Search results

The stillborn Madison extension of the Hiawatha from 10ish years ago would have used the CP/Wisconsin & Southern route through Watertown with stations initially planned at Brookfield, Oconomowoc, and Watertown. A later extension from Madison to St. Paul would likely have used the CP line between...

I could be mistaken, but I believe the grant will cover the first few (3?) years of operating costs. However the states (presumably some combination of IL, MN, and WI) still need to put together funding for track improvements and sort out equipment needs.

Let's see. The House passed another coronavirus relief package a couple weeks ago and it essentially died in the Senate. Even if this were to pass the House, which is far from a sure thing, there is just about no chance this would pass the Senate.

Correct. No food service (cart or otherwise) on Hiawathas.

No order has been placed for Amfleet replacements. I'm guessing we have a thread here somewhere with all sorts of guesses, speculation, and rumors about what will eventually be ordered.

These cars have been ordered by California and a group of states in the Midwest, not by Amtrak, for use on intercity routes in those areas (San Joaquin, Lincoln, Wolverine, etc.). More info here.

The study from 10+ years ago when this project first popped up estimated lower costs and shorter travel times on the BNSF route. I imagine the study can still be found out on the web somewhere.

Amtrak might best be described as a state-owned enterprise, not entirely unlike a Crown Corporation in Canada or the UK or elsewhere. As DA stated, it doesn't entirely fit in either the public or private categories.

I believe I've read that at some point in the past, the area was known as the Tri-Cities (Davenport, Moline, and Rock Island), hence the NBA team Tri-Cities Blackhawks, a team which after a number of stops along the way eventually landed as the Atlanta Hawks.

Isn't this the southbound bus that departs Denver around 5:30am and arrives Raton around 9:45am, so it might be dark upon departure from Denver but should be daylight some time prior to arriving in Raton?

I strongly disagree with this. There are a lot of things to consider here including people who rely on public transit to get to and from their vitally important jobs.

I'm not positive, but I want to say I saw photos, perhaps on Twitter, of a partial collapse in the tunnel.

Walker was unable to get the legislature to fund the maintenance facility (originally planned for Madison, then switched to Milwaukee) for the Talgos which was required by the agreement with Talgo. No maintenance facility, no Talgos on the Hiawatha.

If we're sticking to "commuter rail" then I think LIRR is the only 24/7 operation, although as others have mentioned Metro-North and RTD (Denver) come close. If we're expanding to include rapid transit/subway/metro (and potentially light rail), like PATCO, then there are a few such operations.

I might describe it as a dark, partially-covered driveway, rather than alley, but I can understand why one might call it an alley.

I've never tried to use an off-peak ticket on a peak Hiawatha train. From what I've overheard of conductors talking with other passengers and making announcements, my guess is that you'd be asked to purchase a new ticket on a peak train. (But that's just anecdotal at best. Perhaps others have...

I might add to that "and that offers service at times that are convenient to you."

Bilevel Superliner cars (as are used on the Southwest Chief) have different wheelchair space allocations and configurations than single-level Amfleet and Horizon cars (as are used on the Lincoln trains in question).

The last few times I've ridden the Hiawatha (at least a handful of times in the last half-year or so), one or both of the trainsets have had 7 cars, 6 coaches (mostly Horizon with some Amfleet) and 1 Amfleet cafe (the ones without Business Class seating, just table seating on both sides of the...

Uh, it's car traffic that clogs up buses, not buses that clog up (car) traffic. If anything, New York needs more buses and particularly more bus lanes. As for the rest of the deserving vs undeserving (shades of makers and takers, eh?) anti-transit stuff, yeah no. EDIT: Let me be more...