Kristóf Bacsó Triad & Lionel Loueke Pannon Blue (Live)

Jazz You Too

A new day needs fresh music, I suppose this will do…

Kristóf Bacsó – saxophones, effects

Árpád Oláh Tzumo – keyboards, Fender Rhodes, piano

Márton Juhász – drums

Lionel Loueke – guitar, voice (1-5, 7-9)

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Can Amtrak bar NJ Transit from Northeast Corridor if state withholds rent?

Governor Chris Christie (best known for George Washington Bridge) posed this question and NJ.com covered the story.

NJ Transit pays Amtrak $93 million a year so that more than 400 of its trains can use the Northeast Corridor, but Gov. Chris Christie wants to stop making the lease payment until he gets answers to maintenance questions after an April 3 derailment in Penn Station…
NJ Transit paid $62 million for maintenance for 2016, in a lump sum payment after executing a contract with Amtrak in February, spokesperson Nancy Snyder said. That payment wasn’t late under the agreement, she said.

NJ Transit officials are waiting for an invoice from Amtrak for this year’s $74 million maintenance payment. That bill will be reviewed and, once any discrepancies have been reconciled, NJ Transit will make arrangements to pay, Snyder said. Amtrak officials said NJ Transit makes monthly rent payments.

At the same time, NJ.com reported Amtrak officials are citing mechanical issues with an NJ Transit train as the cause for the incident that stranded 1,200 passengers for several hours in the Hudson River tunnels between New Jersey and New York on Friday night.

“Amtrak has determined that the incident involving NJ Transit Train 3850 last Friday was not caused by Amtrak infrastructure, and that the preliminary cause appears to be a NJ Transit mechanical problem involving the train’s pantograph (power collector),” said Mike Tolbert, an Amtrak spokesman in a statement on Monday.

Then a story from Bloomburg: After three passenger-train mishaps in the past month underscored the fragility of New York City rail travel, Amtrak Chief Executive Officer Wick Moorman said the only solution is the $23 billion Gateway tunnel project.

“The fundamental problem is: What is plan B?” Moorman, 65, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “I don’t know.”

Then WABC-TV chimed in: Recent train disruptions in New York that caused cascading delays between Boston and Washington, D.C., have refocused attention on a multibillion-dollar tunnel project that could have ameliorated future problems if it hadn’t been canceled by Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in 2010.

Whether Christie feels any pangs of remorse over the decision was left unanswered Wednesday at a news conference to urge President Donald Trump’s administration to honor a pre-existing commitment to fund a new tunnel project.

Patrons Upset With Trump Administration Over AMTRAK Long Distance

The current California RailPAC Newsletter is just CRAWLING with upset riders over Washington’s handeling of long distance AMTRAK.

Pictured above, this is the eastbound California Zephyr stopping at Colfax on April 20th. One passenger got off and 13 got on including one person with a sleeper. The Zephyr this time of year runs with 3 coaches and 2 usually full sleepers. Think what they could do with more cars!

The DesMoines Register: Tell Congress to choo, choo, choose rail service. On my way home from Sacramento, Calif., last month, I saw scores of passengers board Amtrak’s California Zephyr at Osceola, Ottumwa and Mount Pleasant. And this was on a Thursday in March! Even though the train bypasses Iowa’s largest cities, it remains very popular. Yet the Donald Trump administration wants to kill the Zephyr as well as every other long-distance train. We should be improving rail passenger service, as candidate Trump said on the campaign trail.

But his administration’s budget team, giving in to the Heritage Foundation and its like, wants to eliminate service to the national system while continuing lavish subsidies to highway and air travel. Ironically, the proposed cuts would hurt the very regions which supported Trump last November.

If you don’t want to lose your Amtrak service, write or call your representatives in Congress. As author Peter Lyon wrote: “Passengers of America unite! You have nothing to lose but your trains!”

A local meeting coincides with efforts by Gov. Jim Justice and both Democratic and Republican state lawmakers to increase Amtrak passenger train service in the state and with President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to slash funding for Amtrak in “fly-over states, ” including West Virginia.

Amtrak is a federally-funded passenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the United States.

The Cardinal, an Amtrak train which runs between Chicago and New York, currently provides service in Prince, Hinton, White Sulphur Springs and other stations in southern West Virginia on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

The “troops” are not happy campers!

Kibbles and Bits

The Blog of Meows

Kibbles and Bits

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