by Tadman
Freep article noting that OTP is 33% these days, mostly due to the usual suspect - NS in Northwest Indiana.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... VRBUAksngM
At this point it's a "cut your losses" situation. Amtrak and the state of Michigan are in a state of animosity. Detroit is growing again and this corridor is vibrant, and would be brilliant if it could run on time and/or have a few more frequencies or new equipment.
Meanwhile, every move lately has been a really bad one. The third main on NS was something I predicted would fall flat, and it has. What a joke. The rolling stock procurement has gone the way of most Amtrak rolling stock procurements - bloody awful. It's time to give Amtrak a pink slip and open the route up for bids. It's also time for the state of Michigan and Indiana to talk about pooling resources to upgrade the NICTD trackage. Per CSS management, the sticking point for operating Detroit trains over NICTD trackage was the single track east of Miller, which (a) is being remedied soon by Indiana; (b) the feds just paid for a third NS main which did little to nothing. There is also some bad blood between Amtrak and NICTD over dispatching at the Michigan City interlocker (Stevie Wonder could do better) so a new operator might remove that animosity from the equation.
It's time to ask: "Do we want effective passenger trains or do we want to keep the legacy of Penn Central?" and take the necessary steps to solve the problem. After 45 years Amtrak has just not solved the problem and frankly has no incentive to do so.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... VRBUAksngM
At this point it's a "cut your losses" situation. Amtrak and the state of Michigan are in a state of animosity. Detroit is growing again and this corridor is vibrant, and would be brilliant if it could run on time and/or have a few more frequencies or new equipment.
Meanwhile, every move lately has been a really bad one. The third main on NS was something I predicted would fall flat, and it has. What a joke. The rolling stock procurement has gone the way of most Amtrak rolling stock procurements - bloody awful. It's time to give Amtrak a pink slip and open the route up for bids. It's also time for the state of Michigan and Indiana to talk about pooling resources to upgrade the NICTD trackage. Per CSS management, the sticking point for operating Detroit trains over NICTD trackage was the single track east of Miller, which (a) is being remedied soon by Indiana; (b) the feds just paid for a third NS main which did little to nothing. There is also some bad blood between Amtrak and NICTD over dispatching at the Michigan City interlocker (Stevie Wonder could do better) so a new operator might remove that animosity from the equation.
It's time to ask: "Do we want effective passenger trains or do we want to keep the legacy of Penn Central?" and take the necessary steps to solve the problem. After 45 years Amtrak has just not solved the problem and frankly has no incentive to do so.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.