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Amtrak’s new 110-mph Midwest running is just the beginning
Toronto, Canada, Slow but sure…High speed rail is starting to come to pass…and with Chicago- St Louis next…Then may be Albany- New York City Great news even if late and small.
Go Blue! I ride this train frequently, & cant wait for the 3 hr Chicago trip.
How splendid!
The most important aspect of this story is the test of GE’s TCS. IF it works as it “should” the PTC mandate could have a more realistic date for installation set for implementation, as opposed to the time line set in a knee jerk reaction to the Metrolink disaster, which is not a realistic goal.
Back to the Future:
Old old Royal Blue Route trains would hit 100mph fifty years ago. also the old Atlantic City Railway would regularly do 100mph befor the First world War.
This is the real future of high-speed rail in the US, not mega projects with unrealistic assumptions (read California HSR)!
Wow, it’s nice to see such progress!
How splendid!
Hooray!!!
Mr. Hanosh says he “can’t wait for the 3 hr Chicago trip.” As I read it, the trip would eventually be 3:45. I guess he also thinks that $3.99 is significantly better than $4.00. I still have to wonder if the time saved is really worth all the bucks that will be invested to achieve and maintain the operation. I also wonder if the PTC system starts to slow a train if a grade crossing is fouled by a vehicle.
Great!
Mr. Phillips:
This may indeed represent (at least in part) “the real future” of passenger train service in these United States; however, 110 mile-per-hour top speeds will never be “high-speed rail”!
No one benefits when we delude ourselves through the use of such terminology.
GBL
It may be one small step for man, but progress is progress, and this is encouraging. Are we on the precipice of still greater things before 2020 gets here? So it would seem!
It will be great to shorten my train trips between Ann Arbor and Chicago. I’m a speed freak anyway.
All that progress and government money just to beat a Pennsylvania Railroad steam locomotive by 10 MPH. Ask JJ Jacobson if they can borrow that Grand Trunk engine with 80" drivers for a test run.
See what happens when you have GOOD BI-PARTISAN support, projects can get done promptly. Beign a former Ann Arbr resident myself, a tip of the hat to Michigan’s governor, too. I’m prepared to ride out the waits for track improvements on the eastern section; better days are not far off.
Will be sending a copy to my Governor Kasich who returned funds to Feds which had been earmarked for Ohio’s 3-C corridor. Maybe this Michigan achievement will enlighten him as to what a progressive state can achieve with foresight.
Now if Amtrak and Via Rail would only do something to bring back through train service on the Toronto-Chicago run we would be getting somewhere! It is too silly to have to overnight in Sarnia or Windsor and then to catch a taxi over the bridges to continue the trip next morning.
Does anyone remember when IC City of New Orleans still ran at 110 mph during the 1960s’??