WisARP Spring Meeting, Appleton, March 26, 2022
The WisARP Spring Meeting will be held in Appleton on March 26th. For complete information, click on Calendar above, then on click on WisARP Meetings.
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WisARP Spring Meeting, March 26, 2022
The WisARP Spring Meeting will be held in Appleton on March 26th. For complete information, click on Calendar, then on click on WisARP meetings.
WisDOT Arun Rao Update from October 2021 Meeting
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The WisARP General Meeting in LaCrosse October 2021 featured the Wisconsin Department of Transportation Passenger Rail Manager Arun Rao. This video is available.
Updates to this video can be accessed on the following document.
WisARP Fall 2021 Meeting Black River Community Center, LaCrosse, Wi
We are currently meeting, talking with Arun Rao, Wisdot via Zoom and his counterpart from MNdot.
When Unlimited Potential Meets Limited Resources
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July 16, 2021 – Nice name! And how appropriate. The name actually comes from a May 6, 2021 U.S. House of Representatives hearing staged by the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials. This hearing was over two months ago, but much of the discussion will have legs for the next year or three. The impact on Wisconsin Passenger Rail is yet to be seen. You can go to YouTube and watch the entire hearing… all 4 hours and 45 minutes of it. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………. Or you can catch some of my edits below.
The YouTube link above is for segment five. (I know I’m going backwards.) Here are some notes I made over what I thought was important discussion: About 49 minutes CA rep Doug LaMalfa’s monologue. About 39 minutes AR rep Bruce Westerman’s questions about cost per mile. About 26 minutes WA rep Marilyn Strickland questions/ exchange over HSR. About 16:15 minutes MA rep Seth Moultan questions/ exchange over the speed of HSR with Flynn of Amtrak. A very interesting exchange, and one that shows how really splintered the information conveyed by the supporters of HSR can be. (Research this topic yourself on Wikipedia.)
By the way, each of these segments I have edited in questions from lawmakers from their five minute sessions, as opposed to watching the Q&A segments and getting scattered occurrences of questions and answers.
Segment two is Judge Trey Duhon from Waller County Texas, a well-spoken, well prepared testimony against Texas Central. Any of you that are strong advocates of HSR should watch this and learn about the headwinds that are naturally going to happen with any NEW HSR project. Even Mr. High Speed Rail Seth Moulton appeared effected by his testimony.
Segment four video is Texas Central CEO Carlos Aguilar. I thought this would be a little more spicy coming off of Judge Duhon’s testimony. But I was wrong.
Segment three is John Porcari, former Deputy Secretary of Transportation under President Obama. He’s currently the Secretary of Transportation for the State of Maryland. No question this gent received the most questions from lawmakers. Considering his current status in transportation, this surprised me. I think he answered questions in a rather level-headed manner. There’s no outrageous marketing-type answers here.
Segment one is the opening statements from the two transportation chairs: Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr. from New Jersey and Rep. Peter DeFazio from Oregon. There is plenty of sizzle here, particularly if you watch segments two, three and five. Enjoy!
Spring 2021 Meeting
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The Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers (WisARP) is holding its Spring Meeting 2021 via Zoom on Saturday, March 27th, 2021 9:00am to Noon Central Time.
Click on the Link below to register. There is no fee for this meeting
Arun Rao, Passenger Rail specialist at WisDOT, is scheduled to speak. Other speakers are being finalized. The meeting will focus on the second train Chicago – Milwaukee – St. Paul, and restoration of Hiawatha and Empire Builder service post Covid.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uduCtrjktGdNwxx3OV8nvGextW3s2qIug
*After registering, you will receive a confirmation email back from Zoom containing information on how to join the Zoom meeting by computer or by phone. Both options are available.
EMPIRE BUILDER 2020 ON-TIME CHARTS
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January 24, 2021 – The January 21, 2021 issue of TCMC Newsletter contains the On-Time Performance charts for the Empire Builder in 2020.
Under review is: Westbound #7 – On-Time performance for arrival at St. Paul, MN. This would be an identical trek for the TCMC regional train when it hits the rail.
Eastbound #8 – On-Time performance is based on Columbus, WI. Prior to this chart, if you saw posted information about #8 it was almost always for Chicago.
New this year is a PDF file showing the daily log for every Amtrak train. Also new this year is a video that goes along with the Newsletter and PDF files. Hopefully this answers many questions about this project. Links for the files are below as is a link that will take you to the WisARP YouTube Channel to see the video that’s a bit more than 10 minutes.
SEPTEMBER TCMC NEWSLETTER
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WITH RENEWED CALL TO ACTION
September 30, 2020 – Reports are our legislators in Washington D.C. are working together to fund another stimulus bill. Any help for Amtrak that can be funded would be welcome.
The current news about the Empire Builder is the current date for downgrading service to three times per week is Monday, October 19. This service cut will happen even if congress acts to supply funding for Amtrak. Any new funding congress enacts for Amtrak needs to have the requirement that Long Distance service needs to remain daily.
The latest TCMC Newsletter is at the bottom of this blog. It’s almost entirely dedicated toto Empire Builder news. For the absolute latest information regarding Amtrak Long Distance service including the Empire Builder, WisARP suggests checking with Trains Magazine Newswire and RailPassengers.org. Also included below is another sample letter you can use to contact our U.S. Senators Baldwin and Johnson. Calling them and leaving a short message is strongly suggested, but writing a message would also be helpful.
CALL TO ACTION FROM MIDWEST INTERSTATE PASSENGER RAIL COMMISSION (MIPRC)
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September 11, 2020 – Lombard, IL. The following is a memo issued today from MIPRC regarding the potential for the Amtrak Empire Builder and other Long Distance trains being reduced to three trains per week in October. Please check other posts regarding contact information for Senators Baldwin and Johnson.
Dear MIPRC allies,
MIPRC today sent the email below to all Midwestern Members of Congress (and their transportation staff), urging them to support Amtrak’s request for $4.9 billion for FY 2021. If this request is met, Amtrak has promised not to cut long-distance service to 3/x week on most routes, nor furlough employees, on Oct. 1.
We strongly encourage you to reach out to your Members of Congress (both House and Senate) to reiterate this critically-important request.
Thank you!
Laura Kliewer, Director – Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission
From: Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2020 12:01 PM
Subject: Funding for Amtrak needed this month in order to avoid cutting long-distance service and furloughing employees!
To: Midwestern Members of Congress Fr: Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission
Date: September 11, 2020
Re: Funding for Amtrak needed this month in order to avoid cutting long-distance service and furloughing employees!
The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC) is a compact among Midwestern states to promote, coordinate and support passenger rail development in our region. We write today to urgently ask for your support of additional funding to maintain Amtrak’s national network of long-distance trains at its current level of service.
As you may be aware, effective October 1 Amtrak plans to reduce service on these trains from daily to three times per week until ridership recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. On Sept. 1, Amtrak said it will also furlough 1,950 employees, 698 of whom are on-board staff for long-distance trains.
While we don’t dispute the drastic losses in ridership caused by the pandemic, daily Amtrak service is essential for many Midwesterners, especially those who live in rural areas. We are concerned that this service cut would strand thousands of riders in smaller cities and communities who have no other form of intercity or interstate transportation. It would also adversely affect the already tenuous economic vitality of dozens of rural communities that are station stops for Amtrak and benefit greatly from the impact of that status. And while Amtrak states its benchmarks for restoring service will be examined as early as the first quarter of calendar year 2021, we are concerned this cut is one from which long-distance service may never recover.
In a recent analysis, the Rail Passengers Association noted that the National Network (long-distance trains) have provided Amtrak more ridership revenue than the Northeast Corridor or the state-supported services since the pandemic period began in March. Among its findings:
· During the pandemic period since March, the National Network’s routes have contributed 45% of Amtrak’s revenues, compared with 21% a year ago during those same five months.
· Since March, Northeast Corridor and state-supported corridor service revenues are down 90% compared with a 64% decline for the National Network.
· In all of calendar 2020, NEC ridership is down 66%, and during the pandemic period ridership is down 88%. By contrast, the National Network’s ridership is only down 53% in 2020, and 68% during the pandemic period.
We should note that revenue and ridership numbers for Amtrak’s state-supported services have tracked very closely those for the Northeast Corridor. But unlike the NEC and the long-distance network, the states – not Amtrak – will decide when to increase, or reinstate, more frequent services on those routes.
As Senators Bennett, Braun, Cramer, Danes, Heinrich, Hoeven and Udall noted in their June 24 letter to Amtrak president and CEO William Flynn: “Amtrak’s plan to terminate one out of every five employees would put thousands of Americans out of work at a time when millions of Americans have lost their jobs. This severe reduction in workforce raises serious doubts about whether a realistic plan exists for fully restoring service in a timely fashion. Your plan also calls for reducing the frequency of all National Network long distance trains, while consolidating three routes into one, thus greatly reducing Amtrak’s ability to operate its Network at full capacity. These actions will eliminate thousands of points of connection and dramatically reduce the utility of Amtrak as a transportation provider, irrevocably hurting hundreds of communities and small towns already devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
We appreciate and are thankful that Congress has already provided Amtrak with $1 billion in emergency funding through the CARES Act. But, as we noted in our June 29 letter to Congress regarding the TRAIN Act within H.R. 2: “Amtrak has informed MIPRC that in order not to make planned cuts to long distance service starting on Oct. 1, it would need to receive $4 billion in federal funding … for FY 2021.”
During the House Transportation and Infrastructure rail subcommittee’s Sept. 9 hearing on Amtrak’s response to COVID-19, Amtrak CEO William Flynn said that after further analysis, and with ridership still down 80 percent from pre-pandemic levels, Amtrak has updated that figure to $4.9 billion.
Therefore, we now ask that Amtrak be authorized and funded at $4.9 billion for FY 2021 before Sept. 30. We also request that this additional funding which Amtrak says it needs in FY 2021 to maintain daily service on the National Network come with a Congressional directive that it must be used to maintain long-distance service and the related employment of workers at FY 2020 levels.
Thank you.
AMTRAK IN WISCONSIN IN JULY
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August 26, 2020 – During the second week of July I had a chance to visit Wisconsin. With my camcorder along I video captured the Empire Builder twice and the Hiawatha once. From outward appearances these trains appear fine. But inside, I’m sure it was much emptier than normal. Enjoy.
Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers 