New Departures: Rethinking Rail Passenger Policy in the Twenty-First Century

by Anthony Perl

Overview

North America faces a transportation crisis. Gas-guzzling SUVs clog the highways and air travelers face delays, cancellations, and uncertainty in the wake of unprecedented terrorist attacks. New Departures closely examines the options for improving intercity passenger trains' capacity to move North Americans where they want to go. While Amtrak and VIA Rail Canada face intense pressure to transform themselves into successful commercial enterprises, Anthony Perl demonstrates how public policy changes lie behind the triumphs of European and Japanese high-speed rail passenger innovations. Perl goes beyond merely describing these achievements, translating their implications into a North American institutional and political context and diagnosing the obstacles that have made renewing passenger trains so much more difficult in North America than elsewhere. New Departures links the lessons behind rail passenger revitalization abroad with the opportunity to recast the policies that constrain Amtrak and VIA Rail from providing efficient and effective intercity transportation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813122113
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	02/08/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vi
1.	Public Policy: The Key to Rail Passenger Renewal	1
2.	Building on Achievement: A "New Model Railroad" for the Twenty-First Century	42
3.	Sidetrack: How North American Rail Passenger Renewal Got Delayed by the Stalemate Over Public Enterprise Legitimacy	76
4.	False Starts with High Speed: State and Provincial Efforts to Leapfrog Amtrak's and VIA's Perennial Problems	134
5.	Reinventing Amtrak: The Drive for Commercial Self-Sufficiency by 2003	188
6.	Setting Up the New Model Railroad in North America: Bringing Passenger Trains into a Transportation Policy for the Twenty-First Century	227
	Afterword	262
	Notes	267
	Bibliography	296
	Index	316

Editorial Reviews

New Departures is not only the most comprehensive look at rail passenger service in North America, it is the most timely. With air travel suddenly becoming a mature industry after September 11th, the nation is realizing that it is missing a vital balance in passenger transportation, a balance that could be provided by high speed passenger rail service. Anthony's book lays out the best policy framework I have ever seen for making rail passenger investments. Anyone engaged in debating the role of high speed rail in North America should read this book.

Thomas Downs

Well written and timely, New Departures provides excellent background from the current debate over the future of Amtrak and VIA Rail (in Canada).

Choice

Dispassionately examines every angle of the perplexing rail-passenger dilemma in North America.

Louisville Courier-Journal

Any Canadian or American with a serious interest in transportation policy will find this thoughtful and informative book worth reading.

Canadian Public Administration

A seminal work that lays out all the dimensions of the current state of intercity rail passenger service in both the United States and Canada.

New York History

An informed analysis of where rail passenger operations in the U.S. and Canada have been, where they are, and where they may be going, along with a look at those countries whose passenger trains are light years ahead of ours.

Railway Age

"Any Canadian or American with a serious interest in transportation policy will find this thoughtful and informative book worth reading." — Canadian Public Administration

"Well written and timely, New Departures provides excellent background from the current debate over the future of Amtrak and VIA Rail (in Canada)." — Choice

"Dispassionately examines every angle of the perplexing rail-passenger dilemma in North America." — Louisville Courier-Journal

"A seminal work that lays out all the dimensions of the current state of intercity rail passenger service in both the United States and Canada." — New York History

"An informed analysis of where rail passenger operations in the U.S. and Canada have been, where they are, and where they may be going, along with a look at those countries whose passenger trains are light years ahead of ours." — Railway Age

" New Departures is not only the most comprehensive look at rail passenger service in North America, it is the most timely. With air travel suddenly becoming a mature industry after September 11th, the nation is realizing that it is missing a vital balance in passenger transportation, a balance that could be provided by high speed passenger rail service. Anthony's book lays out the best policy framework I have ever seen for making rail passenger investments. Anyone engaged in debating the role of high speed rail in North America should read this book." — Thomas Downs

From the Publisher