The big ax just fell. Long distance to 3x/week.

[John_Perkowski]

Go here for the complete text of the Amtrak White Paper and a link to theTrains Newswire squib.

[Pensyfan19]

So just to be clear, does this mean Amtrak is rejecting the 26 BILLION dollars in funding by reducing services? If so, then Amtrak is bscially trying so save money they lose with LDs by rejecting $26 billion in funding... Seems logical... [sarcasm]

This is the appropriations bill I am referring to: https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... -get-funds

[gokeefe]

WELL Volks, that's what they say. The windows are open and taking bets.

Lake Shore Limited will be in the first round. First Western transcontinental will be the Empire Builder. Even money that the Sunset Limited remains tri-weekly "indefinitely".



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[mtuandrew]

So just to be clear, does this mean Amtrak is rejecting the 26 BILLION dollars in funding by reducing services? If so, then Amtrak is bscially trying so save money they lose with LDs by rejecting $26 billion in funding... Seems logical... [sarcasm]

This is the appropriations bill I am referring to: https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... -get-funds

That bill hasn’t made it to the House floor, let alone to the Senate or the White House. Amtrak is planning for the worst.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Mr. O'Keefe, what will be interesting is that if the Lake Shore is to be tri-weeklied, will there be an attempt to have it run on the days away from the Cardinal on its existing 3x schedule, so that they can still say "single seat/room 6x"?

Further, will the Capitol Ltd be 3x'd on days away from Lake Shore so that, again, they can claim 6x to places along the NS/NYC? i.e. Cleveland, Toledo, Bryan OH.

Again I reiterate; Murray Hamilton saying to Dustin Hoffman: instead of "plastics", "OPTICS".

[electricron]

For LD service? Unless you’re talking about station improvements or investment in host railroads, states aren’t giving money to Amtrak for those.

Sunset Limited east of NOLA and North Shore Hiawatha in Montana are two examples where Amtrak is asking for state subsidies to reopen a decrease of long distance services.
Shucks, they even asked for state subsidies keeping the SW Chief running in Colorado, northern NM, and western Kansas, before even reducing services.

[eolesen]

So just to be clear, does this mean Amtrak is rejecting the 26 BILLION dollars in funding by reducing services? If so, then Amtrak is bscially trying so save money they lose with LDs by rejecting $26 billion in funding... Seems logical... [sarcasm]

This is the appropriations bill I am referring to: https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... -get-funds

I wouldn't count on that money ever showing up.

[prokowave]

While it comes as no surprise since the administration is waging war on public services of all types, there's no point in pretending there was any attempt at an objective set of guidelines to restore service. There is no way future bookings can reach 90% of previous levels with the reduced connectivity and lack of travel flexibility that results from 3 weekly services. It is too easy to manipulate with over-optimistic projections and over-pricing tickets.

I would wager that the Sunset Limited and Cardinal will outperform most other routes by this metric since the service is already so poor, ridership can't get much worse.

If the Feds can throw around trillions of dollars saving airlines and the like, there's no good reason to not do the same for Amtrak.

[mtuandrew]

The current Feds are actively disinterested in funding anything that looks like a social program, from Medicaid to the Postal Service. (There are many more layers to this, but now isn’t the time or place.) Amtrak may be on that list, an agency that was too popular to kill but now could perish due to pandemic-related political and economic conditions.

[John_Perkowski]

CLICK HERE FOR 3X WEEKLY LD TERMINAL DEPARTURE/ARRIVAL SCHEDULE FROM TRAINS MAGAZINE

[RRspatch]

The current Feds are actively disinterested in funding anything that looks like a social program, from Medicaid to the Postal Service. (There are many more layers to this, but now isn’t the time or place.) Amtrak may be on that list, an agency that was too popular to kill but now could perish due to pandemic-related political and economic conditions.

Hopefully there will be a change in leadership this fall that might change things in passenger rail's favor. Another thing to remember is that once Covid-19 is past us another HUGE challenge awaits us .... Climate Change. Yes, remember Climate Change which was an issue before the virus showed up? Well the planet continues to warm and this trend will only get worse in the coming years. Countries around the world are investing heavily in passenger rail and sooner or later we'll have to do the same.

[Jeff Smith]

WELL Volks, that's what they say. The windows are open and taking bets.

Lake Shore Limited will be in the first round. First Western transcontinental will be the Empire Builder. Even money that the Sunset Limited remains tri-weekly "indefinitely".

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

I'd put better than even odds on the Sunset. Like, a certainty.

[Jeff Smith]

Mr. O'Keefe, what will be interesting is that if the Lake Shore is to be tri-weeklied, will there be an attempt to have it run on the days away from the Cardinal on its existing 3x schedule, so that they can still say "single seat/room 6x"?

Further, will the Capitol Ltd be 3x'd on days away from Lake Shore so that, again, they can claim 6x to places along the NS/NYC? i.e. Cleveland, Toledo, Bryan OH.

Again I reiterate; Murray Hamilton saying to Dustin Hoffman: instead of "plastics", "OPTICS".

You know, that's an interesting point you make. There are three East Coast trains that service Chicago. Why not one a day, 3x Lake Shore, 2x Capital Limited, 2x Cardinal? For NYC and the Capital, they can connect via the NEC. The fact is, they're all dogs in terms of performance.

[R36 Combine Coach]

CLE would still lose daily service, PGH would be a 3x/week (minus the Pennsylvanian) and BOS would have only 3x LD service, something that hasn't happened in decades. The rest of the NEC cities could still connect.

[dgvrengineer]

This plan will work as designed, to effectively kill all LD service. Few connections and less than daily service will produce Sunset Ltd like results and ridership will never recover to the 90% level Amtrak says it needs to restore daily service.