by Noel Weaver
To sum it up, I think the decision whether to detour or bus is depended on a lot of if's:
1. A suitable detour that would be available with reasonable track conditions, qualified crew availability and capacity.
2. The lack of the above would probably result in a bus for the passengers immediately affected and no service after that
until conditons are cleared.
Examples of where probably suitable detours exist include Chicago - Omaha, Omaha - Salt Lake City, Kansas City - California, Los Angles - Oakland, Selma, JC - Jacksonville most of this route anyway, Jacksonville - Tampa or Miami,
New York - Chicago ilncluding Philadelphia and Washington in the mix and finally Chicago - Minneapolis.
Routes where suitable detours probably do not exist or would not be very practical: Much of the Northeast Corridor simply
because of capacity problems, New York - Albany - Buffalo, Vermont, Boston - Portland, Philadelphia - Harrisburg, Chicago -
Detroit (much of it anyway) and probably Chicago - New Orleans at least a fair share of it.
Sadly in 2010 the railroad network is far different than it was in 1971 when Amtrak went into business. In New England and
New York State for example many more or less suitable routes have been abandoned and torn up and what remains would
require major loss of time and many extra miles so bus substitution is far more practical. This is not just in the northeast
but elsewhere as well. In some cases entire main lines that were in full operation in 1971 and some that Amtrak operated
over too are today either rail trails or completely gone and more or less forgotten. Former Seaboard in Georgia, the former
B & O west of Clarksburg, WV are two examples and there are more too.
One reason that today we have such hot train watching spots as Folkston, Georgia is because parallel routes were abandoned
by CSX during the Snow period. The higher the concentration of freight traffic there is over a line, the harder it would be
to fit Amtrak detours or to provide crews/pilots for them too.
Noel Weaver
1. A suitable detour that would be available with reasonable track conditions, qualified crew availability and capacity.
2. The lack of the above would probably result in a bus for the passengers immediately affected and no service after that
until conditons are cleared.
Examples of where probably suitable detours exist include Chicago - Omaha, Omaha - Salt Lake City, Kansas City - California, Los Angles - Oakland, Selma, JC - Jacksonville most of this route anyway, Jacksonville - Tampa or Miami,
New York - Chicago ilncluding Philadelphia and Washington in the mix and finally Chicago - Minneapolis.
Routes where suitable detours probably do not exist or would not be very practical: Much of the Northeast Corridor simply
because of capacity problems, New York - Albany - Buffalo, Vermont, Boston - Portland, Philadelphia - Harrisburg, Chicago -
Detroit (much of it anyway) and probably Chicago - New Orleans at least a fair share of it.
Sadly in 2010 the railroad network is far different than it was in 1971 when Amtrak went into business. In New England and
New York State for example many more or less suitable routes have been abandoned and torn up and what remains would
require major loss of time and many extra miles so bus substitution is far more practical. This is not just in the northeast
but elsewhere as well. In some cases entire main lines that were in full operation in 1971 and some that Amtrak operated
over too are today either rail trails or completely gone and more or less forgotten. Former Seaboard in Georgia, the former
B & O west of Clarksburg, WV are two examples and there are more too.
One reason that today we have such hot train watching spots as Folkston, Georgia is because parallel routes were abandoned
by CSX during the Snow period. The higher the concentration of freight traffic there is over a line, the harder it would be
to fit Amtrak detours or to provide crews/pilots for them too.
Noel Weaver
