Vermont Rail Action Network

1.  FINANCE

I have been working with Dave Allaire in transitioning things over to him as new VRAN treasurer.  He is looking over the books as they exist (expenses in a spreadsheet, donations recorded in civiCRM).  I believe the next finance report to the board will come from him.

As part of getting everything ready, I put in some time overhauling the expense ledger so it is more understandable to someone besides me and includes validating sums.

2. FUNDRAISING

A lot of work in November and December was putting our annual appeal out the door.  We mailed 885 letters, down a bit from the past, but hopefully a more focused group.  I mailed everyone who ever donated, who ever came to a VRAN event and new addresses to the list.  Please help support our work!

3.  BENNINGTON STUDY

I was in Bennington, December 13th for the stakeholder and public meetings regarding the bi-state study of passenger trains to Bennington and Manchester.  The consultants are closing in on identifying a preferred alternative (looks like it's going to be a route from Albany to North Bennington via Schnectady on to Manchester in phase 1 and Rutland as phase 2, via Vermont Railway).  The option of re-routing the Ethan Allen instead remains in the mix.  The consultants have come up with a preliminary cost estimate of 89 - 200 million dollars for the project.  I am very concerned about this price tag.  I took a look at the numbers and nothing obvious seems unreasonable except for a 20% contingency for professional services - which will not stay because the FRA flagged it as unreasonable.  I was interviewed by VPR about things.

5.  GREAT AMERICAN STATION MEETING

Amtrak hosted a meeting in Burlington about resources for communities to develop their stations.  An impressive armada of Amtrak management staff attended.  I had dinner with a gang of Amtrak management.  Charlie Moore from the VRAN board was also there, as was Chris Cole from AOT.  The subject of bikes on trains came up and Chris Cole was forceful in telling Amtrak they needed to do better and it needed to be by accommodating bikes in coaches, not a separate baggage car (Good going, Chris!).  Made a number of good contacts from this meeting.  It left my head full - but helpfully, Amtrak gave everyone a thumb drive with all the power points of the day.  Most useful was a rundown of funding sources.

6. MEETINGS AND SUCH

On December 12th I spoke to the Windham Regional Commission.  We spoke about the need for more frequencies south of White River Junction.  I dropped in on the chamber mixer in Bennington on December 13th.  On December 14th, I went to Palmer Ma for the Central Corridor (on the southern end of NECR).  The meeting featured Bob Ardolino who specializes in transit oriented development.  I met him at the Passenger Trains on Freight Railroads conference and I wondered if there is scope for funding passenger train improvements through development tax increment financing districts.  Alas, this remains an interesting idea that I have a hard time seeing applied in Vermont.  On December 15th I participated in the Trainriders/Northeast board meeting.

I've heard some encouraging words about my updates, so I'm going to try to be better at sending them and posting more regularly and more widely.  This is my "inner circle" update for people who follow rail more closely.

CCMPO ANNUAL MEETING

On Wednesday afternoon VRAN Board members Brad Worthen, Charlie Moore and I attended and spoke at Chittendon County Metropolitan Planning Organization's annual meeting, which featured a train ride between Essex Junction and Burlington and a boat dinner cruise on Lake Champlain.  Also attending: Rick Moulton, a VRAN founder and rail council member, Secretary of Transportation Brian Searles, Deputy Secretary Sue Minter, House and Senate Transportation Committee Chairs, Pat Brennan and Sue Minter; Charles Hunter, Dave Wulfson and Mary Anne Micheals from the railroads, Jeff Munger and Brent Raymand from the delegation, David Crawford, Essex Junction Village Manager, Rail Director Joe Flynn, Dawn Francis from the Lake Champlain Chamber, and about 100 others.

Running a passenger train between Essex Junction and Burlington proved you could do it.  Not a week earlier, somebody in a position of influence had told me you couldn't.  I think it helpful to the future passenger commuter train service between Burlington and Essex Junction.

In his remarks, Joe Flynn mentioned that getting Amtrak to Montreal is now the agencies #1 priority and  the Western Corridor is the #2 priority.  He also noted that Vermont Rail System (especially on the Washington County RR Connecticut River line) had been hit hard by the floods and had 44 separate FEMA sites (for which restoration will be 75% paid for by FEMA).  He sounded impressed by how much work and how quickly Vermont Rail System had returned the lines to service.

Jeff Munger from Senator Sander's office spoke about continuing to try to get funding for the Western Corridor. I am really pleased to hear that he is thinking about this creatively.

Dave Wulfson announced that the Vermont Rail System is spending $750,000 on the Vermont portion of the CLP this summer to improve the track conditions, returning train speeds to the advertised timetable speed.  He also announced that the Vermont Rail System is launching a website, http://vtwesternrailcorridor.com that focuses on the Western Corridor. 

NECR TRACK WORK KICKS INTO HIGH GEAR

Tomorrow begins a new level of intensity with trackwork on the New England Central Railroad (which hosts the Vermonter) and with it, 67 days of busing (but not continuously - some days the train will run, some days the bus).  Vermont photographer Kevin Burkholder has been following the project and drove out to Indiana to photograph to making and loading of the rail.  His photo-blog is at: http://steelwheelsphotography.blogspot.com/2011/06/necr-arra-photo-project-commences.html and is worth a visit.  To the left is a sample -- this is the first view of rail now on it's way to be laid down in the White River Junction area.  (He sells prints, by the way)

AMTRAK MUSEUM TRAIN

Will visit Main Street Landing's Burlington Union Station August 20th and 21st.  (the station that is just waiting for a train!) I had the chance to walk through this train in Washington DC.  It's a fun walk down memory lane.  Most fun for the kids was a wall of push button operated air-horns.  The kids will love those!  I have committed VRAN to support the visit and I expect we will be able to use it as an outreach event.
Video of the train at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACaJlGgnS8

DANBY STATION DEMOLISHED

This week the Danby Station (between Rutland and Bennington on the Vermont Railway) was demolished.  I was told that there have been serious drainage problems in the area for years and that the station has essentially been sitting in a pool of water for many years, rotting out the foundation and floor.  The removal of the building is part of work to fix the situation.  The state was willing to give the building away, I was told, but was skeptical that the building had enough structural integrity left to be moved, let alone be worth anything.

AMTRAK PRIVATIZATION

Congressman Mica, chair of the US House Transportation Committee introduced a bill to privatize Amtrak.  For a good laugh, read Railway Age's take: http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news/mica-shuster-eye-passenger-rail-competition-3234.html.  However on this, I think Railway Age may have it wrong, or at least there is more under the surface than is readily apparent.

Events are being held to celebrate National Train Day in North Bennington, Brattleboro and White River Junction this Saturday, May 7th.  For more details click the link on upper right.  

Over the Christm

as holiday I made a number of improvements to the VRAN website.   Most visible is the slide show promoting VRAN and rail on the home page.  It's the work of Christine, my girlfriend and is not finished yet.  There's still a list of improvements I have in mind, but it looks a lot better and is much more presentable to funders and legislators and anyone else we want to send to it!

The biggest change happened behind the scenes: I switched our web host to civiHosting.com, run by Hershel Robinson.  The most obvious change is that the website immediately got faster.  It's really nice dealing with one person who responds instead of outsourced Indian tech support (he's got outsourced support too, for when he's asleep - but they respond in 10 minutes!)  It's got a number of features that make it more reliable.

I'm working with Anna Masozera a web development professor from UVM.  Her class will be using the VRAN website as a case study and will be analyzing it and contributing improvements through the spring.

Last weekend my computer got hit with a nasty virus that stole FTP passwords which enabled it to hack the VRAN website to make it spread the virus to anyone who visited.  It took a couple of hours on Friday morning for me to realize what was going on and then I took it off line.  Getting off my computer has been a real struggle over the weekend and Monday and I think I still haven't got it and will have to reformat.  Thanks to the new host which keeps backups that I can access (which the old one didn't) replacing the VRAN site turned out to be a breeze.

Wednesday, and today I worked on revising the case for support, which should help us fundraise and focus.  Mike Coates gave a presentation in Essex Junction.  The house transportation committee heard from Dave Wulfson, Charles Hunter and Joe Flynn.

Thursday I traveled to Maine for the Trainriders/Northeast board meeting.  Also got a little bit of updating of the database done, but there is a mountain of it waiting.

Last Friday's concert at Union Station was a huge undertaking.  I learned a lot.  The good news is that we got quite a lot of good press out of it.  The bad news is we sold far fewer tickets than we hoped.

WCAX, Fox44, VPR, Burlington Free Press, Rutland Herald, Times-Argus, Brattleboro Reformer ran stories.  The story was picked up by AP news and found it's way onto a number of other outlets.  Megan Smith from WCAX wants to do a follow up interview.

What we didn't get was sponsorship by Seven Days or a radio station (Lee tried) and I think this hurt our numbers significantly.

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I'm hard at work getting our December appeal ready.  I've written a draft of the letter, but it needs more work.  The biggest piece of work is getting the mailing list up to date.  I haven't had any time to really do updates since spring.  I put in three days of solid work and Christine helped me by contributing another two.  Christine entered about 100 changed addresses and deleted about 100 addresses from the Annual Meeting postcard mailing.  She also entered addresses gathered at Friends of Rutland Rail meetings.  I've been plowing through hundreds of new addresses from various e-mails.  We're probably half way through the work at this point.  A lot more updates left and looking up incomplete Rutland addresses and adding in information Elizabeth Curtiss looked up for Burlington addresses.

Christine says I need an intern.  I think she's right.  Know any candidates?

I've had a temporary donation of a printer for this mailing.  I bought about $50 of envelopes and paper from Staples and will pay $25 for running the list through the National Change of Address database

I asked when we might get the board ready for a note-writing and envelope stuffing party and go no responses.  What times might be good for you?

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On Tuesday I met with Alison Crowley Demage, the railroad lobbyist.  We talked about legislative priorities and the Mayor's reaction to the potential for increased trains through Montpelier.  After meeting Lee I went to Rutland where I dropped off 1,000 brochures to be included in giveaways on Catamount Radio's Saturday Santa Train.  They wanted me to be a volunteer conductor, which would have been fun, but I have dear friends visiting from Nova Scotia who I want to spend time with.  Was then supposed to meet Megan Fox from WCAX in Rutland, but she canceled.

Lee and I made some plans for December.  I'm going to work full-time for VRAN for three weeks, focusing on getting this appeal letter out, One week of work on the web site and planning for a big stakeholders meeting in February (shippers, environmental groups, railroads, colleges, resorts, etc.  Assembling a broader coalition of rail supporting organizations).

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I've been soliciting various people's advice about what our priorities should be this year.  Alison suggested this will be a short legislative year where not a lot will be accomplished as folks focus on upcoming elections.

This is what I'm hearing and feeling as our priorities:

1. Keep rail from the budget cutters
2. Build Our capacity and organizational effectiveness
3. Launch a volunteer marketing and outreach effort to promote rail

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Hope everybody had a lovely Thanksgiving Christopher