New routes?

[MeisterEric]

Whatever happened to the "Pioneer Route"? (Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake City, Denver, etc)...

I remember they were studying the feasibility of re-starting that route, but i never did catch what the final decision is.....

On a sidenote, i think it would be awesome if Amtrak would have a train connecting the "California Zephyr" & "Southwest Chief",

like between Denver and La Junta or Trinidad, via Colorado Springs.

 

[Ocala Mike]

You might find this useful:

http://www.pioneertrain.com/

Probably less chance of the Pioneer coming back than the Sunset east of New Orleans.

Ocala Mike

 

[the_traveler]

Union Pacific wants too much ransom (er - compensation) for "needed repairs" to restart the Pioneer!

 

[Gratt]

Amtrak's final decision is basically the same when any talk of a "new route" is discussed.

If you push us we will issue a report showing our analysis on what needs to be done, how much it will cost, and what will be the amount to cover annual operating expenses.

At that point Amtrak basically says "the ball is in your court to raise the money" and goes back to what it was doing before.

 

[Mackensen]

A Pioneer restoration is dead on arrival. The best-case projected farebox recovery was 31.7%, which is simply godawful.

 

[George Harris]

Medium length stuff has a much better chance, particularly where the track is in reasonably good shape so that it does not cost an arm and a leg to get decent run times. There is probably a better chance of getting additional frequencies on existing routes. For these the existing fixed facilities, stations such as they are, platforms and such like are already in place.

See the discussion that had a good bit on extending one of the Illinois trains to Memphis. That one approaches being a no-brainer.

A reasonable addition would be extending one of the cross Missouri trains to Omaha. One more would be a resurrection of the Twin Star Rocket with some route adjustment. It would be faster to use the ex MKT between KC and Dallas. Do a car shuffle at Kansas City so that you get through MSP service to Los Angeles and a second Chicago to Texas frequency. Main problem with this one is that it is all UPRR track.