SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 7:12 amMany of the LD routes could be corridors again--and based on population growth, should be.
They serve few people only because there are few trains on them.
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In any event, it's insane to maintain an infrastructure (stations, maintenance, crew bases) to support only one train a day in each direction. Airlines surely wouldn't bother maintaining airports and other infrastructure to serve only one flight a day. Surely there are some efficiencies that could be done to address this.
Thank you!! I’ve been saying this for years. It does need to come with a broad effort to make Amtrak a viable travel option AND pull passengers toward it from other modes.
bostontrainguy wrote:Um if I remember right, Joe had eight years to do something to make Amtrak really special. I was excited and thought at the time that rail was in for a great ride including some actual high-speed trains around the country and on the NEC. Nothing much happened. "Amtrak Joe" is more of a passenger than an engineer.
Also true. I will say that in the two years he & Barry had before the red signals went up from both houses of Congress, they used ARRA to dump a lot of money into passenger rail that has returned dividends (and a lot that hasn’t, due to state government either refusing the money or mismanaging it. You know which ones I mean.)
Tadman wrote:I think it's important to distinguish being "Anti-long distance" from being pragmatic or realistic.
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This is why I keep advocating for a functional and useful regional network. You can serve something like 40 states (look at my map) very well and sell lots of passenger miles. You can get cars off the road, help pollution and traffic, and stimulate economic development in a meaningful way.
Fair point. I think Amtrak could very well run a VIA-like service for its west coast LD trains - even if the ax fell on the
Sunset Limited and
Cardinal, I don’t see why the
Coast Starlight,
Empire Builder,
California Zephyr,
Southwest Chief,
Texas Eagle and
City of New Orleans wouldn’t continue. Same with the
Lake Shore Limited,
Capitol Limited and potential
Broadway Limited section,
Crescent,
Silver Service, and
Auto Train. One special thing Amtrak does that VIA does not do is operate their LDs on Corridors - the
Canadian terminates at Toronto, the former
Ocean and
Chaleur at Montreal. In short, Amtrak’s LDs are integral parts of corridors themselves - all of them.
And a quick note: as much as we say the
Capitol Limited should be two corridors split at Cleveland, that train is only 130 miles longer than Boston-Norfolk or Windsor-Montreal. Chicago-to-NEC service has a lot of merit and isn’t absurdly long for a corridor. Let’s treat it as one and see what happens ridership-wise.