by global5admin Posted on Dec 21, 2010
ORLANDO, Fla., December 21 – The Orlando-based High Speed Rail News Channel, now the largest online video archive of high speed rail news in the U.S., is wrapping up its first year of production covering high speed rail news from China to California. The channel’s three most popular stories in its inaugural year featured a new world record by China’s High Speed Rail, a visit overseas by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Rail Group entering the bidding field for Florida’s High Speed Rail. The online High Speed Rail News Channel, produced weekly by Global-5 Communications, is distributed for free and unrestricted use to media outlets throughout the U.S.
High Speed Rail News Channel stories in 2010 that have generated the most interest from the media and the public include China’s new high speed rail record and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s trade mission to Asia which included rides on high speed trains in China, South Korea and Japan. The high speed rail industry was most interested in the news that Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Rail Group joined the race for Florida’s High Speed Rail.
“Private companies are fiercely competitive and ready to fund shortages on make-sense high speed routes, confident their investments will serve Americans well over the decades to come,” said Mary Hamill, High Speed Rail News Channel Founder. “Federal funding for high speed rail is also fiercely competitive. We’ve learned states have to do everything right for years, and have strong leadership in place, to receive the federal funding that is jump-starting high speed rail in America.”
The channel is hosted online at www.hsrnewschannel.com and on YouTube.com. Reports are distributed through the media, the Railist website (www.therailist.com), the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, the High Speed Rail News Channel YouTube Channel and Twitter Account. Thousands of state and federal transportation officials and high speed rail industry professionals receive the two-minute news segments via electronic newsletter each Monday afternoon.
“In 2010, we’ve been gauging the audience for high speed rail news and we’ve found a passionate, dedicated following,” said Olivia Polk, High Speed Rail News Channel Executive Producer and reporter. “We wanted to see if high speed rail would capture the attention and support of the American public, and we can say with confidence that support is growing every day.”
The High Speed Rail News Channel will be on hiatus over the New Year Holiday, but returns in 2011 with a broader media distribution network. Breaking news updates are always available through Twitter.
“U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and former Secretary Norman Mineta each told us in interviews that high speed rail will be as transformative to America as the interstate highway system,” said Hamill. “Florida is on track to have the first operational high speed line in the U.S. As a state, we’re poised to gain as much from high speed rail as we have from America’s space program, which I was fortunate to cover for a decade while reporting for the Orlando CBS affiliate, WKMG-TV. Global-5 feels this new American industry needs to be documented, and since we are located at the epicenter of American high speed rail, we are in the right place at the right time with the right resources to do the job.”
To submit a story idea to the High Speed Rail News Channel, please email info@hsrnewschannel.com.