Join the discussion on the following article:
Indiana may challenge FRA decision; Iowa Pacific reveals planned ‘Hoosier State’ equipment
Well, glad they’re at least trying to work on changing the obstacles.
I have to admit I can’t fathom what’s going on or what about the state means the FRA feels it needs to be regulated a certain way (in part because I don’t know what the regulations are, or what the State is doing to attract them.)
Here we go. The federal agencies just cannot keep there foot prints out of anything. The state won’t be involved in moving the train. The csx and Amtrak know the safety requirements and they will be running the trains. I would hope not the state.
FRA has a severe conflict of interest: It is an agency of Amtrak’s controlling shareholder, the US DoT, and is acting to shield Amtrak from private sector competition. That is shameless for a public agency. In the private sector, a company that acted as FRA did would be criminally prosecuted under the Sherman Act.
More intrusive federal government.
Wait a minute…didn’t the feds–via Congress–mandate that the states take a more active role??
Wow ok, 1. Iowa Pac wants to use antique equipment?, ludicrous! 2. To make Indiana a rr is ludicous, 3. On the other hand states DO run railroads i.e Metra, LIRR, MNRR, NJT and on and on and are pretty good at it BUT those states are NOT railroads. In other words this whole deal is just ridiculous!!
Is this sour grapes?
Can someone explain what makes the situation in Indiana different from situations that apparently work to everyone’s satisfaction in several other states, including neighboring Illinois? Is it a difference in Indiana’s state laws that keep the same model(s) that work elsewhere from working there? It shouldn’t be this difficult, folks!
The passenger equipment that Iowa Pacific would use is all Amtrak certified and can be used on almost any non-Acela Amtrak train in the country. The locomotives ran on the Northeast Corridor, thus also meaning they meet the Amtrak standards. Therefore, the question is why all of the FRA inspections and concerns?
good luck to Mr. Ellis dealing with the stupid currently running Indiana.
Britt, fyi, the car in picture has less than half the lifetime miles of the average Superliner I car, and meets all the same standards. It is younger than the commuter car I ride to work every day on the BNSF, which is also not an antique.
The FRA’s action is also illegal, as it violates existing federal law. FRA has no authority to modify or extend the jurisdiction or scope of the Railway Labor Act, FELA or the railroad retirement laws to apply to a state government. Only the RRB and NMB (or the Federal courts) have jurisdiction to determine the scope of those laws. Nothing in existing federal law authorizes FRA to decree that a sovereign state is a “railroad” merely because it sponsors an intercity train service operated by a qualified non-Amtrak carrier over a Class 1 railroad. (As I recall, NRPC itself wasn’t even a formal “railroad” when it was first chartered and assumed legal and financial ownership of the surviving trains as they continued to be operated by the various host railroads.)
In addition, the FRA action is illegal because it violates the federal Administrative Procedures Act, which mandates public notice, drafts of a proposed regulatory action, and public comment before an agency can impose new regulations. FRA has done none of that.
All FRA has done is collude with Amtrak to try to prevent competition in the field in order to preserve Amtrak’s de facto monopoly and DoT’s proprietary interest in NRPC.
I understand Mr Ellis, I was raised in Chicago in Little Village, I know about those CB&Q gallery cars, however to start a “new” service that Iowa Pac will endeavor, to use old stuff on a new service is just going backwards.
“old stuff on a new service is just going backwards.” ?!?
Mr. Reid - have you been on this equipment that Iowa Pacific plans to use? Apparently not. Their equipment is far more modern that that used by Amtrak, and most in better shape. Iowa Pacific has had all of the equipment rebuilt over the past few years to above Amtrak standards. The dome - its not a gallery car - is former ATSF that was rebuilt for the original AutoTrain, then for cruise ship service in Alaska, and most recently for service on charters on Amtrak trains around the country. I charter these cars on a fairly regular basis for use around the country, and they are great. For passengers used to single level Amtrak coaches, these cars will be a huge improvement.
FRA asking the State to be an accredited operator is like asking states that manage airports to be become registered accredited aviation industry operators. The operators are accredited, the equipment is accredited, the providers of the track and infrastructure are accredited. Another example of Federal bodies putting in place barriers to running efficient transport services that ther transport modes do not have.
Nothing like to many government fingers in the pie to muck it up. Why would a private company even want to try?
One must never forget that the first order of business for any bureaucracy is to justify its existence and shockingly, that applies to such august bureaus as the gestapo, fbi, kgb, tsa ad nauseum. The FRA is a minor player, a piker, and a beginner in the grand game.
I would be thrilled to ride in that former Santa Fe Dome car. One of my fondest memories was riding in a Santa Fe Big Dome as a youngster and I just loved seeing those semaphore arms falling as we passed by them. Right now I have a ticket to ride the Cardinal in August as we travel to the NMRA Convention in Portland this August. Might switch days if we could ride in this car. I’ve already seen some of the Iowa Pacific restoration work and it is top grade stuff.
If Iowa Pacific gets this done I will gladly ride that train regardless of the ticket cost both ways, several times a year just for the hell of it. As for the FRA butting in, it just sounds like another Republican ploy to kill Amtrak.