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The CS currently has the most passengers among the LD trains, but only a few years ago, the EB easily had more annual passengers. Pulling up older monthly reports, in FY2010, the EB had 533,493 passengers, the CS was in 2nd place among the LD trains with 444,205 passengers. In FY2011, the delays...

The Long Bridge study area extends from the Virginia end of the bridge through L'Enfant Plaza to where the tracks split off to the First Avenue tunnel. So that entire segment is what would be included in the replacement/rebuilding project. The Long Bridge Study website has a 10 slide PDF...

We discussed in the FY2016 TIGER and FASTLANE grant application and announcement thread that Virginia received a $165 million FASTLANE grant for its Atlantic Gateway project which includes highway, (private) toll lanes, and railroad (VRE/Amtrak) components. On Friday, the Washington Post had a...

Link to local TV news report webpage (instead of a problematical facebook link): WTHR 13: BREAKING: Woman and child injured in car-train accident on east side. A rough trip for the #51 Cardinal, but since we already have a thread on #51(8), perhaps the moderators can move these posts on the...

171(7/05) was 53 minutes late departing Alexandria and was 1:44 late at Burke. So it lost 51 minutes due to this mis-routing. The train spent at long time at WAS, 48 minutes, arriving 34 minutes late, departing 52 minutes late so that probably added to the frustration factor. Status Maps...

This is likely the reason the NTSB is investigating the collision at 25th Street in WPB. Updated WPBF news report: Witnesses: Rail worker waved driver across tracks as train approached. Excerpts: If a contractor flagman waved a driver into the path of an oncoming train, the NTSB is going to be...

On further consideration, you have a point. Rather than new cars, could be a few Horizons or Amfleets headed to Pueblo to be pulled by the 2 Chargers for the testing. They have to verify that the SC-44s can pull a consist of X cars up to 125 mph. Not a big deal as Amfleets went to Pueblo for...

Good find. I expect the US DOT press release with more details will be posted sometime today or by Friday AM. The FASTLANE program is authorized for 5 years in the Transportation authorization bill, so it should be funded in the $700 to $800 million range each year. The Virginia award is the...

The only new (intercity) passenger cars that are likely to be close to heading to the FRA Pueblo test facility would be the Siemens single level cars being built for Brightline (formerly All Aboard Florida). Brightline is a private entity buying rolling stock for the Miami to Orlando route; it...

I don't expect US DOT will post a full list of the FASTLANE grants for another day or so. There is a sequence for grant award announcements such as this. First the winning states and local governments are informed; the Senators, Representatives, Governors, local and state politicians then put...

The $165 million FASTLANE grant award to Virginia is significant for passenger rail. The VDOT Atlantic Gateway plan is a mix of highway, toll road, and rail projects, mostly in the Northern Virginia region, adding up to over a billion dollars. Virginia was seeking $200 million, got $165...

There is a statement in the June 7 minutes of the NGEC executive committee that there is a commitment to funding the entire 130 bi-level car order. Some of the funding for the N-S order is from California and some from FY2010 grants, neither of which are subject to the September, 2017 spending...

If you missed the connection, why would you want to spend the night in a stationary sleeper car with small rooms and limited amenities? If you are spending a unscheduled night in Chicago, I think the vast majority of passengers would rather spend the night in a hotel room with normal beds and a...

However, Amtrak may pay less than what the rental company wants in damage reimbursement from the renter. For example, if the (rented) car is a write-off due to a derailment, Amtrak (or its insurer/agent) might only reimburse to the book value of the vehicle while the rental company may insist...

The state legislature and the Governor agreed to a 6 month stopgap budget to keep the state government from shutting down. I searched for news reports and was able to confirm that the stopgap budget has funding for the Quad Cities/Moline project. Quad City Times: Q-C officials: Illinois budget...

News updates on the Purple Line. In short, the financing is in place including a $875 million TIFIA loan and the contracts have been signed. So the design-build stage of the project should be underway. Railway Age: Maryland Purple Line closes financial deal Railway Gazette: CAF awarded...

Back in post #450 I wrote about the June 7 NGEC minutes updates on the N-S bilevel status, I mentioned as a side item from the minutes that VIA was seeking permission to use the single-level car specification for their own expected future order and as a result, the executive committee was...

The May, 2016 Monthly Performance Report (65 page PDF) has been posted. Amtrak is getting the MPRs out a bit earlier than they used to. Good month for ridership and revenue for the state supported corridors and LD trains. Ridership and revenue for the NEC show a large increase for May 2016, but...

The NTSB only investigates major transportation accidents or ones of particular interest. The NTSB does not get involved in most grade crossing collisions. Those are left to local authorities and the FRA (when the FRA gets involved).

Good news (more or less) that came out last week for the stalled Chicago to Quad Cities corridor service project. Gov. Rauner has agreed to support the service and ask the FRA for an extension of the FY2010 grant. But from the article, unless IDOT can spend only the federal funding portions to...