Illinois Amtrak Service

it's part of a project to generally reduce the number of freight and passenger grade crossings in Springfield, no?

east point wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:05 pm Married pairs ? There has always been the problem when one gets damaged beyond repair. Have no idea what MNRR and LIRR do when that happens ? However since the cars are all identical not much problem to link to another cars with such damage. With these married pairs being different configurations there may be problems when the odd ball unit does not have a planned mate to connect to ?.

There's been a lot of opposition on here to married pairs, and I think it might actually be an interesting solution. If Amtrak is indeed ordering such, it's a bit of a validation of my position.

That said, it's important to remember what a married pair is: Two cars, coupled by a device like a drawbar, that can't easily be uncoupled in the field. Shop forces can and do uncouple them. They're not actually permanently stuck together. If two pair come in for service, and they match, you could theoretically make a cut between both and match the cars that are still good.

do married pairs retain the tend-to-stand-up-during-crashes-and-derailments beneficial of permanent sets, or is that just with shared trucks or longer sets? Cause if they're more likely to be upright in a wreck I imagine they're also less likely to be damaged beyond repair?

Springfield: All freight trains will no longer block grade crossings. I am unsure if passenger trains will still use the old route ? At least less delays for passenger trains if they use the old single track line. BTW at one time it was 2 tracks . Often wondered why not restore the second track ?

UP (Amtrak) and NS will be consolidated into one ~3 track right-of-way; most grade crossings on this alignment have already been, or are in the process of being converted into viaducts. The new alignment is also adjacent to a new downtown terminal recently built by the local transit district, and I believe the intent is to incorporate the new rail station into this facility, invite an intercity bus operator downtown (Greyhound currently stops at a tire shop on the east side, over by I-55), and make it multimodal.

The city of Springfield is very eager to see trains on the UP alignment [former GM&O] go away due to the number of grade crossings on this route and relatively low train speed (40mph for both P&F, upgraded about two years ago from 25); the Texas Eagle's daily stops are known to be a source of local frustration given the 10-15 minute dwell times and the train blocking 2-3 crossings in the process.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
UP (Amtrak) and NS will be consolidated into one ~3 track right-of-way; most grade crossings on this alignment have already been, or are in the process of being converted into viaducts. The new alignment is also adjacent to a new downtown terminal recently built by the local transit district,
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hope UP is being given access to more than one track on the new alignment, if not, no real benefit to Amtrak Lincoln Service over the current route which often requires a train to wait before entering the single track Springfield station for another to clear out first. I seem to recall it being double tracked through Springfield station into the CM&W (SP) era.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2 ... oronavirus

Fair Use:

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that his cabinet directors have been advised to prepare for a “nightmare scenario” that includes budget cuts of at least 5% for the current fiscal year and a 10% cut for the next one if Washington doesn’t help out.

Thousands of people could be laid off if the state doesn’t receive federal support, the governor said.

Without it, the state’s finances will reach a “critical juncture.”

Headlines like this "have a way of being" long on shock and short of substance; but still, one must wonder what effect the "substance", if any, could there be on Illinois' "pretty extensive" regional intercity rail?

For tomorrow, Chi-Carbondale, there is only the afternoon Illini (#393) and the City(#59). We all know what will happen to the City come Oct 1. (for Rip V W; tri-weekly). Saluki (#391) is "in the dog pound".

To Quincy, now only the Zephyr (#383), plus the Zephyr (#5) to Gales; same fate awaits Oct 1. Carl (#381) is "on leave".

St Louis has two Lincolns (#303), (#307) two are in hibernation. The Eagle (#21) gets wings clipped oct 1.

So if "the doomsday" comes, will those remaining also take "a leave of absence"?

I can tell you right now Mr. Norman that some of the urban areas really have lost population. I would know because we have probably between 5,000 and 10,000 "extra" residents just between Bethel, ME and Rumford, ME alone. Many from Boston. Bethel's year round population is usually about 1,500. You can imagine the strain this puts on local infrastructure.

As population goes so goes tax revenue. If Illinois really has lost people to other states then the downturn scenario proposed is likely quite real. I can tell you right now we are not far behind in Maine on our state revenue targets (much to everyone's surprise).

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Illinois has been steadily losing people to neighboring states for years. It's got a spending problem that goes unchecked as tax revenues drop, and single-party control is a big reason for that.

Covid and riots have exacerbated the problem, and it can only get worse if the "progressive" tax constitutional amendment on the November ballot passes. It's being sold on a promise to increase tax rates on "the rich" (which hasn't worked out too well in other places like NYC) by allowing for variable tax rates based on income. Today, Illinois can only tax everyone at the same rate (which is indeed fair), which leaves the ruling party reluctant to raise tax rates because the lower income end of their constituency would revolt.

Regardless, "the rich" are already heading to places which are more tax friendly or neutral, and the push towards virtual office environments facilitates that hugely. The company I work for is a prime example -- our chairman lives in FL, our CEO lives in TX, our CIO lives in upstate NY, and we have a bunch of other VP's that live in TX. All of them had been maintaining apartments/condo's in Chicago, but now that it's normal to be elsewhere, they haven't actually been in IL for over six months.

Without higher paying individuals being residents anymore, it's inevitable that the upper-middle class will get soaked to try and make up for that shortfall, whether or not proponents want to admit that.

What that means for rail.... Less tax income means rail becomes low hanging fruit, be it what gets spent on Amtrak subsidies or on transit agencies like Metra.

If universities go back on lockdown, there's not much of a reason to maintain the Saluki/Illini or the Lincoln services....

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 6:13 pm Fair Use:

Thousands of people could be laid off if the state doesn’t receive federal support, the governor said.

Without it, the state’s finances will reach a “critical juncture.”

I'm guessing that the State and various Counties could lay off 10% of their workers and nobody would notice or even complain, aside from the unions and the people affected. That includes Metra, CTA, and RTA.

You've just stopped maintaining my kids' playgrounds, closed my nature center, delayed fixing my potholes, slowed down fire response times, etc., etc. Unless there are a bunch of useless middle managers around (which is possible but which we can't just assume) that most cities and states can't just lay off a tenth of their workforce (and stop spending a tenth of their utility, supply, etc., budgets) without anyone noticing.

Nah they could. I’ve lived in four different states and IL by far has more public employees per citizen than TX or AZ. Only NY is less efficient.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Update on service to Rockford:

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... ep-forward

The long-running effort to restore passenger rail service between Chicago and Rockford has moved forward, with the Illinois Department of Transportation hiring engineering services firm WSP USA as the proposal’s project manager. The Rockford Register Star reports state Sen. Steve Stadelman announced the move in a press release, saying that Amtrak or Metra could operate the service, and that the state DOT has begun discussions with host railroad Union Pacific about infrastructure work necessary to host the service. The proposed service would use Metra’s Milwaukee District West line to Elgin, then use UP’s tracks to Rockford. The community was last served by Amtrak’s Chicago-Dubuque Black Hawk, which was discontinued in 1981.

Nah they could. I’ve lived in four different states and IL by far has more public employees per citizen than TX or AZ. Only NY is less efficient.

How much of that is efficiency (fewer workers needed to provide a given unit or level of service) and how much of it is providing fewer public services? I've lived in Mass, IN, and IL, and I got the impression that there were a lot of public services in Illinois that we didn't necessarily have in the other places (from pottery classes at the parks district to a larger number of state-supported passenger trains and, admittedly based on just a few visits, shorter wait times at the DMV in Illinois than anywhere I ever lived).

The right amount of public services is a value judgment. The right number of employees to provide a given level of service (and their pay and benefits) is a human resources-management-labor relations decision. The right number of employees per citizen is therefore a mix of both.

My experience of state and local budget cuts in Mass and Indiana is of losing services I liked: my art teacher and gym teacher in 2nd grade, Sunday service on my nearest bus line and commuter rail line in high school, library hours, parking lots and bathrooms at nearby parks, hours at the city nature center, city leaf pickup, having to pay a special fee for trash hauling. Now maybe those cities and states could have found ways to save money without cutting services; most organizations tend to build up too many administrators who don't add much value, for example, I can totally believe in a situation where the managers of a state department would protect their jobs rather than the jobs of the people providing the actual services when the crunch came, because "we must have a deputy director of x". Or maybe they could have helped the line workers to do more by, for example, reducing paperwork requirements. Or maybe there was some featherbedding to get rid of. But I find it really hard to believe that there are enough useless workers to allow for cutting 10% of Illinois' state budget without cutting anything except useless workers, especially when we remember that a big chunk of the budget goes for things other than state workers: supplies, utilities, maintenance, rents, etc., etc. For me budget cuts mean service cuts.

In a perfect world, the politicians would look to cleaning up their act instead of cutting Amtrak Service. A good place to start would be the government pension mess. That should save enough so that they wouldn't even have to look at Amtrak. But that's crazy talk.

"Gentlemen, we have to save our phony-baloney jobs. Harumph, Harumph". - Mel Brooks.