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Ed was referring to east-bound dinner, not west-bound lunch, I think. The east-bound LSL (448) departs ALB at about 3:30 PM and arrives at BOS about 5 hours later so should provide dinner. I think the SCA usually distributes flex meals from the cafe car, but they are so unmemorable, I don't...

The 91 departs NYP at about 11AM so probably transits the ERT at about 10. I suspect this is during a mid-morning lull after the morning commute. The 92 is scheduled to arrive at NYP at about 7PM, but often (both today and tomorrow's arrival is early, by as much as an hour according to the...

If the Vermonter ever gets extended to Montreal (even if by Rouse's Point), the one thing that is almost certain is the rules and procedures would be different than the Adirondack, the Maple Leaf and the Cascades. It's Amtrak (and VIA and the US and Canadian governments), Jake.

The point of having an option clause in the contract is to so the buyer can get a firm price, for some period of time, if they decide they want to buy more units. For the vendor, the point is have a leg in the door for future purchases, to gin up some additional possible business and to help...

More trains, heavier trains, longer trains, faster trains all increase the wear of the tracks. The main causes of track defects are wear, corrosion, manufacturing and material defects (metal fatigue fractures in the rails, ties, etc. that grow slowly worse until something breaks), derailments...

They often have hot water and tea available at the coffee station in the sleepers, though I have never used it. Many times I've seen people order tea in the dining or cafe cars. Usually they provide a cup of hot water and a choice of tea flavors. I've been told you can ask, either in the cafe...

I did this in May last year. The CS was late into EMY, and the hotel restaurant was closed. Nothing near by still open at 9-10 PM and I didn't want to go farther, so I had some microwaved food (a burrito, maybe?) from the hotel shop in the lobby (which mostly sells toothbrushes, etc but did...

Maybe ridership is lower because Chicago <-> LA is way faster on the Chief and the Chief has better scenery. Or maybe the 5-6 hour layover (west-bound) in SAS? (Though it is fun to walk around San Antonio in the relatively cool evening.) I'm sure they use models and spreadsheets to decide how...

I agree about separate fleets for most LD trains being a very bad idea, but is it really just those three trains? Would larger cars work on some or all the Chicago trains? (Not RM size, but something larger than the Superliners?) Above your question in your previous comment appears to be "Is...

Normally, they attach the New York section to the back of the Boston section, since the New York section has a less powerful dual-mode engine for the Empire Connection tunnel into NYP and the Boston section has a regular long-distance engine. So they may still swap engines in ALB even when...

48xO scale (48 quarter inches per foot.)

I stayed at the Hyatt House across the tracks from EMY in May 2023, while returning from my nephew's wedding in Monterey. Originally, Amtrak had booked me on a Thruway bus from Salinas at about 2-3 AM, with a several hour wait for the train, but I realized this was crazy (no hotel for the...

Especially if there is no real shelter and no facilities. No food, no heat or A/C, no restrooms, probably not even a drinking fountain. Is it a slow spot where people can hop freight trains? Do people still do that?

They would either issue you a new pair of connecting tickets (BAL->WAS, WAS->TPA) or notify you to call an agent to do it. There would be no increase in fare, and there might even be a small refund if the fare from WAS->TPA plus the coach fare from BAL->WAS is less than the original fare from...

I don't think a formula can or does exist. Mathematically (I am not a mathematician), I think the problem can be solved by modeling the network (or a portion of it) and adding or removing sidings on single-track segments and stochastically modelling the effects on traffic and costs for various...

New Orleans has the Jazz and Heritage Festival which is April 24 to May 4 next year. That alone is a great excuse to start in NO.

The large block of voters who are totally against taxes and government spending of any sort are also often sports fans and their principles vanish when the Super Bowl or World Series is at stake. Not that this helps the White Sox who just tied the MLB record for the longest losing streak ever.

I think the name is deliberately deceptive. You would think it has something to do with optimizing scheduling so that trains (including passenger trains and high-priority freight) get to their destinations with the shortest possible delay, minimizing wait times, yard waits and switching...

How were the views from the unwrapped train? A couple of your photos appear to be taken as the train crossed one of the numerous bridges on the route, which I would expect to be the most interesting views. There is a distinct shortage of towering cliffs and majestic mountains in South Florida...

Could happen if there's another Sandy before the new tunnels are in service (a decade or more), the old tunnels flood again, and are in such bad shape they can't be restored for years. Then it would be PATH or a ferry bridge on the NEC!