I expect the following:
Equipment:
1) The Viewliner order will be expanded to 75 baggage cars, 40 baggage-dorms, 30 diners, 30 lounge cars, 40 sleepers, and 150 coach cars. The initial order will be placed, with options for the additional outlined above, within a year and by the time 2019 rolls around, all of it will be in service.
2) Superliner IIIs will be ordered within the next 5 years. They will probably be starting to come on line. They will include perhaps 10 diners, 10 lounge cars, 10 trans-dorms, 20 cafe-coach cars, 40 baggage-coach cars, 40 sleepers, and 60 coach cars.
3) Bi-Level cars similar to the California cars will operate all mid-west corridors, specifically engineered for reliability in cold weather.
4) EMU cars capable of operating faster than the Acela does in various conditions will be running the corridor as an as-yet-unnamed high speed premium service. They will most likely be built by TALGO.
5) More California cars will be ordered and delivered. It will include a few California Sleepers.
6) The Amfleet Is will be exclusively used in an expanded Northeast Corridor, as mentioned below. They will continue to be refurbished and will not be approaching retirement.
7) The Horizons will be in operation with some commuter agency- or used in a contract operated commuter service.
8) The Amfleet IIs will be used in various high-speed, relatively long-distance day trains operating out of New York. They will provide sit-down table service via Diner-Lite cars.
9) If the Acela sets are still in service, they will be running at 125-135 mph on an improved Keystone service. Amtrak will purchase the Broadway up to Pittsburgh from Norfolk Southern and be intending to electrify it and extend Keystone trains all the way to Pittsburgh.
Misc:
Amtrak will standardize eastern long-distance trainsets, with three types.
Type A) 2 P42, VL bag-dorm, 3 VL Sleepers, VL Diner, VL Lounge, 5-6 VL Coaches
Type B) 1 P42, 4 VL coaches, AMFII Diner/Lite or VL Diner, VL Sleeper, VL Bag-dorm, with a few revenue rooms.
Type C) 2 P42s, H-baggage car, 4 AMFII coaches, AMF II Diner-Lite, 5 AMFII coaches.
Eastern LD Routes:
Broadway Limited or a train of a different name running Pennsy trackage NYP-PGH and the former B&O PGH-CHI will be reinstated. It will be a type-A train. Approximately 16 hours, with intentions to reduce it to 14-15 when HAR-PGH is electrified.
Lake Shore Limited will run with slightly reduced times due to speeding up the route incrementally to Buffalo. It will be a type A train, with a 16 hour run time.
Cardinal: Senator Byrd will die. The train will be renamed either “Senator Byrd” or “Robert Byrd” in his honor. It will graduate to daily service and be a Type A train.
Silver Service: Palm, Meteor, and Star will run. All will run NYP-MIA. The Star will run the A line to TPA, the Meteor will run the S line to TPA, and the Palm will run the FEC. All will be type A trains and leave Miami and New York at 8AM, 12 PM, and 6 PM respectively.
Crescent: Will be a type A train running same as always.
Twilight Shoreliner- will be restored, and be a modified type C with a sleeper at the end.
Spirit of Carolina: A type B train aping the Carolinian with a 12 hour offset.
Niagara Rainbow: Type B NYP-Toronto train running overnight on the Water Level route.
Spirit of Montreal: A Type B train running over the Adirondack’s route at night.
Spirit of Detroit: A Type B train running NYP-DET via Windsor overnight.
Empire State Express A Type C train running NYP-DET via Windsor during the day.
Montrealer: Type B train running over the Vermonters route to Toronto.
Vermonter: Graduates to type C and continues to Montreal
Adirondack: Graduates to Type C
Palmetto: Will continue to run, leaving at 6 AM. Improved corridor speeds will allow it to run all the way to Jackson. It will be a Type C.
Carolinian: Will graduate to Type C.
Pennsylvanian Graduates to type C.
Scarlet Ohara A type-C day train over the Crescent’s route NYP to ATL.
Northeast Corridor:
High speed service will be met WAS-BOS by EMU sets. 2 hours New York to either BOS or WAS. Metro-North will sell Amtrak its portion of the Northeast Corridor in exchange for priority trackage rights.
The inland Route and Empire Corridor NYP-ALB will be considered part of the Northeast Corridor.
Service NYP-WAS will triple.
Service NYP-NHV will double.
NYP-NHV-SPG-BOS will cover 25% of NYP-BOS service.
NYP-ALB-SPG-BOS will cover 15% of NYP-BOS service.
NYP-NHV-BOS will cover remaining 60%.
Except for the high-speed sets, everything will be covered by Amfleets except:
Empire Service trains will, against all logic and reason, use refurbished Turboliners.
Midwest Corridors:
Hoosier Corridor: CHI-IND. Will be met by bi-level trains, perhaps 4 round trips a day. The Senator Byrd/Cardinal will stop carrying passengers locally between CHI and IND.
Toledo Corridor: CHI-TOL. Will run 3 round trips.
3C Corridor: Will run as mentioned by others, perhaps 3 round trips a day.
Pere Marquette Corridor: Pere Marqutte route upgraded to 2, perhaps 3 runs a day.
Lincoln Corridor: Expanded to 10 RT, day.
Missouri River Runner: 4 RT, Day
Carbondale Corridor: 4RT, Day.
Burlington/Quincy Corridor: 4 RT a day each to Burlington and Quincy. SWC and CZ stop carrying local passengers beyond Galesburg. (I.E., Galesburg served by 8 corridor and 2 long distance round trips each day.)
Hiawatha Corridor: Electrified, handles 20 r/t a day, extended to Madison.
Wolverine Corridor: Expanded to 8 RT day, plus a Superliner overnight train to Toronto called the International.
Blue Water Corridor: Expanded to 4 RT/Day, plus a Superliner overnight train to Toronto called the Blue Water Limited.
Heartland Corridor: Kansas City to Houston, 4 round trips a day.
Western Corridors:
Cascades Corridor: More sets are purchased by Washington State, service approximately tripled in all directions, including to Vancouver.
Capitol Corridor: Expanded to approximately 25 round trips.
Pacific Surfliner: Service is approximately doubled and extended up the coast all the way to Dunsmuir. A modified Surfliner train, lets call it the Shasta Twilight will run SAN-LAX overnight. Some trains will use the old SP line to run into San Francisco.
San Joaquins: Six round trips OKJ-BFD and SAC-BFD, essentially doubling service. An overnight train called the Spirit of Califorina and a day train called the California Sun will run LAX or SAN-SAC.
Western Long Distance:
Before delivery of Superliner III cars:
Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Coast Starlight will remain as is.
Golden State Limited will replace the Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle.
City of Orlando will replace the City of New Orleans.
Houston/Orleans Flyer will run NOL-SAS and will convey a sleeper and coach car from LAX 3 days a week.
After Delivery of Superliner III cars:
Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, Golden State Limited will remain as is.
Sunset Limited will be restored LAX-NOL tri-weekly.
Houston/Orleans Flyer will convey sleeper and coach from the Golden State Limited the other four days.
City of Miami will replace the City of Orlando and operate out of Chicago late morning.
Panama Limited will run on a faster overnight schedule than the City of New Orleans currently does.
City of New Orleans will be restored as a coach day train. (We are effectively creating a long-distance corridor here.)
Texas Chief will operate CHI-HOU via KCY.
Southwest Chief discontinued.
Super Chief operates CHI-LAX in the evening with a first class lounge.
El Capitan operates CHI-LAX in the morning without a first class lounge.
North Coast Hiawatha restored.
James J. Hill Limited operates over Empire Builders route at a 12 hour offshoot.
Twin-City Zephyr operates overnight to MSP from CHI.
Desert Wind is restored, operating as a full service train CHI-SLC-LAX, leaving CHI in the morning.
Pioneer is restored operating CHI-DEN-SEA leaving CHI midday.
California Zephyr remains on its current routing and leaves Chicago in the evening.
