Acela & Amtrak NEC (HSR BOS-NYP-WAS and branches only)

[TheBostonBoy]

(I think it's "THEBostonboy" actually) is about 13 or 14 and I couldn't see how he'd be a conductor on the Acela. In anycase, thanks for the posts.

I'm 17 damn it!
and it's weird having another person with BostonBoy in there name..but whatever i was here like a year before him.

 

[statler]

Things every 17 year old should know:

"and" = Also,

"there" = their

i = I

"like" is simply unnecessary

 

[TheBostonBoy]

Good points....sometime I don't notice how bad my grammar is on this forum. I am much more careful when writing something in real life, but when typing I am too careless. The "there" one is really embarrassing for me though lol

 

[Lrfox]

^You'll get better as time goes on as long as you focus on it. I can tell you, just posting here, while not actually class time, will help improve your grammar.

My apologies about the age blunder, I was just confused as to which Boston Boy was which.

 

[stellarfun]

BostonBoy, with regard to your dream of a two hour travel time between Boston and NYC, I think they did look at constructing a new high-speed track between New Haven and Providence. I can't find a map of the route on-line, though I didn't search hard, but if memory serves correctly, it ran north from somewhere around New London to around Kingston. Close to Foxwoods.

This is also from very hazy memory, but I think the travel time saved from building the alternate route was about 20 minutes, and it wasn't worth the cost.

That's because an inland routing wouldn't address slow speeds elsewhere. AMTRAK basically runs nearly at commuter rail speed through Metro-North territory (it takes Acela about 1 hour 30 minutes to travel between Penn Station and New Haven, and it takes a Metro-North express train about 1 hour 45 minutes to travel between New Haven and Grand Central).

After Metro-North finally finishes replacing the old catenary, and rebuilding its tracks, and if the Feds were willing to pay for further improvements, such as upgrading the movable bridges and that arcing curve west of Bridgeport, you might get the New Haven to Penn Station running time to 1 hour 15 minutes or so. And then if you were able to run between New Haven and South Station in 1 hour and 40 minutes instead of the current 2 hour journey, you could consistently have a 3 hour train trip between NYC and Boston. I think you'd be hard-pressed to ever do better than that.
________________________

While you can always add cars to the current regional trains to increase capacity, you can't do that with the Acela's. To my thinking, increasing Acela capacity between NYC and Boston would require Connecticut to relax the cap on how many trains can daily use the Shoreline route between New Haven and Westerly. The cap is more than totally absurd when yachting season is over.

 

[The Man Who Laughs]

Two hours for a Boston-NY commute? That'd be insane.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

I would kill for a 2 hour Boston-NY trip.

 

[BostonBoy]

"Stella!"
There have been many proposals going back to the New Haven Railroad to move train service to the old Midland route(which is now the Franklin Commuter line)
But the proposal that you might be talking about was one proposed by Graham Claytor to run a line from Westerly to Old Saybrook at the beginning of the Northeast Corridor Improvemant project. It would have eliminated the majority of the slower areas(curves) through Stonington, Mystic, Noank, Groton, New London, etc, while eliminating the old and labor-intensive movable bridges; along with the elimination of at-grade crossings which are now the only ones left on the entire Corridor.
As far as Metro- North; The running time there has a lot of pad in it due to capacity problems while they rebuild their railroad.
I have made it from NY to Stamford in 37 minutes; running time 43,minimum.
a regular running time for Amtrak trains could be as short as 1 hour 15 minutes right now.
Amtrak could also improve the Hellgate line to shorten the current 22 minute running time.
Plans are also in place to improve the route( and running time) at Harold Interlocking in conjunction with the East side Access project.
Amtrak has also made many test runs to increase the cant deficiency around curves on the shoreline ( speed around curves for tilting trains) which were tabled until track improvenments can be made.

New Rochelle has not been completed but will also improve running time.
I write this with the hope that most of the readers will have knowledge of the projects that I mentioned
Faster service is not as far away as some would think.

The "new" 'old" BostonBoy
P.S.
I hope my spelling is correct. I cannot use youth as an excuse

 

[stellarfun]

BostonBoy, your description of the Claytor proposal looks to be the one I remembered.

It would seem that improvements, whenever finally completed, on the Metro-North tracks and the AMTRAK Hellgate tracks might shave 15-20 minutes off the current running times.

To go further and realign the tracks to provide more cant would be a significant investment, and probably not worth the candle unless Connecticut agreed to lift the cap on the number of daily trains. If AMTRAK is already running near passenger capacity with the present running times, what would be gained from a ridership standpoint if it spent tens of millions to gain even more speed around the curves?

 

[BostonBoy]

My point is that 3 hour service is attainable on the current right-of way without too many "major "improvements.
Extending the third track from Readville Ma to Canton Jct would ease congestion. A passing siding from East Foxboro to Sharon for inbound traffic was pre- planned when the catenary poles were erected (except for one pole that could not be erected because it would have been on private property and the abutter wanted big money for an easement. )
What those capacity enhancements do is up reliability of service so that "pad time" can be eliminated from schedules.
Anything beyond that ( two hour service) would entail significant invest ment, re- alignment, or building new rights-of - way.
major right- of- way enhancement could be attained incrementally if it was done as Claytor envisioned years ago.
In many areas , the interstate highway system took advantage of existing transportation corridors (railways) to access urban areas. That made sense.
High speed rail could do the same with interstate corridors.
Imagine a high speed corridor that more or less follows I95 between PVD and New Rochelle NY.
It would still be able to have station stops in New London, New Haven, Bridgeport and Stamford. The Highway and the existing RR right- of- way intersect very closely in each urban area.
The benefits to Conn. would be worth the inconvenience of any new construction that might be considered obtrusive.
Three hour service can be attained relatively cheaply.
True high speed service could be incremental; with the existing service benefiting as each segment gets built. That could mitigate the burden of the large investment.
One would expect boaters to sign on to such a plan if it reduces the number of openings as more trains use the by-pass routes that used fixed spans over navigable waterways.
I am now going to stop. Too much information.

 

[BostonBoy]

OH!
About higher speed through curves.
Without getting too technical because I could not explain it even if I wanted to!.
Railroad curves are spiraled. (like the way race car drivers go high then dip into a curve and slingshot out) and elevated. It would not take any major investment to increase the amount of cant deficiency,measured in inches, but the right of way needs some significant maintanence.
We used to go around cuves at 3" of overbalance, upped to five; and now acela does seven.
The plan was to go to nine. (It has been tested to twelve")
This would also enable the train to go faster on tangent tracks. I believe that it would reduce running time between Bos and NHV by ten minutes.
Metro North is notoriously conservative with its speeds. The hope is that speeds on MN will increase as their catenary system is modernized.
All thes improvements are not very expensive and most are all ready planned or under way. The three hopur time is attainable relativey soon.

 

[Ron Newman]

I recall reading that the main limitation to tilting through curves is not safety, but rather passenger comfort; you don't want people barfing in the aisles.

 

[BostonBoy]

And that is why Amtrak has held back on increasing the speeds around curves.

 

[Riverworks]

This was in yesterday's Globe business section.

Acela trains may expand to meet demand

WASHINGTON - Amtrak may add cars to its Acela, the fastest US passenger train, and raise fares as riders fill coaches on the Washington-to-Boston route, chief executive officer Alexander Kummant said.

Demand for the high-speed service also may spur Amtrak to levy a surcharge to help buy additional equipment, Kummant said in an interview at the Washington headquarters of the national passenger railroad.

"We're out of capacity," said Kummant. "Most people know that's a pretty tough ticket" because seats are hard to find except at "way-off-peak" times.

The Acela's top speed of 150 miles per hour is drawing travelers who want to avoid rising airfares and highway congestion in the Northeast. Acela ridership climbed 7.7 percent in the first 10 months of fiscal 2008, part of Amtrak's 11 percent gain.

Amtrak started Acela service in December 2000. Each train consists of two locomotives and six passenger cars, and can make the trip between New York and Washington in 2 hours, 28 minutes.

Amtrak would consider lengthening the Acela by adding "a couple additional cars" to the trains, Kummant said, a process he said would come "with difficulty."

The trains now run with an engine at each end. While that step speeds turnarounds when the Acela finishes its route and then reverses direction, reconfiguring trains to add coaches would be "very difficult and very time consuming," spokeswoman Karina Romero said. Amtrak also doesn't have any spare Acela passenger cars, so extending the trains would require buying more custom-built coaches, she said.

The trains are made by Bombardier Inc. and Alstom SA. Amtrak can operate its full Acela schedule of 32 weekday departures with as many as two of its 20 trains out of service, Romero said.

Acela ridership rose 20 percent to 3.19 million passengers in the 2007 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said.

Revenue from Acela fares was $403.5 million, or 27 percent of Amtrak's ticket sales. Acela tickets can be more than twice as expensive as those for slower, so-called regional trains between Washington and New York.

Amtrak adjusts prices much like airlines do, trying to match fares to supply and demand, Kummant said.

Trains are "running full and the demand is there," said David R. Johnson, deputy director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers consumer group. "They have been under pressure to act like a business, and this is how private business acts."

Higher fares alone wouldn't produce enough money to expand the Acela, for which Amtrak agreed to pay $800 million in 1996 for 20 trains and maintenance. Such a step would require more funding for Amtrak, a "political football" that has struggled for aid in President Bush's administration, said Kummant.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/08/27/acela_trains_may_expand_to_meet_demand/

 

[statler]

Boston Globe - April 3, 2009

From A to B with Z's
Amtrak, in nod to nostalgia, brings back sleeper car

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | April 3, 2009

Just the words sleeper car are enough to conjure images of train travel at its most romantic, when a trip on the rails meant rubbing elbows with men in fedoras, young adventurers with valises, and perfectly tailored women in the club car, sipping Manhattans.

For decades, riders on the Boston-to-Chicago line, known as the Lake Shore Limited, could at least look forward to the sleeper car, if not the cast of characters straight out of old Hollywood.

And then, in 2004, Amtrak quietly scrapped the sleeper car from Boston, blaming maintenance problems. Now, after an outcry from riders tired of enduring the 23-hour trip in a seat, the sleeper car is making a comeback. Amtrak hopes the cars, which return tomorrow, will raise $2 million annually for the financially struggling rail network by appealing to customers who see an overnight train as a respite from the hassles of air travel.

"We're going after a different market than those people who might fly," said Brian Rosenwald, Amtrak's chief of product management. "We are catering to a leisure market where people might be interested in the advantages of train travel, which would include a day away from day-to-day aggravation, a chance to see the countryside, and enjoy freshly prepared meals - kind of a minicruise concept on land, rather than on sea."

The simple luxury will sharply increase the cost of a trip to Chicago. A two-bed "roomette" (with three meals, turn-down service, coffee, newspaper and bottled water) can be booked for $184 to $431, while both occupants would also need their own coach-class tickets, which range from $83 to $163. Tickets, like those for an airline, will cost more on peak travel days and when they are booked late.

Ultimately, Amtrak is betting it will find enough passengers like Mary and Daniel Day, retirees from Newburgh, Maine, who have taken many cross-country trains and said the cost of a sleeper car is well worth the comfort of a good night's rest.

"On a long trip like that, especially at our age, you want to stretch out," said Mary Day, a 71-year-old retired hospital worker who was boarding the Boston-to-Chicago train at South Station on Tuesday, en route to her husband's bowling tournament in Las Vegas.

In any case, they prefer train travel to flying.

"You can see more," Mary Day said. "It's like being on a water cruise without all that water."

Plus, said Daniel Day, a retired forest ranger, "The airlines have become such a hassle now. It's really frustrating."

Amtrak officials said the sleeper cars were long a popular option on the Lake Shore Limited until the pipes started freezing and the toilets stopped working in the harsh winters, a persistent problem that finally led them to cancel the service in November 2004. Boston became the only major city on Amtrak's route without sleeper-car service.

Passengers who still wanted a bed were given the option of switching to a sleeper car in Albany, but the hassle of changing cars with heavy bags hours into the journey hardly made it worthwhile.

"We heard from many customers who were vocal and unhappy about it," Rosenwald said.

The decision to bring back sleeper cars is part of a broader campaign to attract riders at a time when overnight train travel has surged 7 percent between October and March, compared with the same period in 2007 and 2008. Officials attribute the increase to riders who fled high gas prices last summer, then stuck with the train because they liked it. The Boston-to-Chicago line, which saw a 1.9 percent increase during the period, is one of six trains nationwide targeted for upgrades.

Not only will the Lake Shore Limited receive sleeper cars with newly insulated plumbing, officials are vowing to improve its 75 percent on-time performance rate between October and March - which Rosenwald described as "not great" but "dramatically improved" from a 30 percent rate during the same period in 2007 and 2008.

The food is also slated for improvement. Because of a shortage of full-service dining cars, the Boston-to-Chicago train currently has small dining cars, dubbed Diner Lites, which have not won rave reviews.

"I give Diner Lite service a D for ambiance and a C for food quality," one traveler wrote on the blog of the National Association of Railroad Passengers after sampling the train's "very salty" salmon fillet, "sub-par" Southwestern omelet, and "surprisingly crunchy" spring rolls.

Ross B. Capon, president of the association, which advocates for better rail service, said Amtrak is heading in the right direction by bringing back sleeper cars and seeking to improve amenities. "We highly praise Amtrak for this move," he said.

"There was a certain amount of internal resistance, and it took some heavy lifting by some people inside Amtrak who believed this was important," Capon said. "It was an argument being made internally that they could raise revenue if they improved service. What a concept."

Of course, not everyone will take advantage of the sleeper cars. Matt Devlin, a 34-year-old with a bushy beard who was boarding the Boston-to-Chicago line en route to his home in Los Angeles, said that while he liked the idea of a bed, he saw no need for one on his 90-hour train trip.

"I'm just bumming it," Devlin said, tapping his battered green rucksack at South Station. "I've got some Handi Wipes and fresh skivvies."

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.

 

[Ron Newman]

I hope they'll bring back the Night Owl (Boston-DC) sleeper, too.

 

[JohnAKeith]

They lost me at "23 hours to Chicago ..."

How long would it take by car? 16, 18? Is it a good alternative? I did Chicago to Boston once, but we had to get off in Albany because the rest of the route was out so we had to take buses.

 

[statler]

^^ But it is a romantic 23 hours!

 

[Ron Newman]

Would you want to drive a car 16 or 18 hours nonstop to Chicago? I sure wouldn't. It's fatiguing.

 

[ablarc]

But it is a romantic 23 hours!

It sure could be.

Train operator MAV will re-introduce old-timey sleepers on the Brussels-Budapest-Istanbul line. New overnight lines operated with this rolling stock are also planned from Budapest to Krakow, Gdansk and Venice.

How about New York-Atlanta? Depart Penn Station at 6pm, arrive refreshed following morning at seven after a great dinner and breakfast?

Or Boston-Charlotte?

Or how 'bout Washington-Orlando?

San Francisco-Seattle?

Los Angeles-Las Vegas?

Your rental car awaits you at your destination.

Thanks to tersyxus at ssc for the pics.

* * *

From Time Magazine, October 31, 1960:

OFF GOES THE ORIENT EXPRESS.

The French President and a special envoy of the Sultan of Turkey were on the flag-bedecked platform at Paris' Care de I'Est when the Orient Express chugged proudly off on its maiden trip to Constantinople in 1883.

On that first trip, the 2,000-odd miles took six days and six hours, what with all the border ceremonies and crowds along the track.* The seats had velvet covers topped by Brussels lace, and lush damask .curtains hung from the windows; the fittings were of solid oak and mahogany; on the outside of every car was a coat of arms and the proud gold lettering, "Les Grands Express Europ?ens." Hand-cut glass separated the sleeping compartment from the outside aisle.

In elegant salon cars, diners lingered over oysters and chilled glasses of Veuve Cliquot served by attendants in morning coats, light blue silk breeches, white stockings and buckled shoes. Elegant prostitutes provided companionship for the lonely on the long journey to the Orient.

Spies & Vanishing Briefcases. For decades the Orient Express served as grist for the mills of novelists (e.g., Agatha Christie, Graham Greene, Eric Ambler), who conjured up (a) fur-wrapped beauties from Hungary in conspiratorial conversation with spies in the corridor, (b) muffled sobs in the next compartment, or (c) vanishing briefcases.

The only things that ever really vanished were the good service and the passengers. By the 1920s most of the lush old cars had been replaced with stern steel models, and the porters wore drab brown, offering special attention only when the palm was well greased with hard currency in advance. Then came airplanes and the Iron Curtain. By last year the traffic on the old line between Vienna and Bucharest was down to an average 1? passengers per trip.

Last week the coldly practical railroad experts of Europe, meeting in Leningrad, were agreed: the old Orient Express no longer paid its way, must therefore be eliminated. Now anyone who wanted to spend two days traveling to Istanbul would have to endure the slicker, upstart Simplon-Orient Express, which swings south through Switzerland into Italy and then on across Yugoslavia, delivering its passengers efficiently enough but without the luxury their grandfathers had known.

*By 1905 it was down to a snappy two days twelve hours.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938673,00.html?promoid=googlep

Have you seen Darjeeling Limited?

* * *

DINNER IS SERVED IN THE DINING CAR?

Afterward, we can retire to the club car?

* * *

DINNER ON AMTRAK:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuMRsq_mDe0&feature=related