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Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal: Sure, a new rail tunnel to Manhattan is needed. If that gobbles up the "rail" part of this package (a very big IF) though, that's not the greatest of ideas, IMO.

Courtesy Crain's Chicago Business:

Matthew Melzer has helpfully posted several pictures of Amtrak's new menu items at the NARP blog. Good idea, it was.

The thread title says it all. One can no longer book (at least according to Amtrak.com) a SB connection at Philadelphia from #42, which runs Monday-Saturday. Amtrak.com does show a SB connection from #44 -- the Sunday-only Pennsylvanian. As an exercise, attempt to book a trip from either...

Not a trip for me. Instead, I'm asking for help for a friend who has a son in Biloxi, MS. Since the Sunset doesn't run there these days -- and her son needs to get to the 'Burgh -- I thought of somehow getting to a station where #20 stops. He'd then overnight on the train to Washington, DC...

Copied verbatim from the press release: Let's see. We in the USA put perfectly good private railroads out of business, then hit the taxpayer to build roads to replace them. Wonderful!

Decided to surf late this evening in an effort to get my brain off business stuff. So I went to Amtrak.com, and began punching in imaginary trip requests. I figured this would also help me wargame Amtrak's yield management strategies. Anyway, when I punched in an imaginary trip from...

Under the premise of "the only stupid question is the one you don't ask", here goes. On page A-3.2 of the March 2007 Amtrak monthly performance report (available on the Amtrak website), mention is made: What "long distance sleeper re-structuring initiative" does this report refer to? Thanks...

The title says it all. Certainly in defense of the freight railroads it must be said they are handling more traffic with less trackage and less people than at any other time in their history. In that context, America's railroads are impressive. Having said that, I have to say this. Even...

A survey of NS's ability to deliver #30 into Pittsburgh -- the EB Capitol Limited -- suggests lousy OTP on a par with the Amtrak version of the National Limited (RIP, October 1979 or so). The average delay into Pittsburgh for #30, according to the friendly folks at amtrakdelays.com is three...

(cross-posting from On-Track On-Line:) I attended the Region IV NARP meeting in Baltimore on March 17th. Owing to work commitments, a full, detailed report will have to wait. Emmett Fremaux gave a presentation, despite having an illness in the family (his mother is in a nursing home, I believe...

Currently, on the Amtrak.com index page, one of the small promotional boxes advertises a contest for Big East conference basketball tickets. If you're from Amtrak management reading this, will someone mention to the marketing folks that the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA), Notre Dame...

I decided to start this topic since talking about new Amtrak routes is mostly daydreaming. More frequency on existing routes is perhaps more realistic, if still dreaming. "No bucks, no Buck Rogers." To save time thinking, I decided to just use some totally subjective personal criteria. I'd...

So much for #30's new departure time... It's not even 11:30p as I post this, and Amtrak.com is reporting #30 53 minutes late. Right now, that is. So much for fitting it into NS's plans... although #30 departed 14 minutes late from Chicago. I can just see the missed connections to #42 starting...

A DOT IG report from July 2005 (as far as I can tell) estimates Amtrak could realize My question -- even if this sounds stupid -- how are sleepers more subsidized than any other part of the train? And how is coach less subsidized? Checked baggage? Dining service? Is it due to the labor...

Made a quickie daytrip on #42/43 from GNB to HAR on 1/11. Quick notes: excellent crew on #42, above average on #43. #42 was late a couple minutes in places, but was OT into GNB, and 12 minutes early into HAR. While the scenery was quite barren, as one might expect for this time of year, this...

J. Scott Orr of Newark's The Star-Ledger has broken this story .

Interesting to look at the "hot deals" section of the Amtrak website. Seems the Capitol Limited no longer has deeply discounted fares from Pittsburgh - Chicago. It does have discounted fares from WAS - PGH, however. The Cardinal, OTOH, has discounted fares all the way to CHI. We should also...

It seems to me that intercity passenger rail service in the USA is at its lowest ebb since 1969 or so. Then, we on the east coast could experience the thrill of a grungy Penn Central day coach, impossibly late trains, surly on-board staff, and an overall terrible travel experience. As I type...

Happened to stumble across this . Reaction, anyone?