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I love to hear the agreement on a second Carolinian! It's also great to learn from those in the know that there's plenty of timeslots on the NEC outside of rush hours. With the runaway success of its trains, and this potential change with the Star, I would be surprised if NCDOT doesn't examine...

No kidding...this now-likely change will kinda screw over, to put it bluntly, many NC riders, mostly Triangle-area riders, but others as well. Sigh. Having a single solitary option to get north of D.C. without a train change is ridiculous for such a growing area, especially when the Carolinian...

Yep, I've done that on the Carolinian and won too! It was fine.

That's great to hear! I did a multiple (3) leg trip to get home to Minnesota last December and wanted to do BidUp on the Empire Builder portion of my itinerary, but I was only ever offered to BidUp to a bedroom (unnecessary as I was traveling alone & $$$) from a roomette on one leg.

You are welcome, and I agree! So, so much easier for this service to survive future shocks if it just...gets...running! And once it does, barring catastrophe or equipment shortages, the positive side of me thinks it's going to put up gangbusters ridership numbers, just far beyond what was...

Official announcement from the GRRC about the operating and lease agreements for SPUD between Ramsey County & Amtrak being approved earlier this week: https://www.greatriverrail.org/post/amendments-approved-second-train-launch-date-closer For those keeping track, per the GRRC's email this...

Various sources (see earlier in this thread for more details) have said that the TCMC will be using, to start with, Horizon cars. Others have said that, since the Hiawatha (sometimes/traditionally?) has some sort of a cafe/lounge car, and the TCMC will be an extension of a Hiawatha trip, that it...

Not to preempt Silophant from responding, but I did find the link since I noticed this one was broken. Here's a general link to their March 19th meeting (see agena, packet, video, etc.) and here is a direct link to the video. Having read through all the materials + watched the video, it is...

I sure hope so too! I share your thoughts on traditional and flex, now that I've had both. I rode the Cap for the first time last December and the flex meals were honestly fine. However, is there a particular reason you (and many others) think that the Cap is one of the least likely to ever get...

Thank you very much for sharing this! It's really great news, especially because at the Great River Rail Committee's (GRRC) March meeting, Commissioner Martinson thought that this agreement might not be ready until their next RCRRA meeting in early April. It is heartening to see that they're...

Ha, that would make sense! I don't know if you saw the subsequent posts in this thread, but the Borealis name was also retracted. It's back to TCMC until the final, actual announcement is made.

Now there's a possibility, and seemingly much more likely than the other possibilities! Would be interesting to find out what actually occurred. The one hour delay likely ended up costing us later (assuming we were 'out of slot' or whatever the term is?) with CSX, as we lost an additional ~45...

Correct, ha! As I said when I was chatting with the cafe/lounge attendant, it's hearsay that I heard from the conductor who said she heard it from the engineer, who maybe heard it from someone else in the first place ;) I will say that I was skeptical of the idea that there was somehow more than...

I've gone in one of these once during a non-busy period onboard because I'm curious and nosy. However that was only briefly 5+ years ago, so my memory is hazy. It's an odd space but basically is an antechamber/vestibule area with a large mirror and a few padded bench-type chair(s) or something...

Indeed, you are correct! I added on to my above post, but in a new one for me, the Charger was refueled with the "wrong diesel fuel," and naturally the only way to fix that problem is to drain and refill the entire tank, which the conductor said (logically) would have taken longer/been more...

I'm onboard train 79, the Carolinian, and I think we just had a PTC failure or something else with the locomotive because we departed D.C. after the engine switch-out (7 minutes late despite arriving almost exactly on time) and then proceeded into the tunnel before stopping somewhere in it...

Yes, I explained I didn't have cash and would like to do a tip, and straight-up asked if they used Venmo. I let them guide how it went (username, QR code, etc.) and it was really smooth. The dining car server was relatively younger enough to default the scan, which is definitely the easiest and...

In brief, yes, this was maybe even a little more than a rumor--it was something discussed and mentioned by stakeholders involved in the project. Here's my guess: Now that MN has appropriated more $ for the TCMC and for passenger rail in general, if the TCMC is successful I could see the old...

Yes, I sure hope they do; I'm very worried about this. The U.S. is not Europe; we have trains that travel 1,500+ miles over multiple days, and coach passengers should have somewhere to hang out and just move around/spend time other than their seats and a small cafe car, which would not be nearly...

I'm on the Star to NYP currently; I had a successful bidup (I did near the lowest bid but it was successful) to a roomette. I boarded at Raleigh and did not expect to be offered breakfast (I've only done not-coach travel once before, a Superliner roomette on the flex dining CL in Dec 2023), but...