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Glad to see Matt's posting about the schedule change. I have tickets for the Crescent in August connecting with the Cardinal in Charlottesville heading for the NRHS convention in Milwaukee. Got notice from Amtrak last week that time from Charlotte had been changed from 1:45 AM to 5:10 AM with no exp...

First Amtrak trip was May of 1971. Amtrak was about 10 days old and I was traveling home from college in Texas (A&M) after exams. Boarded Texas Chief in Ft. Worth to Houston. Dinner in Hi-level diner was amazing. Arrived at the old Union Station in Houston (now a part of their baseball park) and...

I was in Baden NC over the weekend and came across at least 5 Budd SPV-2000 cars (ex-Conn DOT?) at the old Alcoa Aluminum plant along with a VRE diesel (GP40?). Could not get a close location for a photo. There are a few YouTube videos from about a year ago showing these cars being hauled south thro...

Another update- Effective December 14 a second round trip Piedmont will resume operating, which combined with the Carolinian will give us 3 round trips a day Charlotte to Raleigh.

Two updates-
1) The one operating Piedmont resumed using NC owned cars last week as opposed to Amtrak equipment used since service resumed.
2) Business class car returned to the Carolinian effective today per NCDOT rail division update.

It's my understanding that #72 and #81 are being held by Amtrak for NC's 4th Piedmont schedule. NC already has 73 through 80 counting the Carolinian. Source: A. Paul at NCDOT Rail Div.

A special train for President Roosevelt (TR)? I like Oyster Bay, but the hills in the background seem a little to close.

Should be the same. State supported services don't have coach attendants. If there's a cafe car it should have the same number of attendants regardless. It's worth noting that Superliners and Horizon cars have nearly identical seating capacity. The real limitation is on baggage which generally isn'...

Somebody referred to needing a dream customer. I can recall a time in the late '70s when SP was so cash short they lived on the monthly Amtrak payment.

Newspaper writer doesn't know much about trains. This will be one locomotive for testing, not one train.

Amtrak provides engineers and conductors for the Piedmont's. There are no OBS staff on these trains. NC owns the equipment and contracts with private sector for their maintenance. (Was Herzog, but not sure if that is still the case). Amtrak provides both the staff and the equipment for the Carolinian.

Long term they will regret not choosing a bypass route around Ashland, at least for freights. While NEPA really wont allow it, it would be good if VDOT could acquire a R/W around Ashland for the future before it all gets built over.

According to an article in today's Guardian, the British government has again been forced to re-nationalize the East Coast Mainline due to Virgin Rail and its partners failure to meet financial targets, though service seemed good and busy when I rode it last summer

Starting June 4th NC adds another Piedmont to the schedule from Charlotte to Raleigh. This will make 3 daily Piedmont's plus the Carolinian each way each day. 4th Piedmont in late 2019 or 2020.

Put an airline man in charge, you get airline type pricing. I'll bet you money that the reduced seat pitch idea will come quietly back up soon, too. Watch for it in new equipment.