Happening Now
NARP Members Making Things Better for Passengers in Michigan
February 7, 2013
Written By Sean Jeans Gail
In another instance of NARP members working to improve the experience of riding trains, Michiganmembers of NARP’s Council of Representatives have worked to install an electronic departure and arrival board for the Kalamazoo Transportation Center.
The board—a repurposed flat screen television—is part of a pilot program that NARP hopes to expand to other cities:
The city ofKalamazoois the first city to have the boards as part of the project organized by the National Association of Railroad Passengers, said John DeLora, vice chair of the association.
TheKalamazooTransportationCenteris also the first center in the country to have multiple transportation schedules on one board, DeLora said. The boards operate off of city computer data.
Funding for the boards was made possible through a $25,000 grant from the Sally Mead Hands Foundation, which promotes "green transportation."
This is the first such board in theU.S.for intermodal transportation that includes inner-city transportation. It cost about $10,000 to do the research to create the boards. The hardware was about $500.
"It would have been a million-dollar project in the 70s," DeLora said.
DeLora said he hopes to expand to six to eight other stations inMichigan,IllinoisandWisconsin. The next station will beBattle Creek, he said.
"On behalf of Amtrak’s onboard service staff, I want to thank the Rail Passengers Association for honoring their hard work with this award. The past couple years have indeed been difficult for Amtrak onboard service staff – coping with furloughs and job insecurity, adapting to changing protocols and services, not to mention the unfortunate events such as a tragic derailment and a fatal shooting. Nevertheless, our dedicated members at Amtrak have handled these hurdles with the care, attention and diligence for which they’re known. We thank Rail Passengers for their acknowledgement of our members’ hard work and, as always, look forward to seeing you on the rails."
Arthur Maratea, TCU/IAM National President
December 21, 2021, on the Association awarding its 2021 Golden Spike Award to the Frontline Amtrak Employees.
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