Amtrak will boldly go where no bus company has gone before and offer bus service in an underserved area of California.

California Senate Bill 1263, which authorizes Amtrak to offer bus service in beautiful downtown Bakersfield as well as stops in the Los Angeles area was unanimously approved in both houses of the state legislature and is set to be signed into law next week by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Federal law prohibits Amtrak buses from servicing communities that can be serviced by other bus companies like Greyhound. But it allows individual states to pass laws on additional stops if private companies choose not to stop there.

All Empire Commuters should participate in this one! Just remember to avoid "tracks, moving trains, yards, railroad structures (such as bridges, trestles, towers and wires) and the railroad right-of-way." Not to mention cars with leaking plumbing in the restrooms, loose sharp-edged metal fixtures, exposed wiring, leaking air conditioner condensers or mold in the walls. 

WEBWIRE – Wednesday, May 14, 2008"Picture Our Train" Calendar Contest Begins

WASHINGTON - Calling all shutterbugs! Amtrak's fifth annual "Picture Our Train" photo contest is underway. Amtrak employees and rail fans are invited to submit their best photograph of an Amtrak train, with the winning image to be featured on Amtrak's 2009 wall calendar.

Amtrak encourages passengers and train enthusiasts to enter their best shot of Amtrak equipment for the chance to receive a $1,000 travel voucher and a photo credit on the calendar. The four runners-up will receive travel vouchers ranging from $100 to $500.

The calendar contest runs now through July 11. A panel of judges will review each entry and select the best original color photograph featuring a train with the current Amtrak logo and livery visible, or trains displaying Amtrak Acela, Amtrak Cascades, Amtrak California and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner paint scheme. Contestants must submit an 8x10 original photo suitable for enlargement up to 25 inches.

To enter, please mail photograph to: Amtrak Wall Calendar Contest, 60 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Suite 4E-315, Washington, DC, 20002. Digital photos will be considered, provided the resolution permits enlargement to poster size. All entries must be postmarked no later than July 11. For complete contest rules, visit www.amtrak.com/photocontest.

Safety First

Contestants are reminded to stay away from tracks, moving trains, yards, railroad structures (such as bridges, trestles, towers and wires) and the railroad right-of-way. Photographers must not trespass on railroad property or on private property adjacent to the railroad. Stay in public access areas such as stations, sidewalks or parking lots. All participants agree to assume the risk of harm and release Amtrak from all liability for personal injury and loss of property. Photographers are reminded that railroad tracks, trestles, yards and equipment are private property and that trespassers are subject to arrest and fines. Some stations served by Amtrak trains require advance permission for photography. Always obey all local rules and laws.

 

ICANN accepting comments on PIR's implementation of DNSSEC for .ORG

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is opening a comment period on the Public Interest Registry’s (PIR) proposed implementation of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in .ORG. The Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society (ISOC) and is a major source of funding.The Internet Society of New York is a Chapter of ISOC.

DNSSEC digitally signs DNS records but doesn’t encrypt DNS traffic. DNS responses are validated as legitimate and not hacked or tampered with. This ensures users don’t get sent to phishing sites when requesting a legitimate website. DNS security has increasingly become a concern, with DNS being prone to this type of attack, as well as being vulnerable to distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks such as the one that temporarily crippled two of the Internet's 13 DNS root servers last year.

ICANN has made a preliminary determination that the PIR proposal requires further consideration by ICANN's Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel (RSTEP) because the new service could raise significant security or stability issues.

Under the terms of the Registry Services Evaluation Policy, the RSTEP shall have 45 calendar days from the referral, until 5 June 2008, to prepare a written report regarding the proposed Registry Service's effect on security and stability. The report (along with a summary of any public comments) will be forwarded to the ICANN Board. The report will set forward the opinions of the RSTEP, including, but not limited to, a detailed statement of the analysis, reasons, and information upon which the panel has relied in reaching their conclusions, along with the response to any specific questions that were included in the referral from ICANN staff.

A copy of the proposed PIR amendment is available at http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/org/proposed-org-amendment-23apr08.pdf [PDF, 25K]. The amendment is a change to Section 3.1c(i) of the .ORG Registry Agreement. Comments on the PIR proposal and amendment submitted to pir-dnssec-proposal@icann.org will be considered until 23:59 UTC 24 May 2008. Public comments will be available for consideration by the RSTEP Review Team and the ICANN Board, and may be viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/pir-dnssec-proposal/. All documents related to the PIR proposal are available at http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/#2008004.

ICANN plans to switch to DNSSEC later this year for its .arpa Internet domain servers.

Country domains .swe (Sweden), .br (Brazil), and .bg (Bulgaria ) already run DNSSEC for their domain servers.

Capturing the music of the real world

A Blog of Notes is devoted to musical-sounding field recordings and ambient sounds. The sound files have now been licensed under the Creative Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0. Because they have tonal properties that convey a particular musical note or sequence they should be great for sampling, mashups, etc.

I actually slept through this:

Woman struck and killed by Amtrak train in Westchester

By Rob Ryser
Gannett News Service

CROTON-ON-HUDSON The blind, 75-year-old newsstand operator at the Croton-Harmon station was struck and killed by a southbound Amtrak train this morning when she went onto the platform to have a smoke and somehow fell onto the tracks, railroad officials said.

Teresa Fiorentino of Croton-on-Hudson was struck at 8:31 a.m. as the train was coming into the station to make a scheduled stop. The driver applied the emergency brakes, but it was too late, said Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Chief Stephen Conner.

Marjorie Anders, spokeswoman for Metro-North Railroad, which owns the tracks that Amtrak uses, said, "It's very sad. It's horribly sad."

Fiorentino worked with her grown daughter at the concession stand, which sells newspapers, magazines, coffee and candy. The stand is inside the station built over the tracks. Fiorentino would have come down a staircase to Platform 1 to smoke.

The police chief said there were several Metro-North commuters on the platform who saw the train approaching, with Fiorentino already on the tracks, but they didn't know how she got onto the tracks.

The track in question remained closed while police investigated, but the other tracks remained in use and Metro-North trains were getting through, said Metro-North spokesman Dan Brucker.

The Amtrak train left Albany at 6:55 a.m. and was due at Penn Station at 9:15 a.m. The passengers were transported into New York City on Metro-North, but the train itself remained at Croton-Harmon at 10:45 a.m. Brucker did not know how many passengers were aboard the train.

A host of ambulances, fire engines, police and the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office remained at the scene as of 10:45 a.m.

 

Amtrak has announced a major security initiative to screen of passengers before boarding although I haven't seen any evidence of it on the Empire Line. A good analysis of the futility of the project can be found on the libertarian website antiwar.com. Wonkette also has a great take on the absurdity.

On other fronts, I recently had some problems getting my Guest Rewards points for the purchase of my commuter passes. After a long call to Customer Relations I was told it was because I had used vouchers I received for late trains. Apparently this prevents the automatic crediting of your purchase towards Guest Rewards points. I was then told to call Guest Rewards after each purchase if I used a voucher. Is this a new scam to discourage people from what Amtrak management probably considers "double-dipping"?

Yesterday Albany was beset by icy rain and snow which caused a variety of traffic accidents and power outages. The Albany Times Union reports that Amtrak commuters were not immune:

A woman was injured when ice fell from the roof of the Amtrak station in Rensselaer and hit her on the head. She was treated by paramedics in the lobby and taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Troy after the 11 a.m. accident. Her name was not immediately available. Rensselaer police said the injuries were not serious.

Capital District Transit Authority Director of Business Development Carm Basile said CDTA officials will look into what happened and what remedy, if any, is necessary.

The only remedy is to avoid the crumbling infrastructure that is Amtrak and for some commuters that's just not possible.

Today Associated Press quoted U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer that "CSX [Amtrak leases access to tracks from CSX] will spend $48.5 million to improve its rail system in upstate New York, where it has been plagued by a series of mishaps and derailments .... New Yorkers in all regions are all too familiar with CSX's safety record. We've had a lot of serious problems but that's now been met by a serious commitment."

Amtrak management long ago graciously agreed to accept all liability for any accident on CSX tracks that involved an Amtrak train -- even if Amtrak staff and equipment were not at fault.

 

ICANN asks the US government to be freed from official control

The Internet Corporation for the Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) made the plea in a lengthy report sent to the US Department of Commerce.

The report will be the focus of a meeting to consider ICANN's progress on objectives the US government set it in preparation for independence.

ICANN argues these objectives have been achieved earlier than planned and now is the time to decide what happens next.

Paul Twomey, president of ICANN, told the BBC news website that the process of meeting the objectives was "essentially complete".

The Joint Project Agreement between the United States government and ICANN will have a mid-term review in March. As part of this review, the US government put out a Notice of Inquiry asking for comments on the continued transition to the private sector of the technical coordination and management of the Internet's domain name and addressing system (DNS). ICANN has responded to this call with several documents: a section in their Annual Report; a letter of submission; and a table of achievements.

You can review the progress ICANN has made on each of the 10 responsibilities in the JPA individually on pages 12 to 18 of the Annual Report. The seven-page submission letter [pdf] outlines the Board's position that it has met fully its obligations and responsibilities.

On the other hand, Milton Mueller argues on the Internet Governance Project blog that ICANN has not met it’s obligations, particularly with regard to transparency.

New York Newsday reports that a "CSX freight train derailed in central New York early Wednesday, dumping more than a dozen cars carrying truck containers from the tracks, authorities said. The derailment just before 7 a.m. near the village of Canastota was about five miles from the site of a fiery CSX train wreck last March .... The derailment required Amtrak to temporarily bus rail passengers between Albany and Syracuse."

Tracks and equipment had passed recent safety inspections. Although it's not an issue in this case, whenever there is an accident involving Amtrak and CSX trains or equipment, it's Amtrak's fault according to the agreements they've made with CSX for track access.

Empire Commuter: In Brief

Catching up after the holidays with a few:

• The Strike is off: From the 1/18 press release: "A tentative agreement on new contract terms was reached today between Amtrak and union coalitions comprised of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the Teamsters Union (BMWED), the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers (SEIU), the American Train Dispatchers Association (ATDA), the Transportation Communications Union (TCU), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU)." On one hand, long-overdue pay raises may raise Amtrak employee morale -- but as Bruce Richardson points out on the United Rail Passenger Alliance site -- both the Amtrak management and the union leadership are at fault for letting things deteriorate to this point.
• A pattern here? Hudson Police are trying to figure out what caused a collision between a tractor-trailer and an Amtrak passenger train around one o'clock last Wednesday morning, January 16th. Later that morning the 6:20 from Albany stopped five miles from Hudson then was put in reverse back to the Rensselaer station -- because of brake problems.
• Congrats to Anne Marie Bologna: A fellow commuter is profiled in AMNY's "Extreme Commuter" column. I gather that an "extreme commuter" is defined as someone who takes longer than ninety minutes one way  -- each of us must be at least two of them!
• It was announced on Christmas Day that the Coffee Beanery at Rensselaer station would begin serving beer and wine. Four days later, Stephanie Abrams broadcasted her radio show "Traveling Feet" from the Rensselaer Rail Station on Saturday (12/29/07). Abrams said "it's really important for people to be reminded of the value and opportunity that traveling with public transportation, particularly with Amtrak, offers them in terms of comfort, efficiency and a wonderful opportunity to relax and unwind while you're getting where you need to go." Sounds like the beer truck was late and she was drinking shoe polish instead!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Empire Commuter: Don't try your own medicine

The latest issue of Arrive, Amtrak's magazine for their passengers in the Northeast, has a fascinating article, Service Agreement, which describes how:

In the face of growing competition, consumer skepticism and shrinking brand loyalty, many companies are taking a renewed look at customer service -- and the results are taking off.

Of course Amtrak is a monopoly so competition isn't an issue -- which might explain why five passengers headed for Rhinecliff ended up in Albany on my train last night. The PA system wasn't working, the Rhinecliff station is pitch-black at night -- no sign is visible -- and the conductors couldn't be bothered to walk through the cars and announce the stop.

Is that "service with a snarl" or what?

 

Friday, January 4, 2008

Empire Commuter: At least in the UK they admit it

The UK Telegraph reported on a recent commuter train outage there:

As the inquest into the shambolic events of the past week began, Robin Gisby, Network Rail's customer services director, apologised to those who had suffered.

With passengers' anger showing little sign of abating, he added: "I am deeply unhappy that we have mucked them (passengers) around. We will get this thing fixed and then we will understand in detail what went wrong."

According to one railway insider the main focus is to restore some semblance of normality to the network. "Then we can worry about people covering their backsides."

If only Amtrak managment had that attitude!

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