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A founder and former chairman of the US High Speed Rail Association, Lewis J. Goetz, announced Jan 11 the formation of the American High Speed Rail alliance (AHSRA). The new organization, under president Eric C. Peterson, will broaden its scope to promote high speed rail in cooperation with the broad range of stakeholders, including federal and state governments, associations, manufacturers, service providers, consumers and advocates.

Said Peterson, "It is not enough to say you are interested in high speed rail, or to be a cheerleader for high speed rail. Developing a world class national high speed rail system will take the dedicated efforts of thousands, perhaps millions of Americans. AHSRA will serve as the unified voice for this effort, working hand in hand with stakeholders to make this national high speed rail system a reality." For more info, see its website at www.americanhsra.org.

Amtrak considers route restorals

Some cities on the former route of the Amtrak Pioneer train, which ran between Salt Lake City and Seattle, are calling for restoration of the service. Amtrak reportedly has been looking for a consultant to help with the evaluation of that route, suggesting that some progress is being made on that project. Amtrak was supposed to finish studying a number of route restorations by mid-October 2009, but there is apparently no further information on those studies. Typically, Amtrak does not publicly release information on such studies until they reach an advanced decision stage.

The missing New Orleans-Orlando FL section of the Sunset Limited route, gone since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 due to damaged CSX tracks, is being pushed for restoration by a number of local politicians and community activist groups. Reportedly, CSX has no objection to restarting this service. Amtrak may be hesitating, however, because of the previous lower ridership on that Sunset leg.

U.S. travel by airliner now constitutes only 5% of all holiday travel. The vast majority is by auto (88%), while train, bus and boat total 7%, reports the American Automobile Association. Rail advocates see it as remarkable that while air travel and travel by train are so close in numbers, air travel occupies such a prominent position in the media and thus in public awareness.

With the latest airline terrorist incident, the December 25 attempted destruction of a Detroit-bound plane by a radical Nigerian man, the tighter airport security methods now being enacted will make air travel even more unpleasant. Officials downplay the idea that air travel will decline further, but such a prediction has no data to support it.

Virgin Pendolino train, operator's view. Virgin Trains photo.

Virgin Trains announces extra service London-Glasgow

Virgin Trains on Dec 17 announced the times of the additional trains on the London to Glasgow via Preston route over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, which will help passengers affected by the collapse of Scotland’s airline Flyglobespan. The extra trains had been arranged to help passengers affected by the planned strike action on British Airways, but will continue to operate following the High Court ruling that the strike cannot go ahead.

The extra trains will supplement the already advertised service of 26 trains daily in both directions between Euston and Glasgow.

Chris Gibb, Virgin Trains’ Chief Operating Officer said: “Christmas and New Year is an extremely busy time for us, but I am confident that with the additional trains being arranged alongside our scheduled services, most of which have 439 seats, we will be able to carry all our regular customers together with those affected by the planned BA strike and those whose travel plans have been disrupted by the collapse of Flyglobespan.”

Denver Ski Train operation threatened by Amtrak demands

New winter Ski Train service between Denver and Winter Park CO was scheduled to start Dec 27 with Amtrak providing operating crews for Iowa Pacific Holdings, and more than 13,000 reservations have reportedly been made. But Amtrak and Iowa Pacific do not yet have a signed agreement. Amtrak has told Pacific Holdings that the latter needs $200 million insurance coverage to cover acts of terrorism, insurance that is too expensive for Pacific Holdings.

Pacific Holdings is filing suit against Amtrak to require the latter to operate the service. The service, which has run for 69 years, would operate on Union Pacific tracks.

Eurostar has reported that the procedures that were put in place to prioritise passengers have worked well and in the course of today the backlog of passengers from the weekend has been cleared. Eurostar will continue to operate a restricted service on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 December. Trains will be running throughout the day. More information is available on www.eurostar.com. Customers with tickets for travel between Saturday 19 and Thursday 24 December can come to the terminal on either Wednesday or Thursday and we will do our best to allocate a seat on the next available train.

Eurostar service update for Dec 22

Eurostar will be resuming a restricted service from Tuesday 22 December. Trains will depart from 07.30 to 18.00 (GMT).

We continue to strongly advise customers whose journeys are not essential not to travel and to change their tickets for travel on a later date or have their tickets refunded.

Only customers who hold a ticket that was originally for travel on Saturday 19 or Sunday 20 December will be eligible for travel on Tuesday 22 December.

Customers holding tickets for Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 December will be eligible for travel on Wednesday 23 December. Customers holding tickets for Wednesday 23 or Thursday 24 December will be eligible for travel on Thursday 24 December.

Customers are advised not to attempt to travel independently via the channel ports or the Channel Tunnel unless they have confirmed bookings.

Eurostar begins independent review of problems

The Board of Eurostar announced today that it has commissioned an independent 
review into the problems it has experienced over recent days. The review will be led 
by Christopher Garnett,  former Chief Executive of GNER and formerly Commercial 
Director of Eurotunnel, in conjunction with Monsieur Claude Gressier who is 
Inspecteur General des Ponts et Chaussees. The review will begin at once. 

After weather-related power problems continued on the Eurostar service, 
the operator announced that service would be cancelled indefinitely until
the problem was resolved. Read original report here, which includes a trip 
report by a NY Times reporter.

See Eurostar announcement update

Amtrak Crescent stuck in snowstorm

The northbound Crescent, train 20, on Dec 19 became immobilized just outside 
Alexandria VA. Passengers said they had been stuck on the train for a long time
and complained of lack of information about their situation. The power in the
train had gone out after a time and the onboard temperature was falling. They
said the Amtrak crew had fed them a meager dinner of rice. 

Much of the East Coast had been hit by a very heavy snowstorm that day,
which paralyzed airports and highways as well. See a video report on the
Crescent situation at this link.

Eurostar suffers major breakdowns due to weather

Five Eurostar trains broke down Friday evening, Dec 18, stranding about 
2000 passengers in the Channel Tunnel. The highly disruptive and embarassing 
to Eurostar breakdown was blamed on the contrast in temperature between
the Continental side of the line, where extreme low temperatures were recorded,
and the higher temperatures in the tunnel. Read full story here.

Eurostar trains image is being upgraded

Eurostar announced in August that Italian designer Pininfarina will be re-designing 
the interiors of its trains. Now on Dec 17 came the announcement that SomeOne, 
a London-based creative design agency, has been tapped to provide a "new visual 
identity across all its traveller touch-points".   Eurostar said the visual identity being 
developed by SomeOne will tie in with PininFarina's new interior designs. 

Italy now tops all Eurail Pass single-country sales

More Eurail single-country Passes are being sold for Italian travel than for any other 
European nation. In addition, Italy has become the number-two country for overall 
Eurail Pass travel, according to a Dec 17 announcement from Eurail Group. 

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train hitting the Midwest

The Holiday Train is a freight train covered in more than 200,000 bright lights. At 
140 stops across Canada and United States, Canadian Pacific provides a box car 
stage, a line up of great musical talent and a corporate contribution to the local 
food pantries and food shelves. Food pantries and food shelves provide collection 
bins for non-perishable food. Communities, in turn, donate food and funds, all of 
which stays in the community. The Holiday Train has raised $4 million and 2 million 
pounds of food. Full schedules and background information are available at 
www.cpr.ca by clicking on the Holiday Train. For the train schedule for upcoming 
days in the Midwest, see this link.

California high-speed train project is set back by need for new environmental
report
See this story at SFGate here.

House Democrats are working quickly on a jobs creation bill, hoping to have it ready for President Obama's signature in January, reports the L.A. Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-jobs27-2009nov27,0,3049289.story There is disappointment that the earlier stimulus package did not result in the creation of enough jobs, and the nation's unemployment rate has risen to 10.2%. 

There is talk of focussing heavily on "shovel-ready" projects to fund, including much infrastructure work. Rail advocates are asking whether badly-needed rail projects will be included in the legislation. An example of that sentiment comes from a Web diary commenter: "Government-created jobs to build rail lines might increase demand for concrete-and-steel ties made in the Midwest, steel rails made in America, earth-moving equipment to grade and clear new road beds, domestically produced signal devices, and... and... real jobs? By golly, somebody might even set up a factory to reclaim, rebuild and refurbish passenger cars that have been rusting on sidings or resting in switchyards for 60 years so that... wait for it... Amtrak might have more than 632 cars (Truth!) to use. Good heavens! If that happens, Amtrak might be able to increase its carrying contribution of passengers, move them more efficiently than by single-passenger autos, move America toward a more efficient mix of transport that reduces our dependence on foreign oil."  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/11/27/808513/-Democrats-Working-on-a-Multibillion-dollar-Jobs-Package! 

Senator Dianne Feinstein on Meet the Press Nov 22 said: "An interest that I have had for a long time is in high-speed rail, and there are three regional high-speed rail systems being planned in the United States.I'd like to see an infrastructure bank developed with some of the remaining TARP money that could lend to communities to move those plans forward quicker so that -- because transportation has a billion -- it has 40,000 jobs for a billion dollars spent, and so it's a good investment of funds right now. We have to be concerned with jobs." 

According to The Hill, "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said that passage of a $500 billion, six-year transportation reauthorization bill, funding highway and transit construction projects, could serve as a jobs bill, but the White House and Senate Democrats have only supported extensions of the current transportation bill." 

Rail advocates will continue to push for funding for high-speed rail and Amtrak upgrading and expansion.