clem k posted:

I'd much rather take long distance Amtrak, then drive a bus across country. Darn sure not going to fly. I want nothing to do with driving to the airport, parking, security people, crowds, small seats , sitting still, and not seeing anything.  I am not in a hurry, my train trip is a part of my vacation. The destination is just part of my trip.  If I ever go to Europe, which I probably won't,  It will be the 35 minute drive to Amtrak free parking then to NYC and get on board a ship,  I was even thinking by container ship, automobile does not figure into my plans until I get home.

Clem 

No fly for me!!!! No fear....hate being treated worst than animals.....which on flights are treated pretty well. 

The difference is, whatever you think about how you are treated by the airlines, in most cases it lasts for a couple of hours.  I can put up with quite a bit for a few hours, as opposed to being locked into a passenger train for DAYS.  Personally, I'm a driver.  I LOVE to drive out on the open road, and I LOVE being the boss of my trip.  If I want to go, I go.  If I want to stop, I stop.  If I want to pull off the road and take a picture, I do.  If I see an interesting restaurant, I stop and eat.  My number one option is always to drive.  If I don't have the time, I fly.  Going by train, which gives me neither control, speed or flexibility offers no appeal to me.

Dieselbob posted:

 I LOVE to drive and I LOVE being the boss of my trip.  

On our trips to Boston, on Amtrak, I love looking out the window at the car and truck traffic crawling trough urban areas while I read my book. Also, it was fun driving to St. Augustine, Florida last year in two days of pouring rain.

From the Amtrak/VIA live map, Westbound Empire Builder, both over 10 hours late, Eastbound Empire Builder both over 3 hours late.

California Zepher, either direction between 90 minutes and 3 hours late.

Southwest Chief, a little better between 90 minutes and 2 hours late in either direction.

Better yet, take a look at this live map and decide for yourself if long distance service is really serving anyone.

https://asm.transitdocs.com/map

Failing to meet the schedule has been an Amtrak problem since its inception. Whereas previously dispatchers were careful not to stick the Varnish (because Boss said so), now that all long distance Amtrak runs on someone else's railroad there are basically no such strictures.

Lew

Tinplate Art posted:

Rich: NICE RV, but if I am not mistaken, don't you also own a twin turbo-prop aircraft with full avionics?

Good Lord NO!

I fly a nice King Air 350 for its owner, and it's equipped with the Garmin G1000 avionics suite, but I'm just the airborne bus driver. I don't own it. I get paid to fly it. There's no way I could afford to own a $2+ million aircraft.

Flying this thing does sort of spoil you for the slow pace of train travel.  We routinely fly this aircraft from northeastern Ohio to Key West in 3-1/2 hours. Going there again on Thursday. 2,100 horsepower (1,050 a side) moves us right along...

necrails posted:

From the Amtrak/VIA live map, Westbound Empire Builder, both over 10 hours late, Eastbound Empire Builder both over 3 hours late.

 

https://asm.transitdocs.com/map

 

I watched that happen with the Builders last night. I suspect that the westbound 7 was held between Wis Dells and Tomah on the siding and the eastbound 8 at Lacrosse for HOURS due to weather in the area, lots of snow and high winds. I must say, that for the Builder, they were running pretty well until that wicked cold snap back in January, and all the Snow in Seattle earlier this month. They've been so screwed up since then, missing entire trains at least once a week or maybe twice. Just when I think they have it back together, it happens again. 

Maybe the CP was just letting the freights go through last night, as passengers are no longer considered a "perishable commodity". What are they going to do, complain to Amtrak.  A cynical person would say the railroads are doing this on purpose, to make their case for dumping the service, especially since they have a very sympathetic administration in power. My cynical factor is about 75%. I believe Congress has the final say on this, and so far the trains are being funded.

As a result, very unusual thing happened this morning. The two hour late #8 met the ten hour late #7 at the depot in St Paul. The #7 was sitting just in view of the camera, as the #8 pulled in on the track next to it. This happened around 9 AM. On time is normally 7 AM for the eastbound #8 and 10 PM for the westbound #7.

St Paul Union Depot, AKA SPUD, has two rail cams on Youtube. Combine that with the website that has all the Amtrak trains listed above, and a thing called ATCS monitor, which gives users a dispatcher's panel view of train traffic, I can literally see them coming miles away, so I can watch then come in, on the cameras.

SPUD camera 1

SPUD camera 2

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm an Amtrak Empire Builder junkie. It's what I model.

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

necrails posted:

From the Amtrak/VIA live map, Westbound Empire Builder, both over 10 hours late, Eastbound Empire Builder both over 3 hours late.

 

https://asm.transitdocs.com/map

 

 

Maybe the CP was just letting the freights go through last night, as passengers are no longer considered a "perishable commodity". What are they going to do, complain to Amtrak.  A cynical person would say the railroads are doing this on purpose, to make their case for dumping the service, especially since they have a very sympathetic administration in power. My cynical factor is about 75%. I believe Congress has the final say on this, and so far the trains are being funded.

Hate to tell you but I rode the Maple Leaf under a very "Amtrak Friendly" administration (President and both houses of Congress at the time) and thought CSX screwed their Amtrak tenant when we went in the hole and sat there for half an hour to let a trash train through. 

So you can leave your partisan politics at the door. 

The Empire builder seems to have a following, at least for those who frequent the great Northwest/Glacier National Park.  It is a drive.  Return trip east.  Early morning I left Apgar Camp Ground, a 12 hr. day on the road to Fargo, South Dakota, over night.  Day two, on a redirect, I wanted to cross the Michigan Saginaw Bridge, another long day, Overnight Michigan.  Alternative to the Upper peninsula of Michigan, which is scenic, and very rural, is two cities, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois, interesting traffic at best. Chicago traffic some of the worst I've seen.  Returned to western PA the third day. from Michigan after a visit with my one remaining Great Aunt. 

 From Western Pa to Glacier National Park, there is an Amtrak depot, lodging with in walking distance of the depot, and rentals available.  Probably at the least 4 or 5 days.  Amtrak never seemed to be real good at talking hours.   IMO, Mike CT.

When does Amtrak long distance stop?   A lot of people frequenting the Facebook Glacier National Park sight seem intent on taking the train?? 

The Amtrak station East Glacier National Park has an old historic rural park look.  So I guess they would be taking down the Amtrak signs. 

So ends the Empire builder.  

Rule292 posted:

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

necrails posted:

From the Amtrak/VIA live map, Westbound Empire Builder, both over 10 hours late, Eastbound Empire Builder both over 3 hours late.

 

https://asm.transitdocs.com/map

 

 

Maybe the CP was just letting the freights go through last night, as passengers are no longer considered a "perishable commodity". What are they going to do, complain to Amtrak.  A cynical person would say the railroads are doing this on purpose, to make their case for dumping the service, especially since they have a very sympathetic administration in power. My cynical factor is about 75%. I believe Congress has the final say on this, and so far the trains are being funded.

Hate to tell you but I rode the Maple Leaf under a very "Amtrak Friendly" administration (President and both houses of Congress at the time) and thought CSX screwed their Amtrak tenant when we went in the hole and sat there for half an hour to let a trash train through. 

So you can leave your partisan politics at the door. 

 

Gee, a whole half hour, more than ten years ago. I'm talking about double digit hourly delays, and outright full cancellations of trains. Apples and oranges in my book.

There was nothing partisan about that comment. Just stating the facts about about the current management. This entire topic is based on a Wall Street Journal article that said Amtrak wanted to drop the long distance trains, or did I just make that up?

Here we go again with the Empire Builder. The new #7 is already four hours late, and it's not even on the map in Chicago yet. If they wait much longer, it'll be a scratch. The #8 is three hours late arriving. It's possible that they don't have a train set available, but I think they have six sets, and when things are running correctly there are only supposed to be four out on the line at any given time. Right now there are just three. Recently there have been five at a time on occasion. There should always be one in Chicago ready to go because they have 23 hours to get it ready for the next day (on schedule). The eastbound arrives an hour after the westbound departs.

The only problem with the map is, it only tells us what is happening, it doesn't tell us why.

The BNSF is my favorite railroad, but when it comes to Amtrak, I'm not so sure anymore. A few months ago there was a topic on the forum regarding the Southwest Chief, and how Amtrak wanted to cut service right out of the middle of the route, from Dodge City, KS to somewhere like Albuquerque, NM. What I'm getting at here is, I have never heard any rumblings from the UP or any of the other four host railroads (CSX, NS, CP, CN) about ditching Amtrak. BNSF only has the two routes. Is Amtrak's money not green enough for Warren Buffett? 

I have had the opportunity to speak to a retired BNSF executive a few times in the last year. One conversation was about the Builder, where he said it was only running three times a week. I had to correct him and told him that it was still running daily, but his comment has stuck with me since then. Maybe that's why I keep watching so intently, to see if it comes to pass. I even had my laptop with me and tried to show him the map, but he doesn't see too well anymore.

Maybe he sees the future?

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Amtrak Rail Pass program is still in place.  We took a cross-country tour for $400 p/p twenty years ago.  The current rate is $689.  Of course that's for coach and bedroom upgrade would add substantially.  Still, not too bad for thirty days of wondrous adventure.  Or abject torture for some people here. 

Farmer_Bill posted:

Maybe he sees the future?

Obviously he heard something from the inside, so this could indeed be the future, but not yet. This why I'm on Builder watch. No #7 tonight, that window has closed. No point starting six hours late. Try again tomorrow.

Doesn't look like there's a new #8 coming out of Seattle either. Today is Monday. No service!

Farmer_Bill posted:

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Amtrak Rail Pass program is still in place.  We took a cross-country tour for $400 p/p twenty years ago.  The current rate is $689.  Of course that's for coach and bedroom upgrade would add substantially.  Still, not too bad for thirty days of wondrous adventure.  Or abject torture for some people here. 

As long as there's a way to get from coast to coast in the system. The price increase isn't really that bad. I would think with a pass you might not want to spend that many nights on the train anyway. You'd want to ride and get off in a number of places. Just upgrade to a room a few times as necessary.

I know I can't ride the train anymore. I'm on dialysis, and have to be places every M-W-F, without fail. This version of Amtrak is out of the question for that. I'm a driver anyway. I need my freedom like a previous poster said further up the page.

"I would think with a pass you might not want to spend that many nights on the train anyway. You'd want to ride and get off in a number of places. Just upgrade to a room a few times as necessary."

Yes, that's exactly what we did. Even I will admit more than three days straight on a train would be too much!!

Yeah Bill, that's why they give you 30 days. Only a lunatic would spend all of them on the train.

BTW, it's official, I went to Amtrak's website, and #7 and #8 are cancelled today. I'd hate to be holding one of those tickets, and need to be somewhere. Of course, the airlines do that all the time, but usually there's another flight unless it's weather related. The Amtrak long distance trains, it's one chance per day, period.

He might be confusing the EB with the NORTH COAST, a discontinued CHI-SEA train which did run try weakly under Amtrak.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

He might be confusing the EB with the NORTH COAST, a discontinued CHI-SEA train which did run try weakly under Amtrak.

Nah, I trust that he really meant the current Empire Builder. Didn't the old (long gone) Amtrak North Coast (Hiawatha?)use the NP tracks anyway? Different route parallel to that of the GN which the Builder uses.

There has also been talk of adding a Chicago to St Paul round trip daily, which might make real sense if the full Builder was three times a week. That run is not "long distance" at around 400 miles. 

FORMER OGR CEO - RETIRED posted:

Tinplate Art posted:

Rich: NICE RV, but if I am not mistaken, don't you also own a twin turbo-prop aircraft with full avionics?

Good Lord NO!

I fly a nice King Air 350 for its owner, and it's equipped with the Garmin G1000 avionics suite, but I'm just the airborne bus driver. I don't own it. I get paid to fly it. There's no way I could afford to own a $2+ million aircraft.

Flying this thing does sort of spoil you for the slow pace of train travel.  We routinely fly this aircraft from northeastern Ohio to Key West in 3-1/2 hours. Going there again on Thursday. 2,100 horsepower (1,050 a side) moves us right along...

That's a beautiful King Air, always loved those planes.   As I learned from my dad having owned 4 different planes, the final a CJ circa 1992 with modern avionics and navigation, the purchase price is the easiest point.  Cost of of operations is THE killer.  I laugh when I here people with a little bit of money talk about owning their own plane and having it piloted.  They think because the price of entry is X that they're all good, Y never even comes into the equation but when it does, reality puts them back on the ground quick.

FWIW, as a taxpayer, I would rather my dollars go to AMTRAK than a whole bunch of other things, especially anything that helps keep semis on the highways.

palallin posted:

FWIW, as a taxpayer, I would rather my dollars go to AMTRAK than a whole bunch of other things, especially anything that helps keep semis on the highways.

AGREED!!!! Millions to poetry groups, investigating the life cycle of cow droppings.......Yes...AMTRAK before all these.....

palallin posted:

FWIW, as a taxpayer, I would rather my dollars go to AMTRAK than a whole bunch of other things, especially anything that helps keep semis on the highways.

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

But a majority of the traveling public will go through the hassle of airports to save travel time. People’s time is valuable. The problem with Amtrak is that it’s too slow. Yes, 90 mph is too slow for people. Planes travel at 500 mph. How can Amtrak compete with that? The “death” of the passenger train started as soon as interstate highways were built and air travel became popular. Amtrak was created in 1971 to actually wind down intercity trains but it stayed.

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

FWIW, as a taxpayer, I would rather my dollars go to AMTRAK than a whole bunch of other things, especially anything that helps keep semis on the highways.

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

FWIW, as a taxpayer, I would rather my dollars go to AMTRAK than a whole bunch of other things, especially anything that helps keep semis on the highways.

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

Train travel is at the very bottom of my list. My son inlaw is a conductor on Amtrak . 

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

That's just it:  it doesn't need to be there in 2 days if we do not cling to the extraordinarily wasteful "just in time" inventory regime.  We waste--as a society--immense resources in the current logistics system, and I eagerly anticipate the day it dies the ignominious death it deserves.  I just hope that that day is not postponed until our resources simply collapse.

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

That's just it:  it doesn't need to be there in 2 days if we do not cling to the extraordinarily wasteful "just in time" inventory regime.  We waste--as a society--immense resources in the current logistics system, and I eagerly anticipate the day it dies the ignominious death it deserves.  I just hope that that day is not postponed until our resources simply collapse.

Well, that's a Utopia that will never exist.  Plus your proposal still doesn't explain how you get product to point of sale.  Are there train tracks to every point of sale location in the US in your plan?  What about the wasted expense and inefficiency moving all of the empty train cars around?  Your plan also assumes some all knowing force that can plan for any situation or emergency with just the right thing available right when and where needed.  What about emergency aid when disasters strike?  Thankfully we had semis moving this into Houston after Harvey immediately.  Not possible with trains.

Back in the 70's when I was doing high speed passenger train cost studies for FRA, I got into that subject in some depth

There are three components of resistance in a train

- rolling resistance

- Wind resistance

- weight

Rolling resistance (journals, track, etc. varies directly with speed.  Wind resistance varies as the square of the speed, but varies greatly with the shape of the vehicle.  Weigth comes into play on grades, but in the long run averages to about zero.

Using conventional passenger equipment, the wind resistance was using about half of the pwoer at 60 mph.  So if total resistance at 60 mph was 100, then wind was 50 and rolling was 50.  At 80 mph it would be (80*80 / 60*60) * 50 for wind and (80/60) * 50 for rolling.  That is a total resistance at 80 of 156,, a 56 % increase.  At 100 mph, it's a 122 % increase in energy.

The steamline profile of HST raises the point at which wind is 50% of the resistanced so the numbers are a bit less drastic but still very significant.

The fact that French and German railways are using 180 mph on new lines indicates that the power cost is not unacceptable, but they have the very high population density and less effective road competition that is needed to get the huge number of riders to pay for the tremendous infrastructure expense. That's more important than the power question.

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

That's just it:  it doesn't need to be there in 2 days if we do not cling to the extraordinarily wasteful "just in time" inventory regime.  We waste--as a society--immense resources in the current logistics system, and I eagerly anticipate the day it dies the ignominious death it deserves.  I just hope that that day is not postponed until our resources simply collapse.

Well, that's a Utopia that will never exist.  Plus your proposal still doesn't explain how you get product to point of sale.  Are there train tracks to every point of sale location in the US in your plan?  What about the wasted expense and inefficiency moving all of the empty train cars around?  Your plan also assumes some all knowing force that can plan for any situation or emergency with just the right thing available right when and where needed.  What about emergency aid when disasters strike?  Thankfully we had semis moving this into Houston after Harvey immediately.  Not possible with trains.

Well, most of our freeways had high water on them, and needed to be drained.  But once you had a lane open, "...let those truckets roll, 10-4."

After Harvey, some if not all our freeways had high water on them.  But once you had a lane open:  Let those truckers roll, 10-4.

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

That's just it:  it doesn't need to be there in 2 days if we do not cling to the extraordinarily wasteful "just in time" inventory regime.  We waste--as a society--immense resources in the current logistics system, and I eagerly anticipate the day it dies the ignominious death it deserves.  I just hope that that day is not postponed until our resources simply collapse.

The biggest problem with your idea is that the railroads don't even WANT most of the traffic you are talking about.  The reason so much of this traffic goes by truck is the railroads ran the customers off, either by offering lousy unreliable service, or all but flat out making it impossible for the customer to ship by rail.  The loads the railroads are interested in are  unit trains,  customers that move hundreds or thousands of cars a year, and those loads like coal, grain, oil and other commodities were they really don't have any competition so they can provide mediocre service and charge whatever the can get away with.

Dieselbob posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

That's just it:  it doesn't need to be there in 2 days if we do not cling to the extraordinarily wasteful "just in time" inventory regime.  We waste--as a society--immense resources in the current logistics system, and I eagerly anticipate the day it dies the ignominious death it deserves.  I just hope that that day is not postponed until our resources simply collapse.

The biggest problem with your idea is that the railroads don't even WANT most of the traffic you are talking about.  The reason so much of this traffic goes by truck is the railroads ran the customers off, either by offering lousy unreliable service, or all but flat out making it impossible for the customer to ship by rail.  The loads the railroads are interested in are  unit trains,  customers that move hundreds or thousands of cars a year, and those loads like coal, grain, oil and other commodities were they really don't have any competition so they can provide mediocre service and charge whatever the can get away with.

I've been following the railroad industry including trends in management, finace and traffic for about 60 years.  A lot has changed but from close observation of railroads in the last 15 years, I can tell you that most of the allegations in this post are false. 

Let's begin with intermodal.  For the six huge railraods in the US, it is one of the best growing businesses with high profit potential.  Some of the service is mediocre, but much is very good.  UPS ships many trainloads every day, one of UP's best customers.  Anyone who uses UPS regularly knows how good their time reliability is.  IF ti's transcontinentl, most of those packages go by rail.  CSX has several scheduled UPS trains into the east.  I've seen news items about UPS switching railroads because of too many late trains.

Another huge single carload business is plastics, most of which go to transload terminals.  In the Houston area, the UP ahs a yard that has several thousand cars of plastic pellets waitoing for custpomer shipping orders.  The cars are laoded directly from production lines and the railroad yard is effectively the plant inventory.  Many of these cars fgo to transload terminals where delivery is made in truckloads within hours of customer orders.

Corn syrup comes into New England and the NY metro area in tank cars in huge quantities, but not in unit trains.  Look at any bulk transfer terminal and you'll see many of them.  Many ship on multiple car contract rates, but those are not unit trains.

The same is true of solvents and many other chemicals.  Recently a solvents wholesaler in Cambridge eliminated ti's rail siding, but that doesn't mean that CSX lost the business.  Now it's being handle through a Transflo terminal - much more efficient that ahving a switch engione deliver a few cars a week.  Same for flour.  A local baking company that had its own siding now gets the flour through a railroad transload terminal.

Ths service angle isn't as important for those commodities handled thropugh Transflo terminals because those terminlas are used by the shippers as inventory holding points.  Truckloads are taken out of the cars to fill customer orders overnight, but the cars enroute to the inventory points don't have the same urgency, the railroad being effectively storage in transit.

A railroad is extemely inefficient when individula carload shipments are being spotted by switch engines at each siding. When rail cars are moved in large lots and small deliveries are made by truck, the total fuel consumed in transportation is much less and the labor cost is tremendously reduced.

As for unit trains, a lot of grain may move thqat way, but the profit margins are low, but better than in the 50's when the railroads lost money on every car.  And coal is going to go away, less each year.

mlaughlinnyc posted:

Dieselbob posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

palallin posted:

TexasSP posted:

So what's your proposed logistical solution for doing away with semis?

Trains. 

So trains will replace semi deliveries to every point of sale?  What if I need to ship 40k pounds from OH to TX and it be here in 2 days, how does this function by rail?

That's just it:  it doesn't need to be there in 2 days if we do not cling to the extraordinarily wasteful "just in time" inventory regime.  We waste--as a society--immense resources in the current logistics system, and I eagerly anticipate the day it dies the ignominious death it deserves.  I just hope that that day is not postponed until our resources simply collapse.

The biggest problem with your idea is that the railroads don't even WANT most of the traffic you are talking about.  The reason so much of this traffic goes by truck is the railroads ran the customers off, either by offering lousy unreliable service, or all but flat out making it impossible for the customer to ship by rail.  The loads the railroads are interested in are  unit trains,  customers that move hundreds or thousands of cars a year, and those loads like coal, grain, oil and other commodities were they really don't have any competition so they can provide mediocre service and charge whatever the can get away with.

I've been following the railroad industry including trends in management, finace and traffic for about 60 years.  A lot has changed but from close observation of railroads in the last 15 years, I can tell you that most of the allegations in this post are false. 

Let's begin with intermodal.  For the six huge railraods in the US, it is one of the best growing businesses with high profit potential.  Some of the service is mediocre, but much is very good.  UPS ships many trainloads every day, one of UP's best customers.  Anyone who uses UPS regularly knows how good their time reliability is.  IF ti's transcontinentl, most of those packages go by rail.  CSX has several scheduled UPS trains into the east.  I've seen news items about UPS switching railroads because of too many late trains.

Another huge single carload business is plastics, most of which go to transload terminals.  In the Houston area, the UP ahs a yard that has several thousand cars of plastic pellets waitoing for custpomer shipping orders.  The cars are laoded directly from production lines and the railroad yard is effectively the plant inventory.  Many of these cars fgo to transload terminals where delivery is made in truckloads within hours of customer orders.

Corn syrup comes into New England and the NY metro area in tank cars in huge quantities, but not in unit trains.  Look at any bulk transfer terminal and you'll see many of them.  Many ship on multiple car contract rates, but those are not unit trains.

The same is true of solvents and many other chemicals.  Recently a solvents wholesaler in Cambridge eliminated ti's rail siding, but that doesn't mean that CSX lost the business.  Now it's being handle through a Transflo terminal - much more efficient that ahving a switch engione deliver a few cars a week.  Same for flour.  A local baking company that had its own siding now gets the flour through a railroad transload terminal.

Ths service angle isn't as important for those commodities handled thropugh Transflo terminals because those terminlas are used by the shippers as inventory holding points.  Truckloads are taken out of the cars to fill customer orders overnight, but the cars enroute to the inventory points don't have the same urgency, the railroad being effectively storage in transit.

A railroad is extemely inefficient when individula carload shipments are being spotted by switch engines at each siding. When rail cars are moved in large lots and small deliveries are made by truck, the total fuel consumed in transportation is much less and the labor cost is tremendously reduced.

As for unit trains, a lot of grain may move thqat way, but the profit margins are low, but better than in the 50's when the railroads lost money on every car.  And coal is going to go away, less each year.

 

Ok, let's take intermodal.  Intermodal caters to BIG customers with lots of trailers or containers going to a small number of destinations.  A valuable service, but probably 75% of all truck freight doesn't meet that criteria.  And, after over 50 years of doing it, railroads are STILL complaining about the profit margins on intermodal traffic, and are in the process of eliminating all but the most prosperous origination-destination pairs.  AND, with that, we will still need to truck these containers up to 300-400 miles to get them to their final destination.  I'm a huge fan of transload terminals, but the fact is, they are a LOT less popular than we would like to think, and usually takes a short line to run them properly.  The Indiana Rail Road has had a transload facility in Indianapolis (a major market) for thirty years, and the traffic is OK, but nothing to do cartwheels over.  The fact is, that especially in the era of PSR, the class one railroads are sending the message to many of their customers that the DO NOT want their business, and if they can't LEGALLY deny the traffic, they will just drive it off by other means.

Amtrak to provide matching funds for Southwest Chief route

Amtrak will use the newly available federal capital funding to continue needed work on the next route segment of the Southwest Chief in New Mexico.  Photo – amtrak.com

Amtrak will provide a $3 million matching grant to help upgrade track on its Southwest Chief route in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, the railroad announced yesterday.The announcement follows the passage of the federal government's fiscal-year 2019 Appropriations Act, which included funding for Amtrak and intercity passenger rail. 

The legislation set aside $50 million for its national network grant for improvements to the Southwest Chief route. Amtrak is using $3 million of the funds to match a $16 million grant sought by the states, counties and cities and awarded to Colfax County, New Mexico.

The grant and matching funds will result in an investment of more than $26 million, Amtrak officials said in a press release.

In 2011, Amtrak and BNSF Railway Co. began community discussions about the route's needed safety and other infrastructure improvements. Since then, more than $80 million has been committed from U.S. Department of Transportation programs, state and local governments, Amtrak and BNSF.

Amtrak will use the newly available federal capital funding in coordination with stakeholders to continue needed work on the next route segment in New Mexico. In addition, Amtrak is working on a long-term financial plan to address the route's "unique challenges," Amtrak officials said.

Source: Rail News • February 28, 2019

Gary: Rail-fan

Thanks for that.....looks like I still get to ride the SWC for my West coast visits!!!!! 

I know there are a number of reasons why freight has the right-of-way over long distance passenger service, but that is not helping to get people onto these trains. One of the worse is the NYC to New Orleans Cresent. Because I will be taking it in May, I've been noting the daily running times since November 1. Since then, it has averaged 3.7 hours late. Over those 3 months, it has been up to 10 hours late a few times. It also has arrived on time only a few times (Christmas and New Years dates) and only an hour late on some Sundays (less freight traffic?). 

Joe Hohmann posted:

I know there are a number of reasons why freight has the right-of-way over long distance passenger service, but that is not helping to get people onto these trains. One of the worse is the NYC to New Orleans Cresent. Because I will be taking it in May, I've been noting the daily running times since November 1. Since then, it has averaged 3.7 hours late. Over those 3 months, it has been up to 10 hours late a few times. It also has arrived on time only a few times (Christmas and New Years dates) and only an hour late on some Sundays (less freight traffic?). 

As you may know....lots of single track running in VA and Carolina's.......get a minute off schedule and it goes south out the window fast......pun intended. 

Joe Hohmann posted:

I know there are a number of reasons why freight has the right-of-way over long distance passenger service, but that is not helping to get people onto these trains. One of the worse is the NYC to New Orleans Cresent. Because I will be taking it in May, I've been noting the daily running times since November 1. Since then, it has averaged 3.7 hours late. Over those 3 months, it has been up to 10 hours late a few times. It also has arrived on time only a few times (Christmas and New Years dates) and only an hour late on some Sundays (less freight traffic?). 

I have read in several places that Amtrak has priority by law over freight trains.  I can't cite a reference right now.  There are many reasons for delays.  Some of these are:  railroad dispatching, weather, freight broken equipment, and Amtrak equipment issues.  One of the reasons that Amtrak has so many delays is that there are no real penalties for railroads giving priority to freight and delaying passenger trains.  I think that if the freight railroads had a strong incentive to keep Amtrak moving, assuming delays aren't beyond the railroad's control, that the passenger trains would be closer to schedule.  Passenger trains were mostly on schedule back in the 1950s when management made sure their trains such as the Super Chief, Empire Builder, or Merchant's Limited were on time.  NH Joe