Gettin exciting around here!

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tubaallen

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Nov 18, 2002
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You know, I hadn't even thought about mentioning it here, but I am getting sort of excited. The Chicago to St. Louis leg is getting pretty close to being a high-speed corridor. Apparently they have actually several miles of it done...they just haven't adjusted the schedule yet, or started running public trains on it. However, last October, there was a special press/politician train from here (Normal, IL) to Lexington, IL. Just a 10 mile stretch, but it got up to 109 mph!!! Exciting! It's great....I live just a couple blocks from the Bloomington/Normal train station, and I have a scanner. In fact, I walk right past the train station, and over the tracks on my way to campus. On the scanner last fall I was hearing all kinds of action on there. They were running a train with 2 horizons and an amfleet lounge (which as I understand it, has all kinds of video hooked up to it for the guests to see what's happening in the cab, and down the tracks, and so forth). There was a genesis on each end too....#58 and #59, I believe. What excitement!!!!!! It might actually happen!
 
I've ridden on this stretch of track, and it needs to have its speed upgraded. There's not a lot between St. Louis and Chicago. What's the speed that they plan on running over this corridor? Is it 100 MPH, or are they shooting for 110?
 
EmpireBuilderFan said:
I've ridden on this stretch of track, and it needs to have its speed upgraded. There's not a lot between St. Louis and Chicago. What's the speed that they plan on running over this corridor? Is it 100 MPH, or are they shooting for 110?
I believe that they are shooting for 110 MPH, the max speed of the current equipment used on that corridor. That's why the test train hit 109, unfortunately the stretch of track that they were testing on was rather short. Therefore they didn't have too much time to pick up speed, before needing to back off.

However it was a major step in the right direction. :)
 
Yep....AlanB is right....the goal is 110 for about 80% of the stretch between CHI and STL, however, only about half or less of it is supposed to be running in the year....the other half is expected by 2010.
 
Take a look at the running time between Chicago and Joliet. 37 miles in over an hour. The same is true between Alton and St, Louis, a similar distance. The high speed track stretches from Dwight Illinois to Springfield, a distance of about 120 miles. So 110 mph running would lop about an hour of the schedule, excluding time for stops, and slow running south of the Normal station.
 
You're right, but eventually, as I understand it, they want to even make the Metra territory (to Joliet) high-speed as well. They eventually want to turn the CHI-STL trip from 5.5 hours to 3.5 hours. Sweet!!!
 
How is the funding for that project going? I know that down here our HSR is having a hard time getting off the ground since a freakin Bush doesn't like trains. :angry:
 
Funding is alright. To my understanding, over half of it is already being used. The other half is to come later...not sure if it still needs to be voted on or what. It helps a lot that we usually are a democratic state. But it was voted on by Illinois citizens. Also, I believe there is an agreement between the state and the Fed gov't, that they will match funds, or something like that. Also, I believe Amtrak is putting SOME funds into it (though I'm sure not anything like the gov't).
 
tubaallen said:
You know, I hadn't even thought about mentioning it here, but I am getting sort of excited. The Chicago to St. Louis leg is getting pretty close to being a high-speed corridor. Apparently they have actually several miles of it done...they just haven't adjusted the schedule yet, or started running public trains on it. However, last October, there was a special press/politician train from here (Normal, IL) to Lexington, IL. Just a 10 mile stretch, but it got up to 109 mph!!! Exciting! It's great....I live just a couple blocks from the Bloomington/Normal train station, and I have a scanner. In fact, I walk right past the train station, and over the tracks on my way to campus. On the scanner last fall I was hearing all kinds of action on there. They were running a train with 2 horizons and an amfleet lounge (which as I understand it, has all kinds of video hooked up to it for the guests to see what's happening in the cab, and down the tracks, and so forth). There was a genesis on each end too....#58 and #59, I believe. What excitement!!!!!! It might actually happen!
This is somewhat out of order :D , but I am glad you brought this up. My girlfriend and I go to St. Louis about 2 times a year. We flew once, took the train once, and drove once. Amtrak's current schedule make's it impossible to do this trip in one night and meet with our friends. For example, the meeting is usually at 2 PM on Sunday, and ends about 4. Of course, the last train out of St. Louis is at about 2:40 p.M. We can't go down to St. Louis because the train arrives at about 2 p.m., thus we miss half of the meeting even if we are on time. In general, Amtrak's schedule to St. Louis stinks, and the horizon equipment stinks, and usually the fare on 21 and 22 is higher.

With high speed service, I bet it will be possible to do one night trips to these meetings by rail. There has been talk of using Talgo equipment on this route, if that is the case, the train would be first choice every time.
 
I wish they would have just used Talgo equipment on the NEC. Then maybe we wouldn't have all these equipment failures. The only thing I would see that we would possibly need from Bombardier is the Acela type power cars. With that they could have been able to create service to Newport News with a diesel, and not have had to electrify New Haven-Boston because we could purchase a Jet Train type locomotive or put a pair of Genesis engines on either end.
 
battalion51 said:
The only thing I would see that we would possibly need from Bombardier is the Acela type power cars. With that they could have been able to create service to Newport News with a diesel, and not have had to electrify New Haven-Boston because we could purchase a Jet Train type locomotive or put a pair of Genesis engines on either end.
Nope, that wouldn't have worked. The new Bombardier jet engine is still a diesel engine. It would have violated the no diesel in New York's Penn station. At present, Bombardier does not have a jet engine that can run on either third rail or overhead catenary.

So not electrifying the NEC from New Haven to Boston would have required two engine changes, one in either DC or Philly coming out of Virginia, and one in New Haven. That's not practical nor logical for a train that's supposed to be competative with an airplane, and traveling at 150 MPH.
 
Quality-wise, I agree, we could've used Talgo, but the main thing is the electrification benefits not only Acela, but all trains to Boston now. It would be nice to one day see electrification to Ricmond and/or Newport News if not all the way to Miami :rolleyes: and some direct Service to Portland, ME (Possibly electrified)

Getting back to the subject, other than quality (and possibly) capacity, Acela fulfills most of what we expected, hopefully Gunn can one day secure funding to improve speeds on the NEC.
 
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