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Amtrak marks one-year anniversary of 110 mph Michigan service, more improvements planned
Don’t expect Anderson Cooper or Drew Griffin from CNN to discover this news!
This is perhaps the greatest example of the good work being accomplished thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act HSR money.
Jeff:
You are a real piece of work. Your comments are not productive. Best keep them to yourself.
All that money wasted and the best they can do is knock out 20 minutes. On a good day with the wind to their back, of course. For the money that was wasted, they should have been able to cut running time by an hour. Of course, using drag freight locomotives designed to appear as Euro-centric passenger locomotives isn’t helping.
No property taxes on public owned trackage.
Well said, Dr. McDonald. Jeff apparently understand the difference between serious taalk about the matter at hand and his own political views. Being somewhat consevertive myself, I find that what many are overlooking is the public cost of any alternative to high spee rail or fast rail. Our airways are just about at capacity as to the number of aircraft that can be airborne at any one time. Additional right of way to expand our Interstate highways will be extremely costly, particulary in urban areas, and don’t even factor in the cost of cement, asphalt, etc. Rail is expensive on the front end, but the maintainence cost appears to be much less over time. Methinks that the State of Michigan probably made a good investment and that this will be proven out long after many of us are gone.
Well said, Dr. McDonald. Jeff apparently understand the difference between serious taalk about the matter at hand and his own political views. Being somewhat consevertive myself, I find that what many are overlooking is the public cost of any alternative to high spee rail or fast rail. Our airways are just about at capacity as to the number of aircraft that can be airborne at any one time. Additional right of way to expand our Interstate highways will be extremely costly, particulary in urban areas, and don’t even factor in the cost of cement, asphalt, etc. Rail is expensive on the front end, but the maintainence cost appears to be much less over time. Methinks that the State of Michigan probably made a good investment and that this will be proven out long after many of us are gone.
NS failed to maintain the trackage over the last several years, which is why the route was plagued with slow orders, and Amtrak’s schedule suffered. Now Michigan bought the track, and upgrades it to passenger train standards, and NS still gets all the freight? This seems wrong to me. Amtrak should find a shortline operator for the route, and get NS off the trackage.
Mr. J.G. should NOT keep his comments to himself. However biased and inane many of them are, they provide great entertainment for those of us who need to get a life.
With oil companies continuing to jack the American traveler around with their price manipulation the highspeed rail service will continue the attract more and more riders. You would think Mr. Guse would be singing a different tune but this idiot is sooo blinded by his hatred for Amtrak, he would still be happy with getting gouged by high gas prices.
This is very good news. I completely disagree with your corresspondent Jeffrey Guse that the Amtrak Genesis locomotive is a hindrance ! I have travelled behind many of these locos on the Silver Star between Tampa and Washington D.C. They have always performed well, and can run at line speed with ease. There is no equivalent passenger loco in Europe with the power of a Genesis -4,200hp - try and find one !
I’m happy to see Amtrak getting back to what we once had. Steam ran this route at 100+ in the 40’s . Please,110 is not high speed rail! To me high speed rail wound be in the 160+and with Mica and his ilk in congress don’t hold your breath for any thing like that except on the left and right coasts. Lets find a super pack to funnel adds to get rid of him.
Jeff Guse is your typical train hater activist of the Libertarian party. A lot of Libertarian ideas for fixing our transportation woes have been a bust from the get-go. If they think toll roads are a good idea, and the private sector will fix everything, why is Jeff so mum to bring up the idea of privatization of the highways? anybody who has driven in Michigan knows that I-94 is one of biggest pothole pathways in the nation. That makes this rail investment a bargain.
I gather that freight traffic on this line is substantially down in recent years and that that is the reason Norfolk Southern RR has not invested any significant funding on this corridor to keep it up. From NS’s purely business-focused perspective, this makes sense, though obviously to the detriment of trying to develop a “higher speed” passenger rail corridor. I seem to recall that NS and RailAmerica (or one of the other major national shortline operators?) were in talks to sell this line a few years ago but the talks fell through and the deal didn’t occur.
Thus it is probably a good thing that Amtrak and the State of Michigan are acquiring this line for passenger service and higher speeds of travel and (presumably) improved travel times. The Chicago to Detroit corridor (about 230 miles in length?) certainly should be a viable passenger rail market. I can’t help but wonder if the funding they have programmed to improve this corridor ($196M) will be sufficent to do all the necessary upgrades for “higher speed” (much less “high speed”) passenger rail on this corridor?
Jeffery Guise said: using drag freight locomotives designed to appear as Euro-centric passenger locomotives isn’t helping. Is this guy for real? The Genesis locomotive performance has been outstanding! With high quality trackage this locomotive can & does hold i’ts own!
$10 a gallon tax, paid at the pump, to go directly to the train leaders that know what they are doing. While we are at the pump, how about an extra $5 for insurance. That should stop the "no-fault " ripoff and balance the transportation equation.