jp1822 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 10:06 am I think Amtrak needs to cut even more costs on the NEC - reduce even more trains in operation, and even look at closing some ticket offices at stations. Folks, the traffic is NOT there on the NEC. The East Coast has been ravaged by COVID-19, many states are barring travel between states, many workers are now working from home remotely. Would it save costs to turn the catenary OFF except between Newark, NJ and New Rochelle, NY? The new Acela II’s are coming, but to what traffic counts? Depressed traffic counts for sure. It takes a lot of money to maintain high speed infrastructure, but right now, it’s for very few passenger counts. The NEC traffic will rebound, but if Amtrak just cut LD trains to 3x per week, is it enough in balance with operations on the NEC for the near term?Hmmm... MARC is on R-plus-extra schedule as of Nov 2nd. SEPTA is on a weird schedule which I doubt can be considered "full". NJ Transit has to be running a limited schedule as well, because the schedules are using a bare styling.
There's really two questions here:
- Is traffic low enough that you can run regional and commuter rail all on two tracks?
- If the above question is yes, then can we turn off the catenary power to individual tracks, keeping the interlocks charged?
Oh, and Washington Union Station has problems with air flow in it's terminal section.
...and nobody has any money to buy dual-modes that would need to be built, tested, qualified, and then deployed.
...and numerous vaccines are under phase 3 trials, which take a least three months, so likely six months before the world starts getting back to pre-pandemic normal... and that's too short of a time for anything to be built.
Yeah, you can't pivot that fast.