OKC: First the trains came back, then the hotels.

AP reports (via CNN) that Oklahoma City's historic Skirvin Hotel has just reopened, as a Hilton. It's about 5 blocks from the Amtrak station. Here's an interesting comment from the article:

Built by William Skirvin, who participated in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 and later made a fortune in land and oil, the Skirvin is near railroad depots and is an example of the grand hotels that prospered during the golden age of railroad travel, said Bob Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society.

"If you went anywhere in style and you could afford it, you went by railroad," Blackburn said.

When the Heartland Flyer began running, there was one upper-end hotel near the station, the Westin (now Sheraton). Then came the Renaissance. And now the Skirvin.

Now to be sure, Amtrak plays a smaller role in driving downtown hotel activity than, say, Bricktown, Myriad Gardens and the Ford Center. But the train's in there.

Why it's time to expand the passenger-train network: Jersey edition.

Here's a brutal fact: Highway accidents are no respecter of persons.
A bad one just happened to Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey, en route from Atlantic City to Princeton.

Why was the governor on the road? Connections, the train kind, may have something to do with that. You can get from Atlantic City to Princeton Junction by train, but you'll have to change trains at Philly. Is it time for New Jersey Transit, Amtrak or both, to initiate one-seat service between Atlantic City and the Jersey cities of the Northeast corridor plus New York Penn Station?

Why it's time for Congress to grow the Amtrak network: Montana edition

In today's New York Times, "connection man" Andrew Field describes business travel when your closest airport is Bozeman, Mont.

There’s always some trepidation when I leave Livingston. We pay practically double for any flight we take, even with advance notice. And I usually have to leave earlier than most other business types. For an event on Saturday out east, most folks would leave Saturday morning, take a flight, and maybe get home the same day. I leave Friday morning and hope for the best.

I wish there was a better way to do this. I wish the airlines would actually use their systems and pay attention to folks like me who have to make a lot of connections. But I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy. I’ve gotten pretty good on the treadmill in the last couple of years. And my cardiovascular health has never been better. I don’t even break a sweat running through the airport. After all, I am Connection Man.

Decades ago, the North Coast Limited served not just Bozeman but Livingston as well. Is there a market today for train service that includes these cities? We will never know until Congress provides the capital and mandate to start building out the Amtrak network.

Why it's time for Congress to grow the Amtrak network: Raleigh edition

In an article on congestion in the air and on the tarmac, The New York Times travel writer Joe Sharkey offers this anecdote:

It’s clear that more business travelers are choosing to drive rather than fly. Will Allen III, a Raleigh, N.C., management consultant who is on the road five days a week, monitored delays piling up at O’Hare International Airport one day in March, and decided instead to drive from Raleigh to Chicago, renting a Toyota Avalon for the 1,700-mile round trip. . . . .

Mr. Allen is a kind of business traveler Everyman, and I take his temperature on occasion. I’ve never heard him sound so unhappy about air travel.

“The next time I feel I’m being held hostage by the airlines, I’m calling Hertz,” he said.

Why wouldn't he call Amtrak? Unfortunately, that's an easy one: Raleigh-Chicago is a 30-hour trip that includes a 4-hour layover in Washington, to connect from the Silver Star to the Capitol Limited. It just doesn't work for business.

Now if you're a rail "fan," your first impulse is to bash that stupid Mister Amtrak, but the truth as usual is a bit more complicated--and way less satisfying. Call this another example of the consequences of chronic undercapitalization and a year-to-year mandate. Congress's neglect has frozen Amtrak's national network in time. Specifically 1971.

Back at the dawn of Amtrak, Chicago-Raleigh wasn't much of a city pair. But in the last 30 years, the Raleigh-Durham metro area has more than doubled in population. In the last 3½ years alone, the city of Raleigh added nearly 40,000 new residents all by itself.

It takes analysis and vision to identify new markets. But that's the easy part. Developing them takes time and capital. It's way past time for Congress to supply Amtrak with both. Because 1, 700 miles is too long to drive on business.

France breaks TGV speed record--as Californians watch.

AP's all over this story (via CNN and others), but let's skip down to paragraph 12 for this interesting detail:

Transport Minister Dominique Perben received a California delegation hours before Tuesday's record attempt. California is studying prospects for a high-speed line running from Sacramento in the north to San Diego, in the south, via San Francisco and Los Angeles.

California's economy depends on mobility. And if Congress and the DOT won't provide it, Californians will look elsewhere for it.