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Crowds greet Gulf Coast inspection train
I wonder if they’re serious about it? This might be just another election year politic stunt for the pols to fleece voters into keeping them on the gravy train.
Now, if they can just fill the void between Roanoke and Memphis via Knoxville, Chattanooga, Huntsville, and Sheffield. This service can be more viable with a connection or continuing route through Little Rock, Longview, and Palestine to Houston.
Amtrak took a Viewliner sleeper out of revenue service and made it inspection car “American View”? Is that correct? Isn’t “Beech Grove” enough? Why would “Bunker” Boardman do that? He never rides the trains.
This is great news for Alabama. Since Amtrak’s inception, “The Heart of Dixie” has been served by 4 Amtrak routes: The Floridian, The Gulf Breeze, The Sunset Limited and The Crescent. Today, only the Crescent is running.
If they use the City of New Orleans from Chicago to Orlando, my only concern would be the ripple effect it would have if Chicago’s Winter weather causes delays. The other option I could see would be for a new train consist between New Orleans and Miami via CSX & FEC trackage, this would serve the Eastern Seaboard from JAX and connections could be made in Jax for those who wish to transfer to Orlando and or Tampa using the Star or Meteor.
“Look, this is not a political issue…” Yeah right. Everything in this country is political these days. This is just another election year ploy. Once November 9 rolls around then this project is toast. As well it should be.
“There are a lot of folks at the Federal Railroad Administration who don’t have a party affiliation that have been working on this project for years.” Sarah Feinberg.
Based on media accounts, and statements like the one above, it seems as if all “the powers that be” have been solidly “for” this service resumption all along. Some TRAINS writer should be assigned to examine what REALLY has gone on for the past 10 years. What has been the roadblock?
Mr. McGuire, I doubt this project will be toast after 11/9. There seems to be bi-partisan support for the service restoration. And, folks might actually ride the service once restored.
Yes, rail passenger transportation as practiced in the U.S. is indeed very much a political game. And Amtrak, who served up trains like “Harley’s Hornet” (taking curious routes through the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night) is perhaps a Exhibit A of this reality.
American View was one of the prototype viewliners and has not been in service for years.
Lets hope the Gulf Coast get the “green board” and that politics do not become a hindrance in developing this route!!
For the record the American View, a prototype Viewliner sleeper turned theater obs, is still wearing phase IV colors… for now.
I am looking forward to the restoration of a direct train from Chicago to Florida!!
The idea of running the “Ciy” through to Florida is not a good idea from an operational standpoint. The route would be best served by a separate train to either Jacksonville, Orlando, or as previously stated on the FEC to Miami. The “City” has undergone many interruptions and delays on the CN owned route. With two separate trains, there is a greater amount of flexibility if something goes wrong and a train is delayed. Yes a Chicago to Florida train is needed, but I just see a couple of better options to make it happen.
William Hays…not sure it matters taking the Viewliner sleeper out of service for a week really matters this time of year. Ridership dips after the holidays. I saw the inspection train setting at NOUPT as our private railcar charter was leaving behind the Sunset last Wednesday. It looked impressive. Love having the phase 3 color scheme back on the new Viewliners. We’ll just have to see where this all goes.
I only ask, why hasn’t anything been done to reinstate this service for the last 10+ years ??