Category: Transportation

Home>News>Transportation

The little airline that could, but didn’t

If you already read the Aug. 15 article titled “Great Lakes Faces Shortage of Pilots” that was written by James Chilton and published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, you may be interested in a broader view of the story. In response to Great Lakes’ far-flung exertions across the [...]

Party labels aside, Americans want to ride Amtrak

WASHINGTON – New polling shows that Americans across the ideological spectrum support more public funding of Amtrak passenger rail service. “We polled people who mostly do not live in large passenger rail regions and yet they overwhelmingly said they want the same level of or [...]

Poll shows conservative support for Amtrak

Armed with polling data obtained by SMART?Transportation Division?political consultant Dean Mitchell of DFM?Research, Colorado State Legislative Director Carl Smith and Assistant Legislative Director Charlie Skidmore Sept. 14 presented community leaders from Colorado, Kansas [...]
Amtrak Logo

Amtrak funds at risk in extended shutdown

Amtrak, the U.S. intercity passenger railroad, may have trouble staying on track, literally, if a U.S. government shutdown is prolonged for a month or more. The Washington-based railroad, which has never made money, gets 12 percent of its operating budget and most capital and [...]
Amtrak Logo

Amtrak commits to end food, beverage losses

WASHINGTON – Amtrak is moving forward with a plan to eliminate its food and beverage losses over five years. It builds on successful initiatives implemented since fiscal year 2006 that have increased the cost recovery rate from 49 percent to 65 percent. “We have made steady a [...]

Suicides by rail leave more than just one victim

Sharon Spitler had every intention of taking her life when she left her motel room in the early morning of Sept. 25. At 6:40 a.m., the 56-year-old Westland, Mich., woman walked to the nearby South Shore railroad tracks and stood between the long twin rails that disappear in b [...]

Natural gas locomotives to be common by 2016

In 2011, U.S. railroad companies consumed a little over 3 billion gallons of diesel, nearly 5.5 percent of the total consumption for the entire country. Oil is currently much more expensive than natural gas, which thanks to the shale boom, is at record low prices in the U.S. [...]

Amtrak in New York state to stay open

ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak and the state Department of Transportation have reached an agreement on a method for sharing costs on most trains in the Empire State, avoiding a shutdown of service that could have taken place as early as Oct. 17. The agreement, required by the fe [...]

TSA employees working without pay

ATLANTA – While 800,000 federal employees are not reporting to work during the government shutdown, thousands of TSA employees are expected to come to work without pay.  They’re the first line of defense on the ground and in the air at our nation’s airports, but T [...]