Recent content by montgomerySutton

I've been looking forward to riding this route when I get back home next! Sad to hear about the lack of ridership... I thought I'd read that it was doing relatively well. Disappointing.

Small world! I was also on this train. I was relatively happy with how the situation was handled, but unfortunately I was logging the trip on Facebook for all to see, and I'm afraid that my attempted promotion of Amtrak has actually turned many potential riders away (despite my best efforts)...

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. Makes me even more excited for my trip later this month.

I'll be making this trip in reverse in just a couple weeks in coach, after taking a sleeper on the TE from DAL to CHI. With airfares as terrible as they are, and the need to get my guitar safely home (the last time I shipped it the hard case got really badly mangled; I'm not willing to risk that...

I live in central Dallas, in Uptown, and we didn't see anything too bad at all -- some heavy rain, but even that only briefly. But I have friends and family members with yards completely torn up in Arlington. No home damage, except for some roof shingles, thank god. Half of a barn from a...

Absolutely agreed... I would try to take this trip once a year or so now -- but I would easily make it 2 or 3 times as frequently if I could do an overnight train from NYP to Montreal. Has this ever even been tried?

Have you already visited? How was your experience at and getting to the Omni?

Sick... Can't wait for my next Adirondack trip!!

^ The re-route between DAL and FTW on the TRE tracks is supposed to reduce overall travel time by about an hour, right? Any further update on when this could be a reality? This summer, I saw an Amtrak train coming FTW-DAL on the TRE line, presumably because of a wreck on the UP route through...

Yeah -- I can also speak to the MAJOR UP delays and delays due to heavy ridership. My #21 out of Dallas last week took almost the whole 20 minutes allotted just to get passengers off, before the large group of embarking passengers even began to board. Several disabled passengers, a few children...

So do I. But I've also lived in cities where the public transit systems ran much better, at least from a rider's point of view, and didn't seem to have nearly the maintenance or budget problems we get with the MTA. Decent ridership compared to what? When I was working the night shift, I rarely...

And with temperatures still around 105 in Texas, the trains can't reach normal max speeds because of safety concerns re: internal rail temperature, I believe...

Absolutely agreed with you here. As far as the NYC debate, the system is still repairing itself from the nightmarish 70s-90s. The MTA administration is awful; the Unions are too entrenched and too easy on their own members (this coming from a very pro-union guy); and despite some final movement...

The best way to save Amtrak in our current political and economic climate is to ride it as much as possible. Even if it's a little less convenient, if you can take the trip on Amtrak, do. Both parties are being driven by Big Money who have no reason to care about passenger rail throughout the...