Crescent to Texas via Meridian Speedway?

[jis]

The Cardinal issue is being pushed hard since there is ample grassroots political heft behind it. The through cars Pennsy to Cap, not so much, since no one in Pennsylvania or Ohio seem to be willing to raise a finger about it. Indeed there appears to be more support for it in NJ than in Pennsylvania, even though one of our resident Pennsylvanians here seems to be all for it. but not so much the NARP and various ARP folks in Pennsylvania, and there appear to be more than one of those. They are more interested in a second PGH frequency than connecting the state to anywhere else, unfortunately, not that those two missions need to be exclusive. But at least I have tried to talk to them. They are simply not interested in doing anything about it. There is only so much that can be done by remote control.

 

[A Voice]

Amtrak basically dropped the PIPs on the floor because Boardman really did not want to do anything about improving LD service. Congress forced the PIPs on Amtrak and he behaved like a good bureaucrat and fired everyone involved and buried the entire thing. It had nothing to do with equipment.

OK, this is a direct slander of Boardman, and perhaps a sharper attack than you realize. You're saying he wanted to *lose money and reduce ridership* by not implementing fairly simple stuff which would *improve the bottom line and increase ridership*. That honestly does not sound like Boardman at *all*. If it got stopped by the bureaucracy, I would guess it got stopped by someone other than Boardman.

The damage done to Amtrak, through missed opportunities and poor or absent leadership, by Joe Boardman probably won't be fully appreciated for years.

 

[jis]

At one level I feel some amount fo sympathy for Boardman. But at the end of the day there is no denying the fact that he was the boss and presumably the buck stopped at his desk, and he at least bore some responsibility for everything that happened at Amtrak under his watch. I would be reluctant to give him an absolute pass using the bureaucracy argument. It was his job to manage his bureaucracy.

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Really? Amtrak says it doesn't have enough coaches and sleepers to run the through cars from the Pennsylvanian to the Capitol Limited, which IIRC required around the same number.

Doesn't seem possible unless the cars are stolen from someone else.

I don't have a problem with that (well it does depend on who the "else" is).

 

[neroden]

Lest we forget, the Boardman years were a very substantial improvement on the Crosbie, Kummant, Hughes, Gunn (killed some of the most important trains in the system, even if it was an emergency situation), Warrington, and worst of all, *Downs* years.

While everyone loved Claytor and I have a lot of respect for Reistrup, the Boyd years were also a disaster, and Roger Lewis is the one who actually told Congress that he couldn't use $10 billion if they gave it to him (possibly the worst thing any Amtrak President has ever said to Congress).

That makes Boardman at least the third-best Amtrak President (after Claytor and Reistrup) if we assume that the jury is still out on Moorman.

I think Boardman just sort of retired mentally two years before he actually left. Everything started to fall apart in 2014. But there was so much progress from 2008 to 2014.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Moderators:

With the exception of post #43, from post #42 thru to Post 55 to here, none of the posts are on topic to "Crescent to Texas via Meridian". Maybe my fault, as we veered off into equipment discussion.

Interesting stuff,figuring equipment needs and the blame Boardman game. But could you break it out into its own thread?

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

Has there been any consideration of running a train Chicago to Atlanta via Jackson? If the Dallas thru cars were implemented, it would require no new trackage and could make it Chicago to Atlanta in 24-25 hours as well as add a second frequency Chicago to Memphis. The current route via Washington takes about 36 1/2 hours and in my experience is often very expensive. I realize the Atlanta station is an issue, but the train could be run through to Charlotte or even Florida. I considered a transfer at Jackson between the Crescent Star and CONO, but it appears that they would misconnect by a few hours.

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

Has there been any consideration of running a train Chicago to Atlanta via Jackson? If the Dallas thru cars were implemented, it would require no new trackage and could make it Chicago to Atlanta in 24-25 hours as well as add a second frequency Chicago to Memphis. The current route via Washington takes about 36 1/2 hours and in my experience is often very expensive. I realize the Atlanta station is an issue, but the train could be run through to Charlotte or even Florida. I considered a transfer at Jackson between the Crescent Star and CONO, but it appears that they would misconnect by a few hours.

Looking at the the cities on the route, there seems to be two primary scheduling options for such a route. One would be to extend the early southbound and late northbound Illini/Saluki trains. This would provide daytime service all the way from Chicago to Jackson, but all of Alabama including Birmingham would have middle of the night service. The other option would be to run a similar schedule to the CONO, most likely later southbound and earlier northbound. This would provide daytime service from Atlanta to Memphis, but make little difference north of Memphis and require another slot north of Carbondale. To avoid that issue, it may make more sense to have it terminate in Jackson with a connection to the CONO and possibly thru-cars. In my opinion, the best option would be to extend an Illinois Service train as far as Memphis and have the Atlanta train continue to Chicago as part of the CONO.

 

[dogbert617]

Honestly the option I personally would like to see would be make it a complete separate train and run as a day train from Atlanta to the NEC

The file attached has two separate schedules for a separate train:

*Day Train between NYP and ATL, then to DAL. Train arrives in DAL at 6:40pm and leaves DAL at 9:45am. If you want to go from ATL to DAL, you board at 12:38am and get back from DAL at 5:35am. The train is overnight in Alabama/Mississippi both directions.

*Scheduled to allow for same day transfers with the Texas Eagle

Southbound leaves NYP 7:15pm, WAS 11:30pm, ATL 1:13pm/1:38pm, DAL 7:40am (21 South leaves DAL 11:50am)

Northbound leaves DAL 8:45pm, ATL 4:35pm/5:04pm, WAS 6:53am, NYP 10:46am (22 North arrives DAL 3:40pm)

Better times for Atlanta and New York. Charlotte has way better times to/from NYP and ATL than the Crescent. The train is overnight two nights in each direction, one overnight around Charlottesville/Greensboro and overnight through Shreveport. Shreveport is during the graveyard shift both directions.

I'd prefer the two night train from PHL to DAL, especially if continuing to Austin/San Antonio. This train would be better going to/from ATL than the Crescent as it leaves PHL later and arrives back in PHL earlier. It would be perfect if I needed to get to CLT. From the NEC to LAX via Crescent Star/TE-SL would take a lot longer than going via CHI but the Crescent Star/TE-SL combo would be great for a passenger from ATL or Carolina to LAX.

I took a look at that pdf file, and that schedule doesn't look bad. I'd suspect you could have a shorter dwell time in Jackson than 50 minutes(that seems a little too long), and that Vicksburg and Monroe weren't also listed stops on this route. Another possible stop would be Ruston, LA, since Louisiana Tech University is located there. And Grambling State is nearby, as well(maybe a bus could serve students going to/from the Ruston stop?). I would think Monroe, LA would be ideal too(due to University of Louisiana-Monroe), and ditto with Vicksburg due to the casinos and Civil War tourism there. And since it's big enough, that it'd be silly to not have a stop there. I'm sure there'd likely be a few stops in east Texas too, such as Longview.

I really like the idea of a Meridian-Fort Worth train, myself. It'd probably work best for now as a corridor train(a la the Heartland Flyer to OKC), though I wouldn't be opposed if Amtrak wanted to upgrade it to a more full service train someday(i.e. a through sleeper and coach in Meridian to/from the Crescent?). I do wonder if it'd take state support from more than one state(i.e. Mississippi and Louisiana, if not also Texas), for such a corridor train to be created?

 

[west point]

This poster thought that Crescent section to FTW and / or connections at Jackson / Memphis to Atlanta would be a good fill in once enough equipment could have been procured.. Unfortunately those options are not feasible at present. The constant delays Meridian <> Birmingham & Anniston <> ATL precludes IMO will ruin any concept of OTP. Connections to Eagle would also be in jeopardy.