Amtrak
Obama's Interest in Rail Travel
Today, Barack Obama decided to meet with an Amtrak worker and talk about expanding and improving rail service. The timing is not an accident.
He is alone among the presidential candidates in not advocating a cut in gas taxes over the summer, a stance for which he received an extremely rare bit of (conditional) praise from Paul Krugman, but for which he was attacked by his opponents. read more »
A Look Back: Amtrak, the Postal Service, and the Hatching of Moynihan Station
An addendum to our article earlier this week on the never-ending Moynihan Station saga: The concept of converting the Farley Post Office into a rail station is widely viewed as belonging to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, its most persistent advocate from the early 1990s until his death in 2003. But the history goes back a bit further, and started as a partnership between the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak, both of which stood to gain from a redevelopment of Farley.
Two of the major forces behind the plan's genesis: Donald Pross, who served as Amtrak’s director of real estate and development until 1995, and Dennis Wamsley, who ran the Postal Service’s asset management division.
Amtrak, eager to have a more presentable flagship station, was looking at options of how to improve Penn Station in the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to Mr. Pross.
Around the same time, a postal service executive was heading up a program known as asset management for the agency, finding ways to take existing properties, add other uses, and bring in some new money. read more »
Ray Kelly to Steve Roth, James Dolan: Put Up That Wall!
WNBC.com got hold of a March 25 letter from Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to Madison Square Garden Chairman James Dolan, Vornado Realty chief executive Steve Roth, and the heads of the M.T.A. and Amtrak, faulting the parties for holding up the installation of a security perimeter around Penn Station to protect what he called “the single most critical transit hub in the United States” from terrorist attacks. read more »
This Won't Take Long, Amtrak Just Wants to Check Your Bags
To jolt commuters from the holiday lull, Amtrak will now greet passengers at Penn Station and elsewhere with bomb-sniffing dogs, machine-gun-wielding security officers, and random carry-on bag checks starting today as part of a program to boost security measures on domestic rail lines.
A long-time proponent of upping security on America’s vulnerable rail system, Senator Charles Schumer, supported the initiative but feared that cash-strapped Amtrak might not have the personnel to make the system work without “bringing service to a screeching halt.” read more »
Imagine Cheaper New York-Philly Amtrak Service
I wrote in this week's Observer about New Yorkers moving to Philadelphia. One of the statistics I dug up that didn't make it into the story was the amount of daily Amtrak commuters between New York's Penn Station and Philly's 30th Street Station. It turns out that annual daily round-trip ridership along the line peaked in 2004 and 2005, and has dropped precipitously ever since. read more »
Boulud on Amtrak, Hamburgers
So we were on Amtrak this weekend, and there's a profile of mega-chef Daniel Boulud in the on-train magazine Arrive. In it, Mr. Boulud sounds off on many topics, including his new wine bar, Bar Boulud, in Lincoln Center, and his efforts at feeding rescue workers immediately after September 11.
He also talks about the time he re-interpreted an American classic ... read more »
Bakery Transcends Its Transit-Based Comfort Zones
Zaro's Babka: No longer just for Amtrakers.
Having already established a dominating presence at the city's transit hubs--including four stores at Grand Central, two at Penn Station, and another at Port Authority--Zaro's is now targeting Flatiron-area flatfoots.
At its newest location, next door to Mayrose Comfortable Food at the corner of Broadway and 21st Street, contractors worked well past sunset on Friday to install new windows. Seems the circa-1977 chain is in a hurry to expand its audience beyond the Amtrak and LIRR set.
"We are hoping to be open by the end of the year," proprietor Joseph Zaro tells The Observer in an e-mail, "but with construction, one never knows!" read more »
- Chris ShottLIRR and NJ Transit to Help Fund Amtrak?
Slithering out.
So now the Bush administration, according to The New York Times, has a new solution: Charge surplus-addled commuter rail systems in those cities for their use of Amtrak facilities--tracks, stations, etc.
The plan, according to The Times,
could hit New Jersey Transit hard, because it operates many trains over long routes. The Long Island Rail Road could be charged more for using Pennsylvania Station in New York City. Metro-North Railroad, which terminates in New Haven, runs on tracks owned by New York and Connecticut, but the Shore Line East, which runs east of New Haven, operates on Amtrak tracks and could be hit for more. Septa, which serves the Philadelphia area, and the commuter systems serving Boston, Wilmington and Baltimore would also be subject to new charges.
But can they actually do this? The commuter rails already have arrangements with Amtrak for the use of their facilities.
And in New York, where a greater portion of commuter rail is already funded through fare-paying customers, are Amtrak trains serving the region to be partially subsidized by suburban commuters?As it is, the successful New Jersey Transit and Long Island Railroad lines are likely to be the ones footing the bill for the new Penn Station--which will be across the street from Amtrak's old "vomitorium," Penn Station. Remember the big plans for a rail hub that would welcome commuters to the city? To paraphrase Vincent Scully, now suburban commuters who already work in the city will be entering like emperors, while tourists slither in like rats. read more »
- Tom McGeveranThrow David Gunn From The Trains: His Amtrak Sack
