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New Amtrak Poll Question
- Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
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by markhb
Lake Shore (with specific reference to the Boston leg).
"...And then I thought, every time some company creates a more powerful locomotive does Superman become more powerful as well or is he stuck at 1938 locomotive power levels?" - A friend of mine elsewhere
Anything I post here is mine alone and does not represent the views of my employer.
Anything I post here is mine alone and does not represent the views of my employer.
by Station Aficionado
Since I don't post to Facebook under this moniker, I'll add my thoughts here. I generally agree with Neroden that twice-a-day should be usually be the minimum service level for any route deemed worthy of passenger service. One-a-day is the equivalent of a long spindly branchline in freight railroading--sometimes necessary, but to be avoided when possible.
A few specific thoughts:
All routes with one-a-day daytime trains should certainly have twice a day service: Adirondack north of Ft. Edward, Maple Leaf west of Niagara Falls, Vermonter north of Springfield, Blue Water east of Battle Creek, Heartland Flyer. There are probably others I'm missing--oh yes, Pennsylvanian west of Harrisburg.
I'd probably favor adding service on some LD routes (or portions thereof); however, I prefer day trains where possible. Certainly the Empire Builder route would benefit from another frequency (and, to deviate from my general view, I'd run one train to Seattle, and one to Portland). Ditto the Starlight. I'd also add a daytime Washington-Atlanta frequency on the Crescent route. Probably the CNO (at least as far south as Memphis) as well; maybe the Zephyr east of Denver. For the Florida trains, I'd suggest Amtrak get over its allergy to enroute switching, and have Tampa and Miami sections on both the Star and Meteor (with the split/joinder in Orlando). I'm dubious of added serice on the Eagle (south of St. Louis) and SWC (west of Galesburg) routes. I'll have to think some more about the CL and the LSL. As for the Cardinal, I'd sever it. While I've posted before on why Chicago-Indy-Cincy does not have great prospects, you've got to run trains to Beech Grove, so there might as well be Chicago-Indy service twice a day, and maybe on to Cincy, but the lack of intermediate traffic weighs against that. On the east end, I'd run twice a day service from Huntington or Charleston to NYP, as extensions of NEC trains (a la the Lynchburg service).
A few specific thoughts:
All routes with one-a-day daytime trains should certainly have twice a day service: Adirondack north of Ft. Edward, Maple Leaf west of Niagara Falls, Vermonter north of Springfield, Blue Water east of Battle Creek, Heartland Flyer. There are probably others I'm missing--oh yes, Pennsylvanian west of Harrisburg.
I'd probably favor adding service on some LD routes (or portions thereof); however, I prefer day trains where possible. Certainly the Empire Builder route would benefit from another frequency (and, to deviate from my general view, I'd run one train to Seattle, and one to Portland). Ditto the Starlight. I'd also add a daytime Washington-Atlanta frequency on the Crescent route. Probably the CNO (at least as far south as Memphis) as well; maybe the Zephyr east of Denver. For the Florida trains, I'd suggest Amtrak get over its allergy to enroute switching, and have Tampa and Miami sections on both the Star and Meteor (with the split/joinder in Orlando). I'm dubious of added serice on the Eagle (south of St. Louis) and SWC (west of Galesburg) routes. I'll have to think some more about the CL and the LSL. As for the Cardinal, I'd sever it. While I've posted before on why Chicago-Indy-Cincy does not have great prospects, you've got to run trains to Beech Grove, so there might as well be Chicago-Indy service twice a day, and maybe on to Cincy, but the lack of intermediate traffic weighs against that. On the east end, I'd run twice a day service from Huntington or Charleston to NYP, as extensions of NEC trains (a la the Lynchburg service).
by NotYouMOS
Not one of your options but the Pennsylvanian out to the 'burgh as well as the Crescent.