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Without wishing to detract from the argument about the better build of these cars, no doubt having already saved countless lives, a caveat is that the amount of damage inflicted is dependent on the speed at the moment of impact. In physics, the kinetic energy scales with the square of the speed...

Most major sleeper routes did have full and proper dining cars well into the early 2000s. The present situation is a result of cutting back that has happened since then. I used to be a regular on the Pau Casals, the night sleeper talgo (with gauge changing equipment) that ran between Zurich and...

To be fair though, if Amtrak hadn't stepped in I doubt any passenger trains would have survived. The railroads would have mismanaged them to the point that abandonment would have appeared the only reasonable option.

I don't think there are many active politicians or businessmen left today who would have been part of that nod nod wink wink agreement, and if there are they would have been pretty junior back then and hardly had much skin in the game. Any persisting disillusion or wound-licking was at best...

I assume these figures do not include payments received from states for supported services. So in reality the shortfall is worse that that even.

Just asking, are labor costs actually higher than pre-Amtrak, when adjusted for inflation. I don't know, just asking. The number of people struggling to make ends meet suggests maybe not. Also, today there is an increased overall population (US population rose from 207 million to 337 million...

That does indeed look like drawing lines on a map. Many trains that are much more obvious than these have been pending in the works for far too long, making one wonder where the momentum is going to come from to get all this done within our lifetimes. There are also some question marks. For...

I've got around Dallas and area by both rail and buses and it does work. You need to plan in some extra time in some cases but the service is actually quite OK in my opinion. I wouldn't want to commute on it every day but its good as vacation travel. A good railfan friend of mine lived in Plano...

Surely if a relative goes missing unexpectedly and unexplainedly at about the time of a major incident like this, families, parents, children, whatever, might put one and one together and come forward, thus at least populating the list of possible victims. It would then be for the forensics to...

I am not familiar with the location. But if this is the type of trackage used to serve maybe a local industrial spur or two with rickety track and and crazy low speed restrictions, they would probably be looking into relaying new track anyway before passenger service can commence. So it wouldn't...

I understand the mechanical system, on the London Underground has since been replaced by a more modern electronic system. I'm not sure if all lines have switched over yet, or whether it is still work in progress. Anyway, this is stated as being one of the reasons that heritage trains cannot be...

FRA signs 3 billion funding agreement for Brightline West (possibly paywall) https://www.railjournal.com/financial/fra-signs-us-3bn-funding-agreement-for-brightline-west/

I wonder what the logic of serving Spandau is, in other words stopping in Berlin twice, while not serving many other places, including Wilhelmshöhe?

I do realise what TRE is. I was just bemused by Google not being able to work out whether this particular train is the Texas Eagle or the TRE.

you could even automate that.

I guess this is the sort of thing that Google Maps is good at . Maybe there is even an eclectic bus service that just happens to fill a gap between two trains but whose timetable you would never ever think of checking. But Google will fill you in on the details. Not sure what TRE Texas Eagle means.

I guess time saving. Trains need to reverse at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, and the approaches are a bit of a pinch point as well. Maybe it's also a marketing issue. As in short-haul riders might crowd out long distance passengers.

I heard, I think from an Amtrak staff member on the Pennsylvanian actually, that despite the track reduction, the route now carries more traffic than it did when it was quadruple track. Not sure if that would be in terms of number of trains or in terms of tonnage.

I guess it's discontinued now because of the war and sanctions and all that, but there even used to be a train from Moscow via Berlin to Paris that ran between one and three times a week, and another from Moscow via Vienna to Nice.

I understand that if there is an option, that there is a guaranteed price, but this is not necessarily the same price that was paid for the initial order, but will have some variable factor for inflation (because inflation cannot be predicted). The price will typically also include some other...