Recent content by mkellerm

I would be willing to bet that some of the increase has to do with the fact that the state fiscal year doesn't correspond to the schedule for implementing section 209. There was also some discussion of a phase in for the states losing basic system routes.

In addition to the points made above, there is another big difference between Amtrak and the airlines. When the airlines in chapter 11 crammed down their labor contracts, there wasn't really anyplace for the workers to go. For Amtrak, there would be well-compensated alternatives for most of...

The plans call for most of the route to be in the I-4 ROW, which was reserved for HSR when the highway was (re)constructed.

The Lynchburg train ridership figures for October to December are now available from various files on the Amtrak website. October: 8,585 November: 9,915 December: 11,200 Figures for the Crescent are also posted: October: 21,786 (down 2145) November: 23,382 (down 240) December: 24,989...

A couple of additional observations about the ridership numbers, from various press releases: * No surprise, but the five largest city-pairs were Charlottesville-DC, Lynchburg-DC, Charlottesville-NY, Lynchburg-NY, and Charlottesville-Phila. * It appears that about 30-40% of the ridership on...

Sunset East report is out; haven't had a chance to read it yet, but here is the link: http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/PRIAA/GulfCoastS...ePlanReport.pdf

Here is the text of the RFP from the APTA website: PURCHASE OF AC PROPULSION ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES RFP# X-063-9168-001 INTRODUCTION: Amtrak intends to issue a competitive Request for Proposal for a qualified vendor to provide the design, manufacture and delivery of twenty (20) Electric...

There is a little more detail available in the NARP station fact sheets. All of the RVM boardings and alightings are allocated to the NEC. As for RVR, the breakdown is as follows: Northeast Corridor (171,938) Regional Service - Multiple trains daily State Supported (35,814) Carolinian -...

The Amtrak ARRA project summary document listed the cars that are supposed to be repaired using recovery funds. I've added asterisks to those 20 cars. Interestingly, the dollar amounts here and the amounts listed in the project summary don't match up in general. Some of the others may...

I believe that this option (a station by the curve near the intersection of Johnson and Pennsylvania) came in second to the airport station during the planning process. The main reason for selecting the airport over the curve was that parking and facilities were already available at the...

Madison has a geography problem that explains the decision to build the station at the airport. Milwaukee-Madison is supposed to be one link in the Chicago-Twin Cities HSR (or, rather, medium-speed rail) route. Madison is located on a isthmus, and if you route the train into downtown you end...

For the last six weeks, the Blue Water has been averaging about 45 minutes late at the endpoints in both directions. About 10% of the time the train has been more than 2 hours late. I grew up in Ann Arbor and still visit regularly; when I go from there to Chicago I always take the train when...

I would be very interested in such a site. I wish that I had the coding skills to cook it up myself, but unfortunately I skipped that class. I'm afraid that you might have some issue with Amtrak if you were to post the results publicly, though. One of the things that you nominally agree to on...

Yes and no. If you look at most of the financial reports, or the route profitability statements, then state subsidies are included in revenues (although often broken out in the financials). If you look at the revenue and ridership report in the Monthly Performance Report, which is the source...

On the Windsor side, you may need to connect to the #2 bus unless you want a fairly good hike from downtown to the station in the Walkerville area of the city (it is about a mile and a half). My biggest concern would be making timely connections if you are arriving in Detroit on 350 at 2:35 (if...