Acela lack of radial trucks / new car keep the 4 in. ?

[Dutchrailnut]

nothing is feasable unless entire railroad is reconstructed, see my reasons in earlier post.

 

[jis]

nothing is feasable unless entire railroad is reconstructed, see my reasons in earlier post.

To say "nothing is possible" is a bit of a hyperbole IMHO. However, beyond about 10 mins worth of relatively less expensive stuff, incremental cost per additional minute saved starts growing very rapidly.

If the hypothetical assumption is that all the money needed is available then of course even rebuilding the railroad is possible, but then we all know how likely that is in the short to medium term.

 

[Dutchrailnut]

nothing is feasable unless entire railroad is reconstructed, see my reasons in earlier post.

To say "nothing is possible" is a bit of a hyperbole IMHO. However, beyond about 10 mins worth of relatively less expensive stuff, incremental cost per additional minute saved starts growing very rapidly.

If the hypothetical assumption is that all the money needed is available then of course even rebuilding the railroad is possible, but then we all know how likely that is in the short to medium term.

Where are you gone get extra propery to widen right of way ?? and move Catenary poles.

Where is money comming from to replace and widen Cos Cob,Walk Saga, Peck, Devon Movable bridges

Where is money comming from to rebuild and widen 4 road underpasses at Port Chester Greenwich(3), Cos cob(2), Mamaroneck(2) , Stamford (4) South Norwalk (3) east Norwalk (3) Westport (2) etc etc etc.

Where will you get money to widen raised part of railroad from just east of Fairfield to Bridgeport yard, including Jenkins Curve ?/

and even then the average speed is STILL only 45 mph due to commuter traffic.

MNCR is not gone go out of its way with trains carrying 700 commuters plus for a Amtrak train carrying less than half that amount.

So get real , stop the pipe dream, its not gone happen, not now and not in future....

Your opinion is great in your mind, yet me with 28 years on that railroad and all consultants say its not gone happen.

hence the alternative plan that other dreamers just cooked up.

 

[jis]

Apparently you had problem comprehending what I wrote, because if you did comprehend it you'd realize that I mostly agree with you

 

[NE933]

Where is money comming from to Where is money comming from to Where will you get money to MNCR is not gone go out of its way with trains carrying 700 commuters plus for a Amtrak train carrying less than half that amount. Your opinion is great in your mind, yet me with 28 years on that railroad and all consultants say its not gone happen.

Then it's time to force them by Presidential or Congressional order. The railroad is a national asset owned by MetConn, and it is bracketed by Amtrak. When Shell to New Haven is not in rush hour, some Amtrak trains can be speeded up. I know so because as I gave my testamonial, 3 hrs. 15 minutes is already possible with givien plant. Now if the dispatcher were to put the track switches at the interlockings to use, an Amtrak, or even a faster MetroNorth train, should be able to overtake a slower run, right? Why wouldn't it?

As for the money, yes where is it coming from. I don't have an answer likely that will satisfy everyone. I do know that broke and bankcrupt people who continue to purchase cigarettes, porn, nipple rings and tatooes, and gas for their car. Myyyyyy point? Wise expenditures of money can always be found if we cut the b.s., and that part of this posting delves into social commentary that is exclusive of the mission of this website, which is to talk about trains and railroads, so let me touch on it and keep it brief. If ya want better trains, or if you want to be a consultant for a railroad and/or get a pension from one, the stewards of your business and of your government have money and resources to choose wisely. If there is no money to widen Cos Cob and the other places, then let's live with it. That doesn't not mean for one second, that any of us or the cells of our mothers' afterbirths have to believe no trains can ever achieve a faster speed which is the collective yearning, or zeitgeist. MetroNorth and Amtrak and Connecticut leadership thru the decades have had a self inflicted cork in their mouths to feign quiteness, all the worse and detrement of passengers and train crews who otherwise would be able to get to their destinations sooner.

It comes out so obscurely that the constant tension catenary project as well as track improvements have been deliberately placed on the slow burner but only now is speeded up because of what: money?! Only select few know whether money was the DNA for this change, or it was political pressure. I mean for God sakes, Amtrak, and us! Us! We ARE Amtrak!! We need to replace the bridges of Connecticut, such an urgent transfusion and get yet we get a load of guff from the yachtowners? What should we do, wait for the bridge to collapse then hang the drowned corpses on the boats of these yachtowners? Would that convince them? And it's not like the waterway was completely sealed, there are scheduled openings and closings that were brought to the negotiating table. Everybody has to bear some pain, and then enjoy and reap the reward afterwards.

Consulting one's conscience, and that of the population, is the highest form of deed doing and ought to be in the lead when we decide something.

 

[NE933]

and all consultants say its not gone happen.hence the alternative plan that other dreamers just cooked up.

If the consultants were doing their jobs they'd be busy finding out how do we get to our dreams. If they were not doing that, they were just wasting our time.

And besides, I'll be willing to bet they contradict themselves of the "NO FASTER TRAINS ON METRONORTH, EVER, YES MOMMIE DEAREST, NO WIRE HANGERS, EVER" by getting into automobiles costing more than $20K even in 1980 dollars and then speeding from place to place on the highway. I'd like to know if their were a bladed trap that amputated their foot on the gas pedal for each time they exceeeded over 75 mph, the MetroNorth speed limit on the places you cited, would they still say "NO FASTER TRAINS! EVER!" Why not?! Faster cars even speeding over the limit it ok to go from A to B, but planning for a train on an existing railroad is not???

Edit: in my rail rage for injustice to the trains, I see you and others bring up the point of Amtrak not paying. Well, if that's true then it should stop, Amtrak should pay, and for these changes we debate about to enable faster schedules Amtrak ought to cough up some dough, of course, it seems getting enough is perennial. As for me, I wanna have a new fleet of both long distance and Corridor rolling stock. How to get their is always the slippery grease that causes the mind to elude what we dream for, and failed dreams cause failed health. I'm tired of being in an era where no one smiles, enjoys anything, and maybe better trains can help with some of that. Doesn't anybody else on hear believbe or/and agree?

 

[Dutchrailnut]

hmm can you translate that rant ??

 

[NE933]

Don't know if that's possible, but you know what, let's blame this on our forefathers who built the cities and the rail segments that ended up so narrow and twisted. But like anybody else who gets a blame they have a chance to come clean. I'll welcome spectral messages from their spirits to account for the railroad they built, and causes, so much frustration.

 

[NE933]

Can anyone comment on the *radial trucks* part of the question, which was to get insight why Acela's builders and/or Amtrak management did not use them?

 

[railiner]

Can anyone comment on the *radial trucks* part of the question, which was to get insight why Acela's builders and/or Amtrak management did not use them?

Purely a guess, on my part, but I'd say cost....that of initial cost, and perhaps considerably more maintenance owing to its 'complication'......

 

[jis]

Can anyone comment on the *radial trucks* part of the question, which was to get insight why Acela's builders and/or Amtrak management did not use them?

Purely a guess, on my part, but I'd say cost....that of initial cost, and perhaps considerably more maintenance owing to its 'complication'......

That was it. The gains were minimal with significant additional cost. ROI was more or less absent for the incremental cost.

 

[brandon02852]

The point is that those big earners in Fairfield County don't give a rats behind about HSR. They are happy as long as MNRR runs reliably. That is the unfortunate reality. So no, NY and MA have zero leverage over CT either way. But let me not break the sweet dream.

All the more reason why Amtrak needs its own dedicated HSR line through CT separate from MNRR.

 

[railiner]

The point is that those big earners in Fairfield County don't give a rats behind about HSR. They are happy as long as MNRR runs reliably. That is the unfortunate reality. So no, NY and MA have zero leverage over CT either way. But let me not break the sweet dream.

All the more reason why Amtrak needs its own dedicated HSR line through CT separate from MNRR.

Yeah....fahgeddabout Connecticut! Amtrak should build a TGV-like new line parallel to the Long Island Expressway out to Riverhead, then on to the East End of Long Island, then tunnel under the Sound, and emerge in Westerly, Rhode Island......

 

[George Harris]

It has been said that politics is the art of the possible. Engineering is caught by that issue. It is not the physical possibilities that limit what you can do with engineering, but the political possibilities.

I can draw all the lines on maps that I want to. I can price out all these routes. But if the politicians say no, and if the money cannot be found, the changes will not happen. After a while you come to the conclusion that these people deserve what they get because they will neither quit the their own objections nor shut down those that do make the objections. Alternatively, they will demand things that are possible only in fantasyland.

I would love to see a Northeast Corridor that would be a true high speed rail, but it is simply not going to happen, and if it did, it would cost so much that you could restore the Phoenix west line, get the Southwest Chief route across Kansas, Colorado, and northern New Mexico up to a 110 mph railroad, restore the IC Grenada District and the rest of the IC main to run a City of New Orleans plus Panama Limited that would be faster than they were in the 1950's, run multiple new York to Chicag trains that would be faster than the best times of the Broadway Limited and Twentieth Century Limited, get multiple trains across Ohio, and have money left over to fix a lot of other Amtrak bottlenecks and slow points that in sum would probably save more passenger minutes than the NEC upgrades.

Frankly, the NEC is already absorbing money far out of proportion to its value to the rest of the country.

 

[jis]

The real problem is the Congress which apparently is yet to convince itself that it is worth funding the LD network at a sustainable growth level. It appears to be more willing to fund all sorts of Corridors, not just the NEC, and in fact it had barred the NEC from getting any access to HSIPR funds until a few states chose to return moneys allocated to them.

Ironically, it is also the same corridors that are easier to fund out of individual States since many of them do not require the complexities of setting up compacts etc. But of course NEC is the the odd one out in that in spite of being a corridor it does need the setting up of some sort of a local compact.

Absent that there are piece meal improvements being funded at local levels affecting only local infrastructure that are of most use to local service and not necessarily all of NEC. It is admittedly a very sub optimal odd ad hoc situation that is obtained all across, not just in the NEC necessarily.

in short the entire methodology used to fund transportation infrastructure is broken in more ways than one can count, and funding interstate [passenger rail transport is just a microcosm of that.

 

[NE933]

I can draw all the lines on maps that I want to. I can price out all these routes. But if the politicians say no, and if the money cannot be found, the changes will not happen.

Then you must become or conduct your thinking like a politician. Master the art of convincing, know how power and influence works when differing ideologies spring up, because this happens in many other decisions, whether which line on the map gets the new tracks, or whether me and a dinner date spends a Friday in a noisey club vs. a steakhouse, or whether my race sponsor sells bottled water or simply provides better fountains.