Saturday, May 06, 2006

The Devil's in the details -- Amtrak not ready for evacuation plan

WSJ.com - New Orleans, Amtrak Differ On Evacuation Plan:
"But Amtrak officials say they don't know when an official agreement with city officials will be completed, citing a wide gap between what the national passenger railroad can offer and what city leaders want. For example, New Orleans officials have asked for surplus passenger cars to be stockpiled near Union Passenger Terminal, the Amtrak station in New Orleans where evacuating residents would board the trains. Amtrak officials say their spare-car inventory is so low that the railroad can barely handle its own maintenance needs. Amtrak also is concerned about how hospital patients and nursing-home residents evacuated on stretchers would be secured aboard the trains."

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