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I think there is a need for some technology and operational improvements that make it less costly to do switching as well as better timekeeping, in order to support more LD. Better timekeeping is key - having trains that are routinely hours late makes the network much less useable unless it is just...

The straps are heavy-duty plastic. Hopefully the plastic is cleanable, especially in the Age of COVID. Back at the turn of the 20th Century transit cars used leather straps. During the Influenza epidemic it was found that leather was difficult to clean and therefore could transfer the virus, so tra...

Markhb is right about the Lewiston Branch from Brunswick, the track exists as far as Lisbon Falls (it was actually refurbished with state money a few years ago for a freight customer that never materialized) and the right of way exists into Lewiston but downtown it has been taken over by a street, o...

For me, I am more reluctant to travel due to the lack of things to go to, given that so much has been cancelled, than I am by the fear of COVID. For me I treat it as a bad flu season, taking the usual precautions such as hand washing. I try not to let it affect how I live my life, beyond wearing the...

Service to Bangor via Augusta would use the former MEC Lower Road which is currently broken through Augusta and has not seen through trains in some time so it would be a major rebuild. Another drawback is that it misses Lewiston/Auburn the second largest urban area in the state. The alternative of g...

OK thanks. Will be interesting to see how they handle it on the Texas Eagle.

Jon

Planning a trip from Dallas to Boston in April and I was wondering how the "Flexible Dining" works now under COVID for sleeping car passengers. From what I have read it implies that you don't eat in the dining car anymore, are meals brought to you by the attendant for you to consume in you...

I definately plan to use the Downeaster for travel between Wells and Brunswick. I also plan to use any bus routes too. I want to visit the Seashore Trolley Museum without driving. This would probably require an Uber from Saco. There are bus routes radiating from the Saco Transportation Center but t...

There's almost always more than one market to be served. A frequent business traveler with a briefcase might prefer the time saving with a crosstown transfer, but a first-time traveler with luggage and maybe a few kids would likely prefer a one-seat ride at the cost of some additional time. There c...

Oh I learned EXACTLY how they're pronounced! Wooster, Lemonster, but Dor-chester, not "Dooster". From what I remember when I lived there it's more like "Dot-chistah". As for the Keystone reroute via Jenkintown, it also doesn't make sense to stop at 2 stations in Center City. You...

You have to wonder how trip time to say NYC via a Grand Jct. connection to the Springfield line then over to Springfield and down to New Haven compares with just taking a shuttle from BON to BOS (or Orange Line to BBY) and a Regional from there. I rode the "Inland Route" back in the day fr...

I guess I don't understand the purpose of the diversion in Philly via the ex RDG/SEPTA West Trenton Line and CSX. If I was going to do it at all it would be to add one suburban station stop in the north of Philadelphia suburbs such as either Langhorne or Jenkintown. The other stops e.g. the other of...

There is also the option of LTL freight companies such as Old Dominion.

Currently out of state visitors are required to quarantine for 14 days which pretty much kills the possibility of many from out of state traveling on the Downeaster to Maine for vacation. No date yet on when this requirement will be lifted.

Favorite: That is a tough one. Sitting in a roomette on the Broadway Limited sipping a drink as the Chicago suburbs flash by then dinner and afterwards a ride in the dome across Indiana (this was 1985 when the train was combined with the Capitol as far as Pittsburgh). Or the Canadian through the Roc...