Sunday, April 27, 2008

National Train Day

On National Train Day members of the PVACR will be collecting signatures in support of the NHHS line at Springfield's Amtrak station.

National Train Day

Cars should promote rail, so if you want to get your bumper sticker in support of the line (it looks just like the banner on the www.SpringfieldRail.org site), stop by the Amtrak station to sign the petition. If you won't be available to do this on Saturday, we are arranging for another day too. Of course, you can always contact us at pvacr@yahoo.com to get the bumper sticker and learn how to help.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Save Gas

Save gas--use public transportation.
Joe Wiesenfelder of Cars.com provides this tip and others:
"The biggest fuel savings comes not from hybrid technology but from the old standards: car pooling and public transportation. If you and just one friend or neighbor trade off commuting to and from work, you cut your fuel usage by about 50 percent. No other step will save you as much money. Also, if you have two vehicles in the family motor pool, leave the thirstier one in the garage as often as possible.
Public transportation saves fuel, and possibly money. It also decreases congestion, which saves everyone fuel. Help yourself and everyone else; be part of the solution."

Friday, April 11, 2008

Next meeting 4/24

We've been growing. Petition signatures are increasing, and due to our overflow meeting at Starbucks earlier this month, we've been able to get a larger space donated for use for our next meeting.

The Pioneer Valley Advocates for Commuter Rail will have a meeting in late April.

Please bring all completed petitions & updates.

DAY: Thursday
DATE: April 24
TIME: 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM.
PLACE: Lathrop House B&B
188 Sumner Avenue
Springfield, MA 01108
Park on Forest Park Ave. or Washington (adjacent streets). No parking on Sumner Ave.
www.SpringfieldRail.org

pvacr@yahoo.com

Questions? Call Becky at (413) 847 - 0166

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Updates

What a week! Some points of interest:

1. Pioneer Valley Advocates for Commuter Rail launched a new web page (http://www.springfieldrail.org/)

2. We had great media coverage (Reminder, WWLP, ABC40).

3. Membership from that web page has grown by 19 in the last week.

4. Our meeting at Starbucks on April 3 brought 20 people (not the ones included in the count above).

5. We're now up to 106 signers of the online petition.

6. We've been meeting with many local leaders, some of whom are 100% in support, and some of whom are more cautious about having their names associated with this new $152 economic development initiative.

7. At the caucuses this weekend, we collected 80+ signatures at one, and await figures from the other. Petitions have been distributed to members for collection.

8. the Green City forum went well: One of our members wrote "During the forum, Congressman Neal was asked a question about his support for commuter rail and he had a 5-minute or so discussion about how he supports rail transit and he would like to see a Worcester-Boston link. I went up to him afterward to ask him about NHHS and he said he supports it."

9. That same member had also attended the TIMBY forum, with this report:
"The bulk of the audience was Boston area folk, and most of the discussion centered around MBTA, MassHighway and MTA issues

- Representative Wagner & Congressman Olver were both in attendance.

- Mary MacInnes from the PVTA talked about the various transit projects in the region, including Union Station (and she alluded to US as being a destination for the NHHS line), the Holyoke & Westfield Intermodal stations. She spent the bulk of here time talking about those projects, but she did mention an early study on a Spfld-VT CT line, an EOT study on a Worcester-Spfld line CR and the NHHS line.

- Mike Rennicke from Pioneer Valley Railroad talked about how various states are investing in freight railroad infrastructure by setting up state "banks" and other methods, and he wants MA to help out with the short-haul freight railroad companies as a way of reducing congestion and fuel costs from highway truck traffic.

- Pretty much the issue that dominated discussion was the fact that the MBTA and MTA have huge debt which is eating up all the transportation money right now, and they might very well need a state bailout.

Most of the discussion centered around how infrastructure is crumbling since we don't have much money to fix it (things are better now that the Big Dig is done, but maintenance spending still has reached pre-Big Dig numbers). There was also discussion about debt restructuring (MassTrans), cost cutting and new revenue sources like per use pricing.

What I really took away from the TIMBY conference, with respect to NHHS, is that the biggest obstacle the NHHS faces in Massachusetts is that fact that the state has no money to spend on transporation because the MBTA and MTA are sucking it all up.

The case really needs to be made that the commuter rail will drive economic investment in an area that needs it.

10. We're considering an event for National Train Day. (next meeting tba)