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This really was true in the latter days of the Metroliner, when those trains were running the same Amfleet cars as the regular trains, so the faster schedule was really the only thing to differentiate them. And it's one reason I almost never used the Metroliner in that era; it didn't seem worth...

Took our first trip to Maine for the season last month on the Downeaster. Party of four, one in a wheelchair, all on one ticket. Arrived at the fare gates at North Station. Scanned bar code from phone at fare gate, which allowed the wheelchair passenger and the person pushing through, then...

Yeah, the Canadian government doesn't seem like a plausible source of funds at this point, given how they starve VIA Rail and also the extent to which the highway/air folks seem to control the flow of transportation dollars there. If the Adirondack is going to be saved, New York will have to...

Amtrak supposedly ran a test train to Lucien L'Allier some years ago, so one would hope that someone at Amtrak or NYSDOT still has the contact information for folks at EXO and CP. Unfortunately I suspect no one at Amtrak or NYS will take any initiative unless a public outcry forces their hand...

Is this happening regularly? Horrible. Every eastbound trip I've taken on the Lake Shore in the 15-plus years since it moved to the late-evening departure time, the cafe was open for a time after leaving Chicago. Of course I haven't ridden it since the pandemic. With the dining service now dead...

Looking at this map, you can really see how much more direct the CP route through Napierville is, in addition to the track being in much better shape. To me, the potential to trim an hour off the schedule by using this route would be a huge plus.

At least at Rutland, the engine crew can move while the train is in the station and passengers are boarding and detraining. They seem to be accomplishing the task in more like 5-10 minutes. Unlike at Palmer, they are not moving from one railroad to another, and there's no hand-thrown switch.

You are exactly correct about the track layout at Whitehall. So yes, it would be possible to reverse up the mainline into the station. But I'm guessing that Vermont, which is footing the bill for the service, would be less than keen on adding a potentially time-consuming maneuver to serve a...

The Adirondack Park is large, but its population is tiny and dwindling. And the people who go there for recreation are used to packing their gear into SUVs. Yes, New York could do more to promote the train as a way to reach this region, particularly for the large pool of travelers from NYC who...

The arrangement I recall from some pre-pandemic trips was two Amfleet II coaches at the back of the train that were exclusively for through travelers from NYP to Montreal and were often filled nearly to capacity. Forward of the lounge, there usually were two Amfleet I cars for local travelers in...

Yeah, I haven't seen any figures since the service restarted, but before the pandemic, at least half the ridership north of Albany was people going to/from Montreal. Otherwise, north of Saratoga Springs, the most significant source of riders is Plattsburgh, and much of that is driven by the...

As a train person, I would like to see the train be a more competitive option. But really, for anyone who lives within an hour or two of the border, which includes a large percentage of the population on the Canadian side, it's much easier to just drive across. You save the delay of 1-2 hours at...

Yesterday the southbound showed up at the border about 2.5 hours late and ran late all the way to NYP, and the northbound was delayed north of the border, eventually reported by Amtrak to be about 1:40 late on the approach to St. Lambert. Southbound was still in the system as running today but...

Big bags, small bags, wheelchairs, walkers, strollers, elderly folks, kids, people with disabilities -- all must pile off at Niagara Falls. It works OK for physically fit adults with light luggage for a weekend trip, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else. To connect to our last trip on the...

The station in downtown Rutland is a couple miles east of the junction where the line from Whitehall NY and points south meets the line going north to Burlington. Also, there is no way at that junction, in Center Rutland, to proceed from Whitehall toward Burlington without reversing direction...

I suspect using the wye, which is somewhere east of the station, would be a lot more time consuming than simply reversing direction to go back west to Center Rutland, where the line from Burlington meets the line from Whitehall, NY.

How flex is handled has also varied over time. Mostly I've avoided it as much as possible. The only two times I used the Lake Shore for overnight travel since the diner lite ended, in 2018 and early 2020, it was still walk-up service. When we rode it last fall from New York to Albany, the meals...

The Lake Shore downgrade was related to the retirement of the last heritage diners, resulting in a return to "diner lite" service in an Amfleet lounge. It still had most of the menu items available on other trains as well as table service. In my view, the "diner lite" was way better than what...

I don't think this is correct. The Lake Shore and Capitol switched to "contemporary dining," the precursor to flex, on June 1, 2018. That's the point at which they did away with table service and, for a time, all hot meals. Anderson became CEO in July 2017, so this was definitely his innovation...

I think there would be more benefits than satisfying a craving for nostalgia. If Amtrak were to restore the earliest morning run from Albany to New York and then run two of the first four trains into Grand Central, that would be a great convenience for a lot of people headed to offices in that...