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During the tumultuous year of 2008--when gas prices reached $4 a gallon, Amtrak set ridership records, and a commuter train collided with a freight train in California--journalist James McCommons spent a year on America's trains, talking to the people who ride and work the rails throughout much of the Amtrak system. Organized around these rail journeys, Waiting on a Train is equal parts travel narrative, personal memoir, and investigative journalism. Readers meet the historians, railroad executives, transportation officials, politicians, government regulators, railroad lobbyists, and passenger-rail advocates who are rallying around a simple question: Why has the greatest railroad nation in the world turned its back on the very form of transportation that made modern life and mobility possible? Distrust of railroads in the nineteenth century, overregulation in the twentieth, and heavy government subsidies for airports and roads have left the country with a skeletal intercity passenger-rail system. Amtrak has endured for decades, and yet failed to prosper owing to a lack of political and financial support and an uneasy relationship with the big, remaining railroads. While riding the rails, McCommons explores how the country may move passenger rail forward in America--and what role government should play in creating and funding mass-transportation systems. Against the backdrop of the nation's stimulus program, he explores what it will take to build high-speed trains and transportation networks, and when the promise of rail will be realized in America.
This White Paper sets out the conclusions of the Department for Transport's review of the rail industry, which looked at past and current performance as well as taking submissions from relevant organisations. The main proposals are: the SRA will be abolished and strategic responsibility will pass to the Secretary of State; Network Rail will be given a strengthened role as operator of the network; the number of franchises will be reduced and they will be aligned more closely with Network Rail's regional structure; there will be an increased role for devolved administrations; responsibility for safety will pass from the Health and Safety Executive to a new regulatory body - the Office of Rail Regulation; freight operators will be given greater certainty about their rights on the network.
The Solutionary Rail vision draws unlikely allies together. It provides common cause to workers, farmers, tribes, urban and rural communities via the tracks and corridors that connect them. Part action plan and part manifesto, this book launches a new people-powered campaign to transform the way we use trains and the corridors they travel through.
The familiar image of Los Angeles as a metropolis built for the automobile is crumbling. Traffic, air pollution, and sprawl motivated citizens to support urban rail as an alternative to driving, and the city has started to reinvent itself by developing compact neighborhoods adjacent to transit. As a result of pressure from local leaders, particularly with the election of Tom Bradley as mayor in 1973, the Los Angeles Metro Rail gradually took shape in the consummate car city. Railtown presents the history of this system by drawing on archival documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with many of the key players to provide critical behind-the-scenes accounts of the people and forces that shaped the system. Ethan Elkind brings this important story to life by showing how ambitious local leaders zealously advocated for rail transit and ultimately persuaded an ambivalent electorate and federal leaders to support their vision. Although Metro Rail is growing in ridership and political importance, with expansions in the pipeline, Elkind argues that local leaders will need to reform the rail planning and implementation process to avoid repeating past mistakes and to ensure that Metro Rail supports a burgeoning demand for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This engaging history of Metro Rail provides lessons for how the American car-dominated cities of today can reinvent themselves as thriving railtowns of tomorrow.
What do you think of when you hear the word MONORAIL? For many, a theme park, fair or zoo ride may come to mind. Perhaps you think of a silly cartoon and a song? Dig deeper into the topic, and you will find that each day monorails actually carry hundreds of thousands of passengers in non-entertainment transit applications. Monorails: Trains of the Future-Now Arriving focuses on them through stunning photography and with extensive information. Monorails: Trains of the Future-Now Arriving begins with a primer on what monorail is, followed by compelling arguments for its advantages. Monorail's rich and long history is next, along with a chapter of monorails that were proposed or planned, yet never built. The heart of the book follows with an eye-opening, two-chapter list of the world's transit monorails. Gorgeous color photography shows monorail in a wide variety of environments, along with descriptions, data and maps. The book ends with chapters on how monorail is built, the monorailists that promote them, and speculations on the future of monorail. Monorails: Trains of the Future-Now Arriving is the first hardbound book of its type in over fifty years and is a must-have for anyone interested in rail transit.
Introduction: Amtrak's current situation -- A brief history of Amtrak -- Amtrak's role in intercity transportation -- The basic economics of passenger rail -- Policy options for the future of passenger rail -- Appendix. Amtrak's interconnections with freight and commuter railroads.