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The feasibility study for the proposed Pittsfield service is available on a MassDOT webpage: Berkshire Flyer Study. The study describes 3 options, 2 through Albany and one using the Schodack Subdivision Route with a new connector track. Reviewing the study, the new connector track would be a...

According to a post on Trainorders, business class will cease on May 1 for both the Autotrain and the Crescent. Ending BC on those trains was a recommendation from a product development and revenue management review team. Sounds like the BC option did not sell enough seats to support the costs...

Resurrecting an old topic, there was a public presentation scheduled for today (March 22, 2018) on the revised plan for the expansion for Washington Union Station. The Greater Greater Washington blog posted a preview and one person's take on the now scaled back Master plan for WAS: See details...

The document is all text, so the size is only 3.6 MB. But it is 2232 pages long, so it has a LOT of text.

Really big project for NYC-NJ to build two new Hudson River tunnels, the South Portal Bridge, expand to 4 tracks between NWK and NYP, Moynihan station (I think it is included when the $30 billion price tag gets discussed) and in the later phases, Penn Station south with new tracks and platforms...

Limited information on the deal to provide some of the previously expected funding for NEC Gateway from The Hill: House poised to vote on $1.3T spending bill. However, if I am interpreting the reports correctly, the allocation of the $541 million for the NEC will be under the control of the...

Hope your expected lifetime extends to 2020. The construction of the DC Metro Silver Line Phase 2 extension is well along. The Dulles Airport station appears to be mostly built-out as are most of the Phase 2 stations, tracks have even been laid down in the median and elevated guideway for parts...

Whaaaatt?? The Regionals do make money for Amtrak, good money, based on the Route performance results. In the September, 2017 monthly report (unaudited), which is on the website, and is in the new less informative shorter format, the Regionals generated a net surplus of $206.7 million in...

Yes, it is possible that the $19.9 million to NC DOT for the Blue Ridge Road grade separation was applied for because NC DOT and the local governments were actually short of the funds needed to start the contract on time. Shuffling funds and pots of money for projects and contracts around is an...

Just want to note that I started a thread on the 2018 TIGER grant awards a few days ago.

US DOT has posted the complete list of FY2018 Tiger grant awards to 41 projects in 43 states: https://www.transportation.gov/tiger. No additional projects that appear to be relevant to Amtrak or commuter rail. Several grants for freight rail lines, such as "Repair of the Jaype to Lewiston Rail...

Another grade crossing separation project received a FY2018 TIGER grant, this one for Raleigh, NC. $19.9 million towards building an underpass for Blue Ridge Road which crosses the tracks between the Raleigh and Cary stations. So it goes towards eliminating a busy grade crossing on a portion of...

OK, found a $9 million TIGER grant award to Spokane, WA to eliminate or separate 2 grade crossings of BNSF tracks. Press release from Senator Murray (D-WA) on the award: TRANSPORTATION: Senators Murray, Cantwell Secure Major Investment for Spokane Valley to Improve Barker Road Railway...

I have not posted much here lately, but I saw a news report on an announcement of a FY2018 TIGER grant award, so went looking for more reports. Yes, the TIGER grant program is still alive for FY2018 with a total $500 million in funding to award. The announcements so far are by various...

The last "classic" monthly performance report released and posted was August, 2017 which was 65 pages long. From September, 2017 onward, Amtrak has posted the new much shorter 7 page MPRs and 18 page long host railroad reports. I believe I have all or almost all the monthly reports going back to...

IIRC, there were documents stating that the first 2 trainsets would be manufactured outside of the US so as to get them earlier for testing and preliminary training. Don't recall if that was changed or if there were any updates on that. For the car shells, remember, Amtrak got a waiver on the...

Washington Post story on the incident and more information on the man who was arrested: Armed man with white-supremacist ties stopped Amtrak train last year, FBI says. Covers much the same material as the other news links, but this individual appears to be not very stable. Excerpt: This could...

BTW, I posted about the FY2017 ridership numbers in a thread, but I suspect the Amtrak FY2017 Ridership fact sheet that was linked to in their November 16 news release "Amtrak Sets Ridership, Revenue and Earnings Records" was overlooked. I figure the September 2017 monthly report will never be...

Yes, the October monthly report is at the bottom of the Reports & Documents webpage. It is a much shorter report at 7 pages and there is a ton of information that used to be in the earlier monthly reports that is not provided. Such as the mechanical production/repair tables for starters. The...

Checking the schedule for Virginia Tech, the university Thanksgiving holiday begins on Saturday, Nov. 18. So the train presumably had a large number of students taking the train north on Friday & Saturday. And students heading home from colleges on the NEC. Even without the holiday break, the...