New Departures: Rethinking Rail Passenger Policy in the Twenty-first CenturyNorth 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. |
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Acela Acela Express AHSRC air and road air travel Airlines airport Amtrak Reform budget Canadian Transport Commission capital carriers commercial self-sufficiency competitive Congress Corporation Corridor costs created economic efforts environmental federal Federal Railroad Administration fiscal franchise freight railroads funds Germany's government's High Speed Rail high-speed rail Ibid industry innovation intercity passenger trains intercity rail investment labor launch legislative ment Metroliner million mobility North American Northeast Northeast Corridor organizational organizations Ottawa partnership passenger railroading percent policy options political portation potential public enterprise Rail Canada rail infrastructure rail mode rail passenger policy rail passenger renewal Rail Passenger Service rail policy community rail renewal Rail's Railway Age renewal initiative restructuring revenues ridership role sector senger Shinkansen skeptics SNCF subsidies Texas TGV TGV's tion track train service trans transit Transport Canada transportation policy Transrapid VIA Rail Canada VIA's Washington