All Aboard Your Amtrak

[PacificStarlight]

As I stit here in health as a teachers assistant, I thought this up. If you could run Amtrak, make all decisions and such, with unlimited funding(but still reasonbly minded).

What would you do? Buy new equipment. What would it look like. New routes, upgraded stations?

For me I would extend Cascades to spokane IN DAYLIGHT. I would also look at trying to remove the school buses from the new talgos.

 

[jebr]

Have every route become at least twice-daily. LD routes would have their second schedule be about 12 hours off from their current schedule to help with some midpoint business.

Restore Desert Wind and Pioneer...also to twice daily.

MSP to KC route. Transfers to SWC, EB, and CZ.

More through ticketing with either Greyhound or Trailways companies so that people could essentially use Greyhound for the beginning/end and transfer to Amtrak for the long hauls.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

The first thing I would do is make absolutely certain there is no way the TSA will ever get near an Amtrak station. The Amtrak Police already does a superior job of keeping the trains safe by using unobtrusive security measures.

 

[crescent2]

Have more than one route from Atlanta.

 

[jsreeves]

Heck with reason...dedicated tracks for all routes.

 

[the_traveler]

Restore the "temporarily suspended" SL-East after all these ## years!

 

[Alexandria Nick]

Very not ambitious:

A second CL that departs DC at about 8 AM. Entirely for selfish reasons.

Crystal City station, connected via enclosed moving walkway to DCA. Its the only airport next to the NERs that doesn't have a stop!

More ambitious:

Acela all the way to Richmond

Unreasonably ambitious:

All sleeper express sections of all LD trains. For instance, a third(!) daily CL that only stops in DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago.

 

[chrsjrcj]

Extend the Palmetto north to Montreal (along the route of the old Montrealer) and south to Miami (on the route of the Silver Meteor). Evening departure from Montreal, morning through the NEC, overnight to Jacksonville, morning through Florida.

Restore the South Wind between Chicago-Indianapolis-Lousiville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Macon-Valdosta-Florida (yes I know Amtrak's South Wind/Floridian went through Alabama, not Atlanta). Extensive upgrades to speed up Chicago to Louisville.

Restore the Floridian between Chicago-Indianapolis-Louisville-Nashille-Birmingham-Mongtommery-Waycross-Florida.

Restore Southern's Royal Palm, but extended north to Toronto. Toronto-Buffalo-Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati-Chattanooga (via Rathole)-Atlanta-Macon-Valdosta-Florida.

New service (Peach State?) between Chicago-Evansville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Savannah. Track and capacity upgrades should allow for a daytime schedule similar to the current Palmetto.

Day train between Atlanta and DC.

And this:

The first thing I would do is make absolutely certain there is no way the TSA will ever get near an Amtrak station. The Amtrak Police already does a superior job of keeping the trains safe by using unobtrusive security measures.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

As I stit here in health as a teachers assistant,

The first think I would do, is to call my buddy over in Education, and have all the Teacher Assistants who are goofing off during class, instead of working, fired. I mean, there has to be something seriously wrong, when a TA can feel so comfortable with their future, to actually publicly brag about not doing their jobs.

 

[jsreeves]

As I stit here in health as a teachers assistant,

The first think I would do, is to call my buddy over in Education, and have all the Teacher Assistants who are goofing off during class, instead of working, fired. I mean, there has to be something seriously wrong, when a TA can feel so comfortable with their future, to actually publicly brag about not doing their jobs.

Jump to conclusions much?

 

[Notelvis]

I would really like to see the concept of 1st class lounge space expanded to all of the long-distance trains.

Perhaps order some new Viewliner Sleepers modeled on the old Seaboard Sun Lounge cars...... 5 bedrooms in one end of the car, a lounge with those double row viewliner windows in the other end. Add one of these cars to each consist for the Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Crescent, Cardinal, and Lake Shore.

You would also need a new generation of lounge cars for the western long-hauls BUT maybe in the meantime the diners converted for 'cross-country-cafe' service could fit the bill.

OK...... expanded long-distance services: I'd like to see, in no particular order -

1) a restored Broadway Limited..... perhaps operating as a section of the Capitol between Chicago and Pittsburgh joined by the transition dormer.

2) A 2nd New York - Atlanta frequency operating overnight NYP - Raleigh, NC and then as a day train Raleigh - Charlotte - Atlanta. Put one of those Viewliner sunlounges on here while you're at it.

3) Separate Tampa and Miami sections of the Silver Service trains..... maybe extend the Palmetto back to Miami and/or Tampa again.

4) A Twin-Cities - Kansas City day train offering connections to/from points west on both the California Zephyr and Southwest Chief.

5) A midday St. Louis - Kansas City train extending from KCY on to Omaha providing connections to/from points west via the California Zephyr.

6) most unlikely of all - a restored Desert Wind diverging from the California Zephyr at Denver and operating via Cheyenne, Ogden, SLC, and Las Vegas.

7) Restore something Jacksonville - New Orleans

8) Additional frequency LAX - San Francisco area.

That's all I can think of for now - but give me time!

 

[leemell]

The first thing I would do is make absolutely certain there is no way the TSA will ever get near an Amtrak station. The Amtrak Police already does a superior job of keeping the trains safe by using unobtrusive security measures.

Minor nit to pick. Amtrak nor any other federal entity have very little control over this by Federal law.

 

[PacificStarlight]

As I stit here in health as a teachers assistant,

The first think I would do, is to call my buddy over in Education, and have all the Teacher Assistants who are goofing off during class, instead of working, fired. I mean, there has to be something seriously wrong, when a TA can feel so comfortable with their future, to actually publicly brag about not doing their jobs.

Im a student who had finished grading all the papers and organizing, I can't exactly get fired from being a freshman.

 

[TimePeace]

As I stit here in health as a teachers assistant,

The first think I would do, is to call my buddy over in Education, and have all the Teacher Assistants who are goofing off during class, instead of working, fired. I mean, there has to be something seriously wrong, when a TA can feel so comfortable with their future, to actually publicly brag about not doing their jobs.

Im a student who had finished grading all the papers and organizing, I can't exactly get fired from being a freshman.

Hahahahah. Good on ya.

To the topic: I'd hire a few more train staff to keep the toilets cleaner/nicer, and I'd get some real food in the cafe cars. And I'd build cars with individual berths in them, and disassociate sleepers with the free meals - everyone plays if they can afford it, and if not, eat something edible in the cafe for less money, or bring their own food.

These changes would apply to all long distance routes.

 

[HoosierStater]

1. Dedicated High Speed Rights-of-Way along the current routes and any new ones I propose below. Electrify the heck out of these.

2. All new, high speed trainsets. With plenty of extras for expanded service.

3. All long distance trains go to at least twice daily, with the schedules set up to maximize the number of stops with daylight boardings in both directions. Additional service would be added in response to demand,

3. All short haul trains (NEC, Empire, Keystone, California, Cascades, Midwest routes) go to 6-12 round trips a day.

4. Restore the Hoosier State (yes, I'm keeping it even with a twice daily Cardinal!) to being the Kentucky Cardinal-- send it on down to Louisville.

5. Restore the Sunset Limited to Jacksonville

6. Reroute the Southwest Chief to serve Phoenix

7. Reroute the CL and LSL to serve Fort Wayne

8. Restore the Desert Wind as Denver-SLC-Las Vegas-LA, with other appropriate stops

9. New short-turn of the Empire Builder Chicago-St. Paul

10. Restore a Floridian-like service Chicago-Indy-Louisville-Nashville-Atlanta-Jacksonville-Miami

11. Expand the Cascades-style customs clearance to all international routes

12. Restore the International Limited Chicago-Detroit-Toronto

13. Tunnel connecting Boston North and Boston South. Instead of extending routes, use a dedicated people mover-type system to bring people between the two stations.

14. Connection between both sides of Chicago Union Station to improve operating flexibility.

15, Route trains to Tampa through St. Petersburg, then back east, thus eliminating the backing maneuvers into/out of Tampa.

16. Additional short haul service networks (a la the one based in Chicago) based in Atlanta, Dallas, and Denver

17. Special promotion: see the country. Get celebrities, tour guides, what have you and offer discount package for a routing of something like Coast Starlight-Empire Builder-Lake Shore Limited (Boston section)-NE Corridor (to NYP)-Silver Service (to Miami, then back to Jacksonville)-Sunset Limited. (Give options to board in various cities.)

 

[Ryan]

New equipment.

Diesel locomotives and lots of them. We're gonna need them for all of the new trains you guys are talking about running.

New Viewliner based coaches (both LD and corridor) and lounges. More sleepers and bags to run two trains on each LD route (including the new or extended ones below).

Superliner III.

Expand the ACS-64 buy to replace every AEM-7 and HHP-8.

Extend the Palmetto back to FL.

Sunset East.

Extend the Pennsy to Chicago (adding sleepers).

Baltimore tunnel replacement.

Stretching the bounds of "reasonable" is the Long Island bypass for NYP-BOS.

Electrification to past Richmond to NPN, NFK and somewhere in Carolina. Hell, extend it to Roanoke too. (or, invest in dual electric diesel locomotives for those destinations)

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

1. Dedicated High Speed Rights-of-Way along the current routes and any new ones I propose below. Electrify the heck out of these.2. All new, high speed trainsets. With plenty of extras for expanded service.

3. All long distance trains go to at least twice daily, with the schedules set up to maximize the number of stops with daylight boardings in both directions. Additional service would be added in response to demand,

3. All short haul trains (NEC, Empire, Keystone, California, Cascades, Midwest routes) go to 6-12 round trips a day.

4. Restore the Hoosier State (yes, I'm keeping it even with a twice daily Cardinal!) to being the Kentucky Cardinal-- send it on down to Louisville.

5. Restore the Sunset Limited to Jacksonville

6. Reroute the Southwest Chief to serve Phoenix

7. Reroute the CL and LSL to serve Fort Wayne

8. Restore the Desert Wind as Denver-SLC-Las Vegas-LA, with other appropriate stops

9. New short-turn of the Empire Builder Chicago-St. Paul

10. Restore a Floridian-like service Chicago-Indy-Louisville-Nashville-Atlanta-Jacksonville-Miami

11. Expand the Cascades-style customs clearance to all international routes

12. Restore the International Limited Chicago-Detroit-Toronto

13. Tunnel connecting Boston North and Boston South. Instead of extending routes, use a dedicated people mover-type system to bring people between the two stations.

14. Connection between both sides of Chicago Union Station to improve operating flexibility.

15, Route trains to Tampa through St. Petersburg, then back east, thus eliminating the backing maneuvers into/out of Tampa.

16. Additional short haul service networks (a la the one based in Chicago) based in Atlanta, Dallas, and Denver

17. Special promotion: see the country. Get celebrities, tour guides, what have you and offer discount package for a routing of something like Coast Starlight-Empire Builder-Lake Shore Limited (Boston section)-NE Corridor (to NYP)-Silver Service (to Miami, then back to Jacksonville)-Sunset Limited. (Give options to board in various cities.)

This is a neat list. What I would add to it is extendlng SL to Miami, not just JAX.

 

[AlanB]

14. Connection between both sides of Chicago Union Station to improve operating flexibility.

There already is a connection between the north & south sides of CUS.

Expand the ACS-64 buy to replace every AEM-7 and HHP-8.

That's already the plan! They're buying 70 of those locomotives to replace the 62 combined AEM-7 & HHP-8's that they currently have. I suspect that they might not immediately retire all the HHP's, leaving some in service just for peaks and ease of maintenance. But regardless, they're buying more electric motors than they currently have, so retiring all of the old ones is possible.

 

[HoosierStater]

AlanB: There is a connection, but just one track, so it's rarely used and not very functional. In use, for both Amtrak and Metra, CUS is two back-to-back terminal stations with common ticketing and retail. I was thinking running several tracks through somehow, either digging below or going around both sides.

Bill, I considered extending the SL south of Jax, but with 6 Silver Service trains in each direction (under my plan), plus some short haul trains running, say, Atlanta-Jacksonville-Miami, Florida's EC would be seeing a good deal of service already. Logistically, if there's going to be a hub of any sort in Florida, it probably needs to be in the northern part, not further south, although the greater Miami, Orlando/Kissimmee, and Tampa areas would all be the end of short haul services, and some sort of E-W link further south would probably be a good idea (if we're still in the ideal network), perhaps roughly paralleling I-4. It just didn't seem necessary to extend the SL to the south. But I wouldn't object to it.

 

[Ryan]

That's good, I had the impression that some of the old motors would still hang around.

I'd still increase the buy to make sure that there were enough around. Running double frequencies of the Silvers, Cardinal, Crescent, Pennsy, etc would require more than just 70.

 

[AlanB]

AlanB: There is a connection, but just one track, so it's rarely used and not very functional. In use, for both Amtrak and Metra, CUS is two back-to-back terminal stations with common ticketing and retail. I was thinking running several tracks through somehow, either digging below or going around both sides.

Actually, Hoosier, there are two tracks that run through on the far east side according to the track diagram that I've got. And while they're not used in revenue service, those tracks see the daily Empire Builder every day, they see the Hiawatha's come and go to the yard, plus I believe that at times even METRA shuttles equipment between the north & south sides. Between the two through tracks, they can only service 3 tracks on the north side of the station, so that does limit their use to some extent.

But then I'm not real sure that there is all that much demand for any type of run through service at CUS.

 

[HoosierStater]

AlanB: There is a connection, but just one track, so it's rarely used and not very functional. In use, for both Amtrak and Metra, CUS is two back-to-back terminal stations with common ticketing and retail. I was thinking running several tracks through somehow, either digging below or going around both sides.

Actually, Hoosier, there are two tracks that run through on the far east side according to the track diagram that I've got. And while they're not used in revenue service, those tracks see the daily Empire Builder every day, they see the Hiawatha's come and go to the yard, plus I believe that at times even METRA shuttles equipment between the north & south sides. Between the two through tracks, they can only service 3 tracks on the north side of the station, so that does limit their use to some extent.

But then I'm not real sure that there is all that much demand for any type of run through service at CUS.

Ok. I was more thinking in terms of having flexibility. Not so much that there's a need for through service in Chicago, but to have it as an option, maybe especially for some short haul high speed lines, if the passenger traffic indicates a large number of people starting in, say, St. Louis, and travelling to Milwaukee. I wouldn't actually start a route using it, but while we were dreaming, having, say, 4-6 tracks which run through CUS as a kind of reserve capacity I think would be good to have.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Restoration of the NCH, LS, DW, BL, NL, Pioneer, Dixie Flagler, SL-East, Texas Zephyr, a MSP-DAL, a KCY-NOL, and double service along the CS! Now THAT'S what I want! And we used to have all these!

 

[Skim]

1. Increase the density in Amtrak's web of service, especially with more short distance lines. Add routes serving mid sized communities: Peoria, Cape Girardeau, Paducah, Madison, Des Moines, etc. In doing so, increase travel options for cities that don't serve as major hubs. Not everyone lives in Chicago or NYC. Travel options for someone in St. Louis or Indy are quite limited.

2. In concurrence with the above poster, add some real food to the cafe cars. Make community seating optional in the dining cars.

3. Invest in improved ventilation, both on trains and older depots. The "Amtrak Smell" is very noticeable, even when trains/stations are empty. It's also quite unnerving to smell another person's food more strongly in coach than one ever would in the average restaurant.

4. Quiet cars available on all routes. Period.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Extend the Palmetto north to Montreal (along the route of the old Montrealer) and south to Miami (on the route of the Silver Meteor). Evening departure from Montreal, morning through the NEC, overnight to Jacksonville, morning through Florida.

Restore the South Wind between Chicago-Indianapolis-Lousiville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Macon-Valdosta-Florida (yes I know Amtrak's South Wind/Floridian went through Alabama, not Atlanta). Extensive upgrades to speed up Chicago to Louisville.

Restore the Floridian between Chicago-Indianapolis-Louisville-Nashille-Birmingham-Mongtommery-Waycross-Florida.

Restore Southern's Royal Palm, but extended north to Toronto. Toronto-Buffalo-Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati-Chattanooga (via Rathole)-Atlanta-Macon-Valdosta-Florida.

New service (Peach State?) between Chicago-Evansville-Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Savannah. Track and capacity upgrades should allow for a daytime schedule similar to the current Palmetto.

Day train between Atlanta and DC.

And this:

The first thing I would do is make absolutely certain there is no way the TSA will ever get near an Amtrak station. The Amtrak Police already does a superior job of keeping the trains safe by using unobtrusive security measures.

I am interested in your thought about a " Peach State". It so happens that there was once a very fine streamliner called the Georgian which ran overnight from Chicago to Atlanta via Evansville,Nashville and Chattanooga. A typical schedule was to leave Chicago 4 pm CST arrive Atlanta the next morning at 8.35 am EST. The trip from Atlanta to Savannah would have added about six hours . The Georgian also had a section which ran from ST Louis to Atlanta, added on in Evansville.

This train was widely marketed as being a business persons schedule, i.e sleep and eat on the train, no hotel

Chicago to Atlanta and Chicago to Florida are really two different markets and it would be so neat to have them back,having grown up with them. Selfishness aside we sorely need these markets today for themselves and also for making connections and not just for poor little me.