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Amtrak may borrow cars from VIA
VIA cars do not meet 49CFR238 specs so some mods will be needed. That they are even considering this is a sign of real forward thinking at NRPC. Maybe there is hope for them?
If Mr. Carleton’s comment regarding the cars is correct, perhaps the consideration being given reflects lack of thought rather than forward thinking.
With the Vermonter reinstated but the Adirondack still out of service due to track problems between Albany and NYC, why not temporarily extend the Vermonter from St. Alban’s to Montreal? It would require some give and take between Amtrak and the host railways, but it could be done with a little goodwill. It would reconnect Montreal and NYC.
One hurricane clearly demonstrates how easily it is to screw up government managed transportation. Meanwhile, are the private bus companies trying to scrape up replacement equipment from other states? Probably not, as they, like the airlines, took the required steps to ensure the equipment would not end up underwater. You don’t hear much about the interstate trucking companies losing their tractors and trailers. Probably because they had drivers move everything out of the way.
It’s times like this that the country gets to see Amtraks true mission of" moving a Nation in transit. Transportation keeps the economy growing.
What about New York’s Turbo-liner cars in storage ?
Regarding service to Montreal, a big problem is the attitude of US Customs. Several years ago ATK cancelled the Chicago-Toronto train because of long delays caused by Customs at the border. You know we have to protect ourselves from those pesky Canadian terrorists…
I’ll wait to see the outcome of this before strapping into my quarterback arm chair. Whatever is done to help with regard to equipment, it probably won’t be easy. And VIA Rail would love to provide more service to its citizens, but the conservative government in Canada saw otherwise.
VIA Rail Canada would be happy to get rid of all of their passenger cars, methinks.
VIA Rail Canada would be happy to get rid of all of their passenger cars, methinks.
As of last January, the four Heritage sleepers that were still Amtrak owned and previously used on the WPG - Churchill train were still sitting by car shops in Winnipeg. If they are still Amtrak owned, wonder if they had lost track of them as they have been sitting there for several years.
Jeffery, dream on! Your intense hatred for Amtrak is laughable.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Amtrak “working with our Canadian neighbors” could be expanded into leasing Via cars in the winter to expand service to Florida from Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Cincinatti or New Orleans? Amtrak: Study the most profitable and take your pick.
VIA would easily increase traffic in Canada if they would put service back on the Southern line from Vancouver, Calgary, Regina to Winnipeg. Even if every other day.
Although not Canadian, the terrorists that caused Sept. 11, 2001, entered the US from Canada.
The commentator from Illinois again demonstrates why political scrawling has no place nor relevance on a Trains web site. His comment shows he might know a lot about anti-government ideology, but he obviously doesn’t know squat about railroading in the Garden State or US railroad geography. Much of New Jersey Transit and Amtrak in the Northeast - hundreds of NJT train sets - operates off overhead electric catenary - and all the adjacent reachable electric territory was in states hit by Sandy…MD, Delaware, and PA to be specific. Additionally, and here and the gentleman from Illinois will take exception with me because as a wartime military transportation and intelligence officer I was associated with the government, but prudent emergency planning in the advance of a natural disaster and evacuation means railroaders can’t redeploy their equipment and abandon thousands of citizens without a means of evacuating. To add to the ignorance if not stupidity of his comment regarding trucking, there were thousands of intermodal containers left in harms way - so much for the trucking companies. In the wake of a hurricane in PA I’ve personally seen rigs and containers floating in rivers or submerged in flood waters. A quick survey of the professional transportation industry news sources will show that private sector freight railroads, airlines, trucking lines and maritime shipping all were affected by closed and damaged fixed facilities. I know, I should ignore such braying and ranting, but I like Trains magazine too much.
Of course, Mr. Guse, acts of god (I’m sorry, maybe your God, not necessarily everyone else’s), are always the fault of a democratic government. Maybe we should get all the Class I’s to do passenger rail (oh wait, my Official Guide says they do…whoops, sorry, that’s the October 1956 edition). One of the two of us should be on SNL–I’ll let you decide. RM
I fail to see why Amtrak cannot reinstate the Adirondack between Albany and Montreal.
They surely cannot use lack of facilities at A-R as an excuse as there is plenty of infastructure there.
Now if Congress would have just funded Amtrak as they wanted all these years, they would have some spare train sets to do such things. But I forgot, they are too busy funding the airlines that cancel flights every time the wind blows. I can remember some pretty bumpy flights on the MATS planes I flew in the early 60’s, and they flew in all kinds of weather - and those were ‘prop’ planes no less.