Pioneer and three others coming back?

[Willbridge]

The conspiracy theories come home!

Wait, but I agree with this. Do everything possible to prevent expansion. New routes or just 10 block further south to a airport station.

“Built in fatal flaw” might be my new favorite terminology.

I grew up in the newspaper business, so I'm pretty leery of conspiracy theories. On the other hand, I've done historical research that found things that were worse than imagined. And a lot of time, it involves people who think they are doing the right thing. In the Pioneer's case, it was probably hard in DC to visualize why a bunch of rain-soaked people wearing Pendleton shirts or Columbia jackets wanted to be connected with the really important parts of the U.S.

The attached pdf might shed some light. In the first years of Amtrak, the Oregonian was still the voice of Big Business, including railroad companies, and the Oregon Journal was the traditional supporter of popular improvements and the little guy (slogan on a banner flown by an eagle: "She flies with her own wings.").

When the Oregonian carried an exclusive story from its DC bureau that said that Amtrak had a study saying that the Portland-Boise-East train was worse than the official negative study, I called a friend at the Journal with the facts. (Younger readers may have trouble visualizing the dynamics of the interplay of two or more daily newspapers in a city.)

 

[GDRRiley]

I am all for restoration of the Pioneer service BUT there is no equipment to put it in service right now. You can't put the "cart before the horse" I would also like to see the Desert Wind return but Brightline will probably have this route in service before Amtrak. My main interest would be the restoration of the National Ltd as a straight path from the East to the midwest without going out of the way through Chicago. That would require rebuilding part of the ROW. All great ideas here BUT again no equipment is available at the present time.

If it ran Denver to Seattle Via the overland route it would take ~33-36 hours meaning 4 sets would be needed. Which means amtraks needs to put 5 cars into service for every car that makes up the train assuming Amtrak can hold to a 80% reliability. So 5 baggage cars, 5 transition sleepers, 5 sleepers, 5 cross country cafe, 5 baggage coach, 5 coaches.
I don't think they can make the train any longer than that given their rolling stock issues. getting 30 cars into service would take most of a year and given they've got cars planned for 2024 that means fall 2025 could be the soonest there was spare rolling stock if Amtrak decided this was the service to start.

 

[Willbridge]

Since even President Biden has to be brought along kicking and screaming into the business of actually populating the Board with people other than politically friendly bureaucratic hacks, the prognosis often seems bleak. As things stand we are yet to get the Board fixed, including its Chair.

However, the fact that Pioneer route is a highly visible item on the LD Network Study of the FRA, maybe something will happen. But we have to keep the pressure on on Congress for funding appropriation and the Executive for executing what has been legislated in proper spirit instead of the normal bureaucratic foot dragging to somehow just do the minimal and hope the rest falls through the cracks.

I ran across this exchange while dredging Outlook to help a journalist with an unrelated story. Our senators were pointing out to the White House that no one from the West was on the Amtrak board.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Rynerson" <[email protected]>
To: "kevin j flynn" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 8:56:32 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain
Subject: Senators write to Obama

Kevin:

You might be interested in this bipartisan item.

Off the record: This was an indirect result of the Pioneer "study" by
Amtrak, when Westerners found that there was no one to appeal to on
the Amtrak Board of Directors when the staff produced a perfunctory
dismissal of the idea of a Denver - Pacific Northwest train. A
Western board member would not necessarily be an advocate for one
proposal or another, but at least could be more familiar with the
issues than the current board.

--rwr--

 

[Willbridge]

If it ran Denver to Seattle Via the overland route it would take ~33-36 hours meaning 4 sets would be needed. Which means amtraks needs to put 5 cars into service for every car that makes up the train assuming Amtrak can hold to a 80% reliability. So 5 baggage cars, 5 transition sleepers, 5 sleepers, 5 cross country cafe, 5 baggage coach, 5 coaches.
I don't think they can make the train any longer than that given their rolling stock issues. getting 30 cars into service would take most of a year and given they've got cars planned for 2024 that means fall 2025 could be the soonest there was spare rolling stock if Amtrak decided this was the service to start.

True. I've kept track of it for the past five decades because:

• Tom McCall -- a very persuasive governor -- wanted me to, and
• these grandkids might get the benefit of the effort. My generation is leaving them a hell of a mess; something good might brighten their days.

 

[jis]

I ran across this exchange while dredging Outlook to help a journalist with an unrelated story. Our senators were pointing out to the White House that no one from the West was on the Amtrak board.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Rynerson" <[email protected]>
To: "kevin j flynn" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 8:56:32 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain
Subject: Senators write to Obama

Kevin:

You might be interested in this bipartisan item.

Off the record: This was an indirect result of the Pioneer "study" by
Amtrak, when Westerners found that there was no one to appeal to on
the Amtrak Board of Directors when the staff produced a perfunctory
dismissal of the idea of a Denver - Pacific Northwest train. A
Western board member would not necessarily be an advocate for one
proposal or another, but at least could be more familiar with the
issues than the current board.

--rwr--

The White House both Obama and the Biden, setting aside Trump's adventures with Amtrak for the moment, have been assiduously ignoring these messages, so much so that Biden actually proposed a slate that is essentially not aligned with legal requirements and has still not quite fixed it. I guess the blocks that have been placed on Board appointments might grab someone attention, if they can get their heads above the waters of world events anymore, that is.