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The ex-Metroliner cab cars are the oldest Amtrak-owned equipment in regular service. The 1968 Comet IB cars used on the San Joaquins and the 1952-1965 equipment used on the Piedmont are older, though both are comparatively recent to Amtrak usage. Regardless, the Amfleet replacement order includes 15...

Right you are, Mr. Norman: https://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/charlotte-nc-clt/ Located approximately two miles northeast of downtown in the busy Norfolk Southern rail yard, the current Charlotte station was built for the Southern Railway in 1962 to house passenger service functions and ...

Yes, the plug doors are necessary to enable true level boarding, which is planned once the last Type 7 and Type 8 cars are retired. The T had a bad experience with plug doors with the Boeing LRVs, but that technology has come a long way since then. Virtually every second-generation (1981-now) light ...

Why the D Branch is light rail: It was built as inexpensively as possible, so as to add service quickly and cheaply. It was done at a total cost of $9.2 million, slightly under $70 million in today's dollars. The ROW was bought from the B&A for a song, rails were reused, stations were bare aspha...

A lot of LRT lines are built with substantial sections of single track, with the possibility to infill later. I know portions of the Baltimore and Portland systems were built that way. It pretty much limits you to headways no shorter than 10-15 minutes, so it's hardly worthwhile for most systems. I ...

Any service west of Worcester was inevitably going to end up being Amtrak, just by the nature of the service. Amtrak has existing rights to run on the B&A west of Worcester, MBTA does not. Amtrak has existing agreements to use the stations at Springfield, Pittsfield, and Albany; MBTA does not. A...

I don't know if any full-length high-level platforms with the hinged edges. That's a lot of platform edges for the freight crew to flip up! Also, there's been a lot of issues with water intrusion on the retractable edges. One at North Billerica collapsed in 2015, the mini-highs had to be replaced at...

1.7 billion could make a decent dent in the accessibility backlog. Because never commuter rail systems in the US are post-ADA, there are only the legacy systems with non-accessible stations: MBTA: 32 / 141 not currently accessible (5 non-accessible stations indefinitely closed and may not reopen, 2 ...

CNN reporting multiple dead, at least 50 injured: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/us/missouri-amtrak-train-derailment/index.html There are multiple fatalities and at least 50 people who were injured after an Amtrak train derailed Monday in Missouri, Eric McKenzie, the superintendent with Chariton Cou...

Could also be related to plans to rebuilt the trackways at Arlington and Copley to fix the issue of doors striking the platform.

That would be the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electric interurban that did both freight and passenger business. The wye was the junction between the mainline (Oakland–Chico) and the Colusa Branch, which paralleled SR 20 to Colusa.

There's zero chance you'll ever see the Air Line reactivated for passenger service. Between Middletown and Putnam, it's curvier than the worst Shore Line segments, with hardly any tangent track. It also misses every population center (Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, Providence) worth a HSR stop. E...

Yard 10 lead was rebuilt and connected to the NHML as part of GLX. It's currently out of service (part is covered with gravel for GLX construction access) but that appears to be temporary.

Presumably the authority is because it is outside MBTA territory, as well as because Amtrak is a far more likely operator than MBTA/Keolis. Here in CA, joint powers authorities are very common for projects that are larger than a single county but smaller than statewide. They're not as common in New ...

In MBTA territory, Hyde Park, Canton Junction, Sharon, Mansfield, and Attleboro all need full-length high-level platforms that aren't currently planned. (South Attleboro is planned for a rebuild as soon as this year.) Obviously none of them are served by Amtrak, but reduced dwell times are needed to...