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trainrider1

Joined
Jan 6, 2022
Messages
12
Location
Connecticut
I notice the Vermonter, #55 southbound has been running an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes late the last couple of nights into New York Penn. Amtrak posts a notice attributing delays to speed restrictions, apparently in Vermont -- presumably resulting from recent flooding. Anybody here have specifics on the slow orders?
 
I don't know the specifics on the slow orders, but Friday's 56 was terminated at Springfield, and Saturday's southbound is canceled again north of New Haven. There has been quite a bit more rain from various storms over the past week, and heavy rains were forecast from a front passing through late Friday. Amtrak says it is providing "alternate transportation," meaning buses. The worst problems with flooding were in towns along the route between Essex Junction and White River Junction, but the trains seem to have been losing time on the run down to the Mass. border as well.

The Ethan Allen route has fared better, though Middlebury got hit by one of the storms earlier this week, with at least one round trip canceled north of Rutland.
 
Actually, Friday's southbound doesn't appear to have lost any time between Windsor, Vt., and Greenfield, Mass. The delays were all north and south of there. I'd figure the delays in Mass. and Conn. were not flood-related.
 
I’m taking a trip on the SB Vermonter from Bellows Falls to NYC next month. The system assigned seat 4a, the only single seat left. Does this seat have a decent view, or will I be looking at the window post?
 
jis said:
Here is an article from The Travel on Amtrak's Vermont service and possible future extension...

https://www.thetravel.com/vermont-to-quebec-new-amtrak-route/
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Article completely ignored the CN track problem. No note that Adirondack was cancelled this past summer. Could the lack of construction be because of Quebec expectations? Maybe it is felt that more Canadian dollars will go to the US opposed to the American dollars to Quebec?
 
west point said:
Article completely ignored the CN track problem. No note that Adirondack was cancelled this past summer. Could the lack of construction be because of Quebec expectations? Maybe it is felt that more Canadian dollars will go to the US opposed to the American dollars to Quebec?
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My impression is that such deep analysis was not involved in Quebec's decision making. It was just clearing the slate of all projects started by the previous government that could be cleared, and start all over.

Actually most of the additional employment and construction would happen in Quebec, and a significant part of the travel on those trains are and are expected to be from Upstate NY and Verrmont to Canada and less so in the opposite direction. As for foreign tourist flow, it appears to be pretty equal in the two directions. The net gainer would really be Quebec, not NY State.
 
What does this mean, vending machines, a la Piedmont and San Joaquin? "Self-food service on the train"


There have been two attempts at Thruway buses, the 2nd attempt made use of a Greyhound frequency between St Albans and Montreal in the first 2000 decade, generally carried about a dozen people per trip. When Greyhound slashed Montreal-BOS frequencies when they totally took over Vermont Transit (and ran the service into the ground like everything else they buy out) and dropped St Albans from the map, that was the end of that. They have since become a seat-of-the-pants, hermit outfit down to 2 frequencies. Nobody (politicians, Amtrak, VT DOT, advocates) seems interested in restarting with dedicated Thruway buses with a professional carrier, like Orleans or Premier. Premier's subsidiary, VT Trans Lines, already runs the Albany - Colchester service and they even publish a timetable. The miracles never cease.

The Vermont Congressional delegation made poor use of their energy a few months ago writing a letter complaining about a lack of Gare Centrale Preclearance to Chair Coscia. There isn’t a thing he can do about it, and I am sure it is the farthest thing from his mind - it is not the NEC. They should have written to their counterpart Quebec MP's and the Provincial Parliament. Trudeau's government certainly does not care - it is not an issue for the beloved Quebec - Toronto "Corridor".

So, any articles on the topic are purely aspirational, nothing more. And I expect the Adirondack to be suspended by the June summer solstice and Congresswoman Stefanik to discharge another angry letter to Gardner. Think movie "Ground Hog Day".
 
The story from The Travel has a byline, but it reads like something that was written by AI -- basically a bunch of information that could be gathered from a Google search all stirred together without any real news to report. There's a lot about the Airo train sets, but I don't think the acquisition of those really has anything to do with whether service gets extended from St. Albans to Montreal.

And yeah, I think "self-food" doesn't sound very promising. Perhaps we bring our own aboard, or we can gnaw on our own fingers en route?
 
fdaley said:
And yeah, I think "self-food" doesn't sound very promising. Perhaps we bring our own aboard, or we can gnaw on our own fingers en route?
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The AI way of saying Cafe Service is to say "Self-food service" a jumbling of word from food self service. I guess we will have to get used to the idiocies of AI generated articles. :D
 
The self service thing is also being included in the new Acela sets. I think the idea is that the cafe car would include some common grab and go items to reduce wait times for the cafe car attendant. Whether it will actually work or whether they’ll do it for a month and then discontinue it we’ll see. I think there may be consideration to using it as an order ahead thing. Basically you order on an app, and then when it’s ready the LSA places it in one of the self service slots. Cuts down on lines.
 
The Vermonter seems to have been cancelled north of Springfield most of this week. It ran on Monday, but maybe not at all since then, and the southbound is cancelled again today. Does anyone know why? I couldn't find any explanation on Amtrak's website.
 
daybeers said:
Ridiculous!!!
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I assume Amtrak notifies people with reservations on the affected trains, and perhaps they also posted something on the former Twitter, although I don't have access to that. Still, it does seem that if they have an outage affecting multiple days, it would be respectful of potential riders to make some sort of public announcement so that people can take that into account when making plans. I checked the "service alerts" tab on the main Amtrak website, which seems like the obvious place to post something.
 
SB Vermonter set off this am, 34 on board out of St Albans.

fdaley said:
I assume Amtrak notifies people with reservations on the affected trains, and perhaps they also posted something on the former Twitter, although I don't have access to that. Still, it does seem that if they have an outage affecting multiple days, it would be respectful of potential riders to make some sort of public announcement so that people can take that into account when making plans. I checked the "service alerts" tab on the main Amtrak website, which seems like the obvious place to post something.
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it was a day by day thing. Buses were run in the train's place on most days to most stops. I agree though that Amtrak communication is not good. The state of Vermont, which primarily funds the Vermonter, does little PR of the train to begin with.

lordsigma said:
Road train on NECR derailed and rode the ties for quite a ways I believe on the Roxbury Subdivison. So there's a bunch of required track repairs.
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i heard the derailed car was dragged for six miles before train crew knew it was derailed.
 
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Uh oh… I think we have some bustitutions coming up. I am unable to change my business class seat for my July 11 trip Bellows Falls to NYP, and when I tried to rebook, it shows bus replacement to New Haven. The service alert says the train is running, but we will see…
 

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