I'm looking for more of the "targeted" speed improvements
you mention. Cincinatti-Indianapolis-Chicago for sure.
Cleveland-Toledo-Chicago. And NYC-Albany-Syracuse-
Rochester-Buffalo. Taking a couple hours out of each
of those corridors would transform the Cardinal, the
Capitol Limited, the Lake Shore Limited, the Maple Leaf
and the Empire Service. Then do the Potomac Bridge
and D.C.-Richmond-Raleigh-Charlotte to improve the
Palmetto and the Silvers, especially the Silver Star thru
Raleigh, help the Carolinian, and give a little help to the
Crescent.
The Chicago hub corridors such as Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati
and Chicago-Cleveland would see significant speed increases under
the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative proposals.
(
Michigan DOT webpage with MWRRI documents).
If the MWRRI plan were to be fully built out and implemented, it would
be a major boost for all the Chicago LD trains. . . .
Have to take a long term view with the MWRRI plans.
Fascinating detail in that report. Very dated, 2004 figures in 2002 $s,
stuff like that. Interesting to see where the Stimulus funds moved
the St Louis corridor forward by 4 or 5 years all at once, and Michigan,
too. But, oh baby, on St Louis they are spending twice as much as
the report expected to cover only 2/3rds of the project. Michigan
may turn out better, but we're nowhere near doing anything about
South of the Lake.
On MWRRI alone, looks like the route Cincinnati-Indianapolis-Chicago
(Hey, our friend the
Cardinal flies thru here) was gonna be the sweetest.
Relatively low total cost of infrastructure, heavy ridership, good returns.
Wonder why low total cost of infrastructure? I thought they would have
to lay new rail on old more-or-less abandoned right of way between
Cincy and Indy. And then get into ChicagoLand by a faster route. Well,
gonna be long time to find out about this one. Big opportunity wasted.
The St Louis route didn't even rank so high in predicted payoff. But it
was most ready to go, best supported by state leaders. So a billion and
it still will take more than 4 hours and carry only a few more trains than
it does now.
Of course, as you say, all of these corridors would boost the LD trains
that share tracks with corridors as they get closer to the city. The poor
Quad Cities train is here clearly identified as the first step to Omaha:
Chicago-Quad Cities-Iowa City, then -Des Moines, then -Omaha. And
it was gonna go to -Denver once a day, daylight service thru Nebraska,
they just didn't put that in this report. Think how that could change
the California Zephyr's costs, ridership, ratio of sleeper passengers
to coach, room availability, etc.
Actually, the report never makes much mention of the possible effect
on LD services. I guess back in 2004, LD service was the-less-said-
the-better with Amtrak floundering and the haters out in force.
But now, just imagine taking 2 hours out of Cleveland-Chicago, that's
2 hours out of the
Lake Shore Limited and 2 hours out of the
Capitol
Limited and a faster
Broadway Limited when that comes back. Leaving
or arriving 2 hours earlier or 2 hours later, in Chicago, D.C., or NYC
makes a huge difference. Not to mention how it changes things in
Toledo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. And those station costs would
get sliced 7 or 9 ways and almost disappear from the LD budgets.
I guess passenger rail is still scooting along with 0.5% of the nation's
passengers. With another $15 billion invested on corridors and LD trains
piggy-backing on the corridor trains, that figure could double in
a very few years.
