New Subforum: Amtrak's Future: Member Ideas and Discussion

Last year, we created a few new forums for people to post to. One of them was "Rail Advocacy," a forum to help advocate for passenger rail, assist people in finding information on passenger rail advocacy, and other related items.

Recently, we've found a lot of posts that, while pertaining to new routes or ideas that people want Amtrak to implement, are not necessarily directly related to advocacy for Amtrak or passenger rail in general, or have a "call to action" for actionable steps for people to take. To help give an area for these ideas to go to, we have created a subforum under Amtrak Rail Discussion called "Amtrak's Future: Member Ideas and Discussion."

In general, this area exists for proposals of Amtrak (or passenger rail in the US) service that has not reached official study/planning stages for the specific route within government or private entities that will actually implement/fund the service. For example, a proposal by a rail group for new service (or a comprehensive plan) that does not have a specific call to action would probably go into the new forum. A blog post from NARP with a specific call to action about an issue with Amtrak would probably go under Rail Advocacy. Finally, a study that has been funded by a state DOT studying a particular route would probably go under Amtrak Rail Discussion.

Any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns? Please post them here, or private message any staff member. We're always willing to listen.

I think it's generally a bad idea to fragment forums in this way. Really I don't think there is enough discussion about these subtopics to warrant their own forum and they would get more visibility in the main forum.

I'll admit I'm being a little bit of a devil's advocate by pointing this out...

A blog post from NARP with a specific call to action about an issue with Amtrak would probably go under Rail Advocacy.

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So this post that has a definite relationship to Amtrak goes in a forum that's not even in the "Amtrak Rail Discussions" section of the forum (it's under "Other Rail Transportation")...

Finally, a study that has been funded by a state DOT studying a particular route would probably go under Amtrak Rail Discussion.

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...but this post, which could lead to the route being operated by Iowa Pacific or another non-Amtrak operator, does go under "Amtrak Rail Discussions" (in fact, it goes in the main forum for Amtrak topics).

Hence the word "probably." The study example was more of an example of when something goes from "Amtrak's future" to "current Amtrak discussion." The examples are imperfect, and ultimately some of it will be a judgement call on threads that could be justified in two different forums. In those cases, members should post the thread in the area/forum they feel it is most relevant in. If the moderator/admin team determines it is better to be moved to another forum, we will move it and leave a link in the original forum area that points to the location of the thread in the new forum.

Speaking solely as myself: My understanding is that Rail Advocacy is under "Other Rail Transportation" to make it obvious that it is a "broad" forum encompassing not only intercity rail travel, but also can include advocacy for local rail projects or other rail issues of note that may not be directly related to Amtrak, but are of interest to members of this board. The Iowa Pacific/non-Amtrak operators is a gray area, especially with the Hoosier State as it is run by Iowa Pacific, using Iowa Pacific OBS but Amtrak conductors and engineers, and is ticketed through Amtrak. Since it's in the Amtrak timetable, bookable through Amtrak, and generally considered part of the national rail system (versus a commuter rail operation that sells through Amtrak as well,) I'd still consider it to be part of Amtrak Rail Discussions.

And then there is the NJT Atlantic City Service to muddy the waters