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Even if it does get a response, it's going to boil down to "write your representatives". Congress is the one that has to appropriate the money; the White House has little to do with it.

The dedicated Thruway services (that aren't a codeshare with an existing service like Greyhound) do wait for the train to arrive. However, they may not adjust their outbound time if the train is late, so you may have a long wait at the connecting station.

If you want to make a day of it, you can also pair it with a visit to Cocoa Beach. The Bee Line is now the Beachline.

Without grade crossings, up to now there would only have been rare whistle activity. The article indicates that due to track work, engines are sounding the whistle to alert the track workers.

A very good point. For example, nearly half of the Department of Energy's budget is devoted to running the military's nuclear program -- warheads, submarines, etc. Of course the US should have a strong defense, but this doesn't mean we have to write blank checks to military contractors either.

I would imagine that most people don't even know that you can get an onboard upgrade. The "sell at low bucket" price was really an artifact of the old offline system. By having a fixed price list, the conductor wouldn't have to radio or telephone Amtrak HQ to get the current price. With the new...

Amtrak and PBS make easy targets because they may have relatively small constituencies, but also make up a very small part of the budget, and pretending that eliminating them will help balance the budget is just dishonest. The only way to cut the budget in a significant way is to cut one of the...

I still dunno about the Phoenix idea. There's some pretty rugged terrain between Phoenix and Kingman, and around Hoover Dam. Going via Needles would save some work, but you'd still need to do a lot of earthmoving/tunneling.

If you do have to move, ELP is an extended stop so you can just walk down the platform rather than draging your bags through narrow aisles.

Unfortunately, designing a lock that will still allow emergency egress is pretty complex, particularly in the hostile environment of a train. The constant vibration plus the wide range of temperatures makes designing anything with moving parts a big challenge. It also needs to function after a...

I believe this is a complete list of all stations with fewer than 1000 passengers in 2011. Interesting that the least-used stations (with the exception of Sanderson and Lordsburg) are all in the east, with the Cardinal getting the most. Thurmond, WV 254 THN - Cardinal Sanderson, TX 344 SND -...

Unless someone comes up with the millions of dollars to rehab the Raton line, I think it's inevitable that the SWC is going to be rerouted via Amarillo. From my understanding the completion of double-tracking in Abo Canyon allowed BNSF to route the remainder of their traffic off that line. In...

Although in theory a car shouldn't cost that much per unit, the overhead costs are huge because they can't just order a car "off the rack". They have to be custom built to the US's FRA requirements, and have to be built in the US or Canada. The design and tooling can't be spread over very many...

One trip on the Sunset Limited, I was seated next to a gentleman who warned me he liked to pray a lot, and might speak in tongues. I would have preferred the lady in the short-shorts. Fortunately it was just a short trip for me, and I spent most of the time in the lounge.

I believe the conductor can look up your reservation with just the number. The barcode is just to (in theory) make it easier and quicker. Although I haven't heard anything specifically about it, I don't think there's anything to stop you from buying a ticket on board if boarding at an...

The best atlases are the ones from Steam Powered Video. But they're only available by mail order, and somewhat pricey. You can also look at the 1948 Rand McNally Railroad Atlas online. This was more or less the zenith of the rail system. Expect a lot of the lines shown to no longer exist.

One note about the Coast Starlight: it offers meals in the Pacific Parlour car that are different from the ones in the diner, so in that one case sleeping car passengers have choices not available to coach. The menus are on that train's webpage.

As for the "what if I can't get to the station" question, if the weather is really bad the train is probably running late too (heck, they often run late in good weather). I'm going to assume they're still going to waive the fee if the train is more than 2 hours late. And yes, the "full refund...

The risk of offering last-minute discounts is how it affects future behavior. Amtrak doesn't want to encourage people to hold off buying in the hopes that the price will go down. They'll end up with more empty rooms at the last minute and more they have to dump cheaply. And there'd have to be a...

The accessible bedroom in on the lower floor simply because if you can't climb stairs at all, there's no other way to get to it. For someone with limited mobility but who can still get up the stairs, you're probably better off in one of the standard bedrooms.