passenger rail

Amtrak Cleared for 2nd Daily Train To Vancouver, B.C.

This article, published by The Seattle Times, mentions Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: Bruce Agnew, policy director at the Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center, a think tank that studies transportation issues, said the fee has been waived by the Canadian government. He said that Canadian officials are viewing the second daily route as a pilot project that Public Safety Canada will Read More ›

$8B For High Speed Rail Is ‘Purely Seed Money’

This article, published by the Daily Journal of Commerce, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: The $8 billion in stimulus funds the Obama Administration is planning to invest in high-speed rail is “purely seed money,” a consultant told a roomful of rail boosters yesterday at a forum organized by the Cascadia Center. The rest of the article can be Read More ›

North Commuter Trains Sought

This article, published by HeraldNet, quotes Discovery Institute Fellow Bruce Agnew: “We think that, with community support, we can do this,” said Bruce Agnew, director of the Cascadia Center for Transportation and a former Snohomish County Councilman. The rest of the article can be found here.

Can Privatization Put Passenger Rail Back on Track?

America needs passenger rail service as an economical and ecological alternative to endless road and airport construction. Unfortunately, Amtrak cannot (and probably should not) survive as it is presently structured and funded. Perpetuating the status quo will burden America with a lame, government-run passenger operation, limping along on the nation's freight rail rights-of-way, operating under outdated federal rules from its 1970 authorization, and surviving on Congressional handouts. But, the solution is not to throw Amtrak on the market, accepting whatever happens. What would happen is, Amtrak would die. The proper course is to reorganize the system, privatizing whatever can be privatized, building new public-private alliances and compacts around the set of rail corridors that link cities 100-500 miles apart-which is the functional core of the national system-and then reconnecting this reorganized nation system to other forms of transportation to create a true intermodal passenger network. Read More ›