Solutionary Rail

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US Rail History Part 2:
Amtrak - its Formation, Present and Future

Presentation by Steve Chrismer, P.E. PhD (Amtrak - retired)

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Check out our conversation with Dave Strohmaier, Chair of the Missoula Board of County Commissioners and Chairman of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA)

Solutionary Rail's approach to decarbonization: opportunities, obstacles, and pathways forward

Electric Vehicles are touted as a key component to solving our climate crisis. Many consumers are jumping on the EV bandwagon, and companies like Amazon are building a fleet to ship goods by electric truck. Likewise, national environmental organizations are pushing EVs as key to lowering GHG emissions and transitioning to a green economy. So are we and many of our allies.

This is all understandable, but are EVs a real climate solution in and of themselves?

Solutionary Rail is thrilled to present this conversation on the recently completed Nevada State Rail Plan, featuring with Michael Sussman of Strategic Rail Finance & OnTrackNorthAmerica. 

State Rail Plans must be reworked every 4 years. The 2021 Nevada State Rail Plan raises the bar for state rail plans across the country. Utilize this conversation as a guide in your advocacy for meaningful rail plans that set the stage for concrete actions that leverage rail transport for the public interest. 

Listen and learn from Michael and the great questions from many Solutionary Rail advocates across the country. 

Available on Facebook HERE. 

Solutionary Rail hosts a presentation by Robert Colón, a landscape architect, titled: "Ranches to Railways: An Adaptive Framework for Protecting Florida’s Heritage Landscapes in the Anthropocene."

Watch and listen to our conversation with Carlo Borghini, (bio) Executive Director of the European Union's Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking

Shift2Rail is the first European rail initiative to seek focused research and innovation (R&I) and market-driven solutions by accelerating the integration of new and advanced technologies into innovative rail product solutions. Shift2Rail promotes the competitiveness of the European rail industry and meets changing EU transport needs. R&I carried out under this Horizon 2020 initiative develops the necessary technology to complete the Single European Railway Area (SERA). 

Moreover, Shift2Rail has ambitious targets and a robust framework in which to meet them. Specifically, the initiative aims to double the capacity of the European rail system and increase its reliability and service quality by 50%, all while halving life-cycle costs.

Seth Watkins (bio) is a a fourth generation farmer. He stewards the Pinhook Farms cow-calf and crop operation in Clarinda, Iowa. I first heard Seth Watkins speak while lurking on an Iowa Farmers Union Facebook livestream. I was so deeply impressed that I immediately reached out to see if he'd be willing to have a conversation with the Solutionary Rail team and engage in a conversation about rural resilience, regenerative agriculture and the potential for rail infrastructure to bolster and revive rural communities.

Localization of economies, democracy and resilience requires that we be/get "Grounded" -  reconnected to place, planet and each other. In the old "normal" it was difficult to imagine stopping air travel. Today, it is much easier to imagine. The climate, planet and creatures need the new normal to look dramatically different from the old normal. NOW is our moment of opportunity.

The Backbone Campaign Team and allies held a 1 hour conversation with Winona LaDuke and Bill McKibben on this CoViD-19 moment and its relevance for decarbonization, localization, and system transformation. Check it out! Then take action to #ReMakeTheWorld and let's get #Grounded.

Judy Wicks is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, speaker and mentor working to build a more compassionate, environmentally sustainable, and locally-based economy.

A recent interview with Judy on resilient regional economies during these time of pandemic is HERE.

Founder of Philadelphia’s landmark White Dog Cafe, Ms. Wicks is author of Good Morning Beautiful Business and her current projects include: All Together Now PA  Circle of Aunts and Uncles and Proud Pennsylvania.

Check out this two part interview with Fritz Edler, retired locomotive engineer and champion for railroad workers.  Fritz serves as a special representative for Railroad Workers United, aka RWU.

On this episode (in 2 parts) we discuss the latest developments on the Solutionary Rail campaign and hear from our featured guest Jim Heneghan, the renewable-energy engineer at the Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA), a co-op on the western end of Colorado.

"Solutionary Perspectives" is a video podcast series hosted by Bill Moyer and Diane Wittner, examining the perspectives of Solutionary Rail allies and stakeholders.

In this episode Bill talks with Daphne Wysham an early supporter of Solutionary Rail and Dr. John Talberth, both from the Center for Sustainable Economy. The CSE has been front and center in the campaign to create Portland's No New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure policy, and is now offering a new model for putting a price on the risks of fossil fuel transport.

"Solutionary Perspectives" is a video podcast series hosted by Bill Moyer and Diane Wittner, examining the perspectives of Solutionary Rail allies and stakeholders.

June 14, 2017 -- This week, in a two-part interview, we hear from environmental justice advocates Eric Kirkendall and Leticia DeCaigny of Kansas City, KS - an American crossroads, and home of the second-largest railyard in the U.S. Leticia and Eric will share their experience with the impacts of diesel exhaust on their communities and the personal experience that propels their activism to protect their families and community from the impacts of diesel pollution from intermodal freight.

"Solutionary Perspectives" is a video podcast series hosted by Bill Moyer and Diane Wittner, examining the perspectives of Solutionary Rail allies and stakeholders. Bill and Diane recently spoke with Patrick Cox, Ph.D, a sustainability advocate who led the Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) in Central Texas, the largest and now one of the most innovative electric cooperatives in the nation.  We discussed the history of electric co-ops in the US, as well as their future potential as an important part of a decarbonized energy and transportation infrastructure.  Read the full 'Nation' article by Nathan Schneider shown in the video here. 

"Solutionary Perspectives" is a video podcast series hosted by Bill Moyer and Diane Wittner, examining the perspectives of Solutionary Rail allies and stakeholders.

Here's our conversation with Ron Kaminkow of Railroad Workers United (RWU) about the history of railroad unions, their fight against hazards such as crew fatigue and single-person crews, and their essential role in a just transition to a sustainable transportation and clean energy economy.

Ron Kaminkow is a contributor to the Solutionary Rail book and has advised our project since its beginnings. [An excerpt from the book is below.] Railroad Workers United (RWU) has been a key ally along the way, including as a co-producer of two conferences on the Future of Rail, workers, communities, safety and the environment in Richmond, CA and Olympia, WA in spring of 2015. 

ARCHIVED VIDEO OF THIS Webcast:

"Solutionary Perspectives" is a new video podcast series featuring the perspectives of Solutionary Rail allies and stakeholders, and is hosted by Bill Moyer and Diane Wittner. Our guest, Richard Mabion of Kansas City, Kansas is the the founder of Building A Sustainable Earth Community and Breaking The Silence. Richard spoke about his experiences as an environmental justice advocate and the impact of freight and diesel exhaust in one of America's major crossroads.  He spoke about Solutionary Rail as an organizing tool and answered a range of questions from listeners.

Thank you to Richard and all those who participated, to the series producer Diane Wittner, and video editor Sarah Palm.

Forward Together!

The Solutionary Rail Team