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My experience on the CL was at least decent, on both one-way rides CHI-WAS in July 2019 and the last time in early Sept. 2020 before L-D service was reduced that fall. On the 2019 trip, the community shower gave me trouble, as some panel had fallen loose and posed a jagged-edge hazard for...

Well at least so far, they fared better than the firemen in the 1989, fire truck collision with Amtrak’s Crescent in Catlett, Virginia, resulting in injuries and deaths of two firefighters, and serious injuries of three others in that truck (one of which is believed to have succumbed to...

For clarity, originally, the South Wind did use the Schererville, Logansport route on the northern Panhandle, and this lasted throughout its years prior to Amtrak. It used the Pennsy Chicago line between CUS and South Chicago, then via the SC&S (South Chicago and Southern - [aka the "Bernice...

A rider’s perception of speed depended largely on boarding point, destination and direction of travel. The Chicago-to- Louisville tracks were the worst on its route; the Louisville-to-Nashville stretch came in second. Slow freight trains helped hold up the train. The Floridian averaged 36 mph...

While I've ridden all East-West routes since 2009, I admit that until I rode the S-L in May 2010, I had never seen some many prickly-pear cacti in full bloom at one time, nor had I ever seen apricot groves and shrimp farms. Combined with a stop-over Westbound in Tucson to visit family friends...

I'm offered 4X, kind of surprising to me considering my annual activity has dropped precipitously since my last LD trip in June 2021 (MIA - WAS)

As zephyr17 stated, no it isn’t a half-step or even futile effort to create a substitute for a revived Floridian (former “South Wind”). The primary goal of this change seems overwhelmingly aimed at better utilization of whatever serviceable equipment remains in the long-distance pool. This is...

Correction in my previous comment of a photo scene at Atlanta Terminal Station. The termini of the SAL "Silver Comet" were New York and Birmingham, (not DC and B'Ham). The train suffered a slow and "painful" death (as opposed to a sudden discontinuance), beginning in 1968 with the loss of its...

Yes, the "Crip", as I sometimes refer to it from laziness, had been a well-known tenant of DUS. Most older locals recall the "Rocky Mountain Rocket", the Rock Island's (CRI&P) long-distance run from La Salle St. Station (Chicago) to Denver and to Colorado Springs (with the train splitting and...

An aerial view of Chattanooga Union Station, with the Read House Hotel looming above the station headhouse and its trainshed, rather "squatty" in comparison. The Read House, as it stands today.

As far as I can recall, only Atlanta and Chattanooga had Union Stations existing concurrently with Terminal Stations. Birmingham had a "Union Station" and a "Terminal Station" for a year or so, after the Southern Railway built its new Terminal Station in 1908. All except one company...

I used to use both Union and Terminal Station in Chattanooga, prior to Amtrak. Having used Union Station during the late 1950s and occasionally during the '60s, the last time I rode a train into and from that Union Station was in July 1970. Just as with Terminal Station, Union Station also had...

….. ….. Yes, and over the previous 4 calendar decades, I’ve ridden the CoNO into and out of CUS along all 3 paths, one time or another. Back in 1990 well before the dissolution of Conrail, on departure we backed out of CUS, across the 21 St. lift-bridge and onto the former Pennsy main (now...

As railiner stated and as others have indicated, there really is no easy way to determine current Amtrak routes, many changes of which have evolved since the advent of Amtrak. Both nature ─ such as epically severe floods from stalled weather fronts and hurricanes (e.g. “Agnes”) and other...

The DPM has run counter-clockwise previously. In fact CCW had been its original direction of movement ─ lasting for some 21 years, before it switched to clockwise on a permanent basis. The CW direction rationale in part was that it then would have only one short, relatively steep uphill climb...

Thanks for bringing this up about the Detroit People Mover (DPM) and the QLine (Detroit Streetcar). I managed to ride the DPM and the QLine in 2019. The QLine was my regular main ride to classes at Wayne State U., but the only reason it worked well was that I lived near Grand Circus Park, with...

As jis and Septa9739 stated, the primary component related to the NS physical plant of the Pittsburgh Line is the restoration of track and associated interlockings and signaling on that segment, which comprises the non-electrified former Pennsy 4-track main once known as the “Broadway” — roughly...

As jis stated... With such a short consist compared to one in typical freight practice ─ which frequently employ DPUs (distributed power units) ─ pax runs with M.U. power at both ends actually would provide optimized train handling with reduction of draft and buff forces. This also tends to...

Well the Utah Rail Passengers Association is reporting via Building Salt Lake that neither Utah proposal made the cut. Quite disappointing, to say the very least. This excerpt from the commentary near the bottom of that linked seems to point to the "probable cause" ─ foot-dragging. For the...

I'm a bit taken aback with an additional Tennessee proposal that made the initial cut ─ Nashville - Memphis. It was one of nine additional routes announced Wednesday, Dec. 6: — Phoenix-Tucson, Ariz. — Fort Collins-Denver-Pueblo, Colo. — Nashville-Memphis, Tenn. — Pittsburgh-Philadelphia...