Passenger Trains > Next RPA webinar

I just received an email from RPA announcing their next webinar (although I have long since surrendered membsership)
(If you don't know what RPA is then this post is definitely not for you)
In this time when Amtrak is falling apart, can't run a full schedule, are reducing consists, can't maintain equipment, and appears to be shedding long-distance trains, what is the topic of the next RPA seminar?
“Heavy Rail Gets Green: How Modern Passenger Train Systems Can Partner With the U.S. Environmental Movement”
Yep those guys know what's important:-(

WP17

WP17 Wrote:
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> (If you don't know what RPA is then this post is
> definitely not for you)

Talk about a attitude... 

Acronym Definition
RPA Robotic Process Automation
RPA Rural Payments Agency (UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
RPA Replication Protein A
RPA Rise of the Planet of the Apes (film)
RPA Regional Plan Association
RPA Royal Prince Alfred (hospital, Australia)
RPA Resources Planning Act
RPA RNAse Protection Assay
RPA Real Property Administrator (property management certificate; Canada)
RPA Random-Phase Approximation
RPA Register Port Attributes
RPA Recombinant Protective Antigen
RPA Railway Procurement Agency (Ireland)
RPA RMIT(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) Postgraduate Association
RPA Ribonuclease Protection Assay
RPA Radiant Panel Association
RPA Renal Physicians Association
RPA Rwandan Patriotic Army
RPA Retirement Plans Associate
RPA Request for Personnel Action (US Civil Service)
RPA Residential Purchase Agreement
RPA Representation of People's Act (India)
RPA Right Pulmonary Artery
RPA Raising Public Awareness (mathematics)
RPA Régimes de Pension Agréés (French: Registered Pension Plans; Canada)
RPA Remotely Piloted Aircraft
RPA Ratepayer Advocate (NJ, USA)
RPA Recursive Partitioning Analysis
RPA Relying Party Agreement
RPA Resource Protection Area
RPA Rubin Postaer and Associates
RPA Remote Patron Authentication
RPA Radiation Protection Adviser
RPA Retarding Potential Analyzer
RPA Reasonable and Prudent Alternative
RPA Register of Professional Archaeologists
RPA Radio Publique Africaine (French)
RPA Regional Park
RPA Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
RPA Radiology Practitioner Assistant (American Registry of Radiologic Technologists)
RPA Representation of the People Act (UK)
RPA Robinson-Patman Act
RPA Registered Professional Appraiser (real estate)
RPA Request for Public Assistance
RPA Redundant Parallel Architecture (General Electric Company)
RPA Redundant Parallel Architecture (General Electric)
RPA Résidence pour Personnes Agées (French: Residence for the Elderly)
RPA Request for Procurement Action (UK)
RPA Rationalist Press Association
RPA Rural Planning Area (various locations)
RPA Radical Philosophy Association
RPA Roleplaying Assistant (gaming)
RPA Registered Public Accountant
RPA Recycled Paperboard Alliance
RPA Rubber Pavements Association
RPA Renewable Power Association
RPA Retirement Protection Act of 1994
RPA Royal Parks Agency (UK)
RPA Risk and Policy Analysts
RPA Real Property Assessment
RPA Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc. (Glenside, PA)
RPA Registered Physician Assistant
RPA Registered Professional Adjuster
RPA Retail Packaging Association
RPA Rice Producers Association
RPA Registration Through Practice Assessment (Canada)
RPA Remote PassPhrase Authentication
RPA Remote Personnel Assessment
RPA Richmond Progressive Alliance
RPA Root Protection Area (UK construction standard near trees)
RPA Republika Poludniowej Afryki (Polish: Republic of South Africa)
RPA Reserve Personnel, Army
RPA Record and Playback Assembly (US NASA)
RPA Reserve Personnel Appropriation
RPA Radium Plaque Adaptometer
RPA Rapid Plant Assessment
RPA Religionspädagogische Arbeitsstelle
RPA Retired Police Association
RPA Rochester Philatelic Association
RPA Records Preservation and Access
RPA Rubber Process Analyser
RPA Remote Page Accelerator
RPA Reciprocal Preference Agreement (trade)
RPA Research Priority Area
RPA Retired Pay Accrual
RPA Raggio Pocket Applications
RPA Reduced Pressure Assembly (backflow prevention device used in water systems)
RPA Rich Phone Application (customer interaction solution)
RPA Request for Purchasing Authority
RPA Reserve Program Administrator
RPA Registered Professional Archeologist
RPA Revista de Politica Agricola (Portugese: Magazine of Agricultural Politics)
RPA Regular Production Accessories
RPA Rally Press Association
RPA Revenue Producing Activity
RPA Reverse Prince Albert (piercing)
RPA Remove Personal Attacks
RPA Rivers Protection Act (Massachusetts)
RPA Resource Planning & Assessment
RPA Regional Public Affairs
RPA Registered Patent Agent
RPA Regional Planning Agent
RPA Revocation of Power of Attorney (legal term)
RPA Remote Phrase Authentication
RPA Résidence Paris Asnières
RPA Radio Pays d'Aurillac (French radio station)
RPA Rensselaer Pride Alliance
RPA Redundancy Payments Act
RPA Respirator Program Administrator
RPA Rotorua Principals Association
RPA Regulatory Proposal Assessment
RPA Rotocraft Pilot's Associate
RPA Rebirthing Psychotherapy Association
RPA Returns Processing Administration
RPA Rensselaer Pagan Association
RPA Research Partnership Agreement
RPA Russell-Mellon Performance Attribution
RPA River Path Associates (Wimborne, Dorset, UK)
RPA Rate Plan Analysis
RPA Relative Power Absorbed
RPA Request for Payroll Action
RPA Ring Partition Algorithm
RPA Red Pine Ambassadors (Douglass College)
RPA Request for Project Authorization
RPA Radiation Protection Act of 1965
RPA Ravenswood Physicians Associates (Chicago, IL)
RPA Rubbish Picture Attachment (Rareware web site)
RPA Regional Preferential Agreement
RPA Rotary Piezo Actuato
RPA Radar Propagation Analysis
RPA Russian Planetarium Association
RPA Rice Polish Agar
RPA Rundlaufprufanlage (German)
RPA Republican Party for America
RPA Russian Peasant Algorithm
RPA Recommended Pricing Adjustment
RPA Reach Pollution Assessment
RPA Request Present Altitude
RPA Requisitioning, Purchasing and Accounts Payable
RPA Reconciling Pentecostal Assembly
RPA Retail Profit Analysis
RPA Rectangular Patch Antenna
RPA Revenue and Profit Analysis
RPA Reserve Pay Account
RPA Richland Performing Arts Association
RPA Receiver Performance Analysis (KILTING)
RPA Resident Programmer Analyst

Doesn't matter what they call themselves if they are so interested in being irrelevant.

NARPdbaRPA has taken 55 years so be as dysfunctional, arrogant, and incompetent as Amtrak has in 51 years. 

Happy to be a dues paying RPA member. Believe it or not passenger rail advocacy involves more than just belly aching and yelling and screaming about every little thing that happens with long distance trains. I, like RPA, am a supporter of long distance passenger rail but I am also an advocate for expanded passenger rail in my own state and certain corridors that have been proposed and I’m sorry but there are other important issues besides just complaining. Frankly I find these attack threads rather tiresome and somewhat juvenile. If you don’t like RPA or how they advocate - don’t join - or cancel your subscription.

NARP took the acronym of the Regional Plan Association, a long standing and well regarded transportation advocacy organization in the New York City area, now over 100 years old. To anyone on the New York area involved in rail transit, "RPA" will always mean the Regional Plan Association - not NARP( dbaRPA).
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/22 15:47 by prr60.

Probably gonna be a wasted meeting anyway, look what's been going on since Airline Boy was CEO!

RPA does much more for passenger rail than all the sarcastic comments here put together. Perfect? No! At least trying for positive solutions? Yes!

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

why did they change from narp?   sure it is in the history here, i have forgotten

RevRandy Wrote:
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> RPA does much more for passenger rail than all the
> sarcastic comments here put together. Perfect?
> No! At least trying for positive solutions? Yes!
>
> The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Really ? Do you know any of us personally ? That some of us have had several productive decades with NARP, got disgusted for multiple reasons, that there is a productive advocacy life without NARP, other than NARP, and after NARP ? No you do not.

Posted from Android

WP17 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In this time when Amtrak is falling apart, can't
> run a full schedule, are reducing consists, can't
> maintain equipment, and appears to be shedding
> long-distance trains, what is the topic of the
> next RPA seminar?
> “Heavy Rail Gets Green: How Modern Passenger
> Train Systems Can Partner With the U.S.
> Environmental Movement”
> Yep those guys know what's important:-(
>
> WP17

That's a worthwhile topic for a seminar.  

1) Rail passenger advocates need all of the allies they can get.  I don't understand the thinking that partnering with the environmental community to advance passenger rail would be considered frivolous.

2) In recent times, there have been some (too many, in my opinion) of passenger rail projects stopped or delayed on environmental grounds/or alleged environmental grounds.  Opposition to installation of a new track in Glenview, IL to accommodate increased Hiawatha Service trains is just one example.  Perhaps strengthening relationships with the environmental community would develop alliances to overcome this kind of resistance.

3) Perhaps there are some (many?) in the environmental community who do not even have passenger rail on their radar when they are thinking about strategies to emissions from the transportation sector.  I think there is value in having more communications to get them to add improved passenger rail to the mix.

Is this webinar interactive, or just a presentation with no questions?    If there is Q&A, i would certainly ask "what the hells going on with amtk?"
If they blew me off with "thats not tonights topic"   Id say that not being very responsive or responsible.   If they are going to be an advocacy group, they need to repond to the reality of whats going on, for their constituents.

prr60 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NARP took the acronym of the Regional Plan
> Association, a long standing and well regarded
> transportation advocacy organization in the New
> York City area, now over 100 years old. To anyone
> on the New York area involved in rail transit,
> "RPA" will always mean the Regional Plan
> Association - not NARP( dbaRPA).

I was in the process of leaving at the time, but they changed their public name to remove the word "National" since they thought it would more appealing to Millenials to leave it out. But I think it was more an excuse to show they were a new organization, and the legacy staff and directors were to be put out to pasture. Now it is an insular, top-down outfit in a Beltway bubble, "we are so great, we did this, we did that, send us a donation". The Millenial excuse is also why they went on a silly "Chef Mady" publicity stunt a few summers ago, to distract from the Silver Starvation issue, or Amtrak would be displeased.

As for as acronym confusion with the 100 year old NYC-area planning organization, they were told that, but you might as well have tried to explain the Derivative Calculus Chain rule - the reaction was the same. No impact. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/22 03:14 by joemvcnj.

It’s pretty obvious what’s going on with Amtrak - it’s what’s happening economy wide. They made some lousy decisions earlier in the pandemic that have majorly exasperated it but what’s done is done. Obviously it’s important to watch to make sure they are following through on promises - but why just beat a dead horse asking this question over and over?

You could clear and replace the entire board and executive office and Amtrak is still going to have these issues. Rehiring is a slow arduous process especially in an organization like Amtrak with all sorts of federal requirements for hiring (which as a result many people who you do hire wash out during on boarding due to failing training or blowing a drug test and that’s part of why it’s been slow - they’ve had a significant level of attrition during onboarding and then have to open up the same job class for hiring again.)

There are many other advocacy priorities for organization members many of which are about planning for the future. Doesn’t it make sense for rail advocacy to try to make partnerships with other groups to fight for passenger rail? Honestly I fail to see how a thread attacking a non profit organization is advancing advocacy for passenger rail. If you don’t like RPA that’s fine - there’s other advocacy groups such as state organizations out there. But why attack this one?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/22 03:34 by lordsigma.

Because under Ross Capon, results where obvious, it seems now they're just so so when it comes to how Amtrak's ran and all that, especially since Ariline Boy nearly dismantled Amtrak when he was CEO!