AGENDA
1. Welcome
At 2:00 pm, President Wheeler welcomed everyone to Columbia, South Carolina, and to the January 2024 meeting of the board of directors.

2. Treasurer's Report
Treasurer Messera handed out copies of the Finance Report for January, 2024 (as follows.)
The Cash Balance as of 10/31/23 was $1,332.89
Revenues from dues and donations (by check and Cheddar-up) through 12/31/23 were $90.00
Expenses for President Wheeler’s RPA Registration, Office Depot newsletter copying, and domain registration/renewal amounted to $391.33
This left a cash balance as of 12/31/23 of $1,031.56 of which $866.56 in in Truitt Bank and $165.00 is in CAPT’s Cheddar-Up Account.
Paid membership as of 12/31/23 was 90.
IRS Form 990-N was submitted and accepted on 1/18/24
Starting in January 2024, we should be receiving membership renewals.

3. Appointment to vacant Board member position
The Board voted to appoint Holli Saperstein from Wilmington, NC to the board of directors.

4. Recognition of past Board member Bill Cole
President Wheeler made a short presentation honoring former member Bill Cole who passed away in December 2023, and whose memorial service was held at his home church in Charlotte, NC on 1/20/24.

5. Secretary's Report
Acting Secretary Robinson presented the minutes of the board meeting held in Raleigh in the Amtrak Conference Room at Raleigh Union Station on 11/18/23. The status of search for new CAPT Secretary has made no progress, but David Robinson indicated that he would continue in that role for the rest of year 2024, as long as all submissions for the agenda for upcoming meetings are printed and submitted by email or hand-delivered prior to the dates of the meetings.

6. Report on CAPT Speaking Engagement in Bluffton, SC
President Wheeler and Don Yehle (absent) reported that the presentation to the civic club in Bluffton, SC went well and was well received by the about forty club members in attendance. CAPT members are encouraged to seek out other speaking opportunities, both in NC and in SC.

7. Developing CAPT Speakers Bureau
Following from the previous agenda item, David Robinson made a proposal that CAPT develop a Speakers’ Bureau from which interested civic clubs could request a meeting speaker. He distributed a 3-page information packet that explained what a Speakers’ Bureau is, the reasons for developing one, who you can reach out to, and qualifications of members making the presentations.

8. Fostering student activism for Rail Passenger Service
Another promotional effort suggested by David Robinson at the November 2023 meeting but needing additional thinking on the part of Robinson and Charles Gossett is the idea of having student chapters at universities and college in NC and SC station cities. Gossett had emailed some possible student groups in Columbia and invited them to attend the board meeting, but no one showed. Robinson said he would re-think the approach.

9. CAPT Website
While the CAPT website is full of links to information that members like having, the overall impression given to prospective members is not as exciting as it could be. While no decisions were made on who to approach about re-designing the website, there was a discussion on updating site, and a potential firm or individual to do the work.

10. South Carolina Goals for CAPT
Currently, the SCDOT lags behind the NCDOT in supporting passenger rail. Board members, especially Jim Frierson, lamented the fact that there does not appear to be any interest in improving the situation. Somehow, CAPT needs to develop a plan that will interest people in creating a dedicated rail division, to support future passenger rail initiatives to include the preservation of rail corridors.

11. Economic Impact Studies for projected rail lines
Much of the information distributed by CAPT within SC talks about travel opportunities for projected rail lines, but lacks economic impact supporting information. CAPT needs to figure out to make up for this information gap, which may hold more sway.

12. RPA's IMPLAN program, and other venues
In light of a recent economic feasibility study sponsored by the Ohio Association for Railroad Passengers for the proposed Cleveland-Columbus- Cincinnati corridor, there was discussion on whether lessons learned there could be applied to potential economic studies for SC corridors. President Wheeler conferred with the firm that performed the study for OARP.

13. Western NC Rail Committee Update.
Adoption of Resolution supporting Salisbury- Asheville service CAPT needs to submit an updated resolution in support of this service.

14. Eastern NC Rail Advocacy Developments
Steve Unger made a short presentation on his efforts to date, including the holding of public meetings in Burgaw and Wallace, and an upcoming one in February in Warsaw with the residents and elected officials.

15. FRA Corridor ID grants for NC
Just a few weeks prior to the meeting, the full list of passenger routes in the Federal Railroad Administration’s were released.

A. New Routes
A total of 34 new routes were selected; some are in advanced stages of planning and others have essentially been previously unknown. They are shown below, with routes of particular interest to CAPT in bold:

• Asheville-Salisbury, N.C. (North Carolina Department of Transportation)
• Atlanta-Savannah, Ga. (Georgia DOT)
• Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville-Memphis (City of Chattanooga)
• Baton Rouge-New Orleans (Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development)
• Boston-Springfield, Mass-Albany, N.Y. (Massachusetts DOT)
• Charlotte-Kings Mountain, N.C. (North Carolina DOT)
• Chicago-Quad Cities (Illiinois DOT)
• Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus-Pittsburgh (City of Fort Wayne, Ind.)
• Chicago-Peoria (City of Peoria, Ill.)
• Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati (Ohio Rail Development Commission)
• Cleveland-Toledo-Detroit (ORDC)
• Delaware “Diamond State Line” Newark/Wilmington-Dover-Salisbury/Berlin (Delaware Transit Corp.)
• Dallas-Meridian, Miss. “I-20 Corridor” (Southern Rail Commission)
• Dallas-Fort Worth-Houston “Texas Triangle” (Texas DOT)
• Eau Claire, Wis.-Twin Cities (Eau Claire County)
• Fayetteville-Raleigh, N.C. (North Carolina DOT)
• Fort Collins-Denver-Pueblo, Colo. “Front Range Corridor” (Front Range Passenger Rail District)
• Houston-San Antonio (Texas DOT)
• Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami (Florida DOT)
• Los Angeles-Coachella, Calif. “Coachella Valley Corridor” (Caltrans)
• Louisville-Indianapolis (Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency)
• Miami-Orlando-Tampa (Florida DOT)
• Milwaukee-Madison-Eau Claire-Twin Cities (Wisconsin DOT)
• Minneapolis-Duluth, Minn. “Northern Lights Express” (Minnesota DOT)
—Newport News-Richmond-Charlottesville-New River Valley, Va. “Commonwealth Corridor” (Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation)
• New Orleans-Mobile, Ala. “Gulf Coast service” (Southern Rail Commission)
• “North Coast Hiawatha” — Chicago-Seattle/Portland via southern Montana (Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority)
• Phoenix-Tucson, Ariz. (Arizona DOT)
• Reading-Philadelphia-New York (Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority)
• San Jose-San Luis Obispo, Calif. “Central Coast Corridor” (Caltrans)
• Scranton-New York (Pennsylvania DOT)
• Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago expansion (Wisconsin DOT)
• Wilmington-Raleigh, N.C. (North Carolina DOT)
• Winston-Salem-Raleigh (North Carolina DOT)

B. Existing Routes with Extensions

• Amtrak to Long Island (Amtrak): A proposal to extend three existing Northeast Regional round trips between Washington and New York to Ronkonkoma, N.Y., on the Long Island Rail Road, with intermediate stops at Jamaica and Hicksville.
• Capitol Corridor (Caltrans): Would add to the existing San Jose-Auburn, Calif., corridor with extensions to San Francisco, Salinas, and Novato, Calif., and Reno/Sparks, Nev.
• Downeaster Corridor (Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority): Would extend the route to Rockland, Maine, add additional frequencies, add an infill station at West Falmouth, Maine, and make improvements to allow better connections in Boston, where the Downeaster uses a different station than all other Amtrak services.
• Green Mountain Corridor (Vermont Agency of Transportation): Would connect New York and Burlington, Vt., via Albany, N.Y.,and Rutland, Vt., dovetailing with the Ethan Allen Express by providing new service to communities including Bennington and Manchester, Vt., and Mechanicville, N.Y.
• Extension of Chicago-Quincy corridor to Hannibal, Mo. (Missouri DOT): Would extend the route currently used by the Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg.
• Heartland Flyer extension (Kansas DOT): Would extend the current Fort Worth-Oklahoma City train northward to Wichita and Newton, Kan., where it would connect with the Southwest Chief [see “Kansas DOT holds public meeting …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 10, 2023].— Kansas City, Mo.-St. Joseph, Mo. (Missouri DOT): Would provide a connection with the existing Missouri River Runner.
• San Luis Obispo-San Diego LOSSAN Rail Corridor (Caltrans): Proposes a small extension — from its current southern endpoint of San Diego to San Ysidro, Calif, about 16 miles — as well as additional frequencies and improvements to reliability.
• Milwaukee-Green Bay Hiawatha extension (Wisconsin DOT): Would extend the existing Chicago-Miwaukee service.
• San Joaquin Valley Corridor (Caltrans): Would extend the existing service north from Sacramento to Chico and Redding, Calif., while also increasing frequencies.
• Vermonter Corridor (Vermont Agency of Transportation): Would extend service north to Montreal, with creation of a customs preclearance facility at Montreal’s Central Station, add frequencies, and reduce travel time.
• Washington to Bristol, Va. Corridor (Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation): Would extend existing Northeast Regional service between Washington and Roanoke Va, to Bristol; add an infill station at Bedford, Va.,. and increase frequencies.
• Wolverine Corridor (Michigan DOT): Would extend service to Windsor, Ontario, and include improvements to travel time and reliability.

C. Existing Routes

• Adirondack Corridor (New York State DOT): Seeks a custom preclearance facility in Montreal
• Amtrak Cascades Corridor (Washington State DOT)
• Anchorage North and South Corridor (Alaska Railroad Corp.)
• Charlotte-Washington Corridor (North Carolina DOT): Seeks improvements including the Raleigh-to-Richmond project that received a $1.1 billion Federal-State Partnership grant.
• Chicago-Carbondale Corridor (Illinois DOT)
• Chicago-Grand Rapids Corridor (Michigan DOT)
• Chicago-Port Huron Corridor (Michigan DOT)
• Chicago-St. Louis Higher-Speed Corridor (Illinois DOT)
• Daily Cardinal service (Amtrak)
• Daily Sunset Limited service (Amtrak): Like the Cardinal, would be increased from the current triweekly schedule.
• Empire Corridor (New York State DOT)
• Hartford Line Corridor (Connecticut DOT)

D. High Speed Routes

• Dallas-Houston (Amtrak)
• Fort Worth-Houston (North Central Texas Council of Governments)
• Brightline West (Nevada DOT)
• California High-Speed Rail phase 1 (California High-Speed Rail Authority)
• Cascadia corridor — Vancouver, British Columbia-Portland, Ore. (Washington State DOT)
• Charlotte, N.C.-Atlanta, Ga. (North Carolina DOT)
• High Desert Corridor — Victor Valley-Palmdale, Calif. (Antelope Valley Transit Authority)

16. Assignment of Board members to monitor specific corridor planning studies
Since the NCDOT will be looking for input from interested parties while conducting the $500,000 planning studies, assigning CAPT members to specific studies to monitor progress was discussed.

17. Awareness campaign to inform affected areas?
It is too early for CAPT to do any advanced notice to affected areas since the planning consulting firms have yet to be selected. At that point, CAPT can decide how to participate.

18. Southeastern Long Distance route being studied by FRA
The Midwest to Carolinas route ( Cincinnati to Asheville, and continuing to Columbia and Charleston and/or Charlotte and Wilmington) was proposed to FRA in Meridian last year. Selection of routes for the national plan are expected before Spring. The Amtrak Long Distance Study being conducted by FRA is separate and distinct from the FRA Corridor Grant program, and not to be confused to be one and the same.

19. Charlotte Area Transit System Update
Charlotte’s Light Rail and Streetcar services continue to operate are curtailed levels. Ridership has only recovered to around 65 percent of pre-pandemic levels. No new developments on talks with Norfolk Southern about use of it’s Charlotte to Mooresville line for regional rail service.

20. CAPT newsletter update
Speaking on behalf of Don Yehle, President Wheeler discussed the need to expand distribution, and encourage members to submit pictures and articles.

21. Carolinas Rail News and Developments
Blue Ridge Southern shortline railroad suffering significant loss in freight business due to closing of the Canton paper mill. Discussing possible rail passenger initiative with Hendersonville interests. Money still not released for study of possible rail operations in conjunction with proposed Saluda Grade rail trail proposal.

22. Amtrak update
Amtrak still working with NS and CSX to restore New Orleans-Mobile service. Meridian-Dallas extension of Crescent could happen with a couple of years, part CPKC’s commitment for Amtrak support of it’s recent merger. Restoration of full dining car service may be another couple of years away for the Crescent and City of New Orleans.

23. Planning for future meetings
March 16, 2024 – Greensboro, NC
May 18, 2024 – Selma, NC
July 20, 2024 – Spartanburg, SC
September 21, 2024 – Hamlet, NC
November 16, 2024 – Charlotte, NC (ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING)

24. Discussion of even month zoom board meetings
It was decided that even month meetings would only be scheduled (by ZOOM) when there was a significant issue to be discussed. No even month meeting was scheduled for February 2024.

25. Adjournment
President Wheeler thanked everyone for attending, apologized for the poor quality of the Zoom connection which was due to technical difficulties, and adjourned the meeting at 4:30 pm.

MINUTES PREPARED BY NC VICE PRESIDENT/ACTING SECRETARY DAVID ROBINSON, 3/6/24