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It's here in Portland, refueling. I guess we'll see if they hold until 2:25, or leave early.

I read that it left Tacoma at 10:20. So we should expect it into Portland at around 1pm?

https://liveandletsfly.com/10-ways-taxpayers-subsidize-u-s-airlines/ And as far as highways go, remember that all of the land the interstates are built on is not taxed, while railroads are taxed on the land their tracks occupy. Given that many interstates run directly through cities on...

Ugh, for scrap? No one was interested in buying them?

Terminating in Orlando brings the run time under 24 hours, which opens up the opportunity to either run with fewer trains, or use the same equipment to double daily service. Using the same equipment, they could run a night train and a day train on each route. I think all of this concern over...

There are no plans, but I think the Brightline terminal at Orlando Airport would be ideal, and Florida should work to make it happen. The distance from the Orlando Airport station to the tracks just south of the airport is only a few thousand feet. A 4th track could be added at the station for...

Given the speed differential, once Brightline opens to Tampa, I think it would make sense to terminate the Amtrak long distance trains at Orlando. Easy transfer to either Tampa-bound, or Miami-bound trains. Definitely more space there to expand, and plenty of other surface transportation...

I think PDX is also pretty quick. They send the Empire Builder east of the Steel bridge, and there is a Y they use to turn it around. Can't be more than half a mile total. That's pretty crazy for NYP. Would it make more sense to utilize double-ended trains for the lines that terminate there...

If you can't be an adult about it, it's probably for everyone's benefit that you don't share indoor spaces with others.

This was a wonderful video. It's great to see people approaching travel from a more bare-bones and realistic perspective. The music selection was spot-on.

It's just another product to offer. Lie-flats would take up less floor space per passenger, and be priced accordingly. Similar to what we now see with "economy plus" on many airlines. IMO, I think single-level equipment needs to be procured for the LD routes. Austria has been making big...

As a Portland native, I would rather see restoration of the Pioneer. It is the biggest geographical gap in the current Amtrak network, and would restore service to eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and southern Wyoming (a state with no Amtrak service).

An interesting read in the NYT today. Seems like an outside chance at some point in the next few years, but I would say the odds are low. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/montana-rural-railroad-amtrak.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage More info here, including a map of the...

I've been on quite a few night trains around the world, and the Roomette upper berth experience on the Empire Builder can only be described as "Bumpy Coffin" in my book. I'm also 6'5", so I'm sure that doesn't help...

This is a good read: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/24/us/covid-vaccine-rollout.html I think it is fairly promising, assuming people continue to get the vaccine. The interesting part to me is that some regions have almost reached herd immunity levels by just letting the virus run...

There are many level crossings in this section, which is one of the reasons I suspect they are limiting this to 79mph. There are no sections on the Cascades line above 79mph. WSDOT is working to replace the level crossings in this area with grade-separated overpasses, as part of I-5 expansion...

This is probably the best outcome we could have hoped for, as passenger rail fans. It will be nice to have competent, pro-transit administrators back in power again.

That's what I recall from the schedule. A 10 minute reduction should be possible, especially considering the schedule has quite a bit of padding. Perhaps they will tweak the scheduled run time once they have a few months of data. It's important that they get the advertised trip time down, as...

Looks like test trains were running on the bypass this past weekend. Quite a few clips out on Youtube. Looking at forward bookings, it looks like the schedule increases from 1 round trip daily to (4) round trip daily in August 2021. Scheduled time is still 3:30 between SEA and PDX. Not sure...

What are the thoughts here on family bedroom vs. (2) Romettes? We're looking at taking the Coast Starlight from Portland to LA next year. 2 adults and 2 kids (5 and 6). The roomette option looks a bit cheaper, but it seems like the family bedroom has more overall space than (2) Roomettes...