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Wouldn’t it be interesting if BOTH of these were true: A. Demand for 100+ mph intermodal develops, AND… B. The only way to run that fast remains with passenger trains. It would be fascinating to see how the class 1 RRs would react if, for example, Brightline West were to develop a way to add...

Yep. Sometime in the 80s, I think the private car storage moved over to the other side of Smithfield St. and the platform tracks disappeared. Are the canopies still there?

I think I saw that B&O station from a streetcar on the Smithfield Street bridge. I also remember the dingy 70s-era P&LE commuter train at their station. I think that train was still running without a proper station at the end because the station became The Grand Concourse as the whole Station...

I get it now. I misunderstood what you meant. I thought you were saying they need to understand new flows in the existing network better. Little circumferential infrastructure exists. That was never the goal as the existing network was built. There are opportunities here and there, though...

How do they sell tickets? Vending machines, mobile app, and classic ticket-window agents in a few places, right? If the data gathered by those sources are managed well, they have a better-than-statistically significant set of origin-destination pairs. Then, one might consider bus and LRT...

Yes. Changing trains in Washington, DC is the best you can do. It’s not a realistic option, although people do it.

I don’t want say MTD was a mistake, but it could be better. It contributes to growing the interconnectivity of the network. Because of MTD, M&E lines are present in Secaucus Junction. Members of my family made Radburn-Bernadsville, Ridgewood-Summit, Montclair Heights-Red Bank and Montclair...

It would leave them out, for sure. It also has no provision for Fort Myers/Naples or Gainesville — which seem like gaps, too. I wouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, though. Every good plan (whether or not mine qualifies 🙂) should be considered a good start. And every operating...

Seems to me the best way to make more Florida destinations available to LD passengers is to go back to splitting trains in JAX. One piece runs down the FEC to WPB, thence the TriRail route to Miami including the connector. The other piece runs down the A line to Orlando and Tampa (and on to...

On my only ride on the Broadway Limited (1981), we left NYP backwards because we reversed direction at PHL. My dad remarked “the Pennsylvania RR wouldn’t have run the Broadway backwards” — which was true because it bypassed 30th St Station in PHL. However, the PRR ran many other trains from...

On the current map: Coast Starlight San Diegan San Joaquin route including Sacramento Empire Builder — both legs California Zephyr Southwest Chief City of New Orleans Silver Star to JAX Silver Meteor to Orlando (Champion when I rode) Carolinian Newport News and Norfolk branches Capitol Limited...

The way I learned that Amtrak existed involves those C&NW long-distance galley cars. Sometime in the summer of’71, the six-year-old version of me was sitting on the eastbound side of LaGrange Road station. This is what I would do to pass the time while my mother ran errands in downtown...

CP line misses Rockford. The two lines that go to Rockford are the ex-CNW now UP line used in this plan and the ex-IC now-CN line that continues past Rockford all the way across Illinois and Iowa. The CP and CN lines cross in Genoa. Hopefully the Rockford station will be located in a spot...

Two Ethan Allen questions: Speaking of track layouts, I believe the junction in Whitehall, NY is south of the Whitehall station used by the Adirondack. So the Ethan Allen runs through the town of Whitehall without stopping. With a locomotive on each end of the EA, could they begin stopping in...

I’d be happy if they’d do the once-in-a-blue-moon detours. Annulments seem to be the rule now. Either way, no need to build anything.

Absolutely!!! Second and third this! Through ticketing with MNRR and every other local passenger railroad. Make it easy for the customer to use your service, right? Technology should make this easier than ever, but bureaucratic inertia is a powerful obstacle. Interesting idea. Most logical...

If I read this right, Illinois has a Chicago-Springfield-StLouis route (the now-100+mph Alton). And they are working on two more — one via Champaign and another via Peoria? Also, seems to me that the easiest way to get service to Peoria is to have shuttles from Peoria to Bloomington. This...

I’m so excited by this! Really rooting for more route mileage operating over 100 mph. There’s no better advertisement for taking the train than zipping past cars on parallel roads — even when they’re Interstate highways. All the positive publicity and attention that 110mph can/will create...

Could they operate up the West Side Line (Empire Connection) and turn right at Spuyten Duyvil to run east on the Hudson Line? Not sure if there is a wye there… Anyway, run on the Hudson Line to the junction with the Harlem line. Use the wye track there to head up the Harlem Line to Woodlawn...

Of course not! 😄. Precision — Be precise. Scheduled — Run on schedule. Just my sarcastic way of saying that the host railroads call their operating strategy something that they choose not to apply to Amtrak trains. That was my point. Schedule padding is ubiquitous in transportation...