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    Original railroads of current routes

    Get the regional atlases published by Steam Powered Video from ca. 1993 to the early 2010s (Great Lakes East, Mountain Plains, Appalachia & Piedmont etc). They attempt to show all common carriers, isolated lines and interurbans that were ever built, and managed to complete all of the US and...
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    Michigan Service 355 derailment in New Buffalo, MI

    And the CSX crossing isn't even adjacent. It's 3 miles away. Amtrak has an extra large blue sign there, see attached. In any case, the tow truck driver & police had no excuse for not knowing to check the sign.
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    Miles rides VIA from London to Windsor

    You'd also have to lock CN and CP in the room with any Toronto-Windsor-Detroit discussions (maybe not CN if it's continuing an existing train past Windsor). Plus Conrail Shared Assets if the train continues past MC Depot in Detroit.
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    Dearborn MI station

    The bridge isn't open (except for extremely rare instances when the south track has to be used by Amtrak), that museum gate has never been used, and the agent I talked to doesn't even know who has the keys to the gate. Amtrak is probably barely aware it exists, and wouldn't care anyway.
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    Chicago Union Station discussion

    You can thank sleepwalking city officials in 1969, and management of the Penn Central, Burlington, Milwaukee Road and GM&O which destroyed the skylit original concourse. Ever since then we've been crammed into the basement of a bland office building, smothered with low ceilings and a forest of...
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    Amtrak is finally coming to Scranton!

    Brooklyn Rd. was realigned at that spot to eliminate two sharp curves when the underpass was removed, sometime between 1987 and 1991. 1979 photo:
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    PTC "Server disruption" service issue (March 2023)

    Also could be a problem on the opposite end getting out of Pontiac, as they're on CN and then CRSA until Dearborn. Then there's the 2 miles on CN through Battle Creek.
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    Midwest Venture introduction

    The order to run on CN at least 32 axles (IIRC) started with the April 27, 2004 crash of Amtrak 364 and a vehicle in Charlotte, MI, killing 2. The gates hadn't fully lowered by the time the train entered the crossing. On May 24 at the same crossing, the protection didn't activate until a train...
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    Amtrak Management issues

    Only six hours if you fly, probably Amtrak management's preference.
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    Ohio finally starts the process for new Amtrak service

    Of course, those times reflect running on the NYC/Canada Southern Ry. racetrack through St. Thomas, ON. All gone now except for fragments around Windsor and Welland. Now you'd have to get from Buffalo to Windsor via Hamilton and London- or much more likely, via Cleveland and Toledo.
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    Relative safety of planes, trains and automobiles

    Trains are much safer than cars, but planes are safer yet. 2 onboard fatalities on US regular schedule passenger airlines between 2010 and 2020. 6 to 7 billion passenger miles each year with Amtrak, but several hundred billion on the airlines.
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    Amtrak plans for substantial speed upgrades on the NICTD from Michigan City as far as Hegewisch. Lengthy stretches of 90 to 110 MPH. Probably raised speeds east of Michigan City as well, I haven't come across any detailed plan for that yet. Even if Amtrak relaid the NYC from Englewood to...
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    I took another look at the plan and noticed that Amtrak would utilize "track typically used by commuters" (thick black lines, not thin ones) between Kensington and the Airline. As I mentioned before I'm not at liberty to reproduce the original, but I replicated as best as I could in Paint the...
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    I would imagine that the Amtrak engineering department has studied the South Shore geometry thoroughly and approved it for its purposes. A shorter distance on the ex-PRR and NYC doesn't matter when you still end up stopping for freight traffic, regardless of if some new parallel tracks are built.
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    Are you assuming that Amtrak isn't contemplating re-double tracking the Air Line? There are 3 bridges (Michigan, Wabash, State) on the Air Line that had the second track span removed, and the right of way is still there on the whole line to reinstall the second track. Hardly a deal breaker. In...
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    It just seems that if Amtrak has the opportunity to move onto the South Shore tracks, it would be simpler than building new trackage by the NS that still would leave substantial freight conflicts. The South Shore isn't 100% free of freight interference but the issues are more minor than along...
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    I can't tell for sure from the plan which tracks would be used between Kensington and the St. Charles Airline connection. It only depicts two tracks, and the only details given between those points is a planned 45 MPH crossover at 39th St, and a maximum speed of 79 on the whole stretch. It does...
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    Because without hugely expensive flyovers there'd still be freight interference. NS would still have to cross any new Amtrak tracks to get to the intermodal yard on the north side of the right of way at 63rd St. There's a freight connection from the north that ties into NS/Amtrak just east of...
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    There's also no redundancy built into the current exclusive use of the NS west of Porter. Unfortunately it will be all that Amtrak can manage to do to secure use of the NICTD; there's no extra money lying around to also build and/or relay a parallel alternate route.
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    Ambitious restoration and transformation in the Chicago area

    That's a very cool idea! The Monon RoW parallels the east/south side of the Michigan Line in Michigan City. The Michigan Line is strictly ex-MC from Porter to West Detroit, except for the CN segment in Battle Creek.
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