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It’s rare that I bash a public transportation system for attempting an extension, but this one deserves it. With cost estimates of $3,000,000,000 and climbing for a 4 mile extension that MIGHT have seen 7,500 riders per day, the Federal Transportation Administration has rightly elected not to...

That’s the theory I’m working on. Trains are selling out in February/March at their current lengths. Summer trains are already reaching high levels. I think vastly more capacity is needed, and if they close a coach during the low season, it’s there if they need it. Sleepers go like hotcakes and...

In light of Amtrak’s new desire for integral trainsets, I’m going to propose this idea, which I don’t love for the sake of sections. These Amtrak long distance trainsets will have 14 passenger related cars: 1 baggage, 5 60 seat coaches the one nearest the diner having ample ADA space...

I think it’s a matter of equipment position. Certain NEC runs leave WAS or NYP at inconvenient times to balance equipment and better serve peak runs. To me it makes a lot of sense to sell cheaper fares on some of these runs as some of the trains are effectively deadheads anyway. I can tell you...

It depends on what you want to do. Are you ”riding for miles” or do you want to actually see more of the cities? I did will say (and I never thought I would) I did 7,600 miles in 12 awesome days on the USA rail pass and I was sick of trains by the time I finally got home, like the rocking was...

Does anyone know how reliable the builder is for same day connections in CHI? I’m think specifically about 8-30/48

Hopefully this will help the Cascades get its ridership back up. It’s been stuck at 40k for months with very little changes. I think that’s the capacity problem

I think service to San Francisco would definitely be a good idea, but I’m not sure that I’d want it in lieu of service to Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle. Note that per RPA, the second, fifth, eighth, and tenth busiest city pairs are travel CA-OR/WA. That’s not the be all end all because it...

In light of the new LD analyses from the FRA. I propose the following improvements to trains that already run on existing infrastructure. With these the question is how difficult the Class I’s are feeling on a particular day. I have thoughts about routes with new route mileage, but I want to...

Starting Annual ridership is projected to be 124k. I’d like to call that estimate low and project 175k. 124k is along the lines of the Vermonter or Ethan Allen. I think this run is more comparable to the Pennsylvanian which consistently tops 200k, or else the Palmetto before it took accomodated...

I actually am optimistic about the timekeeping possibilities. The Empire Builder seems to very rarely incur significant delays between MSP and CHI. I also imagine there will be a considerable pad at Milwaukee just to make sure. There’s also seemingly considerably more regulatory pressure on new...

Stuff like this happens all the time. Regionals are usually more expensive than Keystones between Philly and New York, even though the Keystones are usually 10 minutes faster. I think that’s to maximize seats available through Philly to or from the south. Pre-COVID it wasn’t totally out of the...

I say good riddance to the Acela because it is sort of the zenith of the catchy headlines over effective service mentality that has become a mantra at Amtrak. How much money was spent retrofitting shops, upgrading tracks to 150 mph while key bridges, tunnels, and other key chokepoints were left...

Oct. to Dec. 2019 showed WAS-NPN ridership at 94,900.

Since this seems like it’s going to take a while before 29/30 resume service (School isn’t resuming until at least Monday. I doubt train service before then), and in light of equipment complexities, would it be possible/helpful to run a section of Amfleet I’s NYP to ALB as trains 348/349 that...

I was on 43 today. The conductor came through to tell passengers that 29 was cancelled and there would be no connecting service tonight. Very chaotic. Several passengers were turned around at LNC.

The following 12 routes are above their 2019 YTD levels. Seven trains have dropped off this list this month. None were added. Ethan Allen (23,600 from 14,100) Vermonter (30,300 from 28,200) Maple Leaf (106,200 from 104,500) Heartland Flyer (19,300 from 18,800) Roanoke Regionals (86,900 from...

MPR stands for monthly performance report. These are the way AMTRAK reports its financial information, key operating benchmarks, and ridership. They are based off the AMTRAK financial year, which runs October 1-September 30. When I report YTD stats they are always October to the current month...

With demand far outpacing availability, it seems obvious that Amtrak should send more equipment out. With Horizon’s so tight until this whole Venture situation works itself out, maybe Amfleet 1‘s could get sent out. There seem to still be enough of them. More trains is only going to shift the...

I believe all travel must be completed by may 17. When I traveled on the USA Rail Pass. I could only book guaranteed connections, and the guaranteed connection rules applied.