Additional frequency on Northeast Regional trains?

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adamj023

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Apr 1, 2015
Messages
277
Does the Northeast Regional have the ability for more trains with greater frequency of service and more trains to stop at certain routes along the route? I know there is an RFP out for Amfleet I replacements so I was hoping this could lead to more frequent service and faster trains.
 
Does the Northeast Regional have the ability for more trains with greater frequency of service and more trains to stop at certain routes along the route? I know there is an RFP out for Amfleet I replacements so I was hoping this could lead to more frequent service and faster trains.

Are you talking about now or in the future, when more equipment is available?

As of now, they are constrained by the current numbers in certain locations. If you take from one area, you may impact another. With the current trains operating greater distances, that reduces the ability to short turn equipment and add frequencies. They recently added another regional train on Sundays and are trying to add more service to Bos by extending trains that currently terminate in NYP.

As for making more stops, they have added more stops to some trains. However, you are limited by traffic patterns. There is a lot of other traffic on the NEC and you'd have to make sure there is a slot for the train to stop without impacting other trains. Additionally, you have to make sure there is a cushion for more stops because if you are a little late, you may make yourself later.

One only needs to look at 93 to see how 15 minutes at NYP can lead to 50 minutes at FBG.
 
Amtrak has multiple different route schedules for Northeastern Corridor trains which is confusing on its website. Obviously you can enter the route pair and get all trains to that area so the full schedules seem to be less relevant.
 
There are multiple schedules, yes, but if you notice, many of the same trains are on each.

One schedule is only NYP-WAS, another is BOS/SPG-WAS, another is NYP-Virginia. Plus Amtrak needs to schedule not to interfere with the various commuter railroads that also operate on the same tracks. These include MBTA, Metro North, NJT, SEPTA, MARC, VRE and others.
 
There are so many bottlenecks in the WAS-BOS corridor that limit the number of potential trains. Whether it's creaky old bridges with speed limitations or those limited to X trains per day per contract with the Coast Guard, or ancient two-track tunnels and bridges, there's no way to add even one more train without impacting the reliability of others. Throw in the abundance of commuter trains from the agencies the_traveler indicated above, and in 10 words or less...the NEC is at or above capacity already.

At least, during the weekday, Amtrak has a train each way NYP-WAS about every 30 minutes. As for adding more stops along the way, that's the realm of the commuter agencies, not Amtrak. There must be enough Amtrak passengers, however, for a few trains to stop at Metropark, Princeton Junction, and a couple of other small stations along the way.

New equipment would be nice. But until more of the bottlenecks are removed, there can't be any increase in train frequencies.
 
Notwithstanding all the passionate claims made here to the contrary Amtrak is actually more rolling stock availability limited than slot restricted at present, on the NEC. It is at capacity in the two or so morning and evening rush hours. For the rest of the day it is really not at capacity yet. Not even between Newark and New York, which is the most heavily used double track segment on Amtrak.
 
Notwithstanding all the passionate claims made here to the contrary Amtrak is actually more rolling stock availability limited than slot restricted at present, on the NEC. It is at capacity in the two or so morning and evening rush hours. For the rest of the day it is really not at capacity yet. Not even between Newark and New York, which is the most heavily used double track segment on Amtrak.

Amtrak should acquire added trains for such, as I am sure they can profit off of it, perhaps buy some used train cars or repurpose some existing ones that may not be used in addition to the added new train cars they are looking to purchase.
 
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