and his wife share a tender moment — on the Acela. (Photo: NYT) Biden doesn’t get too political in the piece, eschewing calls for more Amtrak funding in favor […]

Adding a Dose of Honesty to the Congressional Job-Creation Debate

By Elana Schor | Dec 28, 2009 | No Comments

The House’s $75 billion jobs bill was intended as a holiday gift to out-of-work voters, but transportation reformers were less than thrilled with lawmakers’ decision to mimic the first stimulus law’s use of outmoded funding formulas to send three times as much money to roads as to transit. Hartford’s Union Station, above, is in line […]

House Jobs Bill Could Make General Electric’s Amtrak Wish Come True

By Elana Schor | Dec 16, 2009 | 7 Comments

The House is poised to take up a jobs bill later today that provides $37.3 billion in new transportation spending, including $27.5 billion for roads, $8.4 billion for transit … and a holiday gift for General Electric? Could this cleaner GE locomotive be coming soon to Amtrak? (Photo: Inhabitat) GE’s transportation division recently joined its […]

House and Senate Agree on $2.5B for High-Speed Rail — And More

By Elana Schor | Dec 9, 2009 | 2 Comments

After lengthy negotiations, the House and Senate agreed last night on a massive "omnibus" spending bill [PDF] that includes $2.5 billion for high-speed rail — a compromise between the two chambers — as well as $150 million for the Obama administration’s sustainable communities effort and $150 million for the Washington D.C. Metro system. Rep. John […]

Who Wants to Buy a New Locomotive? General Electric Hopes Amtrak Does

By Elana Schor | Dec 1, 2009 | 4 Comments

General Electric’s Transportation division inked a high-speed rail technology-sharing deal with China last month, but the prospects on the home front for its fuel-efficient locomotives are downright "bleak" heading into 2010, as its chief executive recently told Dow Jones. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), at right, addressed GE Transportation workers in Erie, PA, last year. (Photo: […]

Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express, and the Future of Privately Run Transit

By Elana Schor | Nov 4, 2009 | 2 Comments

Virginia Railway Express (VRE), the commuter network that links northwest Virginia to Washington D.C., today refused a challenge by Amtrak to its decision to switch operating providers to the U.S. arm of Keolis, a private French transit company. Chicago’s earliest rail transit line, pictured here, was run by a private company. (Photo: Franzosenbusch Project) Although […]

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