What should we do with more equipment?

[WoodyinNYC]

... serve ATL <> NYP with a day train by way of Richmond - Raleigh - CLT. connect the NEC mega region with the US' second largest population corridor Richmond - CLT. Granted Pittsburgh - CHI is a close third.

Currently it is 18 hours. Best case scenario 6am to midnight which will hurt ridership on both ends. They'd need to make it a lot faster first....

Here's the plan:

Take 20 or 30 minutes out of CLT-Raleigh using Stimulus funds. (Should be done by the time next year.)

Take ~90 minutes out of Raleigh-Petersburg by switching to rebuilt A-line. (Could be done by 2022 or so.)

Take unknown minutes out of Petersburg-Richmond from on-going work in Acca Yard and nearby.

(Should be partly done in 1 or 2 years.)

Take 10 minutes out of Richmond-D.C. using Stimulus funds. (Should be done by this time next year.)

Take a few minutes out of Richmond-D.C. as part of recently approved package of fixes in Northern Virginia.

Take a few minutes out of Richmond-D.C. by rebuilding the Potomac Long Bridge.

That work gets it down to less than 16 hours, getting close to 15 hour run time.

So 7 a.m to 10 p.m.

Now looking ahead 10 years out and more:

Take minutes out of NEC schedule: Portal Bridge, Baltimore Tunnel, Susquehanna River Bridge, etc.

Take minutes out of South Carolina and Georgia segments.

(This part of the plan assumes massive political change in Dixie over the coming decade.)

Getting the day train down to 14 hour run time.

So 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Not quick, not easy -- but much of this plan is actually underway. Never give up.

 

[west point]

Woody has the reductions at a very reasonable improvement. Advantages are the route covers much broader population density than Crescent does north of Greensboro. + there will be by that time three trains CVS north to WASH. This route also connects ATL to the 2 capitals of NC & VA. That has some political clout.

SOU RR's placing the TOFC cars on Piedmont also slowed its Maximum authorized speed.

 

[neroden]

There are already 2 trains NYP / WASH <> Chi . It is time to serve ATL <> NYP with a day train by way of Richmond - Raleigh - CLT.

This absolutely requires a new station in Atlanta. And there appears to be zero funding and zero backing from the city, metropolitan planning organization, county, state, local developers, or *anyone*. It's gonna be easier to get funding for stuff in Ohio or Indiana! We can start talking Atlanta when a new station gets funded; it's not something which equipment can be assigned to until that's done. :-(

I took the question to be "what do we do with more equipment, but not much in the way of track-and-station money". We can lengthen trains, add cutoff cars at stations with the facilities to handle them, and add trains on the LSL and Broadway Limited routes, without a lot of additional track-and-station money. Atlanta requires a new station upfront, and *then* we find out what else the host railroads want, so I wasn't considering it to fall in the same category. (Even upgrading the Dearborn-Toledo line to 59 mph or 79 mph running will probably cost less than the new Atlanta station.)