What is with Dunkirk, Ashtaabula, Cleveland Airport, etc on your schedule? Are you proposing to add new station stops on the route? All of which would slow down an already barely viable trip time for a day train from NYP to Pontiac. Adding new stations costs significant money.I honestly think routing it via the Waterlevel Route via Albany and Buffalo would be the best choice. The question is what slot would work. We have identified that the Maple Leaf as a train that it could run as a section. But lets make a schedule up for the route west of Buffalo. Bold times are in the afternoon per normal timetable practice.
TR 463
DP Buffalo-315
DP Dunkirk 347
DP Erie 515
DP Ashtabula, OH 540
....
The times aren't that bad, I could see it being a very good service, and very Palmetto like. And I used google maps and looked for cities that are similar to Selma, Dillion, and Wilson that are only stops on the Palmetto but not the Silver Meteor. What do you guys think
The LSL has a scheduled 14 hours and 15 minutes trip time from NYP to TOL. That trip time includes an extra 1/2+ hour layover at Albany for connecting to the Boston section. The LSL takes about 30 minutes longer (on the official schedule) for NYP to BUF than the Empire service trains so that is padding that a NYP to BUF to TOL to DET-PNT train won't have. Let's be optimistic and say with the funded improvements on the Empire corridor, the NYP-ALB-TOL trip time can be cut of 13:20. Then add 80 minutes for TOL-DET, then another hour for DET to PNT. That is 15 hours and 40 minutes which is pushing it for a day train which needs a buffer for recovery time for a really late train in addition to crew rest and time to service the train.
One problem with running the NYP-TOL train to Detroit and Pontiac is that it skips Dearborn, Ann Arbor, and Kalamazoo. all of which currently have more passengers than DET. However, Michigan is working on a Ann Arbor to Detroit commuter train service. so the commuter train could provide connecting service to Dearborn and Ann Arbor at Detroit for the Pontiac to NYP train.
As for routing 2 Wolverines to Toledo, remember the goal of the Michigan corridor is to provide Chicago-Detroit service. A PNT-DET to NYP day train would provide the direct Cleveland and east coast service that most would use over connecting to the CL & LSL at Toledo. Maybe re-routing one Wolverine from CHI to Dearborn to TOL would work, but with only 3 daily Wolverines that would cut DET to only 2 direct trains to CHI. Running one Wolverine slot to TOL as a restored Lake Cities is easier if additional daily Wolverines were to be added.
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