Best Name for Northeast Service

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Best Name for Northeast Service

  • Acela Regional

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Regional/(Amtrak's Regional Service)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Northeast Direct

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
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Viewliner

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What name do you think would/would've worked best for the NEC trains?

I'm split between Northeast Direct and Regional (I don't like "Regional" alone, but do like it said as "Amtrak's Regional Service")
 
Actually, starting in March/April the Acela Regional name will be abolished and all conventional trains will be called Regionals. This comes from Gene Poon at Trainorders. I like Regional, Northeast Direct was okay too but sounds more like a commuter train.
 
Amfleet said:
Actually, starting in March/April the Acela Regional name will be abolished and all conventional trains will be called Regionals. This comes from Gene Poon at Trainorders. I like Regional, Northeast Direct was okay too but sounds more like a commuter train.
I know, I posted it on the forums on This Page.
 
I voted "other"----not that I have a suggestion for what that "other" might be. Just that none of those already around really seem to "capture" it.
 
I agree - even though I have never travelled on the Notheast corridor, none of their names seem too great. The "Capitols" and "Pacific Surfliners" in California seem better than plain "Regionals". Someone needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a better name.
 
Bill Haithcoat said:
I voted "other"----not that I have a suggestion for what that "other" might be. Just that none of those already around really seem to "capture" it.
"Other" would take in all those individual names the Northeast Corridor trains used to have. In a sense, I miss them, but obviously with the equipment used interchangeably between each train, no Northeast Corridor train has a distinct flavor or identity that would make a name worthwhile. Remember it was not too long ago we had names like Congressional, Colonial, Merchants Limited, Chesapeake, Charter Oak, Virginian, Times Square, Garden State, New Yorker, and anything else they could come up with. NortheastDirect was an attempt to make these trains more generic (as they probably should be) but then turning them into Acela Regionals was a big mistake that I questioned from the day it was announced.
 
I’d like to see the branding of the through NEC services differentiated from the more local Clocker service, and some suggestion made that these are not slow trains. Simply calling them “Regional” tells me nothing about the train. A nonsense name like “Acela”, over time, becomes associated and defined by the service, but a name like “Regional” means “regional”, nothing more.

I would tag each of the trains with the name “Express”, and then would prefix the name with a description of the end point. My suggestions:

NB trains terminating in New York: Manhattan Express Service

NB trains terminating in Boston: New England Express Service

SB trains terminating in Washington: Capital Express Service

SB trains terminating in Virginia: Dominion Express Service
 
Non sir, no sir, no sir. There was enough confusion when the word Acela was in Acela Reigonal. If you put express in you will just run into the same problem.
 
For us railfans it's cool to have seperate train names, but that can cause confusion to passengers and most likely they won't care or notice. Regionals in fine for now, at least the Keystone, Clocker, and Empire names were kept.
 
Amfleet said:
For us railfans it's cool to have seperate train names, but that can cause confusion to passengers and most likely they won't care or notice. Regionals in fine for now, at least the Keystone, Clocker, and Empire names were kept.
I agree, everything was fine under Northeast Direct for the most part, there were individual Train Names and the general branding, plus it had its own scheme.
 
I do not think it is cool to have separate train names, in fact I think it is stupid when those names have no meaning. I think Amtrak has hung on to those old names about 25 years too long.

But, if we are going to name a service at all (and airlines, for example, do not), then I think the name should serve a marketing purpose. It should tell the public what the train is, and if possible, where it goes. Surfliners, Capitals, Cascades: these are all descriptive names of classes of service. They work. They suggest a pride in the locale of the service and a unique branding. Is “Regional” the best Amtrak can come up with for service in the northeast? Isn’t there some aspect of the northeast that can be descriptively applied to make this class of train service seem special? Are the Amtrak marketing people that unimaginative (I’ve dealt B-B with them and, yes, they are that unimaginative). Even the old “Northeast Direct” was better, although not much.

By the way, battalion51, one “No Sir” would have sufficed. Last time I checked, I am entitled to an opinion.
 
OK, that was a little Apollo 13 reference there, that wasn't picked up on. The scene in which they are discussing turn around options for the craft, John gets up and says, "No sir, no sir, no sir. The only engine powerful enough to turn that ship around is the Service Module engine. You light that thing up, it could blow the whole works." Sorry if that was misinterperted PRR 60.
 
That always has and always will be one of my favorite movies of all time. I still watch that movie every time I stay home sick (or "sick" as it may be sometimes) from school.
 
No problem, battalion51. That one flew over my head at about 39,000 feet.

That is a GREAT movie. "The Right Stuff” was all Hollywood, and lame. Apollo 13 was as real as they could make it.

My favorite line from Apollo 13 was when Jim Lovell’s mother (played by Ron Howard’s real mother) says to her scared granddaughter (and this quote is rough from memory), “If they could get a washing machine into space, my Jimmy could find a way to land it.” That’s great.
 
Isn't it kind of funny how this turned from a would be insult to a listing of our favorite movies? :lol:
 
I love space movies; "Contact", "October Sky", "Star Wars". Nothing however beats seeing a Space Shuttle launch live. It's amazing!!!

My other favorite movies are "Ice Storm", "Austin Powers", and "Monty Pithon the Meaning of Life"
 
Alan, I think we should open a forum on movies, because this topic is moving well.
 
Then you must have loved "Space Camp" staring Leah Thompson.
I think I know what your talking about. Is that the one where all the kids go into the Space Shuttle for a test burn, but the robot overrides the computers and sends them into space?
Maybe we good open a forum for general discussion like this.
 
Yes I agree Space Flight is interesting, in fact the camp I'm working at this summer has a Rocketry Program. I'm definitely working in that program, especially since I've known the head since the 3rd Grade when I started building model rockets. I can't wait for the 4 launches and Dinner afterwards. :rolleyes: B) :)
 
When I was 9 me and my friends would always go to a small air field near my house and launch model rockets. It was a blast, but most of them got destroyed on the way down. I miss the good ol' days!
 
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