If you could restore a defunct Amtrak route

May it be presumed that the Class I hosts are agreeable to these fantasies?

1. Service to Las Vegas, Nevada whether it be an extension just from LA or whether it be something through. The market is there and it would have a great potential
2. Service on the East Coast of Florida, I have ridden it and the lack of service in city/town after city/town on the Florida East Coast is something that could probably not be equaled any other place in the US.
3. The Montrealer as a through overnight train like it was until 1995. I ran that train for some time between New York and New Haven and it did very well. I rode it a few times and again it is an excellent route.
4, Service between New York or Washington and Hyannis on a daily, year round basis, there is a good population of year round residents on Cape Cod and a daily train would be a big improvement over existing bus services.
I could name a lot more but for now this will do.
Noel Weaver

Mr. Norman: Indeed so.

To the OP, in order of easiest to hardest:
-The Arrowhead/North Star (CHI-MSP-Duluth) - already under study as Northern Lights Express
-The Sunset Limited through Phoenix - the track remains in place west of Phoenix, but embargoed and in terrible condition
-The Desert Wind (Los Angeles-Las Vegas-SLC) - UP has proven cool to the idea of either LOS-LAV or the full route
-The Floridian (CHI-IND-Louisville-Nashville-[Montgomery or Atlanta]-Florida) - Good luck driving a route up the gut of CSX, even with coal traffic down.

electricron wrote: . . . reinstate Amtrak's Lone Star, its renaming of the Texas Chief. Here's the route: Chicago to Galveston via Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, and Houston.

. . . run a new rerouted daily Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Los Angeles via Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Abilene, Lubbock, Clovis, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Barstow.

This takes four trains, Heartland Flyer, SW Chief, TX Eagle, and Sunset Limited and makes two. The new Lone Star runs on the eastern half of the existing SW Chief corridor, while rerouting of the Sunset Limited runs on the western half . . . eliminate the lowest population density running sections of both the Sunset and Southwest Chief.

I like to see thinking outside the box.

But since El Paso and San Antonio are among my hometowns, I gotta squawk!

Losing the western half of the Sunset Ltd disconnects some of the country's fastest growing cities -- Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson, Phoenix.

Of course, daily service would double ridership on the Sunset. Phoenix would doubtless grow the most, because the current 3-day-a-week service prevents the economical operation of limos and shuttles to/from that cluster of cities north of Maricopa station.

At this time, Tucson-L.A., New Orleans-L.A., Phoenix-L.A., El Paso-L.A., San Antonio-L.A., Houston-L.A., and San Antonio-Tucson are 7 of the top 9 city pairs on this route. The others are NOLA-Houston and NOLA-San Antonio. http://www.narprail.org/site/assets/fil ... s_2014.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You're right that the route thru desert seems to lack density. But wide open West Texas is covered at night. More importantly, the oasis cities are HUGE, with enormous potential ridership, and shouldn't be abandoned for Abilene, Clovis, Flagstaff, and Barstow.

Let's get the daily Sunset, reinstate the Lone Star, and call it a good day.

Fantasy topics such as this have appeared around here in the past; here is my "topper":

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=55045&p=581460#p581460" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mr. Woody will likely appreciate.

The Broadway Limited of course on the former PRR across Ohio and Indiana.

Realistically I don't expect any long distance revivals (aside from maybe a Sunset east restoration of some sort), and I realize that the growth area will be local/regional corridors. But I hope that Amtrak can maintain the route structure that it has at the very least, plus a few short/medium distance additions here and there (such as the Lynchburg - Roanoke extension in Virginia).

I'm a corridor guy.

1. Valpo Dummy!!! The state of Indiana foolishly turned down a $1m/year to keep this running in 1990. The area has boomed in population and needs a commuter train, but it's got a huge pricetag now that they let the PRR lapse. It's also crazy because while the area has grown, it's still lagging behind the growth of areas that have regular commuter trains (Naperville since 1990? Wow talk about growth).

2. Kentucky Cardinal. Given the ability to straighten out the Indy run, service to IU in Bloomington could be a real winner.

3. Duluth Northstar. Imagine the impact of 2-3/day CHI-MSP-Duluth rather than running the builder to serve the imaginary "transportationless" people of Montana.

4. Original Wolverine (just to Detroit). Now that Amtrak owns the MIchigan line and they're upgrading NW Indiana and Detroit's local trackage, it makes no sense to terminate in Pontiac. You're relying on a few miles of GTW/CN to keep a major corridor train with almost exclusively home-trackage advantage on time. Makes no sense, especially when you consider anybody with a brain in Pontiac going west of Ann Arbor would just drive to Ann Arbor as it saves hours.

- A train into San Francisco from Los Angeles, preferably Talgo for curve speed on the coast line.
- Chicago to Atlanta
- Crescent split to go through Shreveport to Dallas.
- Palmetto extended via FEC to Miami.
- An all points south train off 66/67 , with sleepers.( Raleigh , Florida , Atlanta).

I'll go the "what if" route of realistic restructuring with existing trains and equipment:

1. Splitting the SILVER METEOR at Jacksonville into Tampa & Miami (via FEC) sections.
2. Running the CITY OF NEW ORLEANS via St. Louis
3. Running the CAPITOL LTD Chicago-Ft. Wayne-Toledo on the NS.
4. Extending the VERMONTER to Montreal sooner than four years from now.
5. Cooperation with VIA on running a WOLVERINE to Toronto.
6. Expanding the SOUTHWEST CHIEF with thru cars to Texas via the HEARTLAND FLYER and thru cars to SF with a Barstow-
Bakersfield connection with the SAN JOAQUIN service.

Good luck getting state support(Kansas)for the Flyer to make Newton.
UP controls Tehachapi,is not to keen on passenger service over it,the Starlight detours are
about the only train they allow(to keep Ca happy),believe there's a "Thruway" bus connection to/from Barstow
to the San Joaquin service terminal at Bakersfield.
Yard space is a bit tight at Barstow for passenger equipment to layup or switch.
You have better connections at LAUS to the "LOSSAN" corridor with Amtrak-Ca

The Phoenix Sub (ex-SP) is useless past Buckeye to Roll(Break point is at MP 802.8 near Kofa)
If "Sunrunner" commuter is ever started up,Buckeye would be the west end of that service.

I'm not exercised about the PRR route PGH-CHI, but I do want a NYP-CHI via Pennsylvania train. Does the Skyline Connection count as a defunct Amtrak service?

Los Angeles-Las Vegas
Vermont-Montreal
Hampton Roads-Richmond-White Sulphur Springs
Atlanta-Florida
Detroit-Ontario

I'd think not, Mr. Commack.

Although a schedule roundly that of the Manhattan Limited WB and the Pennsylvania Limited EB were printed in an Amtrak Public TT, it had the foreboding "service to begin at a date to be announced" tag.

Beyond the Boxcars that was to make this "Mixto Diario" pay, Amtrak had no available passenger equipment for such; same applicable for any of the other lamebrained proposals under the "Network Growth Strategy" of which the "Skyline" was part.

Boy, there must have been the "sweet smell" wafting about 60 Mass.

Tom6921 wrote:
Montrealer as an overnight train as it would be easier to connect to with VIA in Montreal and other Amtrak trains going south from NYP/Washington.

At one time the Montrealer had thru sleepers to Florida. It would be nice to see that again. (I actually traveled in one of these back in the '70's during Spring Break)

This is the one that will actually happen:

Run a Silver Service train out of Boston South Station.