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Thanks for posting this very informative video. I've been searching forever to find more details on the contract, but there's a ridiculously low amount of information for what is probably the most significant equipment order in Amtrak's history. A couple of notes: - I understand using the ALC-42E du...

In addition to the Alexandria building, WMATA is also constructing a new 11-story building - now topped out - on the former surface parking lot at New Carrollton. This will complement the Stella apartment building and Kaiser Permanente office building built over the last few years. Of course WMATA i...

This article perfectly sums up a lot of the concerns over this order: https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/amtrak-new-equipment-brings-new-challenges/ Siemens builds reliable products, but the track record of US-spec passenger locomotives in general is very spotty, and very hit-or-miss reg...

While it's great to see the Amfleets replaced and dual-mode locomotives used on long-distance NEC trains to the South and New England and eliminate engine changes, the rest of this seems unnecessarily complex and risky. It doesn't make any sense to buy battery-diesel locomotives specifically for the...

To add, I doubt that all 6 HHP-8s have been in service at once for many years, but Amtrak does lend MARC electrics from time to time. As far as I remember nearly all mid-day Penn Line service would be run with Brunswick/Camden Line sets. It was rare to see an electric on the Penn Line outside of rus...

First time posting in a long while... In addition to all the physical obstacles STrRedWolf mentioned: - Like the Superliners the VRE Gallery cars are too tall for the B&P Tunnel, which will be operational for probably another decade. - The Gallery cars are also speed limited to 80mph. Regarding ...

Thanks for all the info. I started paying attention and i did notice that all of the "classic" cars on the Red Line are 3000 series. In fact I haven't seen a 6000-series on the Red Line in a long, long time.

We'll probably be getting the same build style, just with a different wrap on it. Yeah, that's probably why they won the bid. The Miami cars do look pretty nice. So far, the cars for Miami that Hitachi Rail Italy are building are on time and have begun testing. But, I will say at least it's with Hi...

We don't talk about Baltimore's transit system much, since it's so small in comparison to DC (but actually among the largest for a metro area its size), but apparently Hitachi Ansaldo won a competition to build 78 new railcars for the Metro Subway system. Apparently, they would replace the system's ...

It seems that they've moved quite a few 7000-series off of the Red Line after the completion of SafeTrack. Prior to that the 7K's were almost to the point of saturation on the Red Line, with the older cars relatively rare. (I would maybe ride on one once every three weeks or so and a I ride twice da...

Haven't these reliability problems been the case long before they decided not to rehab them? Like, these problems are *why* the decided not to rehab them in the first place. In that case, why are these cars so unreliable compared to the 2000 and 3000 series? Usually when a product is produced over ...

First 4K car is retired: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/02/15/metro-retires-first-of-its-4000-series-cars-the-least-reliable-in-its-fleet It seems that the 4000 series is being somewhat unfairly judged. They might be the most unreliable simply because they're the oldest cars...

^Not sure, but there are definitely a lot on the Red line. My office is near NoMa where I can actually see the Redline from my window. I can see every train that goes by if I pay attention. It definitely seems like at least half the red line is 7k trains during the week. However, it seems to change...

Well, WMATA must have read my last post because of course I rode on a 7K this morning. Also, it seems like there are a lot of 6-car trains on the (western) Red Line today.

I'm now entering my 4th straight week of not riding a 7K, although do see them very sporadically. Interestingly, according to WMATA's GIS data there is only one 6-car train in rush-hour operation; the rest are all 8-cars, so theoretically the Red Line could have been 100% 8-car trains.