Railroad Forums 

  • Search

  • Search it up!

Search found 428 matches

 Return to the advanced search

Re: Better food on non-LD trains - is it doable?

 by bratkinson ¦  Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:38 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Better food on non-LD trains - is it doable? ¦  Replies: 143 ¦  Views: 22706

It's been said a couple of places on a couple of forums, why can't Amtrak simply put Acela First Class food in place of the 'contemporary dining'. I took 2 Acela FC round trips in the past couple weeks as a way to very quickly reach AGR status (double TQP days). The new menu as of a couple weeks ago...

Re: Amtrak suspends Vermont lines

 by bratkinson ¦  Wed Mar 17, 2021 8:02 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Amtrak suspends Vermont lines ¦  Replies: 91 ¦  Views: 20173

Personally I'm hoping if/when the Vermonter is extended to Montreal it gets turned back into an overnight train. With the right timetable it could allow convenient overnight travel between NYC and both Montreal & Vermont. The only reason the Vermonter exists is that the state of Vermont is kick...

Re: The Y2K fail finally happened?

 by bratkinson ¦  Fri Jan 15, 2021 10:02 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: The Y2K fail finally happened? ¦  Replies: 19 ¦  Views: 3136

[OT] What is INTERCOMM? Intercomm predated IBM's CICS by several years. I think it was created by a company whose name I can't remember about 1970, plus or minus a couple years. By the time the conversion project started in late 1994 with a pilot conversion, I was told there were less than 10 Inter...

Re: The Y2K fail finally happened?

 by bratkinson ¦  Sat Jan 02, 2021 12:15 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: The Y2K fail finally happened? ¦  Replies: 19 ¦  Views: 3136

The Y2K problem was and still is very real. Depending on how the programs were revised, it may happen again in 2028! In the late '90s, I was a contractor at a Fortune 500 firm engaged to upgrade/replace an outdated predecessor of IBM CICS online programs with the CICS equivalents. I wrote a translat...

Re: Arrival times into LA

 by bratkinson ¦  Fri Dec 18, 2020 11:08 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Arrival times into LA ¦  Replies: 6 ¦  Views: 1105

I've connected from #3 as well as #1 to #14 at least 10 times in the past 15 years or so, give or take. Although the inbound arrivals seem unreasonable, it's made easier by the fact that one goes to bed on Mountain time and gets up on Pacific time, that extra hour makes it tolerable, in my opinion. ...

Re: PSR and Amtrak

 by bratkinson ¦  Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:36 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: PSR and Amtrak ¦  Replies: 27 ¦  Views: 3243

"When passengers book from intermediate stations, they get a three-hour window (e.g. 12 noon +/- 1h30m)." The further one gets from origin the more Amtrak's current (pre-COVID) performance seems to follow that type of scheduling. A schedule could be published based on best running times t...

Re: PSR and Amtrak

 by bratkinson ¦  Tue Oct 27, 2020 8:34 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: PSR and Amtrak ¦  Replies: 27 ¦  Views: 3243

One road allegedly scheduled their trains 28 hours apart, so that the times would be the same 7 days later. This may have been a way to upset the crews circadian sleep cycles, now that they would know in advance when they could be called to work. I believe that was CSX, and it was factual. Not sure...

Re: PSR and Amtrak

 by bratkinson ¦  Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:45 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: PSR and Amtrak ¦  Replies: 27 ¦  Views: 3243

In my 7 years at CSX Intermodal, I witnessed more than a few freights and intermodal trains 'depart on time' only to stop 100 feet down the track for 5-10 minutes before they finally got rolling. One of my favorites was the high/wide detector about 1/4 mile out of town that would be triggered by 3&q...

Re: V-Bags; Could They.....

 by bratkinson ¦  Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:58 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: V-Bags; Could They..... ¦  Replies: 31 ¦  Views: 2910

Considering that every LD train should have a baggage car up front, if for no other reason than to reduce the horn noise as well as diesel exhaust issues in the passenger cars, that would likely leave about 20 or so 'available'. It would also help eliminate that black diesel soot/smudge off whatever...

Re: Riding Coach - Would You Or Wouldn't You?

 by bratkinson ¦  Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:46 am ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Riding Coach - Would You Or Wouldn't You? ¦  Replies: 49 ¦  Views: 5645

In the past 10 years, I've done maybe a dozen nights in coach, all but one on #66 or #67. The one night on the LSL in coach was due to missing my connection from #8 to #30 in Chicago and my roomette left without me. Going south on #67, I always slept well out of BOS. Going the other way? The last 2 ...

Re: Will You...Or. Won't You?

 by bratkinson ¦  Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:35 am ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: My Passion...Or "Never Again"? (due to COVID) ¦  Replies: 17 ¦  Views: 2735

I'd ride from Philly to Seattle right now in a bedroom, (have 260,000 points) if it wasn't for (a) being imprisoned somewhere for 2 weeks because they discover somebody four cars down had asymptomatic coronavirus, and (b) AMTRAK deciding they're going to run bus service out to Seattle just when I'm...

Re: Retirement Plan

 by bratkinson ¦  Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:20 am ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Retirement Plan ¦  Replies: 10 ¦  Views: 2168

I've been doing multi-night trips on Amtrak since '75 when my parents decided to winter in Florida. Initially, my 'big trip' each year was MKE-CHI then the Lakshore or the Broadway to NYP or PHL, then the Silver Meteor to WPB. In '79, I started getting 'serious' about lengthy trips, and caught the l...

If you were in the car closest to the front power unit, you could be hearing anything from traction motor 'whine' to transformer and/or motor cooling fan 'whine', or even regenerative braking motor sounds (electrically powered locomotives 'dymamic brakes' generate electricity back INTO the wire!) I'...

Re: Amtrak Experience Survey

 by bratkinson ¦  Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:07 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Amtrak Experience Survey ¦  Replies: 5 ¦  Views: 1392

I used to get those surveys in the mail on a regular basis. Then they started with email/online surveys.

Fortunately, I made AGR Select Plus status 4 years ago and haven't heard from them since. Apparently, my opinion doesn't count any more.

Re: Amtrak Surge Capacity & Reserve Fleet

 by bratkinson ¦  Fri Nov 15, 2019 12:31 pm ¦  Forum: Amtrak ¦  Topic: Amtrak Surge Capacity & Reserve Fleet ¦  Replies: 90 ¦  Views: 17705

This entire thread fails to recognize a variety of factors that, to me, indicates Amtrak will never have a surge capacity/reserve fleet of their own. First and foremost, money. WHERE would Amtrak get the money to buy 13 or more (as proposed above) full 'trainsets to be stored'? Once the new Acelas' ...

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 29