Passenger Trains > Amtrak-Expanded-Service-Meridian,-to Dallas/ft.worth

http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/Amtrak-Expanded-Service-255233801.html

this was supposed to happen back the late 1990s. And.......pffft

KansasCityChief Wrote:
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> http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/Amtrak-Expanded
> -Service-255233801.html


Hm... Wonder if it would serve Jackson and Shreveport as well.

cracker41 Wrote:
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> this was supposed to happen back the late 1990s.
> And.......pffft
==========================================

There must be more free money lying around to pay another generation of consultants.

*Danny Kilpatrick*

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

A case of people not hearing what they are being told? A discussion a couple of weeks ago said that Boardman was there to tell people to use the current train or lose it.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> A case of people not hearing what they are being
> told? A discussion a couple of weeks ago said that
> Boardman was there to tell people to use the
> current train or lose it.

Can we have the reference for that, please?

Ptolemy Wrote:
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> ts1457 Wrote:
> -------------------------------------------------------
> > A case of people not hearing what they are being
> > told? A discussion a couple of weeks ago said that
> > Boardman was there to tell people to use the
> > current train or lose it.
>
> Can we have the reference for that, please?

Yes, a reply in this discussion:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3367485,3368713#msg-3368713



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/14 19:56 by ts1457.

Technology-Jeske Wrote:
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> KansasCityChief Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> http://www.wtok.com/news/headlines/Amtrak-Expanded
>
> > -Service-255233801.html
>
>
> Hm... Wonder if it would serve Jackson and
> Shreveport as well.

The plan was to split the Crescent into two trains at Meridian, with one section going to New Orleans (as the Crescent) and the other one heading east-west from Meridian to Dallas/Ft. Worth (as the Crescent Star). The key was not only a Texas connection but also that the train would intersect with the City of New Orleans. Not sure if the Crescent Star would reach Ft. Worth/Dallas by evening, like the Crescent does in New Orleans, or whether the Crescent Star would require an additional overnight, and thus more equipment - if to connect with the Crescent. I would think this would be a popular service south of Atlanta and tie the Amtrak system together even further.

Believe it when I see it though......

At the rate things are going it won't be Amtrak operating it....

With all due respect, I have never understood why New Orleans has 3 trains. The metropolitan area is only slightly over a million.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/14 19:47 by mountain.

There's the sad auto-centric quote of the day.

Any place in Europe with a million people has a train every three minutes, and everyone knows how backwards Europe is compared to the Americas....


mountain Wrote:
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> With all due respect, I have never understood why
> New Orleans has 3 trains. The metropolitan area is
> only slightly over a million.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/14 20:01 by PumpkinHogger.

This service was supposedly so close to beginning under the George Warrington administration of Amtrak that T&E crews were actually hired. Amtrak had not done their homework as it turned out, on KCS desired improvements over the former IC-Mid-South line. Amtrak expedited adjustment to the Little Rock crew base to save the new crew hire investment by turning LRK crews a Marshall, and giving Fort Worth to Marshall to a Fort Worth crew base. The whole issue was a real 'April Fool' type deal. It is hard for me to trust the new good intentions intentions, but I will not loose hope!

PumpkinHogger Wrote:
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> There's the sad auto-centric quote of the day.
>
> Any place in Europe with a million people has a
> train every three minutes, and everyone knows how
> backwards Europe is compared to the Americas....
>
>
> mountain Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > With all due respect, I have never understood
> why
> > New Orleans has 3 trains. The metropolitan area
> is
> > only slightly over a million.

I had to look up auto-centric to find the meaning. However, my only point is that it seems there might be other destinations to better utilize the limited resources.

mountain Wrote:
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> With all due respect, I have never understood why
> New Orleans has 3 trains. The metropolitan area is
> only slightly over a million.

Back in 1970 when the Amtrak network was set up, New Orleans was still the leading commercial city of the southeastern US, as Charlotte and Atlanta were just beginning their big growth spurts.

What it really goes to show is how little reaction there has been within Amtrak to the shift of the American population southwards. Given that the south is the base of the Republican Party, this also explains why Amtrak has so little support among them. You have to consider that going through the Republican heartland of the country between Ohio the Gulf, and the Colorado River are a bunch of long distance trains running at night and some tri-weekly sorry excuses of a service like the Sunset and Cardinal.

43 years has gone by, and not a single corridor has been started in the Sunbelt between Arizona and South Carolina. All of the Long Distance expansion Graham Claytor (a Southerner in more ways than one) instituted was killed off - Houston leg of the Texas Eagle, Gulf Star to Mobile, Sunset east of New Orleans, the Silver Palm from Tampa to Miami, plus the Ocala leg of the Silver Service. To say nothing of the Floridian, Champion, or the Laredo leg of the Texas Eagle or the Lone Star.

This just goes to emphasize the weakness and stupidity of the state driven model so many tout as the "solution" to Amtrak (outside the NEC of course).

I'd LOVE to see this. But, having seen at least 3-4 false starts, am not optimistic. And per Joe Boardman's recent words, HE (or Amtrak...or Congress) is NOT going to pay for THIS. Take that to the BANK. So then, do you actually believe that the states of TX, LA, or MS or actually going to beef up the KCS OR UPRR trackage through any of these three states for such added service?!?

And having been "very involved in ops" down here before retirement, just let me simply ASSURE you that the UPRR does NOT have the capacity east of Marshall on the current freight-only trackage. NONE. KAPUT. ZERO CAPACITY, and REGARDLESS of "desired speed!!!" I can say the same for the KCS, but with less authority (which once you get east of Shreveport/Bossier City, the bulk of the service would be on at any rate, on the KCS/NS "Meridian Speedway, LLC."). Speeds greatly up from when the ICG stupidly spun this off to the MidSouth Railway Shortline, then AMTK wanted to run a train over it in 1987 for the first time--then--"poor pitiful little me" ICG wants to come back and BUY BACK the MidSouth, and Mike Haverty bought it with "money to BURN," and was prepared to outbid the ICG no matter how much they offered for what they shouldn't have sold in the FIRST PLACE?!? HA!!!

But SOMEBODY was STUPID at the ICG--the CEO back in the mid-1980s--just as most of the bean-counters thought it was a GREAT IDEA. Just as once Mike Haverty came to the KCS as CEO, he was compared to Forrest GUMP for paying so much to steal this line away from the ICG forevermore. It takes VISION for all of these projects to fall into place, and it was LACKING when the political climate might well have allowed it to HAPPEN.

Abyler:

Yes--you've got it pegged--the state-driven-model is insufficient and may very well be the DEATH of AMTRAK!!! However, with Joe Boardman riding round on his biz train to push said model, I guess he's just pushing such to stave off "the end" for as long as possible? But the state-driven model IS the END of AMTRAK!!!

As a practical matter, Meridian-Dallas is 500 miles. A passenger train is likely to take about 10 hours. Westbound, with a 3:30 pm departure from Meridian -- the current schedule, with a few minutes extra to split the train -- arrival in Dallas would be 1:30 am. Lovely. Eastbound, in order to arrive Meridian at 10:30 am, the train would have to leave Dallas at 12:30 am. Also lovely.

Also a new set of equipment would be required.

Of course, somebody could change the schedule of the NY-NO Crescent, but that would be the tail wagging the dog.

If you don't know of a good rumor, start one. If you can't think up a plausable one, dig up an old one . . .

RailNet802, owevaaaah



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/14 06:40 by kk5ol.

Agreed: "What it really goes to show is how little reaction there has been within Amtrak to the shift of the American population southwards."

With all due respect, the railroads run to New Orleans, and always have. Originally, New Orleans was a bigger port city than New York. Same reason Chicago became a rail hub, rails followed traditional routes. When was the last time anybody built any new transportation infrastructure? Answer, the infrastructure framework reflects economic patterns that existed over 100 years ago, long before the explosive growth of the so-called sun belt.

There is no longer any reason for travelers or freight to have to go to Chicago first, other than historical inertia. Chicago constipation is now one of the major problems that commerce must face in the middle part of the country.

When you look at major population centers that are underserved by transportation networks, first comes to mind Atlana, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston, which are significantly more important to the economy now than traditionally important places like Philadelphia, Detroit, and Cleveland used to be in their former lives. Other underserved top-ten cities are San Antonio and Phoenix. Florida is also under-represented in transportation spending, but it seems that local politics may be more responsible for that than any other single factor.

Then look at California, which has an economy that is bigger in many respects than the other 49 states combined. Last time I checked, the greater share of the manufactured goods that US residents use in their daily lives come through the port of Long Beach. An increasing avenue for food and agricultural product imports as well, as we seem to have an insatiable demand for cheap, even if the dog food is contaminated and kills our pets.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/14 07:07 by NewRiverGeorge.