ProRail Nebraska

ProRail Nebraska -- Nebraska's Association of Railroad Passengers and Supporters

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Welcome to ProRail Nebraska

Dedicated to supporting and advocating for railroad service
in the State of Nebraska.

Supporting

Commuter Rail - Light Rail - Intercity Rail

We're Helping Get Nebraska On Track!

Will a study of proposed Amtrak service between Kansas City and Omaha get funding this year?

May 4 update from St. Joe (MO) News.net

May 6 update from St. Joe (MO) News.net

Chicago - Des Moines Rail Passenger Service Promised

"After a brief train ride Saturday morning [May 9], Iowa Gov. Chet Culver promised spectators that he is on board with a proposal to extend passenger rail service from Chicago to Des Moines in the next couple of years." Click here for full article in Des Moines Register.

ProRail Nebraska Membership Meeting Saturday May 2

Sorry if you missed this meeting and the excellent presentations.

Our next membership meeting will be next Fall, probably at a location in central Nebraska.

The next ProRail Nebraska Board meeting will be Saturday, August 1 at 9am in Lincoln.

Check here later for details.

Promoting "Green" Transportation at Earth Day Omaha

ProRail Nebraska and Omaha Streetcar jointly sponsored the Green Transportation Table at the Earth Day Omaha Celebration on Saturday, April 25 at Elmwood Park just east of the UNO Campus. In addition to distributing information about the two organizations, we provided information about Amtrak's "California Zephyr" service through Omaha, our proposal for Amtrak service service between Omaha and Kansas City, and plans to develop streetcar service in Omaha. Metro Area Transit (MAT) had newly rebuilt bus #9403 on hand with a supply of route maps and timetables.

Views of the Green Transportation Table at Earth Day Omaha 2009

ProRail's Dale Monsell on the left and Omaha Streetcar's Nancy Calinger on the right in the left photo. ProRail President David Purdy is working with Nancy in the right photo. Unfortunately, the weather was cold, windy and wet, but there was still a lot of visitors to the event until about 4pm.

ProRail Nebraska Statement of Objectives - ProRail Nebraska exists to advocate for improved passenger rail transportation serving Nebraska. It is an affiliate of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP), which advocates passenger rail service on a national basis. Our current projects are:

Encourage Nebraska to take a more active role in the Midwest Interstate Rail Compact.
Improve service and ridership of Amtrak's California Zephyr across Nebraska.
Advocate commuter rail service between Omaha and Lincoln.
Advocate establishing Amtrak service between Omaha and Kansas City.
Advocate establishing a Department of Public Transportation in Nebraska State Government. Nebraska is the only state that has no Department of Transportation, just a Dept. of Roads.

Click here to read the full Statement of Objectives (a one-page PDF).

Results of 2007 ProRail Nebraska Survey of Members - All of the current ProRail Nebraska membership were mailed an interest survey in October 2007. Of the 110 distributed surveys 49 were returned by the end of November deadline. The results of this survey give the ProRail Nebraska Board good indications of the issues that the organization’s membership feel are important.

On the survey five rail passenger issues were listed. The following are these issues in the order of importance based upon survey responses:

1^st Continue and improve the current daily Chicago to San Francisco AMTRAK service though Lincoln (California Zephyr) 39 ranked this as their highest interest and 47 ranked it from medium to highest.

2^nd Insure the continuation of Nebraska’s active participation with eight other states in the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact 27 ranked this as their highest interest and 40 ranked it from medium to highest.

3^rd Increase to beyond once a day the Chicago to Denver AMTRAK service through Lincoln 26 ranked this as their highest interest and 41 ranked it from medium to highest.

4^th Develop commuter rail, possibly high speed, in the Lincoln and Omaha corridor 24 ranked this as their highest interest and 40 ranked it from medium to highest.

5^th Provide a route alternative to that of the current California Zephyr in Iowa (such as service through Des Moines) 14 ranked this as their highest interest and 38 ranked it from medium to highest.

Click here to read the full report (a one-page PDF).

Transportation for America is a coalition seeking to align our national, state, and local transportation policies with an array of issues like economic opportunity, climate change, energy security, health, housing and community development. N.A.R.P. is a member of this coalition.

The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative has formally released its updated study of the nine-state passenger rail system that will bring faster, more frequent passenger rail service to the region. The new study includes: Updated capital and equipment cost estimates; Updated and refined MWRRI feeder bus system recommendations; Updated MWRRI plan ridership and revenue forecasts; Updated operating cost estimates; and An updated operating plan and schedules.

You can view the report at:

http://www.miprc.org/pdfs/railmidwest1.pdf

You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report.
For a free copy, click here.

ProRail Nebraska advocates safe, environmentally-friendly, fuel efficient, affordable, comfortable, and all-weather mobility that rail transportation can provide.

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We think trains need more prominence in the U.S. because:

Trains provide more mobility and travel choices, especially in the post-2001 travel environment.

A wisely developed train network has great potential to accommodate future travel demand.

Trains are energy-efficient -- Intercity (Amtrak) trains are far more efficient than airlines (2441 Btu's per passenger-mile vs. 3999 for airlines in 1998, according to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory).