A new station for Petersburg, VA
Last month, the decision was made to place the new station in Colonial Heights.
Take #1: The decision goes back to what I said in 2012: A lack of creativity drove this move. There should be multiple stations in the Petersburg area. Yes, the Ettrick station is outdated, but the answer is not to restrict its replacement to one area especially when future east-west service would be best served by a downtown station.
Take #2: The Colonial Heights move does in fact have racial undertones to it. Plus, Colonial Heights residents don't even want the new station in the first place! You just gotta love government bureaucracy.
Take #3: Isn't this the same FRA that decided to place the southern terminus of the Dallas-Houston HSR route in Northwest Houston instead of downtown two years ago? Go figure.
California not happy with Amtrak
Take #1: Richard Anderson is clearly doing a very lousy job in his first six months as the sole CEO.
Take #2: Maybe, states like California should take the logical next step by ending its relationship with the national carrier.
When a station loses its staff
A first hand look at Cincinnati going from a staffed station to an unstaffed station.
Take: There's a lot of blame to go around. First, ex-CEO Joseph Boardman for not standing up to CSX when it was time to convert the Cardinal to a daily train. Second, Congress for not enforcing competition provisions in the 2008 and 2015 laws. Third, pencil pushers among Amtrak management who thought that destaffing stations was a good idea.
So, for all those people who are still defending the loss of ticket agents and checked baggage: WAKE UP!
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