Amtrak Downeaster Discussion Thread

Sounds nice, yet still a slave to traffic variables and adding further damage to an already compromised highway infrastructure. Any increase in leg room on these "motor coaches?"

1. I challenge you to calculate the incremental damage these trips will cause, and quantify the public cost over-and-above the bus company contributions in fuel/toll/tire/equipment taxes.
2. A slave to traffic variables? What's been average DE on-time performance over the last decade?
3. Increased leg room? Why yes! Please see the below link. Wider, 2-1 seating as well.
4. Fuel economy potential approaching 180 passenger-miles/gallon.

http://www.ridecj.com/locations/new-yor ... ass-travel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting. If the photos are accurate, it looks like it compares quite well with Downeaster business class.

With my travel in recent years, I've had to use a bus on various routes to make my rail connections. When the bus travel time is much beyond 3 hours, for myself it becomes " a stretch " beyond the comfort zone .... bus does not compare to the train in comfort. The last trip I had in Maine on a bus was from Augusta to South Station in Boston ..... thought I'd try this to connect with my train West from Boston, instead of using the DE from Wells ( which I have done many times ) and avoid the cross connect from North Stn to South. Bus left Augusta with 4 people, including the driver ..... gee, how does that equate with the " passenger miles / gallon " efficiency scenario, even though the bus picked up some passengers at the P.T.C. The Augusta - South Station trip is carded for 3 1/2 hours and as I said above, that is usually the peak of my tolerance travel time on a bus, regardless of what amenities it offers.

Downeaster passengers should expect delays and/or cancelled trains May 4-June 12 due to an MBTA/Keolis tie replacement project between Reading and Haverhill, which will affect the single track between Wilmington Junction and Andover.

https://blog.mass.gov/transportation/mb ... ell-lines/

On Monday April 13th, Pan Am Railways will be performing track maintenance operations on the rail line. To accomplish this work trains 681, 683, 684 and 686 have been cancelled for the day. All other trains will operate according to schedule.

Normal service will resume on Tuesday April 14th.

"Normal" service... whatever that means anymore!

Highball wrote:Bus left Augusta with 4 people, including the driver ..... gee, how does that equate with the " passenger miles / gallon " efficiency scenario, even though the bus picked up some passengers at the P.T.C. The Augusta - South Station trip is carded for 3 1/2 hours and as I said above, that is usually the peak of my tolerance travel time on a bus, regardless of what amenities it offers.

How many more than 4 people would a "comfortable" 300 seat train attract? 2? 4? Call the bus 10% full (4 out of a luxury 40) . An Augusta train would have to attract 30 people (a 7-fold increase in ridership) just to claw its way to 10% full. That just isn't going to happen. There aren't 7 people who are holding out for a train for every 1 that is making do with the bus today. I might give you 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 "must have train" but it ain't more than 3-fold. So a train would run even emptier than the bus you saw.

Also, that bus ran without having to play roulette with $100million in track improvements. For bascially $10,000 a bus can probe for ridership for a season and when it finds only 4 per trip, the solution is not to place a bet 10,000x bigger on track improvements in the crazy hope that you''ll get a 7x bump in ridership by offering a train.

The answer would be to keep placing $10,000 bets. Even 100 bets on bus costs just $1m... 100x less than an all-chips on number 28 roulette bet on rail.

Also, while Auburn/Lewiston is 60,000 people and seems big by Maine standards, it is still marginal (and all other cities are "small") by intercity trip standards. How many of 60,000 people make a trip each day to Portland? Only about 30,000 have jobs. Many are kids or have good reasons to stay at home a lot. 3,000? 300? And what share of them are so unhappy with their drive (or car-free) that they'd take *any* mass transit? 150? If 150, far better to run 6 60 passenger buses throughout the day (30% full?) than try to get them all to conform their lives to a trip or two on a 300 seat train. BRU has basically proved this.

From NNEPRA's web site:

NNEPRA wrote:Construction Alert

Updated 4-2-15

Starting on May 4, 2015, Pan AM Railways will begin construction on the 2015 Tie Replacement Project. While this construction will cause some weekday delays and cancellations, the results will be improved reliability of service and safety of passengers.

Here is what passengers can expect during construction:

Weekday Trains 680, 682, 685, 687, 688 and 689 will operate
Weekday Trains 681, 683, 684 and 686 will be cancelled
All weekend trains will operate

The specific timing of the 2015 Tie Replacement Project is subject to change, but will likely end on or about June 15, 2015.

Source: http://www.amtrakdowneaster.com/Constru ... on%20Alert" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I remain thankful that this interruption will be relatively brief. Compared to the MBTA's trackwork (which is admittedly far more complex) this is moving forward at near light speed. It should also serve to fully restore the Downeaster to its previous excellent timekeeping and schedule performance on PAR tracks.

I think one of the historical lessons here is clearly how hard it is to restore passenger rail service to areas where it has been lost for some time. There is a seemingly endless series of challenges which present themselves not only in the initial stages but also in the initial years of operation afterwards.

NNEPRA posted this on Twitter a few minutes ago:

@RideRail wrote:Due to a incident in the Portland area, Train 686 + 687 are cancelled. Train 685 will hold in Boston and run on 687's schedule.

No word yet on what the incident was.

From WMTW-8:

WMTW-8 wrote:The Amtrak Downeaster derailed in Portland Tuesday afternoon, according to officials.

Officials said the rear car of the train derailed about a half mile from the Portland Transportation Center.

Source: http://www.wmtw.com/news/downeaster-der ... d/32364340" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Personal observation: in the 13+ years the service has been running, I believe this is the first time a revenue Downeaster has derailed (not counting the one involved in the North Berwick dump truck collision).

Apparently it was in South Portland, not Portland.

From the Portland Press Herald:

Portland Press Herald wrote:A southbound Downeaster train was disabled after a low-speed derailment in South Portland on Tuesday afternoon.
. . .
The accident occurred near the Fore River and the Sprague tank farm.

Source: http://www.pressherald.com/2015/04/14/d ... -reported/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Downeaster just backed into the PTC at 4:57 pm.
No engine or cabbage on the front, 3 or 4 cars plus a business car, cabbage, power, three business cars.
Traveling very slowly.
S

Bus left Augusta with 4 people, including the driver ..... gee, how does that equate with the " passenger miles / gallon " efficiency scenario...

That would work out to 15-18 pax-miles per gallon. No better than a single-occupant SUV. But for comparison, let's consider the last few reports in the news of incidents with Downeaster trains... the last two or three I've seen, the trains were carrying about 20-25 passengers each time. That works out to 10-14 pax-miles per gallon.

Cowford wrote:

Bus left Augusta with 4 people, including the driver ..... gee, how does that equate with the " passenger miles / gallon " efficiency scenario...

That would work out to 15-18 pax-miles per gallon. No better than a single-occupant SUV. But for comparison, let's consider the last few reports in the news of incidents with Downeaster trains... the last two or three I've seen, the trains were carrying about 20-25 passengers each time. That works out to 10-14 pax-miles per gallon.

That's certainly in line with my example for Augusta, above. The DE isn't fuel efficient when it runs empty (no mode is). A big part of fuel economy has nothing to do with empty-vehicle efficiency and everything to do with being right-sized for the markets you serve. For Maine beyond Portland, that right size is going to be bus size 99% of the time.