AmtrakDon Fletcher

Train plan derailed?
With the inclusion in the appropriations bill recently signed by President Donald Trump of almost $1.3 billion dollars for operation and expansion of Amtrak rail service, there is a good chance that passenger trains will soon return to the Gulf Coast. There is an even better chance that, if and when such service is restored, those trains will bypass Atmore, despite the city’s designation by Alabama Department of Transportation officials…
CSX rebuts SRC member’s allegations
Editor’s note: The following statement was issued June 19 on behalf of CSX Transportation by Assistant Vice President for Media & Communications Rob Doolittle. “A recent story in the Atmore News (“Amtrak Returning: Not So Fast”) wrongly blames the challenges of starting new passenger rail service along the Gulf Coast to new management at CSX. “The truth is that, according to a study that the Federal Railroad Administration co-sponsored in…
Amtrak returning? Not so fast
When embattled Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley resigned in April, some members of the Southern Rail Commission wondered whether the change in leadership would affect the effort to restore passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast. Instead, it was another hostile takeover that actually put the plan on a sidetrack. Negotiations that had lowered the anticipated cost of the project from $2.3 billion to less than $800 million were rendered useless…