Subj: Aftermath of the tragedy; Travel and Meeting information Date: 01-09-13 16:55:08 EDT From: [log in to unmask] (NARP) Reply-to: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask] (NARP) To NARP Members--September 13, 2001: First, we at NARP hope that you and your loved ones are safe, and express our sorrow and sympathy if your lives have been touched directly by the tragedies on Tuesday. I. USING AIRLINE TICKETS ON AMTRAK If you need to travel, it may be helpful to learn (or be reminded) that Amtrak has a standard policy of honoring airline tickets between the same or similar city-pairs Amtrak serves. "Similar" generally means a city in the same metro area as the city named on the airline ticket. The honoring of airline tickets is subject to space availability on trains, and limited to the value of the airline ticket (or ticketless travel receipt). [However, Amtrak does NOT honor Southwest Airlines tickets. Southwest Airlines does not belong to the Airline Reporting Corporation which handles inter-company reimbursements.] If the Amtrak fare is lower, and you want to recover the difference, it may be simpler to buy the Amtrak ticket outright and have the airline fully refund its own ticket. However, you can exchange the airline ticket (or ticketless travel receipt) for an Amtrak ticket, and then get a partial refund from the airline by showing the airline receipts from both tickets (so the airline sees what you paid to Amtrak). If the Amtrak fare is higher than the value shown on the airline ticket, the passenger must pay Amtrak the difference. Be forewarned that Amtrak trains are more full than usual, and both Amtrak's telephone information and website are slower than usual. (See next item.) II. AMTRAK EXPANDS SERVICE AS AIR SYSTEM DISRUPTIONS CONTINUE (Amtrak release) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 13, 2001 Capacity Added to Many Trains Nationwide; Amtrak Partners With Red Cross to Ship Relief Supplies Wilmington – As the disruption to the nation’s aviation system enters its third day, Amtrak is continuing to operate its regular weekday schedule throughout the country and is adding capacity to handle the growing volume of passengers. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced earlier that the nation’s airspace would reopen at 11:00 am Thursday, but many airlines are reporting delays and limitations in the resumption of service. Meanwhile, Amtrak also announced it is partnering with the American Red Cross to deliver emergency relief supplies to New York City. Amtrak is donating the use of a train to be dubbed the “Clara Barton Express,” which departed Washington’s Union Station at 11:00 am today and was scheduled to arrive at New York’s Penn Station at approximately 1:30 pm. The train is carrying supplies including Red Cross comfort and cleanup kits, dust masks and beverages. American Red Cross President and CEO Dr. Bernadine Healy is among those traveling to New York on this train. Amtrak will arrange for additional trains to carry relief supplies to New York as needed... Capacity Being Added in Northeast and Other Regions Meanwhile, while the air service disruption continues, Amtrak will add more than 200 seats on virtually every unreserved train operating between Washington, New York and Boston, increasing this capacity by nearly 30 percent. One additional roundtrip was added today between Boston and New York, departing Boston at 11:12 am and arriving New York at 2:40 pm. This train is scheduled to depart from New York at 4:00 pm and arrive back in Boston at 7:37 pm. Additional capacity is also being added to Amtrak services on the West Coast and on long distance trains serving other parts of the country. The company has also reached out to the airlines to assist family and friends of victims of the terrorist attacks. Amtrak trains are seeing significant increases in ridership throughout the national system serving 45 states and over 500 communities. On Wednesday, almost all of Amtrak’s long-distance trains were sold out. The railroad will continue to adjust capacity as needed. To help serve stranded airline travelers, Amtrak is honoring most airline tickets for travel to the cities it serves. Those wishing to make a reservation on Amtrak should call 1-800-USA-RAIL or a travel agent, or log on to www.amtrak.com. Guests may also book travel at many Amtrak stations using automated Quik Trak machines. III. LESSONS LEARNED? The tragedy and its aftermath raise the possibility that more Americans will see the need for more modern passenger trains. We will be pointing this out. One by-product of the tragedy was a call to NARP from the president of US-Citizens Aviation Watch, an organization developing "a plan of action to protect people from aviation industry abuses...The plan is aimed at protecting the public from adverse environmental impacts that aviation and airport activities have on public health, air/water/ground/noise pollution and property issues affecting everyone on our planet." Much detailed information on this is available at their website <www.us-caw.org>. Their members are all organizations, and include several municipalities as well as the Baylor University School of Aviation Sciences and a number of grass-roots civic groups. IV. EVENTS CANCELLED OR POSTPONED Rail-Volution, scheduled for San Francisco September 13-16, has been canceled. Organizers are considering the possibility of rescheduling for one of these time periods: * November 29-December 2 * December 6-December 9 * December 13-December 16 The conference, "Representing Rail Passengers Interests," scheduled for Philadelphia September 15-16, has been postponed to December 1-2. The Amtrak Reform Council meeting in Los Angeles, scheduled for September 20, has been cancelled. V. TWO AMTRAK DERAILMENTS THIS WEEK The NARP hotline reports on a "Texas Eagle" accident Tuesday morning west of Marshall, Texas, with minor injuries to five passengers and a crewman. This morning, a well-filled westbound "California Zephyr" (Amtrak says "approximately 263 passengers") struck a Union Pacific freight train near Wendover, Utah. Amtrak says "sixteen individuals have been transported to a Salt Lake City hospital with non-life threatening injuries." --Ross B. 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