People News: HDR, RPA
HDR has named Shyam Kannan Mid-Atlantic Transit Lead. Also, the Rail Passengers Association’s (RPA) volunteer leaders elected former Charlottesville (Va.) Deputy Mayor and City Councillor Meredith Richards as Board Chair.
RPA
Commentary
A Hard Sell and a Long Shot
In October, I reported on three events that took place within three days, all of which concerned the possibility of more Amtrak-operated state-supported trains in the Midwest. The events are now over,
Commentary
RPA: Let’s set the record straight
Recent opinion pieces and news stories, such as in Railway Age, have indicated the Rail Passengers Association “goes along to get along” with Amtrak executives and does not express any objections to what the passenger railroad has done or will do when it comes to serving the riding public. This is clearly not the case.
Amtrak’s “faulty route accounting”: RPA
A white paper issued by the Rail Passengers Association, “Amtrak’s Route Accounting: Fatally Flawed, Misleading & Wrong,” contends that Amtrak’s fully allocated cost methodology “grossly exaggerates the cost of operating the national passenger train system. This, in turn, has lead to the conclusion adopted by many elected leaders and other affected stakeholders that abandonment of key long-distance trains will save Amtrak significant sums and lead to a more financially secure national passenger operation.”
NARP rebrands as RPA
The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) has changed its name to the Rail Passengers Association (RPA) and adopted a new logo that “evokes the image of a train window through which passengers view the world.”