Which Route has the roughest trackage?

[leemell]

Longest most memorable awful track for me has been those stretches as mentioned on the Empire Builder. The second were those scary "lurches" the CZ makes. I have not a clue as to what causes them, but as someone mentioned it was surprising to me that with that forceful jolting sideways the cars didn't derail. I hear the Cardinal is bad in places but haven't ridden that. I take the City frequently and yes there are some crossings that raise and fall rather abruptly, but I never really found the ride to be anything way out of the ordinary.. The Lakeshore may have been really rough but the bedroom was banging around so noisily I really didn't pay much attention to the track.. Smoothness would seem to be rare, but the CZ going towards denver the night before used to be like gliding on a lake. Don't know about the past year or so.

Larry

I'll go along with the others on the EB. It was just awful in N. Dakota, a night, I swore to myself that the car was going over on its side.

 

[Guest]

I havent noticed that the EB in ND was that rough the three times I rode that route (it was a little bouncy but not as much as the SWC in W. Kansas) perhaps it has to do with the flooding that occurs and the terrible winters up that way?Also could it be that a bedroom vs. a roomeette vs. coach could come into play as well as whether or not one was in the SEA section sleepers (front of train) vs. PDX sleeper (rear of the train??) :unsure:

 

[the_traveler]

Also could it be that a bedroom vs. a roomeette vs. coach could come into play as well as whether or not one was in the SEA section sleepers (front of train) vs. PDX sleeper (rear of the train??) :unsure:

Not really. A couple of years ago, I was in both a bedroom (one way) and a roomette (the other way) in the PDX section (rear of the EB). This May, I was in a roomette in the SEA section (front of the train). Both were rough thru ND!

 

[Big Iron]

I'd say the Cardinal in parts of VA and WV it's bad but it's awful in Indiana. I was eating breakfast and it was so rough that I almost fell when moving from the Diner-Lite to my Roomette.

Steve

I would agree with you on the Cardinal in VA... the section of the Cardinal that runs on the Buckingham Branch Railroad was the roughest section of track I have ever ridden on.

I have to pile on the Cardinal, the jointed track section on the Buckingham Branch. I had the distinct pleasure of standing on the open platform of a Horizon coach trailing the sleeper listening to the clickty-clack. Wonderful.

 

[GoldenSpike]

for me the roughest was the Lake Shore Limited between Chicago and Buffalo. It was impossible to sleep at night except when it stopped for a station or to wait for another train. Second worst is the Empire Builder across the Dakotas over night.

For present-day Amtrak, I vote for the Empire Builder between Fargo and Grand Forks. How track on such flat land can be so rough is beyond me. The worst track all-time for me was St. Paul to Chicago in the early 80s. I swear that the Milwaukee Road hadn't spent a dime on track maintenance for decades on that line.

2nd the motion!

Reminds me of a washboard.

 

[domefoamer]

On my ride on the Cardinal this spring, at lunch on the second eastbound day in VA, the track seemed awful. (Unless you like that sort of thing, which I kinda do. It's certainly powerful, seat-of-the-pants evidence that you're on a train.) I was eating a salad, which was slightly adventurous as I aimed the fork at my ever-moving mouth. But when I left the diner-lite/cafe car for my coach seat, the rails immediately smoothed out, leading me to think the problem was above the wheels, not below them. moral- you shouldn't judge the track quality from the perspective of one car only.

 

[Rob_C]

Excellent points about the car ride quality vs the track quality. However, LAX to FUL repeatedly takes the cake. It's half an hour best spent in your seat! From there through Arizona on the SWC was incredibly smooth. The Surfliners also get quite smooth after FUL.

Rob

 

[spacecadet]

The last time I rode the LSL, which was in 2003, I was nearly thrown out of bed several times overnight. Thank God for those safety nets.

The last time I rode the Acela Express to Boston was no picnic either in spots, surprisingly. The one part of the route where the train really hits 150mph was pretty bad, lots of lurching and the feeling of almost going airborne. It was actually a little scary.

I've actually ridden the Japanese shinkansen several times now and it is *much* smoother than the Acela Express at speed. No idea if that's the trains, the tracks, or a combination of both. But you never hear about Japanese trains derailing because of problems with track geometry or maintenance, which does happen here fairly often (though it seems like less recently).

 

[VentureForth]

I've actually ridden the Japanese shinkansen several times now and it is *much* smoother than the Acela Express at speed. No idea if that's the trains, the tracks, or a combination of both. But you never hear about Japanese trains derailing because of problems with track geometry or maintenance, which does happen here fairly often (though it seems like less recently).

The all-concrete ties have a lot to do with that, but so does the rolling stock. Last time I was there, I took the 500-Series Shinkansen and it was smooth as silk. Took the 700 series home and it was a LOT rougher. The N700 should be way better.

 

[spacecadet]

The all-concrete ties have a lot to do with that, but so does the rolling stock. Last time I was there, I took the 500-Series Shinkansen and it was smooth as silk. Took the 700 series home and it was a LOT rougher. The N700 should be way better.

Never ridden the 500 (they're all retired now) but I rode both the 700 and N700 on my round trip last month and didn't really notice any difference in ride quality. Both were a lot smoother than the Acela Express route.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I've actually ridden the Japanese shinkansen several times now and it is *much* smoother than the Acela Express at speed.

I've found this to be true even when the AE is running substantially slower than its top speed.

 

[VT Hokie]

The last time I rode the Acela Express to Boston was no picnic either in spots, surprisingly. The one part of the route where the train really hits 150mph was pretty bad, lots of lurching and the feeling of almost going airborne. It was actually a little scary.

Huh, I wonder if it was more the suspension on your train than the track. I rode aboard the Acela Express recently and it was pretty smooth. Here's a video clip I took...

 

[LA Resident]

The last time I rode the Acela Express to Boston was no picnic either in spots, surprisingly. The one part of the route where the train really hits 150mph was pretty bad, lots of lurching and the feeling of almost going airborne. It was actually a little scary.

Huh, I wonder if it was more the suspension on your train than the track. I rode aboard the Acela Express recently and it was pretty smooth. Here's a video clip I took...

Heck, I was a grad student in Japan from 1976-79 and rode the Shinkansen all the time and it was smoother then than the Acela today. Ditto for the German National Railway's Sprinter between Frankfurt and Berlin, which runs at 180 mph.

But to be fair, the European and Japanese trackage doesn't carry freight trains so it's probably easier to maintain. That being said, let's be honest, the European and Asian nations have made a national commitment to good passenger rail service.

Given Amtrak's constant battles with Congress, with small-minded state governments, and private railroads and on and on and on, the trackage in general is more than acceptable. The Acela is a good example of a line improved enough in bits and pieces to even allow for the equipment.

 

[spacecadet]

Huh, I wonder if it was more the suspension on your train than the track. I rode aboard the Acela Express recently and it was pretty smooth. Here's a video clip I took...

Or they might have just fixed it. Your video definitely looks smoother than when I took this train. I don't think you'd have even gotten much out of a video I might have taken on this train, it would have just been all over the place. But this wasn't really recent, it was a couple of years ago.

Edit: whoa, just re-read my blog post from my Acela trip and it was 2005! So yeah, some time ago. Most likely they just straightened these tracks out since then.

 

[Todd]

I would have to say that the section from the WA/BC border through Castle Rock on the Seattle - Vancouver, BC run is by far the worst. The train only runs at about 10 miles per hour, and even then it feels as if the train may derail. It is a relatively short section, maybe a couple miles, but it is in horrible shape!

 

[Todd]

Oops. I meant White Rock BC (not Castle Rock)

 

[WMJ_NJ]

I remember two routes that were especially bad. Leaving Toledo and heading to NY on both the Capital Ltd and the Lake Shore I remember thet track being so bad I thought we were going to derail.

Southbound from NJ to Florida was always bad in the Carolina's at night. Either they worked on the track or we took the other track down last time because it was vastly improved. On several trips I remember being woke up because I was thrown against the retaining straps.

Bill

 

[Devil's Advocate]

That being said, let's be honest, the European and Asian nations have made a national commitment to good passenger rail service. Given Amtrak's constant battles with Congress, with small-minded state governments, and private railroads and on and on and on, the trackage in general is more than acceptable. The Acela is a good example of a line improved enough in bits and pieces to even allow for the equipment.

I still can't believe how lowly the infrastructure of the world's foremost "superpower" can be. While other countries with economies far smaller than ours routinely eclipse us we just keep falling further and further behind. What is wrong with us? And we can't just say our government, because our representatives are sourced from the same pool of social indifference.

 

[dlagrua]

That being said, let's be honest, the European and Asian nations have made a national commitment to good passenger rail service. Given Amtrak's constant battles with Congress, with small-minded state governments, and private railroads and on and on and on, the trackage in general is more than acceptable. The Acela is a good example of a line improved enough in bits and pieces to even allow for the equipment.

I still can't believe how lowly the infrastructure of the world's foremost "superpower" can be. While other countries with economies far smaller than ours routinely eclipse us we just keep falling further and further behind. What is wrong with us? And we can't just say our government, because our representatives are sourced from the same pool of social indifference.

Most of the trackage that exists in this country was designed for freight service. Amtrak leases the tracks for passenger service. With freight service, functionality is the main objective not riding comfort. Many of these lines get hard use from very heavy trains carrying coal and other commodities that beat up on the rails and switches. Freight also runs mostly at lower speeds than the passenger trains. In contrast much of the NE corridor trackage is owned and maintained by Amtrak and if you've ridden on it, it is much smoother than most CSX, NFS, and UP freight lines. The USA walked away from passenger service long ago and today we see the results. At times Amtrak seems like an afterthought but even in our down economy and in the shadows of government priorities,rail ridership continues to grow.

 

[Mackensen]

I agree with a couple other posters that the Lake Shore in western NY, particularly BUF-SYR, is awful. Also the trackage east of Albany before you hit the Berkshires is pretty rough. On the flip side, I didn't think the Capitol Limited and Empire Builder were all that rough (PDX coach in the latter), but the rest ride was definitely the Northeast Regional WAS-NYP. That was as smooth as anything I'd ridden in Germany.

 

[spacecadet]

Most of the trackage that exists in this country was designed for freight service.

But it's not as if other countries don't also have freight trains. They've just invested in separate, dedicated passenger lines. We haven't. That's just a choice we've made. It also makes me laugh when people say there's "no money" for it - of course there's money for it, if there's money for half the other boondoggles the government spends money on. They're just choosing to spend that money on other things. It's a question of priorities, nothing else. Other countries have made rail travel a priority because they realize how important it is. We've put all our eggs in the air travel basket, which is a strategy with some major inherent flaws.

Anyway, I don't know what the current agreement is (I know it's been amended several times) but there are some standards that the freight lines are required to maintain for passenger use of their tracks... the deal that formed Amtrak in the first place was not a one-way street. The government got certain guarantees from the now-freight only lines that they were taking over from, and most of those should still be in place. Basically, the deal was the government runs the trains but the freight lines continue to maintain the infrastructure. There have been pushes by the freight lines to ditch many of these requirements over the years because they never expected Amtrak to last this long, but my (and the government's) position is basically that this is what you get when you make a deal with the devil. Some of these freight lines wouldn't have even survived without Amtrak, they owe their very lives to Amtrak, so they have nothing to complain about.

Some freight lines are definitely better about this than others. I remember the BNSF tracks on the EB being smooth as glass. And it was like an instantaneous difference once we crossed the "border" - the tracks on the other side are pretty awful.

 

[capltd29]

One of the only times that I can say I've been legitimately scared for my safety on Amtrak was on the Auto Train in 2005ish through South Carolina, just before they got the new auto carriers. All night long the train would violently hit crossovers(I would presume) and the train would violently bang and shake side to side making very loud banging sounds. Admittedly, I was in the family bedroom, but still as a "fearless" teenager, I was terrified the entire night long. Riding it again a year later in the Roommette on the upper level was better, but I'll never forget hearing my dad grunt and yell "ouch" all night long in the family room. Its laughable now, and I often wonder how the train stays on the track with only an inch of lip, with the 30ish(?) Ton superliner banging from side to side.

I'd also say the worst singular bump I've ever felt was on the Crescent in GA/AL. The train felt like it had moved nearly a foot to the side and back again. My mom dropped her book on the floor and we both just stared at each other in shear fear and somewhat disbelief that we were still on the track.

 

[zepherdude]

Yeh, Eastern Utah is pretty bad. Big heavy freights must tear up the tracks and no doubt heat causes some expansion. The other area was the Lake Shore Limited. It runs at high speed and the tracks in areas are pretty rough.

 

[Sbaitso]

The worst part on any given trip seems to be whenever I decide to head to the dining car. I swear that there is some kind of sensor that lets somebody know to start bouncing the train around. Last time this perfectly nice retired lady managed to shower me with her cup of coffee. That reminds me about a thread I wanted to start....