[Peak Oil] Amtrak improvements.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Amtrak revitalization in preparation for increased intercity passenger train usage:


One fundamental requirement in the future will be efficient transportation. The end of American car culture is going to have serious detrimental consequences on the ability of people to move through the country. Commuter operations, involving the development of planned or proposed light rail, subway, and streetcar services, the development of short-distance commuter trains (generally with trips of two hours or less as the maximum distance from a centre-point destination being provided), and the laying of track for surface subway operations down freeway medians, and electric interurbans or “fast light rail” down electric power line corridors, hiking trails, major multi-lane roadways which will not have to be closed with two lanes removed from traffic, etc, can effectively handle the burden inside of cities. These tracks can handle limited numbers of freight cars easily during off-peak hours of operation, allowing direct distribution of goods to businesses all throughout the routes (it was very common for electric engines to handle 5 or 6 car small trains shunting cars to various destinations at night on interurban lines, for example), and even narrow-gauge mini-subway networks dense under streets, as in the example of Chicago's 2ft guage network, being used both for cargo distribution in the cities and as short-distance underground people movers.

The vast array of such projects which can and ultimately must be implemented will generally see full coverage of all cities with populations of 150,000 and larger, even if not part of a larger conurbation, implementing commuter rail in the form of DMUs (diesel multiple units) on existing trackage, along with downtown streetcar circulators. Smaller cities down to a size of 50,000 people or so will be served by such commuter rails if demand exists, and usually by 5 – 15 miles though sometimes larger systems of streetcars with secondary freight distribution purpose. In all cases these assume urban areas about four times larger than the city in question. Areas with smaller cities and smaller urban areas will have lesser services and getting below population figures of entire commuter areas of less than 100,000 people will generally only have electric buses, often on guided busways.

Large conurbation areas with continuous dense populations could have electric interurban systems comparable in size to the South Shore Line. Interurban streetcar networks may ultimately become dense enough again that it would be theoretically possible to travel from Maine to Minneapolis by just riding on interurbans. But of course nobody wants to travel on twenty different inturbans over a long period of time to get to their final destination. So how do we handle long distance travel? That is of course a matter for long distance trains, and that means the revitalization and redevelopment of the national passenger rail network as it currently exists in the form of Amtrak.


Existing Amtrak routes:

Amtrak service currently exists on the following routes:

Northeast Corridor: Dense high-speed service from Washington D.C. to Boston with feeders to Hartford, Connecticut, Newport News, VA, and Portland, ME. A daily Vermont service is also provided.

Empire Corridor: Dense mid-speed service from NYC to Albany, NY, with continued service north to Montreal daily, and west to Buffalo five times daily via Schenectedy, Syracuse, and Rochester, with one train continuing to Toronto. Another train goes north aong the Montreal route and veers off to service locations in Vermont.

Keystone Corridor: Frequently daily service between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Daily service west of Harrisburg to Pittsburgh.

Cascades Corridor: Frequent daily service from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR, with three trains daily continuing south to Eugene, OR, three trains north to Everett Washington, where one veers off as a long distance train and the other two continue north to Bellingham; one of those in turn continues to Vancouver, BC. Goals are 14 daily round-trips between Seattle and Portland and six daily round trips between Seattle and Bellingham with four continuing to Vancouver.

Capitol Corridor: Sixteen daily round trips between Sacramento and San Jose via Davis, Berkeley, and Oakland, California, supplemented by one long-distance train, and one long distance train from Sacramento to Oakland. Two trains provide service to California destinations east of Sacramento, and plans are to implement a second daily service to Reno, NV, and more eastern service.

Central valley service: Six trains between Stockton and Bakersfield, CA. Four of them go north to Sacramento and two west to Oakland from Stockton. Plans to extend this service to Los Angeles are limited by the capacity of the single-track line which handles 56 trains a day over Tehachapi Pass, the famed Tehachapi Loop.

Pacific Surfliners: Provide frequent daily surface from Los Angeles south to San Diego and north to San Luis Obispo.

Carolina Service: Two daily trains between Charlotte and Raleigh with one continuing north to NYC.

Chicago Hub Service: Daily trains to Port Huron, MI, Grand Rapids, MI, and multiple trains to Detroit and Pontiac, MI. Frequent daily service south through Illinois to Carbondale, southwest to St. Louis and continuing with several frequencies a day to Kansas City, and western service to Galesburg and Quincy, with northern frequent service to Milwaukee, WI. Trains run four times weekly to Indianapolis to supplement the Cardinal long-distance train that only runs thrice-weekly, also.

Long Distance Trains:

EMPIRE BUILDER: Daily service from Chicago to Seattle and Portland with the train splitting into two sections in Spokane, WA, via Everett and the Tri-Cities, respectively. Stops for the combined train include Milwaukee, M-SP, Fargo, Minot, Havre, and Glacier National Park plus minor stops. Run of 44 hours, uses double-deck equipment.

COAST STARLIGHT: North-south daily service from Seattle to Los Angeles via Portland, Eugene, Sacramento, San Jose, and San Luis Obispo plus minor stops. Run of 36 hours. Uses double-deck equipment.

CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR: Daily service from Chicago to Oakland/SF via Galesburg, Lincoln, Denver, and SLC plus minor stops. Run of about 52 hours. Double-deck equipment.

SOUTHWEST CHIEF: Daily service from Chicago to Los Angeles via Galesburg, Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff plus minor stops. Run of about 36 hours. Double-deck equipment.

TEXAS EAGLE: Daily service from Chicago to San Antonio via St. Louis, Little Rock, D-FW, and Austin plus minor stops. Three times weekly a thru sleeper and coach are attached to the Sunset Limited for continued service to Los Angeles. Double-deck equipment.

SUNSET LIMITED: Current route from Orlando to Los Angeles commences in New Orleans due to Katrina and despite repair of trackage to the east. Service is three-times weekly with stops in Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, and Yuma. Does NOT stop in Phoenix currently, and the trip from NOLA to LA takes 49 hours. Double-deck equipment. Double-deck equipment.

HEARTLAND FLYER: Service from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City; daily, coach-baggage service only aboard this daylight train with no sleepers.

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS: Daily overnight service with double-deck equipment from Chicago to NOLA via Memphis and Jackson with minor stops. Trip run of approximately 19 hours. Between Carbondale and Chicago serves all stations served by local trains on that route.

CAPITOL LIMITED: Daily overnight service with double-deck equipment from Chicago to Washington, D.C. via Toledo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh with minor stops. Trip run of approximately 18 hours.

CARDINAL: Thrice-weekly overnight service with single-level equipment from Chicago to New York via Indianapolis, Cincinatti, Charlottesville, and Washington, D.C. with minor stops. Inefficient circuitous route. 26.5 hour run.

LAKE SHORE LIMITED: Daily service from Chicago to New York and Boston with stops in Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Albany and minor stops. Passengers to Boston must currently change trains in Albany; thru sleepers or coaches are not currrently provided. Run of about 18 hours NYC – Chicago, 21 hours Boston – Chicago. Single-level equipment.

CRESCENT: Daily service on a run of approximately 30 hours from NYC to NOLA via Washington, D.C., Charlottesville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Meridian, and lesser stops. Single-level equipment.

SILVER METEOR: Single level equipment with overnight operations from NYC to Miami via Washington D.C., Richmond, VA, Savannah, GA, Jacksonville, FL, and Orlando FL, with lesser stops.

SILVER STAR: Single level equipment with overnight operations from NYC to Miami via Washington, D.C., Richmonad, VA, Raleigh, NC, Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, Jacksonville, FL, Orlando, FL, and Tampa, FL. NOTE: Train reverses in Tampa and backtracks to reach the mainline to Miami, and the route via Raleigh and Charleston is slower, so this is a secondary service to the Silver Meteor serving more destinations at the cost of reduced speed.

PALMETTO: Old Silver Palm overnight train, now truncuated to daylight only from NYC to Savannah, GA, via Washington, D.C. and Richmond.

AUTO TRAIN: Daily overnight service from near Washington D.C. to near Orlando, FL with no stops. This is an express train with auto-racks to provide overnight luxury service for people who wish to bring their cars on Florida vacations from the Northeast but don't want an extended road trip.

HEARTLAND FLYER: Daily service from DFW to OKC with connections to the Texas Eagle, using Superliner coaches.


SEE MAP FOR EXISTING SERVICE AND DENSITIES. Do not click this link if you only have 56k.


IMMEDIATE SERVICE CRITIQUE AND SERVICE EXPANSIONS:


Amtrak service is wholly deficient. Expansion must take place immediately. With several limited exceptions, however, that expansion will be very difficult. New cars must be ordered to provide comprehensive service: At least 1,500 double-deck superliner cars of all types, 250 Viewliner single-level sleepers, 200 single-level coach/snack long distance cars, and 200 long-distance coaches. All this is in addition to the following: Old cars must be converted to handle baggage, wreck losses must be rebuilt in the Beech Grove shops of Amtrak's, and existing operational cars in some cases must be modified. Wreck losses and other damaged or decommed cars can be immediately returned to service; additional cars can be repurchased from private owners and tourist operations. And finally, joint services with the American Orient Express corp and rentals from VIA Rail Canada, which has an excess of certain types of cars, can help serve as a stopgap until the new cars can come into operation on long-distance routes. Fortunately, Amtrak's President Alexander Kummant is already planning extensive short-distance car orders. Expansions using these cars can therefore be much more reliably implemented.

Because new routes cost additional money, there is a limit to the amount of new route expansion that can take place. Maintenance facilities, turn-point facilities, and stations are the primary expense. So new track can be run over without stopping at new stations to provide new routes connecting existing routes and stations, as long as the end-points are largely kept the same. We will allow one-for-one substitution of existing maintenance facilities and the utilization of manned Amtrak Thruway Bus service stops which exist in several areas when they're along the railroad tracks to be used and were usually former stations. Also some very recently decommissioned stations can be fairly easily revived and these will also be allowed.

These are the considerations and limitations for phase one, which involves the use of restored existing equipment and rentals only, and the beginning of the entering into service of some new coach cars for short-distance trips of around 500 miles. This will be implemented immediately under the proposal—2007 to 2010.

Following are the proposed implementations:

FLORIDA SERVICE:

In conjunction with renewed Boston operations of sleeping cars, the Silver Star would be extended to Boston. This would not require any equipment modifications or additional sets of equipment. It would no longer service Tampa, and instead would follow the route of the Silver Meteor south of Jacksonville. This train would have a seven-car Oriental Limited luxury consist added to the back in daily service, which would allow boarding at all stops, and provide luxury service from Boston to Miami.

The Silver Meteor's existing equipment would be reassigned, and this train would instead operate as part of a leasing agreement with VIA Rail Canada, using their Alstom sleeping cars originally built for English Channel Tunnel service of which they have a large surplus (as they purchased 72 but use only a small number on a train that operates six times weekly—the Ocean—for twenty-four required for their own needs) with Amtrak food service and coach cars. This train would be based out of Montreal and would operate from Montreal to Jacksonville, following the same schedule from New York south, and arriving in Jacksonville where it would be split into two trains. One would run down the existing route through Orlando to Miami; the other one would run down the Seaboard Air Line route where the stations have been used for bus service only since 2005, and proceed to a terminus in Tampa.

The Silver Palm would be revived without terminating the Palmetto service, which would remain a daylight coach/business class only train ending in Savannah. The new Silver Palm would operate on a schedule similiar to the Palmetto, arriving, however, around 11:30 PM at night in Savannah instead of 8:30 PM for the Palmetto. The train—equipped with two Viewliner sleeping cars--would then proceed overnight to Tampa Bay, arriving at about 8:30 AM in the morning. One the of the sleeping cars, however, would be “set out” in Orlando—that is, dropped off—at 6:00 AM; passengers for the popular Orlando tourist destinations would be able to continue sleeping in their beds until later in the morning and wake up to shower and enjoy a complimentary continental breakfast before disembarking.

Short-distance service operating from Miami would consist of two daily trains; the trains would be in two sections, operating together from Miami to Winter Haven, FL. There they would be split, with one section proceeding to Tampa and the second section conintuing north to Jacksonville. These would be daylight coach trains.

Other trains operating into Florida would be started, however. Maintenance facilities in Charlotte and a connection over a short distance between the existing Amtrak facilities there and the Amtrak route of the Silver Star in South Carolina allow the development of a Charlotte – Charleston – Savannah train, splitting in Jacksonville with one section going through Orlando to Miami and the other over the route of the old Seaboard Air Line to Tampa. This would again be an all-daylight coach train. A second all-daylight coach train would originate from Miami and go up to travel over the SAL line, bypassing Jacksonville, and turning west to reach Tallahassee, Pensacola, and finally Mobile, AL. This train would originate in Miami in the early morning—around 7 AM—and arrive in Mobile by around 11 PM at night.

The Auto Train would be modified. It would originate in Washington D.C. and board passengers without cars (currently only those with cars can board) and proceed to Orlando and all stops between Orlando and Miami, terminating in Miami. It would then reverse this run; the train would, however, operating on the existing Auto Train schedule between Lorton, VA and Sanford, FL, the existing terminus points, making only one single stop between them, the existing crew-change stop in Florence, SC; this stop would now be available to onboard non-car passengers. The autoracks could be set out in Sanford and, on the return trip, Lorton, easily enough, and attached when traveling through those stops, with a minimum amount of time. This would provide a luxury express service between Washington D.C. (with a convenient Acela connection from New York) and Florida destinations.

Further service to Florida would be provided by an extension of the Capitol Limited south from Washington, D.C. This would provide a continuous train from Chicago to Florida along existing trackage. The train would depart at around 1:30 PM from Washington, D.C., running ahead of the Silver Star by around an hour, and arrive in Orlando around 8:15 AM the next morning, providing thirty-six hour service between Chicago and Orlando with the train continuing to Miami, and featuring a seven car American Orient Express luxury service train attached to the end. The next and final Florida train would be an extension of the existing City of New Orleans, which would leave several hours later and arrive in New Orleans later, arranging the schedule suitably for an overnight run over the old route from the Sunset Limited from NOLA via Mobile, Pensacola, and Tallahassee. It would not serve Jacksonville, however, and would instead turn onto the old SAL route through to Tampa. This route would be run largely overnight with morning arrivals in Florida and provide a second if slightly longer direct train from Chicago to Florida, without having to add additional stations and forge expensive new routes. See Montreal service for more details.

MONTREAL-WEST SERVICE: Using Anstrom sleeping cars operating out of their maintenance facilities in Montreal leased from the USA, two alternative Montreal—Toronto—Chicago routes would be offered. One, operating from Montreal to Chicago as an overnight route, would have its border crossing in Buffalo, following VIA Rail track before that and stopping at VIA stations; there it would be attached to the end of the Lake Shore Limited on its westbound run, and detached on the eastbound run. The border crossing would be in the evening and after customs was finished the sleeping cars would proceed overnight to a morning arrival in Chicago. The second train would go on a direct route, not entering the United States until passing through Windsor and doing the whole run in daylight. It would next stop in Detroit and proceed on the existing Amtrak service route through to Chicago, where it would arrive in the very late evening. There these cars would be attached to a consist of Amtrak superliner cars; this combined train would form the City of New Orleans mentioned above in Florida service, going to an early morning arrival in Memphis and then proceed to New Orleans. There the VIA Rail Anstrom cars and other cars from Montreal would be set-out and the original train from Minneapolis-St. Paul would proceed to Tampa.

HOUSTON EAGLE: This train would be originated in the early morning in Chicago and provide daylight service with a very late—11:30 PM or so—arrival in Memphis continuing overnight south to a morning arrival in New Orleans. The train would then proceed westbound to a mid-day arrival in Houston where it would terminate.

CARDINAL SERVICE: A readjustment of the Cardinal schedule, this train would leave late in the evening from Chicago, arriving in the morning in Cincinatti and passing overnight through Indianapolis, where a second of the train consisting of a baggage car, one eight-bedroom sleeper (two, enough to run this consist, are owned by the NCDOT), a snack/coach, and a coach would be split off, along with a seven-car Oriental Express consist, to arrive in Louisville in the morning and then proceed to Nashville with an intermediate stop in Bowling Green. This service was planned in the early 2000s but never implemented; a very large old L&N station in Nashville could be used and the Bowling Green station is maintained by a historical society; the Louisville Station was used as recently as 2005 by the Kentucky Cardinal. This comfortable overnight service would be marketed primarily as luxury travel and used to forge a new route in preparation for the extension of the run to Atlanta and then ultimately Florida. It cannot be used for daylight service at the moment as the section of track between Indianapolis and Louisville is limited to 30mph, making it impractical for most coach travelers. The rest of the train would continue on with daylight service east of Cincinatti and through West Virginia, where another section of the train would be split off in Charlottesville. This section would continue to head to Washington D.C., arriving around 11 PM at night.

The main section of the train with four or five superliner cars would continue east over new trackage, with no stops, to Richmond, and then along the NEC extension to Newport News. A coach and baggage service only section would also originate in Newport News on the existing 66 schedule and arrive in Washington, D.C. at 10:30 PM to be hooked onto the arriving eastbound Cardinal section. These two combined trains with one Viewliner sleeper would then travel overnight on the Northeast Corridor, replicating the route and accomadations of The Federal which was discontinued in 2005, to provide a morning arrival in Boston. As part of the Cardinal Service, an all-daylight morning departure from Chicago using low-level coach equipment would stop in Indianapolis at midday and terminate in Cincinatti in the evening. A third frequency replacing the Hoosier State would operate from Chicago to Indianapolis, arriving in the late evening in Indianapolis. All of these trains would be daily.


REVIVAL OF THE THREE RIVERS/BROADWAY LIMITED:

The sad history of this route saw the end of the famous Broadway Limited in early 2005 as part of a cost-cutting effort under ill-fated Amtrak President David Gunn, servicing central Ohio stops. Since these are recently closed they can be fairly easily reopened, and the switch to VIA Rail equipment on the Silver Meteor frees up enough sleeping cars to provide limited first-class service on this route. This train will operate with two consists from Chicago eastward, one heading for Washington, D.C. and one for NYC, which will split in Harrisburg with the D.C. consist traveling via Paoli, PA (without stopping), as the old Broadway Limited did. Returning trains will be combined in Harrisburg. The trains will leave in the very late evening and travel through Pennsylvania at night to allow daytime service to all previously un-served Ohio destinations and a reasonable late afternoon arrival in Chicago. Each section of the train will offer a single Viewliner sleeper and a diner lite as well as coach and baggage accomadations. The truncated version of this train, the Pennsylvanian, will continue to operate on its current schedule to provide daylight service to its terminus in Pittsburgh. In addition to offering a second frequency from both NYC and D.C. to Chicago, this train will provide variable arrival and departure times viz. the morning arrivals in Chicago and afternoon departures from NYC and D.C., respectively, of the LSL and Capitol Limited.


FIXING THE SUNSET LIMITED:


The Sunset Limited is a broken train. Originating in New Orleans when it was intended to continue to Orlando (if not Miami), the train runs three times a week to Los Angeles on a schedule rife with delays and errors. Existing legislation in Congress could make the train run smartly; but it must be fixed much more extensively than that. The first step is to make the train daily, and then to restore it as Amtrak's full transcontinental train. But with two daily frequencies covering all sections of the old route east under our plan, a re-route is suitable.

As it stands now, Washington, D.C. has superliner maintenance facilities. It is about thirteen hours from Atlanta, and eleven and a half hours from New Orleans. Currently the Crescent, as covered, follows this route on its way down from NYC with the trip to Atlanta being overnight and the trip to New Orleans from Atlanta being all-daylight. The Sunset Limited on this re-routing would travel all-daylight from an origination point (with the overnight corridor Cardinal Service providing connections from the north) in D.C., arriving in Atlanta around 10:50 – 11:00 PM at night. The train would then proceed overnight to an arrival around 10:30 AM in New Orleans the next day, essentially providing a reverse mirror image of the Crescent schedule. After a servicing layover in NOLA the train would depart and head west on the existing schedule of the Sunset Limited, broadly. As current, a thru sleeper and coach would be added to the train in San Antonio, Texas, and it would not service Phoenix—the track west of Phoenix must be restored for that to take place—but provisions will be made to provide direct service to Phoenix, as we'll cover later.


NEW ORLEANS HUB SERVICE:

Several opportunities present themselves here. The first is daytime service from New Orleans to Birmingham via Mobile, AL. The 'new' trackage here used to be used by a section of the Crescent which until fairly recently split off and ran from Birmingham via Montgomery to Mobile (the Gulf Coast Limited). It would cost some real investment to reopen the Montgomery station, but other stops could be neglected for the moment. The train would provide an alternate daytime route from New Orleans to Birmingham while providing daylight service from New Orleans to Mobile and all stations along the way.

Back when the Illinois Central still operated the City of New Orleans, a section of the train split off at Memphis and traveled to St. Louis and then Kansas City. This route could be partially replicated by running an all-daylight train on the existing trackage from New Orleans to Memphis, and then running across via the Arkansas route of the Texas Eagle to St. Louis, where the train would terminate after a reasonable daylight run of about 16 hours. A second daylight train from New Orleans to Memphis would run a bit later, and go on the easterly route abandoned by the CoNO in the early 2000s to serve Canton, Winona, Durant, Grenada, and Batesville Mississippi, with the goal of providing a larger destination matrix.

The final daylight-train operating out of the new New Orleans hub would be a midday train providing a third frequency from New Orleans to Houston and tapping considerably into the current rather aenemic Houston market for Amtrak which sees only three trains weekly.

SECOND COAST STARLIGHT FREQUENCY: This would be the biggest effort. Essentially a second frequency of the Coast Starlight based out of Los Angeles would operate northbound on a schedule which would take it overnight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Once in San Francisco the train would depart in the early morning and run backwards to San Jose, with the engines being switched to the head again to resume forward progress through Oakland, Sacramento, and northward. The train travel a second night to Portland where it would arrive at about 7 AM and then proceed to a comfortable morning arrival in Seattle and then from Seattle northwards on the route of the Cascades all the way to Vancouver. The train would then run on a reversed schedule, daylight from Vancouver to an 11:00 PM arrival in Portland, overnight through Oregon and serving the Bay Area in daylight, reaching San Jose and then being reversed for the run (using Caltrain stations) to San Francisco, where the train would have a brief layover before returning to run overnight to Los Angeles, essentially producing a mirror image of the schedule of the Coast Starlight but with the added benefit of providing direct overnight service from San Francisco to Los Angeles and vice-versa.

PHOENIX CHIEF: An extension of the Southwest Chief, this train would consist of a baggage car, a sleeping car, a coach, and a coach-cafe car attached onto the end of the Southwest Chief for its run from Chicago to Flagstaff, AZ. There it would be detached at an existing servicing point and run on a leisurely schedule departing an hour behind the Southwest Chief. It would not stop at Williams Jct, AZ, but instead stop in Williams, a few miles beyond, and on the beginning of the “peavine”, the BNSF route to Phoenix. This station is operated by the private Grand Canyon Railroad and would provide a direct connection to it at little additional cost instead of the current situation where a shuttlebus must be taken. The train would then run on a leisurely overnight schedule on BNSF tracks through to their yard in Phoenix, where several miles of industrial track would have to be negotiated at slow speed to reach the UP trackage in Phoenix; the train would then be positioned into the Phoenix station, which is kept open with an Amtrak staff currently for bus service, around 8 AM in the morning—a running time of about 36 hours and 45 minutes from Chicagop—and leave thirty minutes later to proceed to Tucson, AZ, a servicing stop along the route of the Sunset Limited. Here the train could be turned and prepared for the return journey that same day with a somewhat more aggressive schedule up the peavine to meet the Southwest Chief at 4:30 AM in Flagstaff. This would provide a connection between the two routes and restore service to America's largest metropolis currently without any service.

DAYLIGHT ROUTE DUPLICATION: The essential goal here is to take a variety of the long-distance routes and to provide daylight service over sections of those routes which have inconvenient hours for stops and to provide a second frequency in general.

Empire Builder duplication: Leaving at 8 AM from Chicago Union Station and following exactly the route of the Empire Builder, this train would supplement existing Hiawatha service to Milwaukee, making all stops, and then proceed north making the same stops as the Empire Builder until it arrives, with a convenient 5 PM arrival, in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The train would then proceed to Fargo, ND, its final destination, arriving at around 9:30 PM. A second frequency would leave Chicago at 11 AM and run express to Milwaukee only stopping in Glenview to arrive in Minneapolis-St. Paul at around 7:15 PM where it would terminate. The other route duplications would be the use of Talgo equipment to provide a 9 AM departure from Portland to Spokane on the existing route of the Empire Builder arriving at 4:40 PM in Spokane, and a similar run from 9 AM north from Seattle via Everett and then eastbound over Stevens Pass, arriving in Spokane at 4:45 PM. After a brief layover to accept passengers from the arriving Portland train, it would proceed east to Whitefish, MT, making all stops, and arriving at about 11:30 PM.

California Zephyr duplication: Service to Reno on the route of the Zephyr is already planned and is shown here. The only additional route duplication would be a daytime train on the route of the Zephyr, via Galesburg from Chicago to an evening arriving in Lincoln, Nebraska, serving all stations along the way. Note: the California Zephyr would operate with a seven-car American Orient Express luxury consist on the rear.

Coast Starlight duplication: A daytime “Coast Daylight” using Amtrak California equipment would run from Los Angeles to San Francisco, duplicating the route of the Coast Starlight and its second frequency and providing direct Los Angeles – San Francisco service. A second train would operate on a long all-daylight schedule from Sacramento to Portland, probably using Talgo equipment and based in Portland. In this way the whole ecologically minded and growing Pacific Coast would have continuous service from Vancouver to San Diego by at least three frequencies a day on any part of the route.

Sunset Limited Duplication: An all-daylight train from Los Angeles to Yuma, AZ. via Palm Springs would be run, with a third frequency from Los Angeles to Palm Springs to service this extremely rapidly growing area.

Texas Eagle Duplication: A daylight train would be run from Ft. Worth (with connections from Daylight on existing commuter trains) to Houston via Austin and San Antonio, providing at least some service from DFW to Houston by train and a second frequency on the more important DFW – San Antonio and San Antonio-Houston routes. A second daylight train would be run from Fort Worth via Dallas to Little Rock and north, and then split off to run without further stops to a terminal point in Memphis, TN. The route of the Texas Eagle is shared with frequent regional trains from Chicago to St. Louis; from St. Louis, which has origination facilities, a second frequency to Little Rock could be arranged running during daylight and using the same equipment as the Kansas City Mules service.

Heartland Flyer: Though this is a daylight-only train, it's suitable to add it here as it acts like a short-distance version of most of the longer western trains. A second frequency can and easily should be added.

Southwest Chief Duplication: Though there is existing direct daylight service from Chicago to Kansas City, it is over a longer route via St. Louis. The Southwest Chief route is faster but the arrival time in KCS is rather late; a second frequency departing Chicago at 9 AM and arriving in Kansas City at 4:40 PM would be run, proceeding onward to Topeka to provide daylight service to that city where it would arrive at around 7 PM. Duplication would also take place on a twelve-hour all daylight run from Los Angeles to Flagstaff through Barstow, departing at 8 AM and arriving at 8 PM.

City of New Orleans Duplication: Though routes north from NOLA to Memphis have already been covered in the NOLA Hub section, and service doubling with expanded route matrices has been proposed before, it is worthwhile to note that it would be worthwhile to provide an all-daylight train via Carbondale from Chicago to Memphis to provide a third frequency between Chicago and Memphis.

Capitol Limited duplication: An all-daylight train from Washington D.C. to Cleveland would be run on the route of the Capitol Limited, through intermediate stops of Cumberland, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, along with lesser stops.

Lake Shore Limited duplication: A new train would be run from New York City to Buffalo via Albany, the current Empire Corridor, and then extend with a late evening arrival in Cleveland.

Cleveland Route (Lake Shore Limited/Capitol Limited) duplication: An all-daylight train from Chicago to Cleveland would be commenced immediately to take advantage of the large population along this route which is currently rather poorly served by the existing trains which run largely during the night.

INDIANAPOLIS SERVICE: Taking advantage of the Beech Grove maintenance facility in Indianapolis, a third frequency, running in the daylight in the morning, would operate between Indianapolis and Cincinatti on the existing Cardinal route. This would provide three frequencies on the whole stretch from Chicago to Cincinatti and turn what is a highly splotchy existing service into an effective transit corridor.

ST. LOUIS – CARBONDALE – MEMPHIS SERVICE: This train would use an alternate route to provide a second frequency between St. Louis and Memphis, via Carbondale.

DETROIT CONNECTOR: Departing Philadelphia at 6:15 AM, this train would run to Pittsburgh on the same route as the Broadway Limited and Pennsylvanian and would then follow the route of the Capitol Limited as far as Toledo. There it would turn north and run without stopping into Detroit. The total running time of this route would be about 15 hours and the train would arrive in Detroit around 9 PM, providing an all-daylight route which would, especially through connections, offer eastbound travel options to Detroit residents on Amtrak which would under this plan otherwise require a trip through Canada and currently do not exist at all.

LAKE SHORE LIMITED: The section from Boston would be form the head-end with the section from NYC attached to the rear, a minor change in old procedure as it used to be in Albany, and would include a single Viewliner thru-sleeper to provide direct sleeper service from Boston to Chicago, and the train would run from NYC to Chicago and back with a seven-car luxury American Orient Express consist on the rear. A new evening run from Boston to Albany would also be offered with a late evening arrival in Albany, to provide three daily frequencies on that route.

MAPLE LEAF: A section from Boston would be run, connecting in Albany with the rest of the train from New York and proceeding to Toronto.

MONTREALER: This train would be revived on its old route, currently occupied by the Vermonter, and just extended to Montreal again. An additional section coming from Boston would however be added in Connecticut. The existing Vermonter service would be terminated and replaced by twice-daily runs by DMUs from New Haven north along the route to the existing terminus and be generically branded as “Vermont Service” to provide three daily frequencies on that route, the DMUs being purchased by the Vermont DOT as has been proposed.

SPRINGFIELD CONNECTOR: This service would be expanded back into the old “Inland Corridor”, with four Regional trains re-routed from the main corridor to service this route as a backdoor into Boston, via Springfield.

ETHAN ALLEN: This train would be extended NNE of its current terminus of Rutland to the town of White River Jct. where it would provide an interchange with the Vermont corridor service.

CHARLOTTESVILLE SERVICE: A daylight train from NYC to Charlottesville, VA would be run, providing a fourth daily frequency with a midday departure from D.C. on the D.C. - Charlottesville route to create a second extension of the corridor, effectively, in Virginia, as well as the D.C. - Richmond – Newport News service that already exists. The other three trains here would be long-distance trains operating over these tracks; one evening frequency in each direction and two morning frequencies in each direction.

HARRISBURG EXPRESS: Two trains would operate from D.C. to Harrisburg on the route of the revived Broadway Limited via Paoli, PA, without stopping on the new trackage. It would provide an express alternative for passengers wishing to get from Harrisburg to D.C. or vice-versa without having to change trains in Philadelphia on a rather circuitous route.

CHARLOTTE – BIRMINGHAM: This train would run once daily from Charlotte, NC to Birmingham, AL via Atlanta. it would provide the only service to work that whole stretch in daylight hours (all of it would already be served in daylight, but not by the same train) connecting a series of major Southern cities.

SAN JOAQUIN ROUTE MODIFICATIONS: Currently the San Joaquins service operates six trains daily between Bakersfield and Stockton. Two of these trains split off there to head to Oakland and four proceed north to Sacramento. Under this modification, all six trains would originate in both Sacramento and Oakland, consisting of usually a four-car consist of one coach, one coach baggage, one business class car, and one coach/cafe on each section. The trains would then be combined during the Stockton station stop and proceed on the existing schedules to Bakersfield and back, where they'd be split again. This would effectively increase the number of Oakland-Bakersfield trains by four, and Sacramento-Bakersfield trains by two.


THIS IS THE END OF THE FIRST PHASE OF EXPANSION. SEE MAP FOR DETAILS. 2011 proposed density and route map. Do not click this link if you only have 56k.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I just wanted to note that the 2011 map does contain one error--trackage from Pittsburgh to D.C. via Cumberland should be shown as two frequencies daily, not one. Sorry about that.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

A brief equipment review:


Sleeping cars: These are the biggest issue with long distance routes; they are the primary revenue generators (contrary to the botched statistics that Amtrak uses on the Hill with its corridor-obsessed transit mentality) and there are simply not enough. Currently there are only 48 Viewliner sleepers in service, tho' another 3 could be restored to operation for 51 in all. There is also a need, however, for even more sleeping cars, of which the following exist:

26 Heritage 10 - 6 sleepers turned into crew dorms were recently decommissioned. Their double bedrooms do not have toilets but these can still be sold at a reduced cost and there are communal toilet facilities available; these could be refurbished and returned to service.

2 8-bedroom sleepers owned by the NC DOT. These may have been sold, but could be re-acquired. They're proposed to be used on the luxury service Kentucky Cardinal revival.

48 VIA Rail Renaissance sleepers--these are European cars and smaller than the average, but still quite comfortable and capable of operating on American railroads as easily as Canadian. VIA Rail owns 72 but only uses 24 for its consists on the Ocean from Montreal to Halifax. The others could be rented for Amtrak as a stopgap measure on trains originating at their Montreal servicing base.

There are currently 110 Superliner sleepers in service and 40 dorms. Another 7 sleepers and 6 dorms are wreck casualties which could be repaired.

All eastern long-distance routes as proposed fully utilize the maximum Viewliner sleepers listed here. The NC DOT sleepers are utilized also.

This brings us to several possibilities: The crew dorms are basically sleepers with reduced capacity in the superliner case, and already on the eastern routes the crew is just being accomadated in spare bedrooms where possible, or, well, sleeping on benches in the lounge car. If they can do it there, they can do it out west. This gives us effectively 40 more sleepers out west, plus the repairs: 163 in all. All existing routes for superliners run on 110 superliners; the proposed route expansions will rely on a combination of using the dorms as sleepers and the fact that they serve as transition points from hi-level to low-level equipment to allow the utilization of heritage sleepers as supplementary sleeping accomadations on long distance trains.

Superliner service from Chicago to Miami via DC as an extension of the Capitol Limited can be handled with existing sleepers including the 7 repairs, as can the all-Superliner Sunset Limited from DC to LA and expanded service on the Auto Train, along with the Texas Eagle's connection to the Sunset Limited being made daily in San Antonio. After that, we run into problems.

The Chicago - NOLA second frequency proceeding to Tampa Bay already needs a transition car to handle the connections to the low-level equipment coming from Montreal via Toronto and Detroit. In all five transition sleepers and five of the rebuilt heritage sleepers (it is important to note that rebuilds of these cars are still in service just fine in Canada; their retirement was another of the current Amtrak management's idiocies) will be required to provide the thru-sleeper service from NOLA to Tampa on this route at a minimum level.

A similiar equipment arrangement can be used for the Cardinal service from Chicago to Newport News, splitting from the rest of the train in Charlottesville. One transition sleeper and one heritage sleeper can also be used on this route; three of each will be required.

As noted, the Phoenix Chief will be able to operate using a single transition sleeper as its sleeping car alone. Four will be required. This brings our utilization to 12 of 46 for the superliner transition sleepers and 8 of 26 for the heritage sleepers. The second frequency of the Coast Starlight will be the biggest equipment draw. Running from Los Angeles to Vancouver with a diversion and backing to San Francisco it will require five sets of equipment for daily service and this means five superliner transition sleepers and ten heritage sleepers for full coverage. Now three transition sleepers will still be required for the Auto Train--these can be opened for the additional passengers. Three heritage sleepers will round out the additional sleeping cars for the high-speed service on the Auto Train. This brings us to a utilization of 20 of the transition sleepers and 18 of the heritage sleepers. That leaves us with 8 heritage sleepers to be added to consists to meet peak demand as an equipment reserve to guarantee full consists, the same with the 27 transition sleepers (They can be added to the head-end or extreme rear of any superliner consist just fine, which are the normal positions for sleeping cars anyway).

The transition sleepers will be modified so that the crew lounge which takes up half of the lower level will now be used as a luxury cafe for the train's sleeping car passengers, partially replicating the services available on the famed Pacific Parlour Cars used on the Coast Starlight's primary frequency and enhancing the enjoyability of long-distance travel. Trains with heavy potential demand for sleeping cars could use the transition sleepers year-round: They can be placved as a car immediately behind the baggage car, in fact, their current position as crew dorms, on all routes with enough demand for the luxury cafe and additional sleeping compartments, or on the rear of split trains. For instance the Empire Builder could have one forward to Seattle and one in the rear for Portland (though this would require 9 of 27 free cars), increasing the number of sleepers on each section (though at somewhat less capacity) from 2 to 3 and 1 to 2.

To add capacity, half of the upper part of the existing lounge cars will be converted into luxury three-across seating; table seating for those eating in the lounge and for viewing the scenery through the large windows will be provided in the other half. This will allow long-distance trains to offer luxury daylight coach seating in addition to the luxury overnight sleepers and turn the lounge cars into revenue cars in at least a limited fashion. These cars would be available on most all-superliner routes.

Coaches would be less of an issue; existing daylight-only routes with superliner coaches could be converted to use single-level equipment, of which there is plenty and even more could be gained by reducing consists of Regional trains on the Corridor from 6 to 4 cars (they are very lightly used at only around 30% capacity currently, but the number of frequencies should be retained), the same source as the coaches for most of the daylight trains. More coaches could be taken from the California Car build orders, which are compatible with superliners, and used on long-distance trains while more of the California Cars are built. And of course new regional-distance coaches are in the process of being ordered and the first of these should be arriving toward the end of the phased implementation of the proposals. Several of the routes would be using hybrid equipment anyway and the coaches could easily be single-level.


The next section will consist of a discussion of the development of regional rail corridor and hubs with state assistance. This will comprise phase II--a maximal implementation in cooperation with the states of all proposed hub and corridor traffic, in combination with the restarting of a few crucial long-distance routes which have state or federal support for the resumption of their operation. This will include a treatment of the Midwest High Speed Rail Initiative and design needs for the new cars to be built.

The third section will comprise of how to "fill in the gaps" in the system, running long-distance trains to bridge the gaps between the new regional corridor and hub routes, with the fourth section taking Amtrak to 2025 and showing the forging of whole new long-distance routes which currently do not operating because of mothballed track that would have to be restored, and other major endeavours. The fifth section will show some final suitable enhancements in the overall national network with additional routes which would only become profitable with the general end of the American car culture in the late 2020s, and a treatment on the possibility of "total utilization" of the whole railnet for transit during the worst of the peak oil period, using railbuses, RDCs, and mixed cargo/passenger trains on lightly trafficked networks through rural and other low-populated or lightly traveled areas.

[Big Phil]

Is the issue really inter-city passenger transit as much as it is intra-city passenger transit?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Is the issue really inter-city passenger transit as much as it is intra-city passenger transit?

Jetliners are far less fuel efficient than trains, and cars are used for a significant quantity of all inter-city trips as it stands. Buses will also be far more expensive to operate and might have to be nationalized like Amtrak anyway, which leads to the question of why not just replace them when possible by more efficient trains?

I addressed intra-city passenger transit initially, but it's an utterly huge subject to go over in remotely as comprehensive a fashion as this. If I was to list every potential transit corridor development and method in the whole country, I'd be writing a nine hundred page article. The first of five sections for this one is already thirteen pages.

[Howedar]

Where exactly are the limits of where one can operate Superliners? I recall there being some significant clearance issues as one goes east, but I have no idea exactly where that line lies.

[CmdrWilkens]

Honestly speaking though it is hardly the best example DC probably is going to provide the best testdbed for inter- and intra-city rail. For starters the Metro DC area (and possibly the Balt-Wash Metro area) is not nearly sa subject to sprawl as the Boston area or LA/San Diego nor does it have the population density of a New York or Chicago so it serves as a middle ground between all of these scenarios. More importantly there is density to support transit even in the current environment but land stillavailable toutilize for new transit construction.

Moreover the existing interconnect between Metro, MARC, VRE, and Amtrak (and thus into both Richmond and Baltimore) means that creating a fully integrated rail transit system is both possible and already has some impetus. if the Purple Line ever gets off the ground (maybe it can steal funding from the ICC) basically the entirety of suburban Maryland up through Baltimore and via Amtrak as far as Aberdeen would be transit linked through Union Station with the entire region. If one adds fredrick as a major city in the mix (and its growth usggests we should) then an expansion of the Brunswick MARC line coupled with greater service to DC through Cumberland would keep that entire region mobile with precious little additional investment besides the need to re-wire the Norfolk Southern line from Camden through Washington.

[Lonestar]

You aren't kidding Greg. There is no reason at all why, in Northern Virginia, I shouldn't be able to walk a block(or a little bit more) and hop a train, or a bus to a train station, to get into work.

But the Buses don't start early enough for me to get into work during my shift, so...

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Where exactly are the limits of where one can operate Superliners? I recall there being some significant clearance issues as one goes east, but I have no idea exactly where that line lies.

The NEC Cantenary and the approaches to Penn Station are the limits. When we electrify the whole country as we inevitably must, though, we'll have to build the cantenary high enough to operate double-stacks, which means superliners can run. Some of the tunnels out east also have problems with handling double-stack containers and superliners couldn't operate there, but some routes like the Chicago-D.C. Capitol Limited do just fine.

110mph is a reasonable goal for train speed on straight, or minimally curved track in flat areas while still operating freight trains over the track, and I'll cover the Midwest High Speed Rail Initiative, which is currently in the process of upgrading hundreds of miles of midwestern track for just such standards (and secondary routes for 90mph operation, which is already available on most of the BNSF transcon from Chicago to LA). Speeds faster than that require to much work to be feasable on a large scale, especially with the economic crunch of peak oil.

[Howedar]

I didn't realize the limit was so far east, although I guess it makes sense that there aren't any limiting tunnels in, say, Indiana.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I didn't realize the limit was so far east, although I guess it makes sense that there aren't any limiting tunnels in, say, Indiana.

They've actually run double-deck cars into Philadelphia 30th-street station before, though I'm not sure they can do that now with the cantenary extended to Harrisburg. You can certainly effectively operate superliners from Chicago to Boston via Albany on that segment of the Lake Shore Limited, and it has in fact been proposed to do that before. Chicago to D.C. via Pittsburgh and Cumberland is in fact in regular service, and for a while the Cardinal, when it terminated in D.C., also ran with superliner equipment. Most of the other eastern lines (superliner equipment is also used for the Auto Train in Florida service, and could be used for the Crescent and the Florida Silver Service if they originated in D.C. instead of NYC) are largely ccapable of handling the equipment, including Chicago - D.C. via Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Paoli on the old Pennsylvania "Broad Way" through Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Incidentally, that's one thing we can do viz. freight capacity when the crunch starts to get bad. The Pennsylvania railroad used to be quadruple-tracked its whole length from the east coast to Chicago. That's the real origin of the name "Broadway Limited" for its famed name train, not the location of Broadway in NYC. Two of the tracks have been ripped out, but the roadbed remains and as traffic demand via rail skyrockets we can easily restore it. Numerous operations like that are possible. Demand is already so heavy on the excellently run Chicago - LA transcon of the BNSF (the old Santa Fe route) that they've completed double-tracking it by this date, and they're triple-tracking numerous sections. That route is unusually also maintained to standards that let passenger trains run at 90mph over most of its length, unlike 79mph for most of the rest of trackage in the USA currently. BNSF is the model of how the freight industry should treat Amtrak, along with Canadian National, and I've been on long-distance trains run by the two railroads which regularly arrive early. The Santa Fe Chief and the City of New Orleans are excellent trains in that regard, and the Empire Builder is only a little bit worse because it runs on Canadian Pacific trackage east of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

I really think running a few extra cars on the back of the Santa Fe Chief to provide morning service to Phoenix and Tucson via Flagstaff would be an instant revenue generator for Amtrak, if they bothered to market it; their marketing is utterly atrocious, unsurprisingly, as they're more interested in getting more money from Congress than in attracting actual revenue passengers.

[Block]

Honestly speaking though it is hardly the best example DC probably is going to provide the best testdbed for inter- and intra-city rail. For starters the Metro DC area (and possibly the Balt-Wash Metro area) is not nearly sa subject to sprawl as the Boston area or LA/San Diego nor does it have the population density of a New York or Chicago so it serves as a middle ground between all of these scenarios. More importantly there is density to support transit even in the current environment but land stillavailable toutilize for new transit construction.

Moreover the existing interconnect between Metro, MARC, VRE, and Amtrak (and thus into both Richmond and Baltimore) means that creating a fully integrated rail transit system is both possible and already has some impetus. if the Purple Line ever gets off the ground (maybe it can steal funding from the ICC) basically the entirety of suburban Maryland up through Baltimore and via Amtrak as far as Aberdeen would be transit linked through Union Station with the entire region. If one adds fredrick as a major city in the mix (and its growth usggests we should) then an expansion of the Brunswick MARC line coupled with greater service to DC through Cumberland would keep that entire region mobile with precious little additional investment besides the need to re-wire the Norfolk Southern line from Camden through Washington.

Never going to happen. Montgomery and Howard counties don't want people moving north from D.C. and PG counties, so there's no chance that the Green line gets extended, the purple line gets put in, or that there's going to be any real significant expansion of the metro any time soon.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Never going to happen. Montgomery and Howard counties don't want people moving north from D.C. and PG counties, so there's no chance that the Green line gets extended, the purple line gets put in, or that there's going to be any real significant expansion of the metro any time soon.

Sense will be bashed into them sooner or later. Hopefully sooner, for their own sakes.

[Redleader34]

I want the train from New York to boston to go faster, honestly, its average speed is a pidddling 85MPH, because MTA is too damn cheap to revamp metro North, and because of The Tri State's mixed wattages, its going to be hell to revamp the tracks. We have commuter rail running well, and thats going to expand, but the AMtrack may suffer because of that.

[CmdrWilkens]

The whole East Coast apparatus comes down to really two problems: The Virginia Ave tunnel in DC and a combinaiton of the Howard St, Union, and B&P tunnels in Baltimore. None of the latter three is rated to carry double deckers and the former is limited to, I believe, Plate E or perhaps Plate F trains though I'm not sure what Plate the Reaissance and Viewliners fall under.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The whole East Coast apparatus comes down to really two problems: The Virginia Ave tunnel in DC and a combinaiton of the Howard St, Union, and B&P tunnels in Baltimore. None of the latter three is rated to carry double deckers and the former is limited to, I believe, Plate E or perhaps Plate F trains though I'm not sure what Plate the Reaissance and Viewliners fall under.

The Renaissance cars are shorter and not as high as the Viewliners, and they clear them no problem. The Penn Station in NYC's approach clearances is also a problem, tho'.

[CmdrWilkens]

I want the train from New York to boston to go faster, honestly, its average speed is a pidddling 85MPH, because MTA is too damn cheap to revamp metro North, and because of The Tri State's mixed wattages, its going to be hell to revamp the tracks. We have commuter rail running well, and thats going to expand, but the AMtrack may suffer because of that.

It is odd that despite the fact that Boston and DC are almost equidistant from NYC you can get an Acela train to New York in under 2.5 hours with the one-stop express routing that runs every weekday afternoon but the NYC to Boston section is 3.5 hours.

Anyway if the Maryland DOT ever gets around to expanding upon the 2002 survey of the Baltimore area then we could be looking at finally getting a plate H tunnel for freight and a seperate higher speed continuous curve tunnel to replace the B&P which could speed the NEC up by another 10-15min through Baltimore and be a damn sight safer.

[LadyTevar]

I'm glad you see no reason to change the Cardinal line through WV. Actually making a change to it would be hard, as part of Amtrak's bylaws states that as long as Amtrak is accepting Govt. Aid, they are required to operate a line along that section of railroad and keep a station open in Charleston WV.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I'm glad you see no reason to change the Cardinal line through WV. Actually making a change to it would be hard, as part of Amtrak's bylaws states that as long as Amtrak is accepting Govt. Aid, they are required to operate a line along that section of railroad and keep a station open in Charleston WV.

I did make a change to it, but for the better. I increased the frequency from three times weekly to daily, and changed the hours at which the train runs--it will now depart Cincinatti in the early morning and arrive at Washington, D.C. late the evening, with overnight service westbound from Cincinatti to Chicago and eastbound from Chicago to Cincinatti. Also there would be a section of the train which splits off in Charlottesville to service Richmond and Newport News, and reattaches there on the return trip.

All of the West Virginia stops would still be during the daylight hours, but would come somewhat later in the day, and the service would be considerably improved, to put it mildly.

[Alferd Packer]

I'm actually going to be up in Boston this coming weekend, and I'm planning to take the Acela Express back to Newark on Sunday. While I was looking at tickets and pricing, I realized why no one takes the train: driving a car is so much cheaper. Driving my pickup truck to Boston and back would cost me $87 in gas + tolls. A one-way trip from Boston back to Newark, with my AAA discount, is $88, and, of course, would probably double if I was going round trip via the train. Gas would need to be significantly more expensive for a train trip to be economical.

Of course, the main boon is that I don't have to deal with the traffic and parking nightmare that is Boston, and yes, that does have a monetary value to me.

[CmdrWilkens]

The problem is you are counting only gas and tolls. The real cost in operating a car comes in wear and tear as well as depreciation. if your car is new within the last 5 years your operating costs (not including tolls) will be between $.45 and $.48 per mile once you factor in the cost of maintenance, parts, and depreciation over the vehcle's life span. for the roughly 225mi trip from Newark to Boston (then back so 450mi) this equates to $202 to $216 BEFORE tolls. So your real comparative cost is $216 + tolls against $176. Your out of pocket cost may be lower for the car trip but beyond time is money the actual cost of operating your vehicle means it is more expensive to do so.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The problem is you are counting only gas and tolls. The real cost in operating a car comes in wear and tear as well as depreciation. if your car is new within the last 5 years your operating costs (not including tolls) will be between $.45 and $.48 per mile once you factor in the cost of maintenance, parts, and depreciation over the vehcle's life span. for the roughly 225mi trip from Newark to Boston (then back so 450mi) this equates to $202 to $216 BEFORE tolls. So your real comparative cost is $216 + tolls against $176. Your out of pocket cost may be lower for the car trip but beyond time is money the actual cost of operating your vehicle means it is more expensive to do so.

Also, the Acelas are premium trains--the lowest class available is business class, the upgrade class is first class. On the normal regional trains the basic coach seats are much cheaper, and they're as large as airline first-class seats to boot.

Finally, Amtrak is trying to make a profit. AND the tolls don't cover the whole cost of the road's maintenance, either--usually just a fraction of it. The rest you pay out of your taxes.

[CmdrWilkens]

Well a goodly portion of the maintenance money comes out of the Federal and State General Highway Trusts which usually are funded out of fuel taxes which are already factored into the federal $.485/mile cost of operating. That said the ongoing maintenance does comes from a portion of the remaining general fund and thus income taxes, certainly once you are off the highway this is much more likely the case. Even moreso in the northeast where general funds are neccessarry to support snow clearing operations through the winter months. Now THAT being said federal support of Amtrak means that a portion of your taxes are going to its operation as well but the comparatively small investment in Amtrak vice the Highway Fund means that the relative cost to the taxpayer does nothing to mitigate the enormously higher cost of operating on the highway for trips of any non-local distance.


Anyway going way back because I finally thought to ask the question. Marina have you started plotting out plans of action for the major Commuter Rail operations (LIRR, MARC, etc) and how they will impact and adjust the actions of Amtrak especially in regards to sharing track and yard space?

[Redleader34]

LIRR, Ah, the gold old Long Island Rail Road, my home rail.

Well, LIRR can cope, but that means that the West Side Yards will be hell on major days, so that means a major technical upgrade. With the new connection to Grand Central completed around 2012, More trains will be serving that terminal, so that should help congestion a bit. If LIRR gets their way, then they should have a new East End Yard at Ronkoma. For traffic in th Hunterspoint Ave area, where NJ Transit/Amtrack share yard space, Its a quandary, as the yards cannot grow due to the new housing construction, so Jersey may loose out on their storage there. The big deal will be yard space, as the real estate values in New York rise rapidly.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Anyway going way back because I finally thought to ask the question. Marina have you started plotting out plans of action for the major Commuter Rail operations (LIRR, MARC, etc) and how they will impact and adjust the actions of Amtrak especially in regards to sharing track and yard space?

I will be factoring in the development of commuter rail possibilities in two ways: Maintenance facilities for commuter rail can be used as locations to lease space at which to maintain amtrak trains, allowing more origination/destination points, firstly. Second, commuter rail can use Amtrak facilities in the same way, reducing the cost of commuter rail in areas which don't currently have it. Areas which don't have heavy commuter rail but could use it because of this are Sacramento, Portland, Charlotte NC (possibly also Raleigh), Tampa, Orlando, and New Orleans.

Locations where Amtrak trains could originate from commuter rail installations being planned or already operating include Nashville, Memphis, Houston, Albuquerque, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Atlanta. The Beech Grove shops could easily originate trains as part of the Midwest High Speed Rail Initiative; Cleveland is going to have similar facilities built; and both could be used for commuter services as well. There's a lot of proposed or planned commuter or even quasi-regional rail networks in planning that I have not covered here, and the facilities for these can be used to piggyback both new commuter and new regional/long distance rail routes.

Then those routes can be connected together by long-distance trains, which will be outlined in part three of this document.