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Anderson

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Where'd the Piedmont Timetable go for May, 2011? It's no longer listed on the Silver timetable, and I can't find another table for it.
 
No, that just spat out the same Atlantic Coast timetable. The Carolinian/Piedmont click-on link just spits out the latest version of T04 (the Atlantic Coast timetable), which doesn't list the Piedmonts.
 
They're switching back to three trains each way every day, as of Monday. For some reason the Piedmont schedule for next week isn't yet on the state's site either (bytrain.org). I would assume that it will be posted there first. But for what it's worth, the employees on the train seem to think that CSX is on schedule to finish track work so that the schedule will actually go back on time, so the schedule should be back to three a day each way.

You can get train times for next week's trains on amtrak.com. But I think the delay in posting the timetable is that they're proposing slight changes to a couple of the times. I'm pretty sure a conductor showed me the proposed timetable when I was on the train last week, and it didn't deviate much from the old times. But I also think it wasn't exactly what is now showing up on amtrak.com for next week's times. Either way, unless you're making some connection that wouldn't work if you're off by 15 minutes, it shouldn't be a problem--and if you are, you probably don't want to be relying on the train to be perfectly on-time anyway.
 
I would doubt that! The popularity is HIGH for the Piedmont and Amtrak and the State of NC wouldn't cut the Second Piedmont train. Ridership SKYROCKETED! See this topic for Piedmont ridership numbers. As you can see that is why they wouldn't cut it. If they are switching back to one Piedmont a day and the Carolinian then Amtrak is going to have to deal with extreme overcrowding. Just think of how much sense that doesn't make.
 
Acela150 said:
I would doubt that! The popularity is HIGH for the Piedmont and Amtrak and the State of NC wouldn't cut the Second Piedmont train. Ridership SKYROCKETED! See this topic for Piedmont ridership numbers. As you can see that is why they wouldn't cut it. If they are switching back to one Piedmont a day and the Carolinian then Amtrak is going to have to deal with extreme overcrowding. Just think of how much sense that doesn't make.
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Who said anything about cutting a train? :unsure:
 
Gray said:
They're switching back to three trains each way every day, as of Monday. For some reason the Piedmont schedule for next week isn't yet on the state's site either (bytrain.org). I would assume that it will be posted there first. But for what it's worth, the employees on the train seem to think that CSX is on schedule to finish track work so that the schedule will actually go back on time, so the schedule should be back to three a day each way.

You can get train times for next week's trains on amtrak.com. But I think the delay in posting the timetable is that they're proposing slight changes to a couple of the times. I'm pretty sure a conductor showed me the proposed timetable when I was on the train last week, and it didn't deviate much from the old times. But I also think it wasn't exactly what is now showing up on amtrak.com for next week's times. Either way, unless you're making some connection that wouldn't work if you're off by 15 minutes, it shouldn't be a problem--and if you are, you probably don't want to be relying on the train to be perfectly on-time anyway.
Click to expand...
Three trains each way every day: Is that Piedmont, Carolinian, and Silver or 2 Piedmont and Carolinian?
 
Anderson said:
Gray said:
They're switching back to three trains each way every day, as of Monday. For some reason the Piedmont schedule for next week isn't yet on the state's site either (bytrain.org). I would assume that it will be posted there first. But for what it's worth, the employees on the train seem to think that CSX is on schedule to finish track work so that the schedule will actually go back on time, so the schedule should be back to three a day each way.

You can get train times for next week's trains on amtrak.com. But I think the delay in posting the timetable is that they're proposing slight changes to a couple of the times. I'm pretty sure a conductor showed me the proposed timetable when I was on the train last week, and it didn't deviate much from the old times. But I also think it wasn't exactly what is now showing up on amtrak.com for next week's times. Either way, unless you're making some connection that wouldn't work if you're off by 15 minutes, it shouldn't be a problem--and if you are, you probably don't want to be relying on the train to be perfectly on-time anyway.
Click to expand...
Three trains each way every day: Is that Piedmont, Carolinian, and Silver or 2 Piedmont and Carolinian?
Click to expand...
2 Piedmont and Carolinian.
 
Anderson said:
Three trains each way every day: Is that Piedmont, Carolinian, and Silver or 2 Piedmont and Carolinian?
Click to expand...
Silver Star is not part of the Piedmont/Carolinian service. It does not go to Greensboro and Charlotte.

Similarly even though the Crescent goes to Greensboro and Charlotte, it does not go to Raleigh, and hence it is not part of the Piedmont/Carolinian service.

But of course both of those connect to Piedmont/Carolinian service
 
AlanB said:
Anderson said:
Gray said:
They're switching back to three trains each way every day, as of Monday.
Click to expand...
Three trains each way every day: Is that Piedmont, Carolinian, and Silver or 2 Piedmont and Carolinian?
Click to expand...
2 Piedmont and Carolinian.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm sorry I wasn't clear. To clarify for Acela150, they've been running an abbreviated schedule for 10 weeks. Monday through Thursday, they've only run one Carolinian and one Piedmont in each direction, eliminating the midday trains while crews performed track work. Thursday is supposed to be the last day of that work. On Friday, there will be three Piedmont/Carolinian trains in each direction, and this should remain beyond the weekend. The only issue may be a slight change in the timetable.

Though for what it's worth, despite the train's high popularity (especially since the frequency increased last summer), the state legislature is now controlled by Republicans who have been regularly freaking out about the possibility of the state improving train service. They tried to float a bill that would have forced the state to give back the stimulus funding that will make possible a frequency of four trains a day each way, but they realized that couldn't withstand a veto.

They now have a provision in the budget that would ban the Department of Transportation from providing free drinks on the trains other than water, just to be petty. This important provision would effectively just force the DOT to remove coffee machines in the cafe cars. Now that they're installed, I can't imagine that these machines cost much to operate. But like I said, this pettiness seems to know no bounds...
 
VentureForth said:
Of course, they could hire a union cafe worker to stand by the machine and dole it out for a buck a cup and perhaps recoup 25% of his salary...
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That's the ridiculous part. The NC DOT actually found a cheap way to run a cafe car, by providing vending machines for snacks and soda and providing water and free coffee from a coffee machine. Some state legislator heard from someone that they were providing free stuff and couldn't stand it, so now he wants to micromanage something as minor as this. They need to just let the Rail Division run the trains, but I guess they can't accept that it's possible to run them well and at low cost.
 
And I bet this "Public Servant" is Serving Without Pay and Benefits just like All the T-Pubs that went to Washington to Undo "Obama Care" and the First Thing they wanted to know is "Where do We Sign Up for Health Insurance aka "Socialized Medicine??!!!" :wacko: These Idiots make Nuts like Ross Perot,Donald Trump, Michelle Bachman and Sister Sarah sound Almost Reasonable! :eek: Someone maybe can tell us why all of a Sudden they are so Anti-Passenger Rail??? :help:

Whatever happened to "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It??
 
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If it ain't broke, tinker with it until it breaks. How else are we going to employ repairmen in our districts?
 
Green Maned Lion said:
If it ain't broke, tinker with it until it breaks. How else are we going to employ repairmen in our districts?
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This reminds me of an old saying that in government, you find all of the problems that don't exist and then misapply the wrong solutions to them.

With that said, would the free drink issue impact the BC "perk" drink, or could Amtrak "include" that in the fare? (Actually, in that vein, Amtrak could conceivably redefine the basic fare on that route as "includes coffee")
 
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Anderson said:
With that said, would the free drink issue impact the BC "perk" drink, or could Amtrak "include" that in the fare? (Actually, in that vein, Amtrak could conceivably redefine the basic fare on that route as "includes coffee")
Click to expand...

You know, come to think of it, this might be what it's aimed at. According to the reporter, it would actually ban providing free drinks or newspapers.

In that case it makes even less sense, because people are clearly paying extra for those things. Plus BC is only available on the Carolinian, not the Piedmont trains.
 
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