The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is a passenger railroad service that provides medium and long-distance inter-city rail service in the contiguous United States and to nine cities in Canada.
Herman Carl McCall is an American politician of the Democratic Party. A former New York State Comptroller and New York State Senator, McCall was the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York in 2002. McCall was the first African-American to be elected New York State Comptroller. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and he currently serves on the board of directors of several corporations. From October 17, 2011 until his retirement on June 30, 2019, McCall served as chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees.
George Elmer Pataki is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on to be elected to the State Assembly and the State Senate. In 1994, Pataki ran for Governor of New York against three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo, defeating him by a margin of more than three points as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994. Pataki would himself be elected to three consecutive terms, and was the third Republican Governor of New York elected since 1923. As of 2021, Pataki is the most recent Republican to be elected to any statewide office in New York.
New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the US state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bus, light rail, and commuter rail services throughout the state, connecting to major commercial and employment centers both within the state and in the adjacent major cities of New York and Philadelphia.
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
The Empire Service is an Inter-city rail service operated by Amtrak within the state of New York in the United States. The brand name originated with the New York Central Railroad in 1967. Trains on the line provide frequent daily service along the 460-mile (740 km) Empire Corridor between New York City and Niagara Falls via Albany, the state capital.
The Empire Corridor is a term used to refer to the 461-mile (742 km) railroad corridor between Niagara Falls, New York and New York City, including the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Amsterdam, Schenectady, Albany, and Poughkeepsie. Amtrak's Empire Service and Maple Leaf serve the entire length of the corridor, with the Maple Leaf continuing to Toronto. Lake Shore Limited trains from Chicago join the Empire Corridor just before Buffalo–Depew station, and continue to Albany, where half of each train diverges to Boston, and the other half continues to New York City. The Ethan Allen Express and Adirondack follow the corridor between New York and Schenectady, after which they diverge and continue on to Rutland and Montreal, respectively. Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line merges with the Empire Corridor in Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, just south of Riverdale, providing commuter rail service between Poughkeepsie, New York and Grand Central Terminal.
Mary O'Connor Donohue is a retired Judge of the New York Court of Claims and a former two-term Lieutenant Governor of New York. Donohue was first elected Lieutenant Governor in 1998, and was re-elected in 2002.
The lieutenant governor of the State of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. Official duties dictated to the lieutenant governor under the present New York Constitution are to serve as president of the state senate, serve as acting governor in the absence of the governor from the state or the disability of the governor, or to become governor in the event of the governor's death, resignation or removal from office via impeachment. Additional statutory duties of the lieutenant governor are to serve on the New York Court for the Trial of Impeachments, the State Defense Council, and on the board of trustees of the College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The lieutenant governor of New York is the highest-paid lieutenant governor in the country.
Mary Lou Rath is an American politician who served as a member of New York State Senate from 1993 to 2008. A Republican, she represented the state's 61st district, which consisted of parts of Erie County and all of Genesee County.
High-speed rail in New York has been a topic that is consistently discussed among legislators, political leaders and in particular, several past governors since the 1990s, but thus far little progress has been made. In his campaign speeches prior to his defeat by Governor George Pataki in 1994, Mario Cuomo promised to bring high speed (maglev) rail up the Hudson Valley and along the Catskill Mountains route. It was not a priority for the subsequent administration.
Cheryl Avioli was a Commissioner of the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities and telecommunications for the State of New York. She is also a former Chairwoman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. She was appointed to be a PSC Commissioner for a six-year term in 2006 by Governor George Pataki. Pataki previously named her to be a Commissioner of the Racing and Wagering Board in 2000, for a six-year term. She was the first woman named to be a racing commissioner in New York. In 2004, Pataki appointed her the first woman Racing and Wagering Board Chairwoman, making her the state's top regulator of horse racing and casino gambling.
Patricia L. Acampora was appointed as a Commissioner of the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) on June 16, 2005, by Gov. George Pataki, for a term ending February 1, 2009. In December 2006, Pataki named Acampora to Chair the PSC, a position she held until January 2008, when Gov. Eliot Spitzer appointed Garry A. Brown as chairman.
SS Milwaukee Clipper, also known as SS Clipper, and formerly as SS Juniata, is a retired passenger ship and automobile ferry that sailed under two configurations and traveled on all of the Great Lakes except Lake Ontario. The vessel is now docked in Muskegon, Michigan.
M. Athalie Range was a Bahamian American civil rights activist and politician who was the first African-American to serve on the Miami, Florida City Commission, and the first African-American since Reconstruction and the first woman to head a Florida state agency, the Department of Community Affairs.
Edward John Anthony Rutkowski is a former American football player, and a former politician in Buffalo, New York. Rutkowski was a noted college and professional American football player. A wide receiver, he was an American Football League All-Star in 1965, playing for the AFL's Buffalo Bills as a receiver, defensive back, punt and kickoff return man and backup quarterback from 1963 to 1968. In a famous Topps football card mixup, Rutkowski was shown on two Buffalo Bills' football cards, his own, and mistakenly on the card for Ray Abruzzese. Rutkowski closed out his Pro Football career by playing seven games as a backup quarterback with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1969. From 1972-78 and again in 1990, Rutkowski served as a color commentator on the Bills' radio broadcasts. In 1979, he became the County Executive of Erie County, New York, succeeding Edward Regan, who stepped down to become New York State Comptroller. Rutkowski was elected to full terms in 1979 and 1983, following his one year unexpired term, for a total of nine years in office. In 1987, Rutkowski was defeated for reelection by Assemblyman Dennis Gorski.
Joseph Houston Boardman was an American transportation executive who served as President and CEO of Amtrak from 2008 to 2016. Boardman was the longest-serving Commissioner of the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) from July 1997 until resigning to head the FRA. Before taking over Amtrak, Boardman had been the Administrator of the United States Federal Railroad Administration. Boardman became the second-longest serving head of Amtrak, after W. Graham Claytor, Jr. in the 1980s. Railway Age magazine named Boardman as its 51st "Railroader of the Year" in its January 9, 2014, issue.
Raymond P. Martinez was a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation and the former Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. From 2010 to 2018, Martinez served as the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission Chair and Chief Administrator in the Cabinet of Governor Chris Christie. He previously served as Deputy Chief of Protocol for the United States Department of State and as New York State Commissioner of Motor Vehiclesin the Cabinet of Governor George Pataki.
Richard Ernest Jackson Jr. is an American politician, civil servant, and educator New York. A Republican, Jackson has served as New York State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Mayor of Peekskill, New York, and as a member of the Peekskill City Council. He is the first African-American to serve as mayor of a city in the history of New York.
Thomas J. Madison, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate to be Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation on August 1, 2008. He was sworn in as Administrator on August 18, 2008.
