Your welcome.
That's not a Highliner, since access from car to car on the Highliner is on the lower level and there's no equipment area on the lower level, so it might be a Midwest/California bilevel.
Nope. Need to look at car types too. California is getting 5 cafe cars and three cabbages, only one of each is for new capacity rather than replacing Amtrak owned equipment (almost certainly for an already planned service expansion on the San Joaquins). Surfliner is getting 10 coaches for new capacity, they'll simply be adding a car to each of the 9 existing consists. And be slow as all get out accelerating with a single F59PHI hauling 7 Surfliners.
Good find on the hot off the press IDOT presentation.
As I mentioned above, the corridor bi-levels brought for the Midwest are funded entirely with federal money. Illinois DOT is the lead agency representing the 3 Midwest states (IL, MI, MO), so I doubt that the 88 + 34 cars will be "owned" by IL. I expect they will be owned by a joint Midwest multi-state authority set up to own ad provide the bi-level and Next Gen diesel locomotive fleet. If service to Milwaukee is covered by the 34 additional cars, then the FRA may have taken pity on Wisconsin and allowed them to join in, so the Horizons can be entirely removed from Midwest corridor service to have more reliable equipment in winter weather. Of course, this does not include the Hoosier State, but it appears that the Hoosier State is going to be dropped or will use other equipment.
As far as I know, all the involved states will have ownership of their cars regardless of whether the cars were procured with federal grants. These will not be Amtrak cars, and Amtrak will not have control over the assignment of cars among the various state services (a power Amtrak wanted to be granted). California's direct contribution must be for the procurement of cars over and above those paid by the feds.
With 4 cars + shop/protect it will account for all 122 cars. Of course there will be some extras if as seems likely now, Indiana simply cans the Hoosier State.
true
As long as trains are not lengthened, yes.
Depending on how quickly ridership grows, California may choose to keep the Comet consists around to pinch hit. Afterall no one else is dying to take them.
NEC could use all those Amfleets for sure. My guess is that at least a significant part of the Horizon fleet will get deployed in the LD BU, initially even with no modifications for use on LD trains for short turn segment passengers. That will release seats in Amfleet IIs for longer turn passengers and overall bring some relief to overcrowding. Beneficiaries will be trains like the Meteor and LSL, and perhaps even the Cardinal. Some of those may also get deployed as is on middle distance trains like the Pennsylvanian/Palmetto, Vermonter and such off corridor trains which do not necessarily require each car to open while on the NEC.
I waited for it.
You mean they are able to shake the federal dollar tree better than anyone else when their guy is in the White House? They'd have to be truly incompetent if they were unable to do that, no? Call me cynical, but I don't see what is there to be impressed about. If it had not happened that would be a reason to be depressed about.
Illinois has long been involved with intercity service, dating back to the early days of Amtrak when the Illinois Zephyr became one of the first, if not the first "403b" trains. This has happened under both Democratic and Republican presidents and Democratic and Republican governors. Illinois sponsors four daily roundtrips on the St. Louis corridor, two roundtrips on the Qunicy line, two roundtrips on the Carbondale route and, in cooperation with Wisconsin, seven daily roundtrips to Milwaukee. In addition, service to the Quad Cities and Rockford (and hopefully eventually Dubuque) are on track in the next few years. So having the President, secretary of transportation (until recently) and head of the FRA from Illinois don't hurt, but Illinois' rail leadership had been under way for a long time. Work on the Chicago-St. Louis 110 mph upgrade seems to have been going on forever, but that should be completed within the next few years. Again, this has been a bipartisan effort. Republican legislators love having trains serving their downstate districts. And lets not forget the lobbying efforts of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. They have done a great job in keeping passenger rail in front of the legislators.You mean they are able to shake the federal dollar tree better than anyone else when their guy is in the White House? They'd have to be truly incompetent if they were unable to do that, no? Call me cynical, but I don't see what is there to be impressed about. If it had not happened that would be a reason to be depressed about.
The California state funds have been in the mix for the purchase of the 42 cars for CA from the start of the bid process. It was part of the funding package. Regardless, yes, CA will end up owning the 42 + 11 bi-levels going to CA. Since CalTrans has money to spend, would not be surprised if in the next 2-3 years, CA orders more cars from the Nippon-Sharyo option for service expansions.
Sorry, I just watched Rocky & Bullwinkle. I get like this when I do that.
The baseline order of 88 cars for the Midwest is broken down as: 46 coach cars, 21 cafe-business cars, 21 cab-baggage cars. If every train gets a cab-baggage and a cafe-business car that works out to 21 total consists with 2 coach cars each plus 4 spares or four 5 car trains. We do not know the breakdown of the 34 additional cars, but it is logical that it would be in roughly the same proportion, possibly tilted to more coach cars, as the Hiawatha service might not want cafe-business cars. And not all trains may need cab cars.
That sounds correct, because that's the right number of consists for everything except the Hiawatha and Hoosier State. Helpful information: it means that they were basically planning 4-car consists for everything.
I will now guess that there are 2 consists for the Hiawathas (given that Milwaukee was explicitly mentioned in the IDOT press release), probably 5 cars each. That's 94 regular-service cars, which calls for about 20 spares (5 cabs, 5 cafe-business, 10 coach), for a total of 114.
