300 km/hr has been the standard top speed on Neubaustrecke for years. But the question seems irrelevant to the title of the thread.
The scope of the threads tends to run all over the place. That’s what makes them fun.
Let’s not make this harder than it is. The country is full of metro transit systems, many of them much more complicated than California’s HSR is likely to be and quite well-run. (Check in with Henry for some of these.) Get it built – the hard part – and I’m sure there will be plenty of talent available to run it. Why should you even want someone from a Class 1 – who would bring exactly what passenger experience to bear on the new railroad?
Executives from first class railroads understand railroads. Equally importantly, they know how to compete in the market place. If they have a handle on these two attributes, they can learn how to run passenger trains. I’ll take that any day of the week over someone who has spent his
That is what I like about these threads. The scope is as wide as the posters…[;)]
Sorry for being in late in answering!
Yes, the top speed is set at 300 kph, but there is actually only one line, where this speed is reached. Most of the routes are limited to 250 kph. In terms of traveling time, there is not really much difference, just a few minutes.
I can´t confirm a high number of speed restrictions or slow downs due to deferred maintenance. There have been some issues with lines going to Berlin, but they are resolved as of now. Of course, there is the odd slow order on lines due to regular maintenance.
A little over 95 % of all commuter trains are running on time within a 5 minute margin. That figures goes down to 81 % for long distance trains. Reason for this low figures are bottlenecks in track infrastructure in some areas, which are being worked on.
My main point in starting this thread is that I preferred David Gunn to Mussolini. But I find the directions it has taken interesting and worthwhile and thank all of you, even Sam1 who disagrees with me about the importance of long distance trains in the USA. Howwever, I should point out that Claytor was one of the very best Amtrak Presidents and he came from a Class I Railroad background. (Southern)
Right – but Claytor and his road had passenger experience. Amtrak happened 40 years ago already – a working lifetime ago . As another poster pointed out, the Claytors and Reistrups aren’t out there any longer.
Claytor also had government experience, at least more than others. Gunn did from working transit agencies and Boardman as a state transportation commissioner and having operated several transit, albeit buses, agencies. But also Boardman comes down from the Republican ranks being a Bush appointee yet kept by the Obama administration. Boardman is probably the most “politician” of all Amtrak presidents but also with broader transportation experiences too. In other words, he can dance but you can’t see his steps.
You know what the funny thing about all of this is that Mussolini’s trains almost never ran on time…
If you have not done so, I would suggest reading Mr. Frailey’s recent blog on Hunter Harrison. After a few days with CP, the man is out there on the line, finding out where the problems are and applying fixes on the spot.
In contrast it took a company wide committee at Amtrak to discover the cause of dirty carpets on the Cardinal was coal dust on platforms in West Virginia and order power washers to enable the stations to correct the problem.
Having the skills to milk the federal cow is an important leadership qualification at Amtrak, but efficiently and effectively managing the operation should be also.
One place David Gunn may be found is answering questions for Fred Frailey. I assume that you have read his comments about Joe Boardman in the August Trains. They are not entirely complementary.