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  • MARC Delays Caused by Amtrak

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

 #1435522  by farecard
 
As a layman reading the thread, I wonder about the consequences of the de-electification of MARC. I'd think an electric locomotive would require far less maintenance hours|dollars/year than Diesels, and could offer better acceleration.

But I gather there's a war underway over the price/KWH, and as a result, the riders lose. It's not trivial usage; I seem to recall a Acela consist draws upwards of 12MW.
 #1435527  by STrRedWolf
 
Better acceleration, yes... but on average they don't go so fast in comparison with Amtrak because they make more stops. Plus, the AEM-7's were more reliable than the HHP-8's when both were running, from what I could tell in the logs.

The only downside was that MARC couldn't run them on all the lines. So going more diesel actually works out in the long term.