Lynchburg VA NE Regional (ext. to Roanoke and Bristol)

Its just so damn curvy, probably will never be fixed. One thing that popped into my mind was that out west on the Cascades service, they suffered from asimilar problem where the tracks were too curvy to effectively straighten them. So they invested the extra bucks ans got Talgo equipment. Just food for thought, obviously VRE wouldn't go Talgo since they just bought all of those awesome new cars but its a possibility for Amtrak.

Davis

As for the scheduling of the Lynchburg Regional, the following timetable lists how that town was served during the first 5 years of Amtrak, when the Southern Railroad still ran their own trains.

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?grou ... &item=0029

Ken

strench707 wrote:Its just so damn curvy, probably will never be fixed. One thing that popped into my mind was that out west on the Cascades service, they suffered from asimilar problem where the tracks were too curvy to effectively straighten them. So they invested the extra bucks ans got Talgo equipment. Just food for thought, obviously VRE wouldn't go Talgo since they just bought all of those awesome new cars but its a possibility for Amtrak. Davis

Talgos are low floor cars, which are basically incompatible with high platforms. In western Virginia low platforms may be the vogue, but you'll see mostly high platforms on the ex-PRR sections of the NEC. Therefore, if you're wanting to run trains between western Virginia and New York or Boston, you're going to need high floor cars, which eliminates Talgos.

electricron wrote:Talgos are low floor cars, which are basically incompatible with high platforms. In western Virginia low platforms may be the vogue, but you'll see mostly high platforms on the ex-PRR sections of the NEC. Therefore, if you're wanting to run trains between western Virginia and New York or Boston, you're going to need high floor cars, which eliminates Talgos.

They must be optionally compatible with high platforms, since the New York, New Haven & Hartford RR ran their Talgo train into Grand Central Terminal without lowering the station platforms. Other posters pointed out that the option was a trap door in the roof over the side doorway so that passengers didn't bump their heads at high platform stations.

Amtrak does have some tilting trainsets with high floors, but they won't be available for use south of Washington until 2023.

jstolberg wrote:Amtrak does have some tilting trainsets with high floors, but they won't be available for use south of Washington until 2023.

I see no reason why Amtrak couldn't have high platform tilting sets that can use either diesel or electric in the future. Seems like they might have a number of applications for on/off corridor use...a the very least VA and PA.

Any reason the Truboliner coaches couldn't be refurbished for use with normal Amtrak locomotives? Then you could have a tilting trainset that is high-platform compatible.

I see no reason why Amtrak couldn't have high platform tilting sets that can use either diesel or electric in the future. Seems like they might have a number of applications for on/off corridor use...a the very least VA and PA.

You can't have high platforms on the national freight network unless you build special station or gauntlet tracks because you run into clearance problems with wide freight loads.

BTW if you check out the Southern RR timetable in the Opt-Out thread today's Lynchburg train completes the journey in 3'40" compared with 4'40". There some progress.

I think a lot of the recent comments have keyed off Mr. Benton's remarks about a slow schedule. I may be wrong, but I think he was referring to the bus, not the train. In any event, having recently had to drive from Fairfax Co. to Lexington, VA (across the mountain, NW of Lynchburg), and having driven to Charlottesville several time in recent years (via both Route 29, and the I-95/Route 3 alternative), I can attest that the current running times for Lynchburg train are at least comparable (if not better), timewise with driving.

M&Eman wrote:Any reason the Truboliner coaches couldn't be refurbished for use with normal Amtrak locomotives? Then you could have a tilting trainset that is high-platform compatible.

The Turboliners don't have a tilt mechanism. The unrelated United Aircraft Turbotrain did (similar to the Talgo passive tilt system I believe) but those are all long gone.

Arlington wrote:

jstolberg wrote:Seats 16?

I hope they have a backup plan. 16 seats won't be sufficient for Labor Day weekend (or most other weekends when college is in session). What will they do on the weekend of October 22nd when BC plays VT?

On most days, 16 should be plenty. If/when they see it selling out they can either ask the bus company to swap in a bigger bus or they'll add another.

If/when happened today, on the first run of the new bus service. 29 people lined up in Roanoke to take the 16-passenger bus to Lynchburg at 6:40 am. They have a second bus in case the first one needs repair work done. Both are brand new and running fine, so they added the second bus. Then 6 more got on at Bedford.

Even with 35 taking the buses, Lynchburg still had a parking shortage.
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/j ... r-1183293/

You know, a couple of months ago I would've taken advantage of that and used it to visit my alma mater, Virginia Tech! Ironically, now that I'm heading to grad school at William & Mary, it's harder to get to Blacksburg via rail/bus despite being closer. But I guess it's not a bad drive (though I've never really driven many of the east/west routes across Virginia, so I'm not sure what it's like - I guess 460 is the way to go...)

jstolberg wrote:

Arlington wrote:

jstolberg wrote:Seats 16?
I hope they have a backup plan. 16 seats won't be sufficient for Labor Day weekend (or most other weekends when college is in session). What will they do on the weekend of October 22nd when BC plays VT?

On most days, 16 should be plenty. If/when they see it selling out they can either ask the bus company to swap in a bigger bus or they'll add another.

If/when happened today, on the first run of the new bus service. 29 people lined up in Roanoke to take the 16-passenger bus to Lynchburg at 6:40 am. They have a second bus in case the first one needs repair work done. Both are brand new and running fine, so they added the second bus. Then 6 more got on at Bedford.

Even with 35 taking the buses, Lynchburg still had a parking shortage.
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/j ... r-1183293/

Thanks for the link! I'd call that a success: they added a second bus (they own two 16-seaters) when the first bus filled.

Tomorrow there won't be joy-riders and ribbon-cutters on board, and soon they'll learn how to forecast walk-up demand based on advance-purchase sales. Anyone know what NEC's general ratio of advance-purchase vs walk-up ticket buying is? My guess is that between 1800AMTRAK and http://www.amtrak.com, most people will have bought in advance (tipping off the bus operation) and will just be printing at LYH, not buying....if that gets to be a problem, they can put a machine in ROA

Surges in advance ticket sales (for school breaks and football games) should give sufficient lead time to hire (temporarily) more/bigger buses from a local bus company for some runs. Southbound, there will be few or no surprises...everyone will have bought a ticket someplace up north--and even Walk-ups from DC will have to buy their tickets several hours before a bus is needed in LYH. And once you infer why everyone was surging south, you can increase your available northbound bus capacity for heavy walk-up returns.

As long as there is good communication from Amtrak to the bus operator, the they should have the ability to respond flexibly.

Looks like the extension of the train to and from Roanoke needs to happen asap.

A second frequency NY to Atlanta and return(06xx start from each end) looks like the next step too, at least we'll then be back to 1970's standards! Time the Loewy designed station had a regular train service again. The old N and W hotel there - now a Doubletree Hilton - is a great place to stay too with some bedrooms with a good rail view.

Theo

According to the newspaper article, they brought the 2 shuttle buses. Since this is intended to be a limited duration pilot project, wouldn't it have been less expensive to lease the shuttle buses? And more flexible, in case they have to get larger buses?

I think they really would have been better off putting the $400K towards extension of Amtrak service to Roanoke. The $400K might have covered the initial site option survey, engineering study, and meetings with the town officials & public meetings on selecting potential locations for stations in Roanoke & Bedford and a report on any upgrades NS needs to provide the service extension. But, because there has been no passenger service to Roanoke for such a long time, they have to go through this process of providing a interim bus service to show that there are people in Roanoke who would take a train to DC and the NEC. Then, in 2015 or 2016 - or later, Roanoke may see passenger train service.