Happening Now
Amtrak Board of Directors to Hold Public Meeting in St. Louis
October 28, 2022
The Amtrak Board of Directors announced this week that it will hold a public meeting on December 1 of this year at the historic Union Station Hotel in St. Louis.
The Amtrak Board of Directors announced this week that it will hold a public meeting on December 1 of this year at the historic Union Station Hotel in St. Louis. There will be options for the riding public to attend in-person or virtually, with attendees required to register in advance.
This public meeting is the result of a provision that Rail Passengers successfully advocated for, passed by Congress as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which requires Amtrak’s board to meet annually with the riding public. In addition, the BIL requires the Amtrak board to meet annually with representatives from the disability community and with Amtrak employees. Our association worked with Congressional allies to include this requirement because we believe it's important for the Amtrak Board to be accountable to the public; that means being transparent in its decision-making on the use of public funds and hearing directly from passengers about their experience of the network.
Amtrak said the meeting will review fiscal year 2022 and provide an overview of Amtrak’s strategic priorities and annual operating plan for fiscal year 2023. Rail Passengers is also encouraging the Amtrak Board to address recent service failures, and answer questions outlined by Rail Passengers President & CEO Jim Mathews in a letter to Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose.
“We have already begun conversations with Amtrak management about what happened that day, and we were encouraged to learn from Amtrak leadership that the railroad recognizes the seriousness of the incident and its aftermath,” wrote Mathews. “Nevertheless, we feel an obligation in representing our members and the traveling public to elevate our request for a formal debriefing and review whose results – subject to appropriate redaction of personally identifiable information – can be shared with the public.”
[You can read the full letter here.]
The registration deadline is November 23. Capacity will be limited.
WHEN: 10:00-11:30 a.m. CT; Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022
WHERE: St. Louis Union Station Hotel; 1820 Market St.; St. Louis, Mo., 63103
"The National Association of Railroad Passengers has done yeoman work over the years and in fact if it weren’t for NARP, I'd be surprised if Amtrak were still in possession of as a large a network as they have. So they've done good work, they're very good on the factual case."
Robert Gallamore, Director of Transportation Center at Northwestern University and former Federal Railroad Administration official, Director of Transportation Center at Northwestern University
November 17, 2005, on The Leonard Lopate Show (with guest host Chris Bannon), WNYC New York.
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