Recent content by Touchdowntom9

Have they given up on attempting to get approval for the 9” of cant deficiency for the new Acelas?

That’s fine and all, but they are really being compared against the previous seat design used by Amtrak more so than against airliners.

Alan Fisher posted a video today on Brightline West's waiver to use Euro parts on its signal system encouraging people to comment. While I disagree with him on so many things, I still tend to watch his videos. This video had me pause for a moment because I realized how little I understood...

Have they released the Dec-23 ridership numbers yet?

Any chance that by going with trainsets here that Amtrak will be top and tailing their consists in the future, or will it most likely still be 2/3/4 locos on the front and nothing on the back like it currently is? Just a huge pet peeve of mine, along with a refusal to wash their trains more than...

That's ridiculous and this needs to change. I assume BL did everything possible here to achieve a high speed, but unless I am missing something, this feels like a rule from a regulator and that would be utterly ridiculous. Also, is this info regarding speed limit data available anywhere or is...

Looking at a map, that area looks pretty darn straight in terms of ROW. What is causing such a huge speed reduction and is there a way to get rid of it? That seems like a real issue for keeping the train moving at 100mph+ across Florida.

Lastly, this is a political issue, but Amtrak needs to be given ownership and dispatch authority over the entire NEC. You really see this as an issue north of NYC where Metro North overloads and overbooks their tracks, has terrible delays and then sticks Amtrak trains behind their own. At...

I agree with the consensus here. Long time NJ->NY commuter who just spent a week traveling Italy via train and experiencing 200+ mph. The 200mph+ is great, but its brief and any slow down nukes the entire benefit. The costs are also huge. The real priority needs to be always staying above...

Could you explain what you mean here? Why would Amtrak ever have issues filling a train going from NYP-DC non stop (assuming they aren’t running 10 per day and ignoring Covid) and what benefits do infills have to Brightline?

From many of the videos I’ve seen on YouTube, it looks like the Cocoa to WPB section is still limited to 90mph until further FRA approval (which maybe why the opening was delayed and why trains are running behind schedule). Can’t tell if this is also the case on the Cocoa to Orlando section

Can you compare the wifi vs that on Amtrak’s NEC? I would probably just add in that it’s prohibitively expensive to do so under existing FRA guidelines. I’m sure it would be very manageable to upgrade the WPB to Cocoa section to 125mph if that did not in fact require grade separation. Not here...

Just a general question here—if you compare 2 trains of the same total weight and same total horsepower, but the only difference is that one is an EMU or DMU that has all axles powered and the other is a loco hauled train, will they have the same exact performance or will one...

Seems like the Viaggio cars are pretty darn heavy compared to the typical euro train trailer car, but maybe you are referring to other standards instead of just buff strength etc.

Wouldn’t it be pretty easy for the Airos to still use the APV motors while in desiel territory under the prime mover? Sure you now would have 4200 HP split across up to 8 motors instead of 4, but doesn’t that help improve tractive effort and acceleration? I would think the required equipment is...