Passenger Trains > Brown Bag Lunch: AmeriStarRail - A New Approach to the NEC

If you have nothing else to do tomorrow...   

Brown Bag Lunch:AmeriStarRail - A New Approach to the NEC

Friday, October 23


10:00 PDT / Noon CDT / 13:00 EDT


AmeriStarRail proposes to expand Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC) capacity with new service patterns that eliminate inefficient terminal operations in New York and Washington, reducing train congestion and delays. Their proposal creates additional track and yard capacity without multi-billion dollar track, yard and station expansion projects.

Register Here

Their idea is good in theory, but not practicality.

Instead of trains terminating in NYP, have them run thru to ronkonoma, or somewhere on the LIRR.   But you'd have to change engines to the P32 dual modes at NYP (assuming they will run on over running 3rd rail), or buy "new EP-5's" or ALP45dp's and run diesel on the LIRR....

and you'd have to get the LIRR and Amtk to agree on it, which id say is impossible.   They have been talking about run thru LIRR/NJT trains since the 1970's...lol.

Same thing down in WAS.. run more trains thru south of washington.  

My question, where's the money for these people in this.  Are they getting paid to make studies (Ugh, not another glossy paper, pie chart study group), or whats their angle.

When I read the subject I thought there were getting rid of the Cafe cars and encouraging passengers to bring their own. 

Interesting plans but in terms of putting them to reality, I think let's keep many of them in the pipe dream category. There isn't much of a need to have Amtrak trains terminate in ALX. Washington, DC Union Station is fine for having many of them terminate, although eventually, there will be close to hourly Northeast Regional service heading to Richmond. I don't think there is much of a need to run Amtrak trains to Ronkonhoma either. There are plenty of Long Island Railroad trains that serve Ronkonkoma which provide easy connections to Amtrak trains at NYP. There are already a lot of trains going through the East River Tunnels and whenever MNR decides to run their East Bronx service trains, the slots will be needed for them.

From a business perspective, I want to see the engine changes at WAS, PHL, and NHV eliminated. They add more time to the schedule. The engine change at DC Union Station is the longest. Trains heading from the Northeast to the South have to sit at Union Station in DC for about 30 minutes. The engines waiting to head their trains out of DC after coming from the north and south have to layover in spots where the switches aren't accessible easily to the tracks where the trains are. Plus there is a lot of other rail traffic at DC Union Station. New Haven, on the other hand, isn't so bad but at the same time, it would still be great to eliminate the engine change there. Trains like the Vermonter and the few Springfield MA Northeast Regionals have been able to layover at NHV for about 10 minutes as they undergo their engine change, deposit, and pick up passengers. The nice thing about New Haven, unlike DC, is that the yard where the engines are stored is next to the station.

Why is the NEC as it's own entity required/?  Is it there a natural land mass or waterway that requires this infrastructures as opposed to the rest of the USA?  

Just as the Post Office serves each state in the union, there should be a national system. Hawaii and Alaska should be part of it as well.

Molino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why is the NEC as it's own entity required/?  Is
> it there a natural land mass or waterway that
> requires this infrastructures as opposed to the
> rest of the USA?  
>
> Just as the Post Office serves each state in the
> union, there should be a national system. Hawaii
> and Alaska should be part of it as well.

Hawaii?????????

Molino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why is the NEC as it's own entity required/?  Is
> it there a natural land mass or waterway that
> requires this infrastructures as opposed to the
> rest of the USA?  
>
> Just as the Post Office serves each state in the
> union, there should be a national system. Hawaii
> and Alaska should be part of it as well.

The reason the NEC exists is cause...
1. Large overall population density.  Connects 7 large cities, and 8 medium size  cities and more other towns/cities than i care to count , within a distance of 450 miles.  By comparison LA-SF ia 375 miles, nd connects 3 large sities, and 3 medium size cities probably half the # of small cities/towns
2. PRR/NH electrified multi track relatively high speed ROW  was already there prior to Amtk.

Hawaii?????????
************************************
That is going to be an incredibly impressive bridge..................

They can have their own isolated service on the island obviously.
Just funded as part of a national Amtrak sytem for the greater good of all states.
 

Molino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They can have their own isolated service on the
> island obviously.
> Just funded as part of a national Amtrak sytem for
> the greater good of all states.

You might want to stick to gossip about beer drinking of furloughed vs. retired Amtrak employees?  

I've always wondered why Amtrak hasn't borrowed/leased one or two of NJT's dual-mode units to test the waters on eliminating the engine change in DC and New Haven.

The ALP45DP's can't go 130MPH. The are also fuel hogs, and high maintenance, all now getting a "valve job" (expensive, time consuming) to stay environmentally compliant. Amtrak does not want anything to do with Bombardier. Few trains change locos at NH. The DC stop would still take 15 minutes. Not changing locos woudl save 10 minutes. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/20 05:04 by joemvcnj.

The Chargers wont do 125mph either with more than 5 cars.  I've spoke to a few MARC guys that run them and they agree.  Interesting because at one time, Amtrak was considering moving the DC engine swap to Philadelphia, and now you'd have a bunch of single unit trains like the Star (under its normal consist) that wouldnt be able to make track speed.  Amtrak has plans to eventually start running trainsets for much of the regionals that come off the NEC, either with new equipment or using a Charger on both ends like the Brightline setup.  

Molino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They can have their own isolated service on the island obviously.  Just funded as part of a national Amtrak sytem for the greater good of all states.


The usual suspects on T.O. have already castigated the the construction effort for the Honolulu Rail Transit project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honolulu_Rail_Transit

Brian

Actually watched the webinar. They have some good ideas that would make operation of the corridor a lot more efficient. The devil is in the details, but its always good to have someone thinking outside of the box.

Here in the UK we have trains that can run under 25ky and run on diesel both modes in one train). There's some older units that can run 25kv and 750DC and there is a conversion to have them run on diesel as well.

We've got battery driven trains under development. In both the UK and Germany there are test units running with hydrogen delivering electricty via a fuel cell.

I'm not suggesting you import the trains but the technology is there or soon will be. All that's needed is a bit of vision and some money to back it up/

Hartington Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here in the UK we have trains that can run under
> 25ky and run on diesel both modes in one train).
> There's some older units that can run 25kv and
> 750DC and there is a conversion to have them run
> on diesel as well.
>
> We've got battery driven trains under development.
> In both the UK and Germany there are test units
> running with hydrogen delivering electricty via a
> fuel cell.
>
> I'm not suggesting you import the trains but the
> technology is there or soon will be. All that's
> needed is a bit of vision and some money to back
> it up/

Some things that seem to be lacking here...

SanDiegan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually watched the webinar. They have some good
> ideas that would make operation of the corridor a
> lot more efficient. The devil is in the details,
> but its always good to have someone thinking
> outside of the box.

Yeah all talk and hardly any walk!