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More about the "Meeting Series 4" presentation PDF, the closest thing so far to a full report from the FRA Long-Distance Service Study, June 2024. It's claimed the capital costs were calculated by an average for what such work takes in the U.S., not based on local conditions. This claim is...

Great news. The Raleigh-Durham area has quadrupled in population since 1960, to 2.1m, with a mega overlay of roadways and not much rail, so it makes sense this would be expensive. Wake County itself, with Raleigh in the center and Wake Forest on the edge (mostly), has 7-tupled in population...

What issues would those be? You cannot book it past a certain day north of WAS. SM is single-level, so no problem. Running a new route takes a long negotiation, though I guess temporary diversions take place out west. Most East Coast ports drive a lot of freight rail traffic.

A setback for a multi-billion dollar BRT in Houston: https://ggwash.org/view/94064/national-links-houston-metro-suspends-transformational-brt-project BRT's that cost just a few hundred million qualify for a fast-track funding at U.S. DOT. This one in Houston, University Corridor, 25 miles, took...

That the ferries were so cheap, as low as £1 for passengers without cars, was fun, and seeing the chalky cliffs. We met people on a Sunday in a pub after walking south through the Greenwich Tunnel in London, and a fairly long ways after that. They were having their Sunday Belgian ale day, which...

What I'm getting from this thread is that additional Hiawathas are likely, but an additional Borealis depends on Minnesota. A news story quoted up-thread has an Amtrak official saying the current Borealis could be Amfleet I's instead of Horizons, if Minnesota wants to pay a higher lease. What...

Coincidentally, the Odd Lots podcast by Bloomberg has recently covered two shortages in electrical components. I wonder if it's affecting these projects. Various stories on Oddlots would be of interest to people here, but the two on components were: "Lots More on America's Electrical Components...

Here are the costs, parsed from the document, in millions. Route Rating Trainsets Vehicles Station, main. facil. Track and PTC O&M (annual) Houston New York 14 7 $740-960 $1,520-1,980 $1,580-2,050 $100-141 Chicago Miami 11 5 $650-840 $1,140-1,490 $950-1,240 $78-110...

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2024/06/19/summer-delays-for-riders-nj-transit-amtrak-plan-repairs-northeast-corridor/74072161007/ In depth article on NJ Transit's discussions with Amtrak over recent delays and stoppages. The middle of the article is all about the summer of...

Alabama State Port Authority, once opposed to Amtrak, backs Gulf Coast rail with $1 million subsidy (AL.com via MSN.com) The story agrees on the port being focused on its rail improvements. Where its says "based on the fate" on the CRISI grant, it means the grant was awarded. Tourism is...

Update on the new Newport News station: July 11 may be the completion day. The contract status page also says: While it's not "service expansion," as in the topic title, it will facilitate more service in the future, and it keeps CSX happy by moving away from the port. Pretty building, visible...

Georgia does seem interested in projects with high federal funding potential: SEHSR (Atlanta-Charlotte) & Atlanta-Meridian-Dallas. Meanwhile, urbanized Georgia sees routes like Atlanta - Athens - Savannah as obvious winners. Meanwhile, Georgia funds everything about its expanding seaport in...

The new Siemens plant in NC starts some type of production in October. https://jobs.siemens.com/careers/job/563156116136174-new-manufacturing-facility-in-lexington-nc-siemens-mobility-lexington-north-carolina-united-states-of-america

Ground level picture of the new concrete pad here: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/are-trains-in-michigan-centrals-future/ I'll be in Detroit this summer so I guess it's exciting. I rode the QLine last time, from a friendly and shipshape city bus, to the Underground Railroad...

"Charlotte to the Northeast via Lynchburg" a.k.a. "Lynchburg to Charlotte" was mentioned as an aside in official plans, but it's not in the major plans as they developed. Southeast Corridor Commission 2022 NC State Rail Plan 2015 (the most recent) VA State Rail Plan 2017/2018 on the Wayback...

All maintenance facilities as of 2018 are listed in this OIG report: Opportunities to Reduce the Cost of Servicing and Inspecting Trainsets

A database of platform heights and lengths would be interesting. Amtrak settled with the federal government over ADA compliance, and now with IIJA funding may complete work on all stations by 2029. Just identifying which entities control which stations took a while. In one case a state DOT said...

The latest Amtrak PR on new or better maintenance facilities, from last year: https://media.amtrak.com/2023/05/amtrak-advances-plans-for-new-maintenance-facilities/ (three tiers); https://media.amtrak.com/2023/07/amtrak-kicks-off-procurement-for-new-maintenance-facilities/ The smaller ones are...

There's some chatter on reddit that after evening rush, the NER trains from NYP to NHV are beating scheduled times, sometimes dwelling at NRO or NHV for ten minutes to reset. Keeping the schedule padded an Acela conspiracy? 🧯Kidding, obviously NYP - NRO is under significant construction.

Looking up the non-stops on the New York to Washington run, I came across an interesting book. Of course Philadelphia objected. But Penn Central ran a nonstop in a 1969-1970 period, after the Metroliners had been reduced down to 120 mph, and the travel time was 2h30m. Then Amtrak ran one a day...