Take the Train to St. Jo This segment of WZZM Take Five is sponsored my Amtrak Pere Marquette and highlights St. Joseph as a great family getaway. Whether it be a day trip or a weekend getaway, watch here to see all that St. Joseph has to offer.

Ring up four categories, earn up to 1,700 bonus points!

Anytime you use an Amtrak Guest Rewards® partner, the points add up fast. But transact in four different categories during our Partners for Points promotion from June 1, 2010 - July 31, 2010, and the rewards are remarkable. Up to 1,700 bonus points are yours when you mix it up and do some shopping, enjoy a hotel stay, take a cruise and rent or share a car. The first purchase in each category qualifies for the points. Variety is the spice of life to be sure.

Here's how it works:

When you consider that free Amtrak® travel starts at just 1,000 points, this is a promotion that should set you in motion. So register today!

• Earn bonus points on partner transactions from June 1 - July 31, 2010.
  • Earn up to 1,700 bonus points. Earn bonus points on your first transaction within a category. Members can only earn one bonus point award in each category during the promotional timeframe. Use all four categories and earn an additional 1,000 bonus points. o Shopping: Earn 100 bonus points with 1-800-Flowers, Audience Rewards, Barclay's Wine, Buy Points, Energy Plus, Points for Wireless, Samsonite, TD AMERITRADE, Teleflora, Vinesse o Cruise: Earn 200 bonus points with Cruise Locators o Car Renting/Sharing: Earn 200 bonus points with Budget, Enterprise, Hertz, Zipcar o Hotel: Earn 200 bonus points with Choice, Hilton, Hyatt, Omni, Starwood, Wyndham
  • Bonus points are awarded on the first transaction within each category.
  • Must be an Amtrak Guest Rewards® member and register for this offer online
  • Members must include their membership number with partner transactions in order to receive the points.
  • Cancelled or refunded purchases/bookings will be deemed ineligible.
  • Please allow 4-6 weeks from promotion end date for bonus points to be awarded.
  • Other terms and conditions may apply.

Great news!
The Michigan Senate just passed Senate bill 1164 which is the transportation appropriation bill for fiscal year 2011, ending September 2011. This bill provides full funding for Intercity Passenger Rail service (Amtrak) of $8.667 M. The bill must still pass the House, but we are optimistic that it will do so intact.

This funding impacts the Bluewater and Pere Marquette routes, which are partially funded through Michigan appropriations This is a big step in that in previous years, funding has been cut and then MARP has gone through the year having to work with legislators on Supplemental funding to ensure continuation of service for both of the state supported routes.

You may remember that for fiscal year 2010, funding was cut significantly, but a couple months ago the Supplemental appropriation was passed to ensure service will continue for the full year. MARP continues to work very closely with our legislators to ensure service continues on all routes in Michigan and investment continues to be made on the high speed corridor between Detroit and Chicago. Ridership in April was up over 16% on all Michigan routes vs. 2009.

Things you can do to make a difference:

Get the tips to see the small things you can do that really make a difference.

Join the challenge now and plant trees today.

Choose to travel by rail and reduce your carbon footprint.

To read more click HERE

• Amtrak Locator ($2.99) – Use your GPS location to determine the closest Amtrak to your location or simply search by the city, state or ip code. The list of Amtrak locations are displayed on your iPhone form the closest to the farthest from your location. Amtrak Locator provides you with details on each Amtrak location like it’s phone number, address, etc. Features Include: - Interactive map dispay showing the Amtrak locations - The most complte Amtrak Locatore applications on the iTunes App Sotre. - Narrow your search by radius from 15, 50, 100 or 300 miles - Amtrak details from address to the phone number - Search by address, city, state or zip - Easy to use interface with built-in instructions right on the app in case you need any help - Utilize your GPS location to display the Amtrak closest to your current location

• Train Whistle! (Free) –Train Whistle is an accelerometer-based application with high quality audio. Just shake or tap your device to operate. Also, please visit the built in web browser which will direct you to the app store for more "Instrument!" programs.

• Train Conductor ($1.99) - Deliver trains to their destinations in 8 levels of evolving gameplay, including a complete parallel ghost world, online Plus+ leaderboards and so much more. Become a Train Conductor today! Deliver trains with the swipe of a finger, avoid disastrous collisions and collect experience points to unlock new levels.

iPhone Game of the Year 2009 - diygamer.com Features Include: - Complete parallel GHOST WORLD! - Online Plus+ leaderboards - compare scores with friends - 8 levels to unlock, each with their own unique challenges (4 Day & 4 Night) - Wide variety of conditions; Gold Rush Trains, Demon Trains, Ghost Trains and different weather patterns - Lush handcrafted 3D graphics, gorgeous environmental effects and ambience

• Railroad Rush ($0.99) - Railroad Rush brings the good, old model railroad back to iPhone! You are in charge of the track network with the order to control the direction of all trains. Work the switches at the right moment and make sure all railroad engines will reach their destination depot just in time! Master all levels in “extreme” mode to receive the title: “Master Conductor”! Feature Include: - 30 challenging levels - Various levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard and the infamous “Extreme” mode - Collect all items on the tracks to get more bonus points - 19 exciting achievements (e.g. „Triple Crash“ or „Master Conductor“) - High score rankings for each level and overall - Invite your friends via Facebook or Twitter and challenge them - Explore who’s playing the game and compete against players all over the world - Keep listening to your iPod music while playing - Retro model railroad feeling on your iPhone!

• Locomotive Toy ($0.99) – Shake Side to Side to Make Chug Chug Sound Effects. Become your own imaginary steam train conductor just by shaking the iPhone or iPod Touch. Shaking side to side produces fun chug chug noises.

Shake Fast: The faster you shake your phone or iPod Touch the faster your train goes. Whistle Effect: And just like a train conductor, pull on your phone or iPod as you're shaking it and you'll hear the train's whistle blow.

Customer Self-Service Launches on Amtrak.com

Customers who book their reservation online can now make modifications to their reservation at Amtrak.com with a few clicks of the mouse. Rather than having to contact a ticket agent, customers have the flexibility to change their travel schedule or class of service online, as well as upgrade, downgrade and exchange tickets. Any reductions in fare will be refunded automatically while payment of fare increases resulting from reservation changes can be collected through the online system.

“This is an important step forward in customer service,” said Tony Flynn, eTicketing program director. “Even though we just launched this feature on April 6, our customers are already taking advantage of it to change trains or upgrade their travel.”

The online self-service feature is currently available for reservations made on Amtrak.com before a paper ticket has been printed. All customers will still need to pick up printed tickets at the station prior to boarding their train — but not for long.

This new self-service feature is the first of several upcoming eTicketing program features that will offer additional customer self service opportunities. In May, a new capability will be introduced that will enable customers to pick up their tickets at Quik-Trak kiosks even if their reservation was affected by a last minute schedule change or re-accommodation. Previously, customers were required to go to the ticket window to obtain tickets under such circumstances.

By late summer 2011, customers will also be able to print travel documents at home or at the office. Conductors will simply scan bar codes on the “print-from-anywhere” boarding pass, eliminating the need to collect paper tickets. Additional functionality will allow passengers to present their boarding pass on their smart phone, such as a BlackBerry or iPhone, making completely paperless travel possible.

The eTicketing program, once fully developed, is projected to deliver up to $14 million in additional ticket revenue annually by improving access to Amtrak ticketing, particularly at cities with unstaffed stations or for those customers booking outside the U.S.

Ridership and Revenue on Record-Breaking Pace

During the first six months of the FY '10 fiscal year, Amtrak carried a record high of 13,619,770 passengers -- a 4.3 percent increase over last year and roughly 100,000 more than the same period in FY '08, when the company set its all-time record for annual ridership. A slowly improving economy and continued high fuel prices are contributing factors in ridership growth.

Comparing March 2010 to March 2009, ridership increased by 13.5 percent to a record 2.47 million passengers for the month. In addition, every single Amtrak route carried more passengers, with several experiencing double-digit growth.

Read up on Amtrak around the country from March 28th Parade Magazine. A great article highlighting exquisite routes and the fact that the past two years have been the most profitable for Amtrak. The article also mentions a little bit of President Obama's $8 billion into improving our country's rail travel.

Click HERE to read more about Amtrak.

USA Today reported on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 that Amtrak has set a new record for the number of passengers carried during the week of Thanksgiving. The train reportedly carried 685,876 passengers between November 24 - 30, and 127,577 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Click HERE for the full article!

Right now, Congress is finalizing next year's transportation appropriations bill, which could include an historic investment in high-speed passenger rail. Last month, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that included $4 billion for high-speed rail. The Senate cut the allocation down to $1.2 billion in their version, which passed last week. The two bills will now move to a conference committee, where they will decide the final amount of investment. The conference committee will be meeting soon in hopes of finalizing the bill by the end of the month. We'd like to send them a roster of support by the end of the week, so we need sign-ons quickly. Please help us achieve our goal! To get started, click HERE!

Thank you for your support.

Finally you can turn your trips to the station into a FREE vacation! Getting there is easy, the Amtrak Guest Rewards® World MasterCard® from Chase1 helps you earn free travel, flights, hotels, and car rentals.

Your earning power has only just begun. You earn 2 points for every dollar spent on Amtrak purchases and 1 point per dollar everywhere else.2

Just use the only card that rewards you at every stop for everyday purchases and let us do the rest. After your first purchase, you will automatically receive 5,000 bonus points3 redeemable for:

        Up to two Coach Amtrak tickets on select routes

        Airline miles or hotel points

        Gift certificates at leading retailers and restaurants

For more information and to start your trip with 500 bonus points visit http://www.amtrakguestrewards.com

Nothing compares to train travel in autumn. The colorful scenery, the brisk air, and of course, the double points. From September 14 to December 19, 2009, Amtrak Guest Rewards® members earn twice as fast on all routes. It's the perfect time of year to build your balance, reap rewards, and gain ground on your ultimate destination: Free Amtrak® travel. Whether you're traveling aboard the Hiawatha®, Lincoln Service®, Crescent®, Texas Eagle®, or another Amtrak train, enjoy all the benefits of train travel. The convenience, the comfort, the smaller carbon footprint, the greater sense of connectedness. They're in every Amtrak trip. And all fall-long, so are double points.

Click HERE for more information and to register for Double Days today!

Released on CNN.com on April 16th, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama unveiled his administration-s blueprint for a new national network of high-speed passenger rail lines Thursday, saying such an investment is necessary to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment.

President Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, called for clean efficient travel Thursday.

The president's plan identifies 10 potential high-speed intercity corridors for federal funding, including California, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Southeast, the Gulf Coast, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York and New England. It also highlights potential improvements in the heavily traveled Northeast Corridor running from Washington to Boston, Massachusetts.Each of the corridors identified by the president's report are between 100 and 600 miles long. The blueprint envisions some trains traveling at top speeds of over 150 mph.

Federal grants would also be directed toward separate individual rail projects that are deemed "ready to go," with preliminary engineering and environmental work already completed. Video Watch Obama talk about rail projects:

"My high-speed rail proposal will lead to innovations that change the way we travel in America. We must start developing clean, energy-efficient transportation that will define our regions for centuries to come," Obama said at an event near the White House.

Don't Miss

• Biden rolls out $1.3 billion for Amtrak
• High-speed rail corridor route map (PDF)
• Some are skeptical of high-speed rail plan

The president cited the success of high-speed rail in European countries such as France and Spain as a positive example for the United States.

His plan would be funded in part through the recently passed $787 billion stimulus plan, which includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service. Obama has also proposed a separate five-year, $5 billion investment in high-speed rail as part of the administration's suggested fiscal year 2010 budget.

"We're going to make travel in this country leaner and a whole lot cleaner," said Vice President Joe Biden, speaking before Obama.

The president spoke one day after the governors of eight Midwestern states sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood requesting stimulus funds for the construction of a regional network of faster passenger rail lines.

The city of Chicago, Illinois, would be the hub of the proposed Midwest Regional Rail System, which would stretch to Madison, Wisconsin, in the Northwest; St. Louis, Missouri, in the South; and Detroit, Michigan, in the East.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama pledged to support a national network of faster passenger trains. The administration has already dedicated $1.3 billion in federal funding for Amtrak.

The money for the rail service, which carried almost 29 million passengers last year, will go primarily to infrastructure repair and improvement.

Check out http://www.carbonfund.org/site/pages/land/amtrak to learn more about what you can do to offset your carbon emissions. At this site you can calculate how to offset your train travel, car travel, plane travel and more! When you travel with Amtrak and offset your emissions here, you play an important role in reversing global warming and improving the future of our environment. Check it out and make a personal impact on our planet.

Moving Green with Train Travel

taken from http://www.nationaltrainday.com

The United States is moving towards regulations to reduce its carbon footprint and help make our nation more sustainable. Transportation generates about 1/3 of the greenhouse gases emitted in the country. Read on to learn how freight rail, commuter rail and Amtrak train travel reduce transportation's impact on the environment.

Rail service, a vehicle for a green change.

Amtrak rail service is about more than providing energy-efficient transportation. It's a mode of transportation that will help protect the environment, in ways big and small.

From programs aimed at allowing individual passengers to offset their carbon footprints to recycling, from environmental spill prevention to industrial housekeeping, from energy-efficient facilities to wildlife protection, Amtrak is committed to being part of the "generation that could," in terms of making the necessary changes to protect our planet.

Freight rail transportation is one of the most energy efficient forms of surface transportation. Each freight train can move one ton of freight 436 miles on a single gallon of diesel fuel. It also helps control air emissions. If 10 percent of long-haul freight now moving by truck moved by rail, annual greenhouse gas emissions would fall by more than 12 million tons. American railroads move 40 percent of our nation's freight, but account for just 2.2 percent of all transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, and just 0.6 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Conservation

Rail travel is typically more energy efficient than car or air travel over the same distances. Intercity rail travel uses about 20 percent less energy measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units) of energy per passenger mile than car or air travel.

Freight railroads are three times more fuel-efficient than trucks and emit three times less carbon dioxide (CO2) than trucks for the same transportation service. In 2003 alone, railroads increased their efficiency by consuming 2.8 billion fewer gallons of fuel in the United States - and emitted 31.5 million fewer tons of CO2 - than they would have if their efficiency had remained constant since 1980.

To learn more about freight rail service and its contributions towards energy conservation visit:

http://www.bnsf.com/media/bnsffacts.html or http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=about.environment

Amtrak is also taking measures to reduce the use of petroleum products, improving efficiency and reducing air emissions. By reducing the amount of "idling" time on diesel locomotives; using dynamic and regenerative braking systems to return energy to the grid on electric locomotives; employing bio-lubricants in hydraulic systems; and using lighter and more aerodynamic vehicle carriers on the Auto Train, Amtrak is moving toward a more sustainable transportation system.

Carbon Footprint

Amtrak is a charter member of the Chicago Climate Exchange. This organization uses a market based system to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. We've committed to reduce emissions from diesel locomotives by 6 percent from 2003 through 2010, the largest voluntary commitment in the United States. To date, Amtrak has exceeded all of the interim required reduction targets.

Amtrak's partnership with Carbonfund.org gives customers the opportunity to purchase carbon "offsets" for their travel on Amtrak, making it easy and affordable to reduce the carbon impact of their personal Amtrak trip to zero. The offsets provided through this partnership have three areas of investment focus: renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation. By choosing rail travel and offsetting emissions at Carbonfund.org, Amtrak customers can travel carbon-neutral.

Environmental Management

Amtrak's Environmental Policy expresses our commitment to improve environmental performance through operating procedures, facilities management, pollution prevention, communication and training. Examples of these efforts include:

• Recycling pilot programs for bottles, cans and newspapers on selected trains, in stations and in Amtrak facilities system-wide.
• Cleanup of historic railroad contamination. Some Amtrak sites have contamination that dates back to Amtrak's predecessor railroads.
• Employee environmental awareness and regulatory training.
• An applied research program to mitigate train / bald eagle collisions and protect this species along the Hudson River in New York.

Crazy for Trains. Loco for Points.

Double up to Quadruple Points on all trains.

Earn double Amtrak Guest Rewards points on each of your first four Amtrak train trips and triple points for your fifth trip and beyond, March 16 through May 8, 2009. Plus, earn quadruple points for any trip taken on National Train Day, Saturday, May 9, 2009. That's on all trains and every route.

1. Log in to your Amtrak Guest Rewards account, if you haven't already.
2. Click below to "Register for this offer now." To register by phone, call 1-800-307-5000 (option 2) using registration code 31609. Not a member? Enroll now.
3. Make your reservation for travel between March 16 and May 9, 2009. (Remember to user your Amtrak Guest Rewards member number)
4. Double points and quadruple points will post to your account along with your regular point earnings, triple bonus points will post to your account between May 10 and June 15, 2009.

To learn more visit http://www.amtrakguestrewards.com