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To be fair, they didn't say they were setting a higher standard, just that it was a new standard. 😁

I'm a bit surprised eVouchers are going away, though that certainly does simplify things for Amtrak as eVouchers no longer need to be tracked. Annoyingly, they're going to have two fare structures under the "Value" class; those that are from a sale (with only a 50% refund) and those not from a...

In MSP, the eastbound Empire Builder was over an hour late 38% of the time over the past year, excluding any with no data/service disruption. Adding those in, the eastbound Builder was late or cancelled 47% of the time! Westbound the percentages are 20% not including the ones with no...

Private varnish cars still are able to be added/removed somewhere in the MSP area - there's some local PV operators that use MSP as a pick-up/drop-off point. Not sure if it's done at SPUD or in a yard somewhere near the old Midway station, but it's doable. Not sure on the operational details...

I'd gladly fly United over American or JetBlue - JetBlue's reliability lately is one of the worst in the industry, and I've had enough issues with American flights to have them be relegated to the same tier as Spirit and Frontier in terms of my desire to fly them. Granted, a lot of this is...

Yeah, I haven't heard much about a start date beyond "hopefully fall 2023." Basically it's just finding the staffing and equipment to run it. I do recall them potentially starting with a few days a week schedule if they can't immediately staff up to a full 7-day-a-week schedule. I'm just hoping...

Amtrak confirms that it's the speed restrictions on CN that's causing the cancellations:

Part of me wonders if Flixbus is trying to dismantle the Greyhound network entirely. Their model in Europe relies on outsourcing basically the entire operation, where they're basically just a technology company that the bus companies use to have passengers book rides on. Having a large legacy...

It's also quite possible that Amtrak hasn't fully determined what their medium-to-long-term plans will be during the closure, and they don't want to confuse people with multiple changes if at all possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the current temporary schedule shifts a bit as they figure out...

That area is not necessarily the best part of town, though at 6:30 AM or later in the morning you should be fine. The Country Inn and Suites is closest, though I've never stayed and it is not the most walkable. The Kelly Inn is quite nice (I stayed there a few years ago for a conference) but is...

It's not going to connect with any of the western trains eastbound (and probably not officially to the eastern trains eastbound either, though perhaps to the CONO and LSL if the Builder's running extremely late.) The scheduled arrival time is around 7 PM, too late to make most of the connections...

First class on airlines is about as consistent as business class on Amtrak.

My motto is "churn, baby, churn." Get the other version of the card, or cancel and then reapply. They were perfectly happy to give me a preferred card with the SUB even though I currently hold the standard card and have opened a lot of new cards in the past two years.

Getting off at a stop, finding amazing BBQ, and deciding to move in to the BBQ joint and never come home again? :eek:

Having never taken a high-speed line, the high-speed option in Japan sounds a bit more enjoyable to me. The train ride can be part of the trip, without feeling like it's taking up a large chunk of the trip. That said, the Vietnamese train journey also looks very interesting and could be a trip...

This may or may not be allowed. If you have them trainside and you're very quick about it, they may allow it, but they also want to keep the train moving and not delay boarding. You'll almost certainly be stopped at six, especially if it requires multiple trips. In fact, I wouldn't be...

The Spokane thing is a bit weird, but overall I think it's a reasonable benchmark when considering whether something would be seen as a "day" trip vs. an "overnight" trip. It's not meant to be a measure of how much sleep someone should get or whether it's light or dark out, but whether someone...

The specific one I'm looking to book is on 3/2, Nantes to Paris Montparnasse, leaving 18h36. There's an outbound from Paris a few hours earlier also cancelled (seems to be an out-and-back route) and I'm seeing it many weekdays starting 2/13. I could take the train classique but that takes two...

Got a bit of an oddball question: Looking at Ouigo trains to Nantes in early March, and there's one frequency most weekdays that shows up but is not bookable. The Ouigo website says train removed, and other websites show similarly. Any ideas as to why it's been removed, and is there any...

The issue is almost never the wider GPS system (it's run by the US Space Force,) but rather something with the GPS receiver for the train or some interoperability or link specific to the setup used by the rail operator. There would be a lot more issues than just trains having to stop if the...