Railroads

A newspaper in the rail-heavy northeast said Tuesday that Rep. John Mica's plan to privatize Amtrak service in the area is too risky to pursue.

The Philadelphia Inquirer said in an editorial that the plan is "not ready to leave the station."

"While Amtrak has had internal operational shortcomings, its major problems historically have stemmed from a Congress that shortchanged its funding amid periodic partisan and regional political battles," the paper said. "Members of Congress from areas of the nation little-served by the railroad were rarely as interested in providing adequate funds as lawmakers from urban regions where transit represents a lifeline."

Opponents of the NLRB's complaint against Boeing have criticized Obama's nomination of John Bryson to be Commerce secretary

The chairman of the Senate Surface Transportation Subcommittee will oppose the GOP's plan to privatize Amtrak in the Northeast. 

Rep. John Mica's proposal to privatize passenger rail service in the northeast would end Amtrak as it currently exists, the CEO of the federally-subsidized railway said Wednesday afternoon.

Mica (R-Fla.) announced the details of his proposal to allow private companies to compete for bids to provide high-speed rail service in the northeast corridor, which is currently operated solely by Amtrak. Mica said private companies could provide the service faster and more cheaply than the national passenger rail service could.

But Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman disagreed.

"This is broader than the northeast at this point," Boardman said on a conference call with reporters. "This is the Privatize Passenger Rail for America Act. The overall impact is this takes Amtrak apart, from an infrastructure standpoint, and replaces it with a government entity."

GOP says private companies could provide services faster and for less money than Amtrak.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

An Ohio couple say they missed their honeymoon flight because they were held by the Transportation Security Administration over contact solution.

A Newark, N.J., flight was delayed when a flight attendant found graffiti in the bathroom of the plane.

Meet Rahm Emanuel's choice to lead the Chicago Department of Transportation.

High-speed rail is all the rage now, but some Amtrak trains in Detroit are going to be moving more slowly.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A Louisiana airport is displaying posters for movies that have been filmed in the town.

A man was removed from a flight for cursing on a plane.

A disabled man was subjected to a Transportation Security Administration pat-down.

Amtrak has a new operations chief.

The national passenger rail service, better known as Amtrak, said Monday that rail companies in Europe and Japan said its plans to build high-speed railways in the Northeast were sound.

The foreign opinions, which Amtrak dubbed an "international peer review," comes as Republicans in the House are pushing to plan to privatize rail service in the Northeast.

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has frequently referred to Amtrak as a "Soviet-style operation," but the agency said Monday that "leading European and Japanese high-speed rail operators" found Amtrak's assessment that it can gradually get trains up to 220 miles per hour was "sound and reasonable."

"The positive feedback from our experienced colleagues around the world is encouraging and demonstrates that Amtrak's high-speed rail plan is a proper response to meet the region's need for increased transportation capacity and is a viable way forward," Amtrak vice president Al Engel said in a statement.

New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) and Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) criticized cuts to rail security, calling them "reckless and dangerous."

Lautenberg and Holt rallied with workers at the Trenton Transit Center to oppose the cut. The pair said the Republican budget would reduce federal spending on rail security by 65 percent.

The topic is an issue again on Capitol Hill because Lautenberg scheduled a hearing this week  to examine reports that terrorist Osama bin Laden was planning to target American railways before he was killed. 

On Monday, he said again the potential plots should cause Republicans to reconsider their spending cuts.

"Six weeks after the American military’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, one thing is clear: this ruthless killer is dead and gone, but Al Qaeda remains determined to strike the U.S. again,” Lautenberg, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, said in a statement. 

America's railways will be the topic of discussion on both ends of the Northeast Corridor as a House committee holds a hearing in Washington on the security of trains from terrorist threats and transportation advocates gather for the American Public Transportation Association's rail conference in Boston.

The Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, chaired by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), will look into increasing rail security in the wake of evidence terrorist Osama bin Laden was planning to target American railways before he was killed.

Announcing the meeting last week, Lautenberg said that although bin Laden has been dead for about month, it was important to protect against his final plots.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.-based transportation advocacy group APTA opened its 2011 rail conference Sunday in Boston. It will run through June 15. Today, the group will hold a conference call for reporters featuring Federal Transit Administration chief Peter Rogoff and Federal Railroad Administration head Peter Szabo. 

The House will take a look at the issue of charter bus safety, following another deadly crash in northern Virginia recently that killed four people. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), will hold a hearing on the issue today. Similar hearings were held in the Senate after crashes in the Northeast in March resulted in 17 people being killed.