About: Bob Johnston

Bob has been writing and photographing passenger rail features and news accounts for Trains Magazine and Trains News Wire since 1991. Co-author of The Art of the Streamliner with Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh, he has ridden virtually every current North American passenger rail route and many pre-Amtrak lines and traveled extensively on rail networks in Europe and Asia to gain a worldwide perspective. Bob retired in 2011 after 32 years as a television commercial time sales team manager in Chicago, providing input on inventory management and pricing advice to maximize revenue on TV stations in over 60 different U.S. cities from Boston to Yakima, Wash. Prior to that, he was a disk jockey and program director at Chicago’s CBS-owned WBBM-FM. Summer jobs in the 1960s included stints as a tour manager escorting travelers in chartered Pullman sleeping cars through western Canada and the Pacific Northwest and passenger agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Chicago Union Station. An infantry-trained U.S. Army Reservist in the 1970s while at CBS, Bob graduated from Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University and has an MBA in marketing and finance from Columbia University in New York.

Posts by Bob Johnston:

Trains

Brightline West announces partners in Rancho Cucamonga extension

Trains

News and analysis: State budget cap threatens second Missouri River Runner round trip (updated)

Trains

California passenger rail corridors form ‘advocacy coalition’

Trains

Florida’s Brightline set to restart service Nov. 8

Trains

FRA unveils ambitious Midwest Rail Plan

Trains

Two California Amtrak corridors to add trains, adjust schedules

Trains

Analysis: Amtrak fiscal 2021 results favor longer routes

Trains

Amtrak requires mandatory employee vaccinations

Trains

Dining car access to be extended to ‘Coast Starlight’ business class

Trains

The aftermath: Sept. 13, 2001, at Chicago Union Station

Trains

Analysis: STB affirms Amtrak’s right to pursue New Orleans-Mobile service

Trains

Analysis: What’s next for Amtrak’s ‘traditional’ dining

Trains

Analysis: Amtrak’s ‘ConnectUS’ map fails to prioritize low-hanging fruit of additional service

Trains

Analysis: How Kansas City Southern merger bids could affect Amtrak

Trains

Analysis: On anniversary, Amtrak again promotes expansion plans, but progress will be slow

Trains

Analysis: Amtrak defends its Gulf Coast access request in new STB filing

Trains

Analysis: Coach sellouts, high sleeper prices continue on Amtrak long-distance network

Trains

Analysis: Amtrak’s Gulf Coast STB filing to test right of access

Trains

Amtrak seeks to start New Orleans-Mobile service in 2022

Trains

Analysis: Amtrak CEO Flynn sets company priorities for legislation

Letter to Congress reiterates request for $1.5 billion in additional funding, four other legislative goals