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  1. cirdan

    California HSR

    One could hope that the mistakes can be analyzed and that future projects can learn from them. This way the losses would not be totally in vain. I guess one can dream.
  2. cirdan

    Guide to types of Amtrak cars

    Wikipedia has this rather basic summary, with links to pages with more detailed information for each type of equipment. Probably not quite what you are looking for, but maybe better than nothing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Amtrak_rolling_stock#Passenger_cars
  3. cirdan

    Dreamstar overnight train between San Francisco and Los Angeles?

    I don't think there is any doubt that these cars will have to be retired at some point. The question is, how much would it cost to keep them running until a worthy replacement can be rolled out. Right now we see no commitment to any such replacement, and the longer the cars are gone, the more...
  4. cirdan

    Dreamstar overnight train between San Francisco and Los Angeles?

    The problem with this type of statement is that it is very difficult to fact-check as an outsider. Especially when the statement is kept vague and non-committal, such as pronouncing that repairs or upgrades are "too expensive" rather than providing concrete figures so one could discuss viability...
  5. cirdan

    Tren Maya Sleepers and Diners?

    I understand, that is indeed mysterious and doesn't make much sense, unless these trains are being ordered on the back of the Maya order but will be used on other longer distance services. I thought the earlier post referred to the collection of second hand European locomotives and equipment...
  6. cirdan

    Tren Maya Sleepers and Diners?

    The additional cars might also be in reserve for future service expansion, with several longer corridors being promoted for reinstatement of passenger trains. Maybe the Mexican government decided that this was a good opportunity to get good second hand equipment at a decent price and that it...
  7. cirdan

    Sean Duffy nominated for Transportation Secretary

    There are private rail services, like the Rocky Mountaineer, but they serve very niche markets. I don't think there are sufficient Amtrak-friendly billionaires to fund all of Amtrak. Quite besides which, if we started wishing for altruistic billionaires to step in and fund highways out of their...
  8. cirdan

    Brightline Trains Florida discussion 2025

    I don't think the platform length is sufficient. This may be true when the wrap is new. But what happens when wraps degrade and form tears and tiny bits start detaching? Being up high in the sky, airplanes are exposed to much more UV than trains or buses. I expect this would increase drag...
  9. cirdan

    Brightline Trains Florida discussion 2025

    Going from 5 to 6 cars is approximately 20% more capacity and hitting 7 cars would be 40% plus. If however the additional cars are delivered in Q3 or Q4, this would not be sufficient to boost all-year ridership by anything approaching that. So I would guess the real payback won't become visible...
  10. cirdan

    Brightline Trains Florida discussion 2025

    I would have expected the market to be pretty saturated by now, with everybody already having way more credit cards than they need and being tired of the marketing.
  11. cirdan

    Is Quick Trak still around to print tickets?

    I recall buying a ticket at a small village station in Germany some time in the mid 1980s, and I got a rather pretty ticket issued on multi-colored and patterned stock, no doubt to make it difficult to counterfeit. The destination, price, and date were filled in by hand, and the sales clerk kept...
  12. cirdan

    Rockies climb throttle position question

    I very much doubt it. One of the big drawbacks of DC motors is the need to regularly inspect and replace the carbon brushes, which adds to maintenance costs and down time. When the first modern AC locos came out, it was often said that the liability had been shifted from the motor to the...
  13. cirdan

    Bergen Line (Norway) closed due to snowdrifts

    It gets even worse when you translate between two languages, neither of which is English. Many translation software systems use English as an intermediate language when translating between other languages, and so you may get ambiguities from English thrown into some other language where they...
  14. cirdan

    Rail service and travel by rail in the Indian subcontinent

    My father visited the museum and brought me back a guide book as a souvenir. The guide book is quite meticulous and detailed and appeared well researched. Many museums could learn a thing or two from them.
  15. cirdan

    Rockies climb throttle position question

    Indeed. Do you know if the traction motors are self ventilated? This could make low speeds a problem.
  16. cirdan

    Free Public Transit?

    Interesting observation. This is not one that i share. Do you have any idea what the reasons might have been? Maybe the managers lived in locations with better transit, which might support the notion that transit contributes to gentrification that pushes up property prices and so indirectly...
  17. cirdan

    Ideas for reducing NEC trip times

    From my experience Italy has lots of low-floor trains that make for easy boarding. Especially on their regional and commuter lines. Inter city trains are still predominantly high floor.
  18. cirdan

    Brightline Trains Florida discussion 2025

    That's not setting the bar very high 🤣
  19. cirdan

    Brightline Trains Florida discussion 2025

    True, yet despite pursuing every possible route to charge money for what used to be free, airlines have remained very hesitant to wrap their planes in advertising wraps, or even apply interior advertising or audio advertising (this safety on board announcement is brought to you by Pepsi). Maybe...
  20. cirdan

    Is Quick Trak still around to print tickets?

    I guess Amish and Mennonites, for the most part, don't use credit cards or other non cash payment systems either, so any non cash sales system would effectively be a barrier to them using Amtrak.
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