Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about Amtrak

Urge Congress to Support Amtrak and Passenger Rail

By Ben Fried | May 23, 2008 | 22 Comments

Here’s a great way to support transit before we head in to another traffic-snarled Memorial Day weekend. H.R. 6003, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, is currently in need of co-sponsors in the House (a version has already passed the Senate). The bill "authorizes Amtrak for the five years Fiscal 2008-2012, provides for capital […]

Obama’s National Transportation Plan Includes Bicycling & Walking

By Damien Newton | Feb 27, 2008 | 12 Comments

Democratic front runner Barack Obama just released a campaign "Fact Sheet" entitled, "Strengthening America’s Transportation Infrastructure" (download it). While Hillary Clinton has put forward some outstanding and heavily transit-oriented plans of her own, Obama appears to be the first major party presidential candidate to outline a national transportation platform that explicitly seeks to "create policies […]

Is America Finally Getting Interested in Passenger Rail?

By Aaron Naparstek | Dec 10, 2007 | 18 Comments

Despite fierce and prevalent Amtrak hating, and although I have yet to hear any presidential candidate discuss it, nationally syndicated columnist Neal Peirce suggests that "the stars are finally coming into alignment" for improvements of America’s passenger rail system. He writes: America’s train advocates are mildly optimistic. And for some good reasons. Amtrak is […]

Kunstler: Parking Plans Are Based on “Faulty Assumptions”

By Aaron Naparstek | Oct 10, 2007 | 22 Comments

If you’re the type of person who has been following the Yankee Stadium parking garage story, or the Hudson Yards zoning story or the story about the city block in Prospect Heights that’s being leveled and turned into a gigantic surface parking lot, you may enjoy James Howard Kunstler’s column this week. The author of […]

Transit-Oriented America, Part 4: The Trains

By Aaron Donovan | Aug 23, 2007 | 14 Comments

This is Part 4 of a five-part series on U.S. rail travel. (Parts 1, 2 and 3.) Susan Donovan boarding Metro-North Train No. 737 on July 11, beginning an 8,000-mile rail journey at Grand Central Terminal. I always find it a little amazing that a handful of times a day, one can descend into Penn […]

Transit-Oriented America, Part 3: Three More Cities

By Aaron Donovan | Aug 22, 2007 | 30 Comments

Part 3 in a series on rail and transit-only travel across the United States focuses on the final three cities of our journey. Part 2 looked at the first three and Part 1 presented an overview of our travel. San Francisco Fully restored streetcars, cable cars, buses with and without pantographs, submerged and at-grade light rail, a […]

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