Texas Eagle Discussion

Ah. Thanks.

The former RI route to Tucumcari NM has been abandoned/ripped up already,only a few shortline segments remain,
UP allowing access will become a lost cause,Memphis Tn/West Memphis Ar is a major interchange point with NS,CSX,and
the area is a major intermodal hub as well.

I would think a series of thruway buses would provide more connections at a lower cost. But amtrak tends to use Thruway buses to access towns not already served, rather than provide additional services to existing stations.
There was a connecting train from St.louis to the CONO in the 1990's.

UP owns the exRI from Memphis to Brinkley. I believe it sees significant use. IIRC correctly, UP does mostly directional running on both the exMP and exSSW mains through Arkansas. The RI trackage east of Brinkley serves as the Memphis connection off the SSW. West of Brinkley, the line has been gone for some time. A lot of maps still show it in place between Carlisle and N. Little Rock (I think some shortline used to run that section), but I believe rails have now been lifted from most of that stretch, as well.

David Benton wrote:I would think a series of thruway buses would provide more connections at a lower cost. But amtrak tends to use Thruway buses to access towns not already served, rather than provide additional services to existing stations.
There was a connecting train from St.louis to the CONO in the 1990's.

I have thought about a Thruway connection from Memphis to Little Rock to connect to/from the TE to provide service from Memphis to Dallas and points south and west. The problem is that the TE calls a Little Rock at 3:10am SB and 11:39pm NB. Bing Maps tells me that it's a 2-hour drive from Amtrak-Little Rock to Amtrak-Memphis. That makes for very unappetizing departure/arrival times in Memphis. I doubt patronage on the Thruway would be sufficient to justify it. Note that Megabus runs several times a day from Memphis to Little Rock, but I don't see any of their frequencies as terribly useful for a connection to the TE (and I don't think Megabus uses the Amtrak stations in either city).

Look at the gaps in service on this map before you start pushing for this that & the other expansion/service increase.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... em_Map.svg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is lot of room for improvement in the southeast, as well as areas that once connected (KC-OC for example), so perhaps a focus on these areas might be more likely to be funded as expansion.

More likely? Let's get real, Amtrak doesn't want to add long distance services where it looses its shirt, it wants to cut long distance services little by little, which it has been doing ever since it has been in existence. It's up to the States to fund track improvements and subsidize trains filling these gaps, with federal funds helping somewhat, with short distance regional trains - example Heartland Flyer.

I'm sure if Kansas was willing to subsidize a KC to OKC train, Oklahoma would be willing to pitch in its share. My point is that Kansas decided not to do so just recently. Several States have studies underway about improving train services, slow, higher, and high speed trains. Once these studies are completed, let's sit back and wait to see which State is willing to proceed before getting too excited.

Second, are there currently available alignments which could carry STL-MEM and MEM-LRK trains at reasonable speeds, without dogged opposition from the track owner and which MO, AR and TN might be tempted to throw some cash into?[/quote]

There already is a bus connection from Carbondale to St Louis for the 82 miles. It would be nice to have a I-70 bus stop at Effingham IL & Indy. There ought to be some decent track to make a St Louis Cardinal.

As for TN putting any money, we only have 2 stations for the whole state to support.

IIRC, at one point in time, Amtrak had a connecting train St. Louis - Carbondale, IL that was added to the City of New Orleans. I don't know if those rails still exist today, though.

I was thinking if MEM added a second service rather than a thruway then Amtrak might be able to see some synergies come from that including Thruway services to the east to pull in to the now four trains per day while running the same number of trains, allowing for the caveat that the diversion did not cause an unreasonable increase in running time. Where feasible, I'd rather see Thruways pull remote catchments into hubs or add frequencies along train routes (like the one that parallels Downeaster) than bring people from urban centres to remote stations with few services.

The alternative would be to extend a River Runner or Lincoln Service as far as MEM but that has equipment implications, and even with Missouri's rail friendliness at present they might not want to bear an interstate project alone and a project like extending Carl Sandberg to STL might be higher up the priorities of Those That Decide Stuff in Missouri. I guess things will likely stay as is for the foreseeable.

NARP's Hotline News links to this story from Texas Rail Advocates:

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Tuesday night's DART Board meeting in Dallas culminated five years of negotiations over$7.2 million dollars in Federal Recover Act funding that stalled because of contract issues, primarily over liability insurance coverage. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant back in 2009 was awarded to double-track part of the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) in Tarrant County so that Intercity Passenger Trains, Amtrak, could use the direct line between Fort Worth and Dallas.

In 2012 it was feared that the Federal Railroad Administration was about to pull back the$7.2 million dollar appropriation because all sides could not come to an agreement, but extensions were given to finalize a contract which will last for10 years. The agreement will include a monthly fee that Amtrak will pay for using the TRE tracks and some offset costs that will be borne by the T.

The contract agreement comes at a notable time as a make-over of Tower 55, one of the most congested at-grade rail junctions in the country, was recently completed.Additional tracks, sidings and signals are now in place that increase capacity by more than 20 percent. Amtrak trains using the Union Pacific controlled junction had to make a back-up move to the Fort Worth station twice a day that tied up the major rail interchange.
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Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said that “this means Amtrak passengers will benefit from faster travel times between the two cities. We are pleased to reach an agreement."

“There are a number of details to be worked out with several third parties before the shift to the TRE corridor can take place. DART, The T and Amtrak are working with these third parties to complete these arrangements, and we hope to be able to be able to shift the Texas Eagle to the TRE Corridor during the first quarter 2015", according to Magliari.

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The time savings from this, I would think, will be substantial--time that can be removed from the schedule, or left as padding for delays elsewhere. Good news--too bad it took so long.

TRE is operated by Herzog Transit services,figure on some minor shifting of some TRE trains
near the Amtrak slot times.

I rode the Eagle on this stretch of track on August 1. It was a rough ride.

I travel weekly from Austin to Chicago, where I'm based as a captain for United Airlines. I am approaching my 40th birthday and have decided to start actually DOING some of the things on my bucket list and taking Amtrak across the country is one of them. My first trip will basically be a two day commute to work on the Texas Eagle. I purchased a Superliner Roomette to Chicago as it is a 28 hour journey. I'd like to take the Sunset Limited and the City of New Orleans as well next year. My question to the experts is:
1. Any preferred roomettes (I'm currently upstairs mid car..or so I'm told)?
2. A few meals are included. Do you recommend anything else?
3. Will my roll-behind and additional small bag be allowed in the roomette or will I have to check a bag? (I'm traveling by myself in a room that supposedly sleeps 2 so guessing there is room).
4. Any longer stops where train exit are encouraged/discouraged?
5. What are the chances of visiting with the engineer? Being in the transport business, I'd be interested to see his/her "cockpit". I give cockpit tours all the time on the 737 and am curious if tours are allowed on Amtrak during tech stops or even when underway.
Anything pertinent information would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Have a good trip, I'll take a stab at a few questions:

UnitedCapt wrote: 1. Any preferred roomettes (I'm currently upstairs mid car..or so I'm told)?
That is where you want to be

2. A few meals are included. Do you recommend anything else?
The sleeper will have free bottled water, juice and coffee (most of the time -- water is generally a sure thing). Sometimes the communal tables in the dining car are too much for me so I'll pack a light breakfast to avoid that (its just me)

3. Will my roll-behind and additional small bag be allowed in the roomette or will I have to check a bag? (I'm traveling by myself in a room that supposedly sleeps 2 so guessing there is room).
There is a large luggage rack when you board the sleeper downstairs that always has plenty of room. You can keep both bags in your sleeper on your top bunk (if you choose to lower it) if you really want.

4. Any longer stops where train exit are encouraged/discouraged?
Yup, although I don't know where off the top of my head on the Eagle. I am sure St. Louis is one. Generally every six hours or so they have a 'smoke break' crew change stop. Any place on the time table that has 10 minute or more between arrival and departure is usually one. The crew is generally good about announcing these, although there is no PA on board during normal sleeping hours.

5. What are the chances of visiting with the engineer? Being in the transport business, I'd be interested to see his/her "cockpit". I give cockpit tours all the time on the 737 and am curious if tours are allowed on Amtrak during tech stops or even when underway.
Non-existant. Post 9/11 is only part of the problem. Its a pretty treacherous climb up into the cab so liability concerns were in play even before 9/11