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To call these segments sidings is a misnomer, particularly because you are saying they would be on a new alignment. What you are describing are actually segments of new railroad mainline. You will have all the same issues for each of these segments that you would have for a completely new...

I do not think this is a true statement. To install new fixed termination catenary in this current day strikes me as being like buying a Model T Ford today when you replace your car.

Constant tension does not necessarily reduce sag, it just makes it constant regardless of temperature. With fixed terminals the wire tension gets lower with increased temperature, increasing sag and the bounce of the wire from the pantograph pressure. With lower temperatures, the tension in...

The whole point of constant tension is to eliminate the effect of temperature on sag. That is, at intervals there are weights attached to the contact wire to develop the desired tension. These weights move up and down with temperature change so as to maintain the desired tension. The issue is...

I have never understood why all overhead is not converted to constant tension as quickly as possible, nor why the extreme costs to do so are consistently proclaimed. That use of constant tension is the far better way is a no-brainer, and should not be excessively expensive, as your fixed points...

Well recall the moon landing. At the time, many of us thought this to be a first step into going to Mars. In fact, 5 years or so would have been about right to develop the methods and materials for that trip. It is nigh impossible, and would have been laughed out of the room at the time that...

This whole thing sounds strange. A contract limiting the railroad to no more than 25 cars and one train per day?? That seems totally irrational. Then there is the question of what happened to the Interstate Commerce provision in the Constitution? Many attempts of localities to restrict a...

Love the map, but need to pick a few nits: Nashville - Jackson - Memphis does not exist. Jackson - Memphis was removed in about 1967, and Bruceton - Jackson in the 1980's?? You can do Nashville - Memphis via McKenzie, but west of Bruceton is unsignaled. The Nashville - Birmingham line does not...

Will these trains provide any reasonable connectivity to the City of New Orleans or the Sunset? A CNO to/from gulf train for a Gulf Coast point or Mobile would be nice. Throw in Mobile to Pensacola is less than an hour's drive.

There are other examples of this sort of thinking by Amtrak. A prime example would be keeping the South Wind versus the City of Miami. The City of Miami had far better ridership, and in fact in the last couple years before Amtrak, the South Wind was no longer even through, running combined...

For starts, you do not build a track parallel to a track good for 35 to 40 mph and it somehow become magically a 110 mph track. There is this thing called the laws of physics that limit speeds on curves due to comfort and safety. If you want a high speed track you need a new alignment...

And the guy probably does not realize the irrational mental gymnastics his absolutely incompatible arguments indicate. The two urban transit projects I spent the longest time working on were Washington Metro and Taipei Rapid Transit, and other than the language used, the arguments against them...

Primarily huge differences in regulations and exponential growth of groups opposed to building anything new. The current complex of environmental regulations did not exist in the 1960's. The overwhelming NIMBYisms did not exist in the 1960's. BART was not near as easy and quick at the time as...

As JIS said. My own opinion is that the first thing that should happen is for the government to lean heavily on the various railroad companies to give the trains priority and with this, reduce the ridiculous schedule padding that has crept in. Second, is to lean on Amtrak itself to keep the...

This is the sort of whiny idiocy that really burns me: From the text of the WALA report: "District 5 Councilman Joel Daves, who for years has been the council’s leading critic of subsidizing Amtrak, pounded the table in complaining that the train supporters are asking the “poor little city of...

I was trying to avoid getting into much of the legal details of right of ways, easements, etc. First, a detour through maintenance. Earthworks require maintenance as well. Plus there will be multiple structures for drainage, roads, etc., plus fencing and many other things. Back to right of...

The primary difference between the utilities and the railroad is that the utilities may be a nuisance during construction, but after that is done, you carry on with your farming as if it was not there other than in the case of high voltage electrical lines the transmission towers. Pipelines and...

Given the amount of insane nonsense that gets brought out in public hearings, there is not enough Valium on the planet for the sanity of the design side people. Time and meddling by politicians and everyone else anywhere nearby has turned what a fairly good concept into a sorry excuse of a half...

With all these "gadgetbahns" (I love that term) there seems to be a significant amount of magical thinking, as if they have found a way to get around the laws of physics and a lot of the realities of obtaining right of ways and construction. First the physics: Acceleration, deceleration...

This was pre-Amtrak common practice. Given the cost of hotel rooms in NYC a moderately to well advertised drop off sleeper in Penn Station should consistently be full, particularly from the south. Could possible do well from both directions. As to the Hell Gate Bridge work, that is going to...