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I recently rode the Ethan Allen Express for the first time out of Burlington VT. The train is stored overnight in a small yard just south of the station. If you count its shove up from the yard to the station this train changes directions 3 times during the trip and thus runs with an engine on...

I haven’t ridden the Midwest cars but I have ridden Brightline which is a similar setup. I agree on keeping the armrests - it makes it much less awkward with a stranger. I hate sitting next to strangers on Amfleet cars.

It really isn’t that big of a deal in my opinion given the time of year they do it and just two days in each direction. They pay decent money for that - they’re basically buying every revenue slot on those trains and then some. And every single station on the route except for Jesup GA is served...

You’re of course correct. Amtrak’s version of breakeven is what I was referring to. They have no plans to achieve that until a few more years.

There absolutely is - though not all of them are likely compatible with Brightline’s business model. (Or would attract other private interest.)

It's really close enough where it's competitive with driving and where flying is overkill - especially along corridors with heavy traffic congestion.

One reason for the higher expenses compared to pre COVID is the IIJA spending on new fleet and infrastructure. Amtrak has stated outright that operational expenses will necessarily be higher over the next several years in order to execute the programs funded by the Infrastructure and Jobs Act...

I’d like to add - there’s nothing wrong with speculating - including on this topic. We all do it - myself included and it’s half of what we do on threads like these - engage in informed speculation about what’s going on around the system. Wouldn’t be much fun otherwise. I myself have wondered...

VIA reported at the meeting I spoke of before. They did mention some weather related issues they have had but they did mention they have had not had a terrible experience so far. I am happy to acknowledge if VIA is having less issues, but making accusatory conclusions (as the other poster was...

It's conceivable a few could be sent out to some of the state supported services that use Amtrak owned equipment and are eventually slated for Airo trainsets (ALCs have made a couple appearances on the Carolinian), but it would probably be intermittent and mainly just as a way to get crews and...

Yes the ALC-42s (and the VIA units) benefitted from lessons learned from the Brightline and Midwest/Washington/California Corridor units and included changes. But the ALCs have had their own problems. They are in some ways a "first time" application of Siemens's technology in their own right as...

Sure but your accusation that it is Amtrak maintenance that is primarily at fault and not the units themselves because VIA is supposedly not having any problems is not backed up by really any thing other than the fact that there have been issues on Amtrak trains and on the same day via trains...

Please provide some supporting evidence for this frequently made, but never backed up, assertion made by a number of people. And just looking at transit docs seeing where trains are running on time is not evidence. The VIA units benefit from not being the first out of the factory and...

Spot on take: My friends, we have entered tone-deaf territory. During advocacy work there are times when you stop, scratch your head, and wonder why some decisions get made. Here we are…again. On January 25, 2024, President Biden renominated Samuel Lathem, of Delaware, to be a Director of...

To expand further - for Q4 of FY2023 (according to the FRA’s quarterly documents) the San Joaquins had $25,386,581.739 in fully allocated costs. When state payments are left out they received $7,328,931.865 in fare box revenue - a 28.9% fare box recovery. They received $21,164,628.005 in revenue...

They do indirectly. Amtrak can lose money and spend federal funds operating PRIIA 209 routes - provided that state entities contribute as per PRIIA requirements. But the state supported business line does not break even - it is not essentially a straight operation for hire situation. Amtrak is...

All I can say is wow. And I thought my state was incompetent!

Sadly one of the reports stated that some of the requirements have changed since construction and some ADA modifications do have to occur.

It is also a possibility that Amtrak does still intend to eventually do it as they claim. A snail’s pace is a sprint compared to how fast Amtrak sometimes executes these sorts of things. At my local station Springfield Mass the restored historic Union Station opened in 2017 but it took Amtrak...

This is kind of a baffling situation. While on the one had one could conclude Amtrak does not, and has never, had any intention of moving for whatever cost related reasons, this was also 100% dead for a number of years and supposedly was only revived when Amtrak supposedly approached the state...