Overhauling Amtrak

[Nexis4Jersey]

In other news , look at these sexy beasts....they actually look lighter...

[Alon]

Wait, they're still buying locomotives instead of EMUs?

Sigh.

[M II A II R II K]

Amtrak promises improvements in 2013

Read More: http://thehill.com/blogs/transportat...ements-in-2013

Amtrak is promising to make major improvements to its infrastructure and development of high-speed rail programs in the Northeast United States in 2013. The announcement comes after a year in which Republicans in the House sought repeatedly to deny the national passenger rail service funding from the federal government that it has received since its inception in 1971. Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman said Thursday that his company was pushing ahead with its upgrade plans, despite the GOP's attacks.

- Among the 2013 plans for Amtrak is the completion of a bridge replacement the company says will enable it to run faster trains in the Northeast Corridor. Other plans include receipt of the first of 70 new electric locomotives and 130 new rails cars, and the addition of a new round-trip route between New York and Washington, D.C., on the company's Acela high-speed trains. Amtrak said it was also complete the installation of automatic Positive Train Control (PTC) systems that will enable all its trains to be controlled electronically in the Northeast Corridor and Pennsylvania's Keystone corridor. Amtrak pointed out that the developments follow a year that saw it set a new ridership record.

.....

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

In other news , look at these sexy beasts....they actually look lighter...

Wait, is that at the Siemens plant in Kassel? Where did you find this pic?

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Wait, is that at the Siemens plant in Kassel? Where did you find this pic?

It was on one of the many Amtrak articles i read daily , its being made in IL and CA....

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Alon

Wait, they're still buying locomotives instead of EMUs?

Sigh.

Yes for Amtrak Regional , Vermonter , Keystone , and misc Movements....along with newer Euro-looking push - pull cars...

[Busy Bee]

Have any pics or renderings of the midwest locos or rolling stock been released yet?

[afiggatt]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Have any pics or renderings of the midwest locos or rolling stock been released yet?

The RFP for the diesel locomotives has still not been released, let along an order placed, so there are no renderings of the Next Gen diesel locomotives available, except perhaps for a proposed image from the likely bidders (GE, EMD).

As for the bi-level corridor cars, the order contract was just placed with Nippon-Sharyo a couple of months ago. There is a Nippon-Sharyo press release with an image of a bi-level coach-cab car, but it is likely a general rendering based on the proposal, not the final pre-production design.

BTW, for the source for the news article on Amtrak's plans for 2013, the Amtrak news release can be here (5 page press release with just the PR highlights).

[Busy Bee]

If bilevel cars are inevitable for midwest service, I'd live to see something as sleek as these Dutch trains, only diesel (unfortunately) and with an loco designed to aesthetically match the rake, only without passenger windows of course.


http://www.info4security.com/Picture...ins_Conway.jpg

or these great Stadler KISS:


http://www.bahnbilder.de/1024/stadle...orn-533145.jpg

or Talgo:


http://www.oiko.phnet.fi/images/Talgo-22-Helsinki.jpg

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

If bilevel cars are inevitable for midwest service, I'd live to see something as sleek as these Dutch trains, only diesel (unfortunately) and with an loco designed to aesthetically match the rake, only without passenger windows of course.


http://www.info4security.com/Picture...ins_Conway.jpg

or these great Stadler KISS:


http://www.bahnbilder.de/1024/stadle...orn-533145.jpg

or Talgo:


http://www.oiko.phnet.fi/images/Talgo-22-Helsinki.jpg

Thats more for regional Rail and would be uncomfortable for Intercity or High Speed Rail...

[Alon]

One nice thing about the bilevel Talgos: they should that the Talgo tilting mechanism is compatible with a relatively high center of gravity. This means that a Talgo AVRIL can be raised to the NEC platform height; this train has mild tilting, and is capable of Acela cant deficiency, while at the same time running at 350 km/h and having a power-to-weight ratio higher than anything else on the market.

[Evergrey]

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...ay-end-673327/

Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Amtrak route may end

Service called too slow to justify hefty subsidy

February 4, 2013 12:13 am



By Jon Schmitz / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
One of Pittsburgh's two remaining Amtrak routes, the one serving Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York and points in between, may be on the chopping block come October.

That's the deadline for Pennsylvania to decide whether to foot the estimated $5.7 million bill for subsidizing the service, a cost currently paid by Amtrak.

No decision has been made but remarks from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials indicate that the route is in trouble unless it can be shown to benefit large numbers of passengers connecting at Pittsburgh to or from cities other than Harrisburg.

"If you look purely at that (Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg) segment, it is hard to justify," PennDOT spokeswoman Erin Waters-Trasatt said. She noted that it is much faster to drive between the two cities than to take the 51/2-hour train trip.

Elimination of the route would end Amtrak service to Greensburg, Latrobe, Johnstown, Altoona, Tyrone, Huntingdon and Lewistown. It would leave Pittsburgh with no direct passenger train connections to Philadelphia and New York. Only one Amtrak route, the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington, D.C., would continue to stop here.

The funding change is mandated by the federal Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, which required Amtrak to develop and implement a consistent formula for sharing costs with states on corridor routes of 750 miles or shorter.

...

[Nexis4Jersey]

Thats sad , but hey its backwards PA they rather hand out big breaks to Gas and Coal companies then prop up a train line or train system.... Gotta love Corbett....

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Thats sad , but hey its backwards PA they rather hand out big breaks to Gas and Coal companies then prop up a train line or train system.... Gotta love Corbett....

I wish we had a progressive, rail-friendly governor like Christie.

[Beta_Magellan]

Although I don’t agree with Corbett on pretty much anything, rail advocates have more important fights than for uncompetitive (and unlikely to become competitive unless someone pays for a reroute and a fair amount of tunneling) nine-hour-long legacy rail services.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Originally Posted by Evergrey

I wish we had a progressive, rail-friendly governor like Christie.

Hes just as bad , and VA governor , only the Maine Governor is transit/rail friendly...

[afiggatt]

I suspect Penn DOT will provide the operating subsidy for the Pennsylvanian once they get an earful from the communities on the route. The Pennsylvanian is the last remaining train running between the 2 largest cities in PA and despite the trip time between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, has good ridership numbers.

In FY2012, the Pennsylvanian had 212 thousand passengers for stops west of 30th Street Station. Passengers taking the train only between 30th Street and NY Penn Station (NYP) are counted as NEC riders. Checking the Amtrak September 2012 monthly report (which covers the end of FY12), the Pennsylvanian is the second busiest one train a day corridor service in the Amtrak system, second to the Carolinian.

The train had $9.28 million in ticket revenue and total revenue of $9.9 million in total revenue (the difference mostly in food and beverage sales). The total operating cost in FY12 was $15.4 million which is the gap that has to be provided by PA plus capital charge for the equipment. Ticket revenue (+12.3%) is up above ridership (+4.0%) for the first 2 months of FY2013, so Amtrak appears to be increasing Rickert prices to boost revenue to trim the operating loss prior to providing Penn DOT with a FY2014 subsidy request.

Amtrak is planning to add sleeper and coach cars to the Pennsylvanian as pass-through cars to be added to Capitol Limited to go to Chicago. However, the equipment to do that won't be available until sometime in 2014 when enough of the new long distance cars being built by CAF are delivered. If Penn DOT and the Governor refuse to pick up the tab, Amtrak might be able to cover the Pennsylvanian by classifying it as an LD train because of the pas-through cars. Or after a service interruption starting on October 1 2013, restore the Three Rivers as an LD train to Chicago in late 2014 once there is enough delivered equipment to run it. Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and Chicago is too big a market for Amtrak to let get shut down because of the political leanings of the current Governor.

[afiggatt]

Originally Posted by Nexis4Jersey

Hes just as bad , and VA governor , only the Maine Governor is transit/rail friendly...

VA Governor has been just as bad? No, Gov. McDonnell, while he is pretty conservative, especially on social issues, has been very supportive of the Amtrak passenger projects in VA. The state put up $114 million on his watch to start service to Norfolk. While his latest plan to kill the state gasoline excise tax in favor of a state wide sales tax revenue to fund transportation, his proposed budget calls for $264 million in additional passenger rail funding over the next 5 years over what has already been authorized. $102 million of that would be spent by FY2016 to restore passenger train service to Roanoke. The odds of Amtrak service to Roanoke and 3 trains a day to Norfolk by 2017 are quite good.

[aquablue]

I wonder would there be enough ridership potential to support HSR between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with continuing service to NY/DC?

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by afiggatt

I suspect Penn DOT will provide the operating subsidy for the Pennsylvanian once they get an earful from the communities on the route. The Pennsylvanian is the last remaining train running between the 2 largest cities in PA and despite the trip time between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, has good ridership numbers.

In FY2012, the Pennsylvanian had 212 thousand passengers for stops west of 30th Street Station. Passengers taking the train only between 30th Street and NY Penn Station (NYP) are counted as NEC riders. Checking the Amtrak September 2012 monthly report (which covers the end of FY12), the Pennsylvanian is the second busiest one train a day corridor service in the Amtrak system, second to the Carolinian.

The train had $9.28 million in ticket revenue and total revenue of $9.9 million in total revenue (the difference mostly in food and beverage sales). The total operating cost in FY12 was $15.4 million which is the gap that has to be provided by PA plus capital charge for the equipment. Ticket revenue (+12.3%) is up above ridership (+4.0%) for the first 2 months of FY2013, so Amtrak appears to be increasing Rickert prices to boost revenue to trim the operating loss prior to providing Penn DOT with a FY2014 subsidy request.

Amtrak is planning to add sleeper and coach cars to the Pennsylvanian as pass-through cars to be added to Capitol Limited to go to Chicago. However, the equipment to do that won't be available until sometime in 2014 when enough of the new long distance cars being built by CAF are delivered. If Penn DOT and the Governor refuse to pick up the tab, Amtrak might be able to cover the Pennsylvanian by classifying it as an LD train because of the pas-through cars. Or after a service interruption starting on October 1 2013, restore the Three Rivers as an LD train to Chicago in late 2014 once there is enough delivered equipment to run it. Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and Chicago is too big a market for Amtrak to let get shut down because of the political leanings of the current Governor.

I really hope Amtrak can pull that off with the sleeper cars. I already posted my 2cents in the Pittsburgh development thread. I basically stated how backwards PA is and how local and state governments should work together along with Cuyahoga and Cook Counties in OH and IL respectively as well as other local govts along the corridor to try and promote improved train travel from Pittsburgh to Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago. I know it's too soon to argue for HSR in this corridor right now, but I do think there is decent demand for better rail travel between these cities (the only reason why train ridership between Pittsburgh and Cleveland is so low is because the only trains serving this city pair (WB/EB Capitol Limited) stop at either location in the middle of the night.