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Epilogue: My 4, and outbound 3 & 5, were held for some time around Naperville due to an electric line across the tracks. Metra BNSF service was also paralyzed. There was some uncertainty for a while, but we were allowed to proceed into Naperville station & then on to Chicago. We made Union...

I'm on the SWC 4, which arrived KCY about 9:40 and left a hair after 10. I didn't look for how many sleeper cars we have, but we've got five coaches. I'm in the last coach, overlooking the private car visible in the post above mine. Lots of people on & off at Kansas City. Coaches very quiet...

There was a Southwest Chief trainset at Kansas City Union Station. I saw it pull away towards the east at about 2:34 pm. I was passing through the station anyhow so I stopped at the ticket counter to see if my 4 back to Chicago on the 11th would run. I waited behind two passengers who seemed...

I've got tickets on 4(9) so here's hopin' that runs. We're not stuck if it doesn't, but still🤞

People complain about the age of the Amfleet cars here all the time. But if someone from Amtrak acknowledges that -- in an article noting that the Airos are ordered & a new LD fleet is being planned, so it's not just idle criticism -- it's interpreted as being anti-Amtrak.

[Looks at map.] Has anyone suggested having that Metromover thing serve Dodge Island, or have the cab/Uber/Lyft drivers put up too much opposition?

From what I've seen on webcams, the River Runners typically run with two or even three baggage cars. I presume this is the axle-count issue certain railroads have? 🤔 Is Amtrak at least letting cyclists use all those bike racks, even if there's no checked luggage?

Bag-dorm for the Boston section to free up some sleeper space? Cafe or cafe-business for the New York section? (Those are strictly guesses in the spirit of "what else could it be?" ;) )

Whenever I try to go to the Amtrak website on my phone, it defaults after a few seconds to Chinese rather than English. 🤔Does anyone know if there's a way to overcome that, other than always going to the Amtrak website on my laptop? 🙂

The last part surprises me: people didn't have so many electric gadgets when the open-section cars were designed and built, but they did have luggage. Does anyone know how this was this addressed when Pullman roamed the Earth? Check most of your luggage (which then was more like porter-hauled...

I wholeheartedly agree that the IAIS should be in State hands. There should be service along the Illinois Valley from Chicago to Peoria. I can even see all-IAIS service to the Quad Cities, with half the Illinois Valley trains to Peoria and half to the Quad Cities. (Peoria Rockets and Quad Cities...

If Amtrak could come up with a couple of trainsets to be your Texas Eagle connection, I would rather Amtrak use them in a beefed-up Lincoln Service schedule that doesn't include (or at least depend on) the Eagle, so that the Eagle can still go all the way to/from Chicago but its travails don't...

I agree these aren't for true long-distance trains with significant daylight travel, absent a lot of lounge seating. But overnight-only routes should be a thing; Amtrak has plenty of corridors that are long enough to support night corridor trains, with some full sleepers, some comfortable coach...

I don't think roomettes need to be accessible -- there's no accessible roomettes now -- so long as accessible bedrooms are priced as roomettes to avoid price discrimination. I'm pretty sure that's what Amtrak does now, and we're merely contemplating how to have all accessible bedrooms have...

Running more trains and adding OBS staff are both things Amtrak should be doing anyway, one fleet or two. Extending platforms doesn't strike me as a heavy expense in most instances; I'm sure there are stations that are hemmed-in or have other complications, but pouring a few extra square feet of...

Traditional dining not being imminent on the Crescent wouldn't preclude doing flex dining in a real dining car. Like the Lake Shore Limited has been. All it would take is a Viewliner Diner coming out of mothballs faster than a new dining crew being hired & trained.

Just read the article for myself. Two things struck me as bogus or at least got my antennae waving: 1) Their privately-financed motivation proposal is stuck in the middle of the article, after they've well and truly trashed the Amfleets (and old catenary poles, apparently) as death on a stick...

I just asked Amtrak Alerts on Twitter if the inbound-to-Chicago long-distance cancelations this morning (8, 29, 49/449 & 58) would be reversed, or whether the necessary trainsets aren't in place. If they answer, I'll post their reply.

A cafe with only tables is not necessarily the same as a lounge with various kinds of seating, which IS the car where passengers "can sit, chat, eat, and do whatever they want." See "lounge lizards" camping out in Sightseer Lounges. In my experience on corridor trains (mostly Lincoln Service)...

The usual term for universal NIMBYs is BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone) or CAVErs (Citizens Against Virtually Everything).