Starting around 1960 Trains started listing top speeds on rail lines. Interesting to see those numbers. I am skimming the June 1966 as I type this. I should have mentioned this the first time the list was published. Given the legal complaint against NS re: Crescent it is worth noting the old SR was topping out at 65 MPH versus other RRs hitting over 80 MPH, and it was not for many miles at 65 MPH.
Interesting facts and notes in old railroad magazines
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Trains, July 1966. Page 14.
GONE BY 1976?: President B. F. Biaggini of Southern Pacific thinks that passenger trains will be a lingering memory in approximately 10 years and says that 125 mph speedsters, such as Japan's new Bullet Line operates, could not reverse the trend here
GONE BY 1976?: President B. F. Biaggini of Southern Pacific thinks that passenger trains will be a lingering memory in approximately 10 years and says that 125 mph speedsters, such as Japan's new Bullet Line operates, could not reverse the trend here
Wishful thinking on his part?
jis
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Well, there were many on at least one side of the aisle who voted for the Railpax Bill with a nod nod wink wink understanding that the whole thing will fail within five years. So Biagginni was not the only person suffering from that delusion, and it is quite possible that many from that era are still smarting from the fact that their dreams have failed to come to fruition. That is possibly the basis for at least a segment of the completely irrational (in my opinion) opposition to Amtrak today.
That was one of my favorite articles by editor Morgan. He was an excellent writer and some of his vignettes such as ‘After Midnight’ were almost poetic.
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I suspect that Biaggini was referring to the mid-1960's Stanford Research Institute study that projected the end of intercity rail passenger service to come in the 1970's. That the SP paid for the study, done at an entity named for the son of one of the company's founders, struck some editorialists as unsurprising. Presumably it was done to use as evidence in train-off cases that were piling up.
cirdan
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I don't think there are many active politicians or businessmen left today who would have been part of that nod nod wink wink agreement, and if there are they would have been pretty junior back then and hardly had much skin in the game. Any persisting disillusion or wound-licking was at best passed down through word of mouth. As neither politicians nor executives are known for their interest in things that happened before their time, I think it is safe to say that this hurt plays no role in today's politics.
Why there are people who hate Amtrak is still a legitimate question of course.
caravanman
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cirdan
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To be fair though, if Amtrak hadn't stepped in I doubt any passenger trains would have survived. The railroads would have mismanaged them to the point that abandonment would have appeared the only reasonable option.
Bostontoallpoints
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If you look at this map beginning in 1962 onwards
I would have had the same conclusion. I remember the big Amtrak cuts of 1979 and thought it was only a matter of time that Amtrak would just be NEC and a couple of commuter routes our of Chicago and LA.
Bostontoallpoints
Service Attendant
Look what Canada did to their passenger rail from 1980 to 2024.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=49cce9647b164c43aa5c373f05290c78
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=49cce9647b164c43aa5c373f05290c78
The atmosphere at the time, especially after the 1967 removal of the Railway Mail Service on most routes, was that disappearance was inevitable. That included the NEC, except for commute services. The Stanford study, which was widely publicized, pointed in that direction. What was missing in many discussions? Alternatives. NARP was created to fill that gap.
Trains May 1967. Fastest world trains (followed by a list of fastest American trains.)
Trains, August 1967. First ad I have noticed for NARP. Full page on inside front cover. Based in Chicago at the start. Renamed but still a great organization to join and support. $5.00 membership is $47.06 is today's dollars. Membership is $60.00 now
Trains Oct 1967 ad by NARP
Trains February 1968
ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES
SORRY ABOUT THAT; Kansas City Southern,the "We Have No Intention of Going Out of the Passenger Business" road [page 40, November 1967 TRAINS] , has filed to discontinue all passenger service because of losses which have been accelerating since 1965, and discontinuance of its last RPO's in early 1968. Says President William Deramus III: "We deeply regret the situation which brings about this action. (We, too, have loved the passenger train!)."
ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES
SORRY ABOUT THAT; Kansas City Southern,the "We Have No Intention of Going Out of the Passenger Business" road [page 40, November 1967 TRAINS] , has filed to discontinue all passenger service because of losses which have been accelerating since 1965, and discontinuance of its last RPO's in early 1968. Says President William Deramus III: "We deeply regret the situation which brings about this action. (We, too, have loved the passenger train!)."
And thanks to this very article, in September 1967 when I took my big trip "back East" from Portland to Chicago and St. Louis, I dropped off the North Coast Limited in Minneapolis and caught the Morning Zephyr to Chicago. In April 1970 I rode the Rheingold. Unfortunately, I never got to the rest of this list!
A short while later, the NCL (and the Empire Builder) were combined with the Morning Zephyr eastbound., and the Afternoon Zephyr westbound….
I used to sometimes jump off a long distance train in Washington, DC, or Albany, NY and catch a Metroliner or an Empire regional on to New York City, if the opportunity presented itself, and I was in a hurry. Sometimes could save over an hour…
cirdan
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would your ticket have been recognized, or would you buy a separate ticket?
Neither, I had an employee pass
Trains, June 1968
May 1969 Trains celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Golden Spike in Utah. The graphic may be reduced in size too much to read but interesting graphic about passenger train times from Chicago to San Francisco.
CTRL and + to magnify the page - - - and CTRL and - the same number to restore
Of course you all knew that (didn"t you?)
