Amtrak Downeaster Discussion Thread

MEC407 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 1:17 pm I'm not a statistician, and maybe this isn't the best way to look at this... but here's an example anyway, just for the heck of it:

If we add up the populations of the cities served by the Hiawatha, the total is 3,351,922. If we add up the populations of the cities served by the Downeaster, the total is 994,543. Calculated as a percentage of population, the Hiawatha's ridership is 26.1%. The Downeaster's ridership is 55.5%.

As we all know, numbers and statistics can be used in all kinds of creative ways to prove wildly differing points. I'm just trying to find a way to measure a train's success or popularity that is more meaningful than raw passenger numbers, which I'm sure we can all agree do not tell the whole story.

When comparing different trains we are comparing apples with oranges anyways. How many passengers from Boston head to Maine, or head towards New York? How many passengers from Chicago head to Milwaukee, or head to St. Louis, Galesburg, Carbondale, Detroit, or Grand Rapids?
Taking the same question from the opposite direction, from Milwaukee or from Portland, how many passengers are on vacation or commuting, and how many jobs are available in Milwaukee or Portland come into play. The distances these trains travel are short enough for commuters.

I do not wish to suggest all trains should be compared against each other with any single statistic, but I am suggesting claiming one train is best against all others without any data to back it up is just someone being boastful and we should take that claim with high degree of skepticism.

On A-Day, Amtrak operated 7 RT Albany-NY, of which 3 RT continued to Buffalo. This was the continuation of the NYC's Empire Service brand, introduced in 1967 to consolidate their various named trains on the route. Four additional overlapping services now operate (pre-COVID anyway): Adirondack (1974), Lake Shore Limited (1975), Maple Leaf (1981), and Ethan Allen Express (1996). There were two previous services as well - the Lake Shore (May 10, 1971 - 1972) and Empire State Express/Niagara Rainbow (1974-1979, truncated to Niagara Falls in 1979 and later merged into Empire Service).

Pre-COVID service on the corridor was 12 RT Albany-NY, of which 4 RT continue to Buffalo and beyond.

Off Topic:

Has anyone seen or heard from Dick H recently?

He's been a railroad.net member for 15+ years and has always been a frequent contributor to this thread and several other New England-related threads. I just realized I haven't heard from him in a while, and it appears his last visit to the web site was in April, which is unusual for him; he was always a daily visitor in the past.

Please send me a private message if you can answer this question. Thanks.

From the Portland Press Herald:

Portland Press Herald wrote:A 43-year-old homeless woman from Portland was killed by an Amtrak Downeaster train at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday as she crossed the tracks near where she was camping out, police said.

The woman’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, said police spokesman Lt. Robert Martin. The death occurred near the intersection of Allen Avenue and Read Street, close to where the woman had been camping for several weeks, Martin said.

Read more at: https://www.pressherald.com/2020/09/08/ ... -portland/

MEC407 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:23 pm From the Portland Press Herald:

Portland Press Herald wrote:A 43-year-old homeless woman from Portland was killed by an Amtrak Downeaster train at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday as she crossed the tracks near where she was camping out, police said.

The woman’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin, said police spokesman Lt. Robert Martin. The death occurred near the intersection of Allen Avenue and Read Street, close to where the woman had been camping for several weeks, Martin said.

Read more at: https://www.pressherald.com/2020/09/08/ ... -portland/

so sad! Always expect a train.

In other Downeaster-related news, a developer wants to build 100 apartments next to the Dover Amtrak station on land currently owned by the railroad. Read about it here:

APARTMENT COMPLEX PROPOSED FOR PAR-OWNED LAND IN DOVER

If half of these apartments are Boston bound commuters that building alone would be responsible for an additional 25,000 rides per year (50 commuters x 250 work days x 2 rides).

Could work for Portland commuters as well if NNEPRA ever decides to run "reverse" commute routes.

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Check out this proposal that has the Downeaster going to Springfield and beyond:

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/in ... aign=19471

Interesting. Not the State of Maine route, but doable. Change of directions at North Station, but that already happens on the Keystone trains at Philadelphia.

I am endlessly skeptical of any Amtrak service running on the Grand Junction; the first MIT partier from a well-heeled family who gets killed on that narrow ROW will bring a lawsuit big enough to put "reopen Grand Junction" further down the list than "daily Sunset through to Jacksonville".

Nice to be talking about all this but I rode 682 this morning for the first time since it was shut down in March. There were 83 people on board. And the barrista told me that was actually good.

We better hope this administration doesn't use this as an excuse to decide Amtrak isn't worth federal funding and not even give things a chance to return to normal, which could be many many months, if not a year.

From many different iteems about Covid=19 suspect that Dec. 2021 will mark the return to normal. Do not believe any politician or political appointee.

Just a little item about ticket purchase. If you do it from the DE web site, you get routed to the usual Amtrak site to do the actual booking (always been this way), it has a place to enter a Senior promotion code (V543). If you start with the Amtrak site, you appear to using a new redesigned (probably better) interface, but I didn't see any place to put that important 50% senior discount in.

I could have missed it, but as I remember pre-Covid, it didn't matter where you started the booking, you always went to the same place and were able to enter the promo code.

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:53 am Check out this proposal that has the Downeaster going to Springfield and beyond:

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/in ... aign=19471

Bi-hourly service would be 7-8 RT's per day...which would of course mean PTC for the entire route plus quite a bit more double track. It's an intriguing proposal though. Always wondered if and when the DE would be absorbed into the "Northeast Regional" brand.

It won't. There are separate crew districts between the Downeaster and the NEC which are significant to how NNEPRA is able to manage the service in collaboration with Amtrak.

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