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FWIW, the back end (ARROW) despite being ancient is actually pretty reliable. The problem is the new front end website created by an incompetent who was all about style over substance. Apparently the incompetent resigned suddenly late last year, but I'm sure the replacements are barely...

While it's good they're bringing back the overnight train, this is not good planning at all. They need checked baggage service to Boston. And given that they weren't running the sleeper south of DC anyway, where the train goes south of DC isn't an excuse to not have a sleeper. Really they...

I do believe that traditional dining is coming back, but in typical ass-backwards Amtrak fashion, they seem to be planning to reinstitute it on every other train before putting it on the LSL, which by certain measures had the most paying customers in the dining car, and certainly has the most...

The storage was supposed to go in the bag-dorm. Grrrr. They should never have reduced the bag-dorm order.

It's a bit different on the US side where the Border Patrol and ICE have gotten an astoundingly bad reputation for a long list of crimes and atrocities, and Congress probably would be willing to override them on practically anything given enough attention -- but that hasn't happened to Canada's...

Chicago Mechanical Department strikes again. Amtrak really needs to get a mechanical department at Chicago which is competent, and staffed up, enough to get the trains out on time.

The station itself is perfectly safe. There's a small station buildng, etc., staff, lighting, etc. It stays staffed the whole night, because the train in the other direction departs at 3:30 AM. I wouldn't walk between there and the hotel at night -- there are safe routes to do so, but it's...

And per the announcement, hasn't actually finalized the schedule. Sigh. Well, should happen soon. Yeah, this is also an expansion we've been trying to get for literally decades. Much the rehabilitation of the line was funded by a Congressional earmark from 2005, which tells you the delays...

So this is interesting; it means Amtrak would still be crossing that low Pennsy drawbridge over the Chicago River *for yard moves*, but not for *revenue* moves. Seems like an improvement definitely.

Of course Millennium Station is not viable. But I'll be punchy and suggest that while Amtrak is building all of this stuff on the St Charles Air Line, Amtrak should add a stop at McCormick Place. There's room (though all those columns supporting the building might be a problem).

It's basically landing between the Metra tracks curving to the West and the Amtrak tracks heading straight south. It'll remove one or two of those, and I'm not sure which ones, but Amtrak doesn't really need three tracks heading straight south if they're *rerouting all the Amtrak trains which...

Heh. I think it amounts to "If you book your ticket a station shortly before Lakeland to Tampa and board at Lakeland, the conductors will let you on." I'm not sure whether I should, in fact, note this in the schedule. The rest of the details actually pop out of the data automatically and are...

Hah. Eastbound, I guess you could buy a ticket from Tampa to "next stop after Lakeland" and ask the conductor to let you off at Lakeland. Westbound, the problem would be that they might check for tickets before letting you on the train at all -- once you're on the train, you're right...

I stand corrected!

It is hard for me even to keep track of the number of different railroads during the early period. Between 1841 and 1844 you had to change stations from the Tonawanda Railroad to the Auburn and Rochester Railroad in Rochester (get a carriage across town!) In 1848 the Albany and Schenectady...

The curves from Gary to Kensington cannot be improved significantly. And don't underestimate the potential delays at Kensington. Agreed. The South Shore Line should be a faster route from Gary through South Bend. It's only possible once the South Shore Line finishes their double tracking...

It's a good list. Most of this is the "low-hanging fruit": -- Direct connection from St Charles Air Line to Union Station -- yes, it's single track, but it's OK for a station throat for now. Eventually it'll need to be double tracked at great expense but only once there are so many trains...

Funding. They have to get the money to buy the ROW out from under NS/CSX/Conrail. Basically that's all that prevents it (PS -- Also see my next comment: the ROW from Englewood to Union Station -- where there were never any NYC tracks -- is actually a seriously expensive problem. It may make...

For much earlier history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Line It was a passenger line when the Hudson River Railroad was formed in 1849, and was the route for all trains along the east shore of the Hudson river prior to 1871 when Vanderbilt rerouted them into GCT. The original...

OK, question answered. No local service. Timetable will reflect this. Some definite implications for Lakeland's campaign to get a Brightline station.