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Not unique to Siemens, or the rail industry. At least it’s just trains being cancelled. Try explaining to a sewer plant that they’re one pump/VFD/PLC card failure away from having to dump raw/partially treated sewage, and the DEP doesn’t care. And the replacement parts may be out three weeks, or thr...

The Long Island ran their old diesel cars with doors open between stops, and the normal bad lighting there that you’d expect from a 50s railcar. Metro-North’s ACMU doors were totally manual. Supposedly some people would accidentally take an express, and bail out at their stop. Closed to topic - the ...

None of this makes sense (ok, it’s 4am, and this stupid time change is messing with me). In any case, if CSX means aiming a camera out a window of an Amtrak train and taking pictures (motion or still), they probably have little or no leg to stand on. And if they’re upset about people filming CSX tra...

Maybe we should do nothing, so we can sit and moan about it in online forums for another few decades?

As for Amtrak, looks like Brightline is threatening their little fiefdom, and they don’t like it. It’s sad that government run transit agencies in the US act this way, but they do…

Mr. Nas, haven't you ever noticed how with a fixed seating arrangement as good as in place anywhere, save Chicago's METRA, and I think NJT, the forward riding seats fill up first? I guess after doing NYP to Port Washington or Mineola a zillion times, I’m just happy to have a seat, now that the LI h...

People ride backwards on commuter trains all the time. What’s the big deal?

I do find it interesting that using ALC-42Es and APVs will allow for piecemeal electrification in ways that no other equipment in US operations do. I also see possibilities of extending routes like the Keystone services west of Harrisburg a possibility. You’re not going to see any extension of elec...

Possibly FEC required Brightline to have two engines on each set and perhaps Brightline envisions expanded consists, but failing either, Brightline sets appear way overpowered. Roughly 7500 or so for a 6-8 car train? That’s not much better than NJT, albeit with lighter equipment. About the only loc...

The problem isn’t top speed, it’s getting there. The “110” mph running on the Empire Corridor takes forever to get to speed, and the videos I’ve seen from operations out west are pathetically bad, too. Seriously, we’re talking barely 3000 hp for traction, to get a train to 110mph? Why even bother? B...

Awful through interlockings. And nasty on your ears, if the end doors were open. I lived within walking distance of Glen Head. I took the next Port Washington, or Mineola, even if an Oyster Bay train was earlier. The C3s ride better, and the few times I rode on the dual modes, they were quite punchy...

Amtrak can’t even through ticket with commuter rail lines. You literally either have to have multiple aps, or trudge around Penn Station to buy tickets to connect between trains that might literally be next to each other at track level. Forget busses/subways. Meanwhile, interconnected ticketing is a...

Doesn’t matter. At those speeds, by the time you hear it, you’re probably dead anyway.

Thing about European train horns, is when you hear them, it’s often a sign to hang on…

Given the performance of that thing geared for 160, geared for 100, and a few more doors, it looks almost like it could be an arrow III replacement

The Amish probably would have built a better platform at 1/3 the cost, and in a few days.

Been on plenty of the old LIRR diesel crap with open doors between stations (the longer Montauk runs used to have folks smoking off the vestibule of the last car, bouncing through Nassau and all) The British are weird about train doors, at least one series has manual doors you need to open from the ...