Search results

For the Keystone and NEC trains, the platforms that are at the same height as the coach car door are high level platforms. On the Keystone route west of Philly, Lancaster, Elizabethtown, Harrisburg have high level platforms. There are construction projects underway to upgrade Exton, Paoli, Mt...

The FY2016 annual financial statement was posted to the website: FY2016 financial statement (51 page PDF). Besides the income and expense numbers, the report has nuggets of useful information in the notes on contracts and capital projects for the Alstom Acelas, CAF order, etc. One fact that I...

The projected departure time from Roanoke on weekdays IIIC is approximately 6:20 AM if they stick with the current #176 schedule. Which departs LYH at 7:38 AM. On weekends, #156 departs LYH at 9:59 AM, so Saturday and Sundays might be a circa 8:30 AM departure from Roanoke. Depends on what...

The study process for the Long Bridge replacement project continues. With the TIGER grant funding, DC DOT has a "new" website for the project which has moved into the project scoping stage. Which is really re-doing the Tier I studies all over again, but that is how we do major project...

If I may steer this discussion back to supply and demand, well supply to be specific. How many roomettes are taken up by OBS on the LSL in the current diner substitute configuration? Is it still a total of 9 to 10 crew members? With only 2 sleeper cars and thus 24 roomettes from NYP, 15 to 16...

I regard any extension to Bristol as something that won't happen for some years, a decade or longer, at the earliest. If ever. The tracks are slow and there are not exactly a lot of larger population centers in SW Virginia pass Blacksburg (and Virginia Tech). The economics and costs of extending...

Perhaps my January 9 post above was overly optimistic on the N-S bi-levels. But this is the Siemens Charger thread and there are positive developments in the NGEC January 31, 2017 draft minutes that obviously just posted. Excerpts:

The NGEC executive committee posted draft minutes for a January 31, 2017 meeting. While there is positive news on the Charger locomotives, there is zilch on the N-S bi-levels. The minutes say only: A news or information blackout typically does not result in good news later.

The AutoTrain decline is not just December and has been going on for a while. For the October to December 1st quarter, AT ridership was off -14.5%, revenue -8.6%, although ticket revenue per rider is up +7.0%. The Meteor and Star, for comparison, were off a bit in ridership and -0.5% (Meteor) &...

Yes, it would be nice to have some goods news on the delivery of a second V II diner car.

With the new administration, besides the question of funding for Amtrak and transit, what will happen with the Gateway project? Which was on the fast track in the last year or so of the Obama administration. I doubt that there will be smooth sailing ahead for the project with the political...

N-S did build at least 1 car. The car may not have been fully fitted out, but there was a complete frame. There are photos of it. The problem is that the car failed the required crush test. Oops. So back to the drawing board so to speak.

The news came out last week about the new agreement reached with USDOT that provides a path for obtaining $1 billion in federal funding, primarily loans it appears, to advance the projects to modernize Chicago Union Station. Debated about starting a new thread on the announcement, but since...

Yonah Freemark of the Transport Politic blog site has posted his annual summary of transit projects slated to start service and start construction in 2017 for US, Canada, and Mexico. Other than the Second Avenue Subway Phase which opened on January 1, only a few new rail transit lines or...

The weekday morning NER departing from NYP to CT may be heavily occupied by people traveling to Boston and Providence. Not too many I expect taking Amtrak between, say, Stamford, and NYP unless they need to get to NYP for connections to other NYP trains.

Amtrak is blocked by Congress from offering super cheap fares to fill seats on the NEC and LD trains. Every year in the appropriation bill, or whenever Congress finally passes the omnibus bill for the fiscal year, there is text that restricts Amtrak from offering fares more than 50% off the...

The Cardinal still operates with a single sleeper car most of the year. They have added a second sleeper for the peak summer and IIRC for parts of the busier Fall and Holiday periods. As you note, with a single sleeper car, there are not many roomettes available after the OBS use. Even if the...

The stimulus September, 2017 spending deadline is set in the ARRA appropriations bill and is not something that can be extended by the Trump administration even if wanted to, AFAIK. However, it was stated in multiple meeting minutes that the FRA and the states were going to get around the...

Phase 2 of the Los Angeles Metro Purple Line extension project received a total of $1.6+ billion in federal funds last week. I gather there was a push to get the Full Funding Grant Agreement signed off and done before the Obama administration left office. In this case, probably not so much out...

The Carolinian schedule does not even remotely match up to the Silver Star for connecting trips to/from south of Raleigh. Besides, even if they did, what benefit would there be in trying to have connecting/pass-through cars for 2 trains with very poor On-time performance? Would just make the OTP...