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The contract with Southwest Airlines said that if simulator training was required, Boeing had to discount the planes by $1 million each. I recall reading somewhere (but I can’t remember where, so take this for what it’s worth) that Southwest didn’t specifically ask for that provision this time...

Other than Union Station being busier than usual with Metra passengers, it’s really a non-event for Amtrak. Even if something was a big draw for out-of-town folks, you’re still not carrying more than the sellout capacity of the train. Thanksgiving is a crazier time for Amtrak than Chicago...

The deliverables, and any remediation for defects, would be covered by the contract Siemens signed with the states that acquired the cars, and with Amtrak who agreed to operate and maintain them. Stuff like that would normally be handled (as it was in this case) someplace other than the site...

Honestly, in large organizations, sometimes some processes aren’t refined enough to handle those specific peculiarities. Managing them would require a lot more specialized staff. The automatic process when fraud is detected is to change your account number and send you a new card. Having...

Besides height clearance issues, there‘s also the doors which, as best as I can tell, are too low to serve the high-level platforms that exist at every Acela station. Also, while a bit difficult for me to pin down exact dates, just based on the construction start dates listed in Wikipedia, the...

The 5th car is the cafe car. Back in pre-COVID times, the cafe car provided surge capacity for 330/332/337/339 (it was closed at other times, because otherwise Amtrak would have to consistently staff an extra assistant conductor for a revenue train that long). It may have also provided WiFi...

Basically, last week, train 351 suffered locomotive problems. The train was coupled to 353 a few hours later. But then all sorts of everything else went wrong and a pre-11 am arrival in Chicago turned into a post-midnight arrival. Power was off on the train for much of it, and passengers...

Airlines don't automatically rebook you on the next available flight, unless your original flight is cancelled. You can ask a gate agent to rebook you, and they might if space is available. But it's not automatic. Otherwise, you wait for your ticketed flight. Likewise, you can stop by the...

Freight railroad workers aren't really focused on the impacts to passenger service. Especially since the areas with the biggest passenger ridership aren't really going to be significantly affected by a freight strike anyway. The NEC (and many, though not all, connecting commuter lines) would...

The question isn't how the OP is getting to/from the station, the question is whether they can board a different train if their original one is delayed. Usually, the answer is no. In the event of extreme delays, they are perhaps a bit more likely to be reasonable in offering the ticket switch...

Saw this video on YouTube today, basically completely roasting US railroads, PSR, and the poor state of operational reliability (and quality of life for railroad workers).

It will also somewhat depend on how accurate/honest the schedules are, both today and when the new equipment goes into service. There are a number of commuter rail schedules out there that virtually never run on time, particularly at midpoints (they may magically make up 10-15 minutes at the...

Photo posted on Facebook today (of people on the first trip) shows Horizon equipment.

There are plenty of corridor trains between NYP and DC. If Amtrak tried to get all corridor passengers to book the LDs, you’d run out of capacity on the LDs for passengers traveling longer distances. Years ago, Amtrak used to forbid NY-DC local traffic on LDs for that very reason. More...

“Two-person crew” doesn’t necessarily mean both crew have to be in the cab. The NEC already has two-person crews (actually, all generally have three-person crews and some may even have four-person crews). Every train has an engineer and a conductor, and 1 or 2 ACs.

While not strictly railroad-related, your comments about business schools and getting rid of workers reminds me of this piece I read on line a couple of months ago about Jack Welch, a long-celebrated (amongst investors) CEO that ultimately ruined GE: Did Jack Welch break capitalism?

Your credit line is going to be specific to you, based on a credit card company’s interpretation of your credit history. There isn’t necessarily going to be some blanket policy out there about how much credit they’re willing to extend to customers. Just because you had $10,000 in total credit...

It should be noted that Amtrak runs several trains without food service already. The Hiawatha, Springfield-New Haven Shuttle (and, IIRC, Keystones? Not sure about the latter) do not have any food service. There is no requirement for food service (and plenty of trains don’t have “dining cars,”...

They don’t want to. But they will.

Not really. You’re going to have crews out of place either way. The Chief OBS are based out of LA, Builder is Seattle/Chicago, Zephyr is Chicago. Cancelling the eastbound will strand any Chicago-based crews. Cancelling the westbound strand any West Coast-based crews. And the T&E crews are...