Philly Amtrak Fan
Engineer
Anybody at the NARP meeting in Denver? Any news or interesting discussions?
The latter. Actual delivery for acceptance testing is rumored to be around the 1st of November.jis--
Does that mean rollout, then testing on different trains like the prototype [sorry, can't remember its number] diner, then a few more months before we, as passengers, get to eat in them?
Or rollout as some will be completely ready for passengers and added to trains in mid-November? Thanks for clarifying .
It was clearly stated that this was a first step towards eventually rerouting the entire SWC via Pueblo. There at present are no plans for running anything on the joint line between Pueblo and Denver. C-DOT has a long EIS plan in its work plan and anything involving the joint line will follow that activity and inevitably will be expensive.Did not attend the NARP meeting, but Charlie was talking about the up and coming Drop car from the Southwest Chief to Pueblo CO experiment while at the AU dinner.
Still scratching my head on this one. If you look at a map, you would think La Junta to Pueblo is a bus route, if your running a car off the SWC let's run it from La Junta to Pueblo to Colorado Springs and end in Denver proper.
But then it's going to be short term experiment, and Puebla got the backing from Colorado to do it. Just seem a little short of a good idea.
I was surprised to find the lack of enthusiasm to start a daily Sunset project among the Texas contingent. If they are not going to take the lead, hardly anyone else will. The ones I talked to appeared to be more enthusiastic about a daily NOL to at least SAS and perhaps even EL Paso service than the rest of the way to LA. But fortunately it appears that the NARP staff and Board might try to light a fire under a few and see what happens.The main thing I want from Amtrak is a daily SL with better calling times in SAS. Is that a reasonable goal achievable with practical solutions within the current realities of Amtrak? I honestly have no idea.
Is it really that surprising? Any time an inquiry about increasing/expanding the Sunset Limited's frequency/route shows up on AU it's generally met with resistance, antipathy, or even contempt. Why would reasonable people spend their time actively supporting something which they believe has little or no basis in reality? If you look at passenger numbers for SAS they have been plummeting ever since the schedule was changed. So wherever that support is eventually going to come from I doubt it's coming from here. Rather than lighting a fire under us maybe NARP should focus on selling us on the idea that these negatives can be addressed in a practical manner without having to move the Sun and Earth first.I was surprised to find the lack of enthusiasm to start a daily Sunset project among the Texas contingent. If they are not going to take the lead, hardly anyone else will. The ones I talked to appeared to be more enthusiastic about a daily NOL to at least SAS and perhaps even EL Paso service than the rest of the way to LA. But fortunately it appears that the NARP staff and Board might try to light a fire under a few and see what happens.The main thing I want from Amtrak is a daily SL with better calling times in SAS. Is that a reasonable goal achievable with practical solutions within the current realities of Amtrak? I honestly have no idea.
Ideally you'd start by making part of the SL daily aka Hoosier State/Lynchburger rather than the whole route. Any daily service along the route is better than nothing. But that becomes a state responsibility instead of Amtrak/Congress (not that they're any better when it comes to spending money).I was surprised to find the lack of enthusiasm to start a daily Sunset project among the Texas contingent. If they are not going to take the lead, hardly anyone else will. The ones I talked to appeared to be more enthusiastic about a daily NOL to at least SAS and perhaps even EL Paso service than the rest of the way to LA. But fortunately it appears that the NARP staff and Board might try to light a fire under a few and see what happens.The main thing I want from Amtrak is a daily SL with better calling times in SAS. Is that a reasonable goal achievable with practical solutions within the current realities of Amtrak? I honestly have no idea.
What would sell me on increased involvement would be a qualified sanity check on the goals I've mentioned above. If my goals are deemed reasonable and attainable then I am willing to put in that effort regardless of our eventual success or failure. However, if my goals are impractical or unrealistic then I have little interest in fighting an impossible battle. Even though we joke about politicians being idiots they are experts at identifying the weakest link in your argument and using it to unravel the rest of your position. If you don't know what you're talking about and if you don't fully believe in your own methodology then they will be able to pick up on that. Once they know the political score they can quickly deflect your criticisms and dissolve your arguments with ease. Being an advocate is hard thankless work so it's important to know what you're getting into before you get on board. Just my personal opinion of course, but this wouldn't be my first rodeo, so to speak.Rail advocacy in Texas seems to be in a rebuilding mode at the moment. Texas Rail Advocates does pretty well, but one of the NARP reps is working on reviving TXARP to serve the whole state. Which is a challenge, given its size and diversity of interests. But we will probably be hearing more soon. DA, if you or anyone else is interested in helping, I'll be happy to connect you.
I'd like some service in the Rio Grande Valley. TxDot has a plan, but the local MPO is clueless about it.The main thing I want from Amtrak is a daily SL with better calling times in SAS. Is that a reasonable goal achievable with practical solutions within the current realities of Amtrak? I honestly have no idea.
Parking at the station would help, don't you think? It's pretty amazing to me that there isn't any, although someone on here stated they're planning to move the station and have parking at it. Any updates on that?Perhaps a visual aid would help spark further dialog?
SAS-ONG-EXL.png
If there is a genuine desire to build up more advocacy in TX then SAS would seem to represent a substantially deteriorating location worthy of being targeted.
Could you please elaborate for those of us that haven't the slightest idea about what you mean by this?Was there any news about Amtrak's proposed customer amenity improvements to the SL route?
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