Amtrak’s Genius Plan to SAVE American Rail
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- čas přidán 29. 03. 2023
- After COVID, it looked like Amtrak was dying. Ridership had crashed, service was degraded, and funding looked bleak as the government prioritized other things. However that may all be about to change, armed with billions in new funding from congressional infrastructure and jobs packages, and a dramatic increase in their annual funding, things are looking up. Ridership rose by 89% in 2022, nearly to pre-COVID levels, and those numbers are expected to continue trending upwards.
This video is going to break down Amtrak’s ambitious plans for the future, and show what steps they are taking to guarantee a stronger future.
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Amtrak's biggest problem is that it doesn't own it's tracks and therefore gets pushed aside whenever the freight companies decide to run an unscheduled train.
Yup. I'd like to see Amtrak buy and maintain rails toward an open rail system mirroring how the interstate highway system is run with private trucks and buses. Then private companies would compete nationwide at running trains.
@@HillOrStream look into the Swedish railway model. Not perfect but it’s more or less what you’re describing.
Yep. Legally, the freight companies are supposed to give Amtrak priority. In practice, there's absolutely no enforcement mechanism, so the freight companies routinely give Amtrak the finger and do whatever they want.
@@Ugh-Fudge_Bwana Especially NS's nonsense. They do a real good job of pissing off Amtrak
@@_SP64_ ns is shit tbh, the management, they way it treats amtrak, the neglect for crews, locomotives and derailments, and foamers
Amtrak must build/develop dedicated rail for its passenger trains!!!
A problem where I live, is in the Scranton area, there used to be double track on a privately owned line going to Binghamton and half the track isn't there anymore.
One of the double lane bridges was since replaced by a single lane bridge.
So an otherwise easy potential route is complicated by that.
With an installed cost of ~$1,000/foot in built-up areas it gets pricy fast.
Must is meaningless.
How would it obtain land to “build/develop” dedicated rights of way outside of the Northeast Corridor?
Must ? Thought of a ignorant politician.
Amtrak bounced back! it's so good to see, they made such an awesome turnaround, I'm so excited for better US Rail
Money for ukraine for war plan...not for US rail🤣🤣🤣
Better? It may as well just be the same Amtrak it's always been. Far off and serving someone else they were already serving.
Philly-Pitt on Amtrak has been on point pricewise w/Greyhound last couple times I checked, and its a much more comfortable ride
@@alexandergangaware429 SO much better. I think that's the Pennsylvanian route? Really scenic ride for sure. I'm a big fan of the Keystone Service as well, it's spectacular for getting out to Harrisburg (or Lancaster, which is my typical destination from Philly to visit family), and the ride is short and comfortable. Totally beats driving on 30.
Ridership is still down 20%. They have bounced but not bounced back ( yet ).
Glad to see Savannah and Atlanta connecting.
Most important cities to visit in GA
Now add Charlotte to that route.
Yes a Savannah, Atlanta, Knoxville(U Tennessee) Nashville would be sooo awesome!!! Hopefully Amtrak officials will see some of our postings where we riders are pleading for these expansions!!!
@@leebrown6247 crescent connects atlanta and charlotte already
@@torikicklighter1191 yup
I need to ride on this route someday!
I love riding the train. For now, I'm lucky enough to live in a city that has daily service. By the way, it's important to mention, when Amtrak provides service to a city or town, often that municipality ends of spending money to upgrade or renovate old facilities. That's what happened here. The city totally restored the old train station then created a ground transportation hub around it. That's a big benefit for communities. You said Amtrak is being "efficient with it's spending" by using existing tracks. That, actually is the problem Amtrak has right now. They are forced to use freight tracks and the freight companies don't honor the agreement to give passenger rail right-of-way, so there are huge delays for Amtrak trains. Amtrak needs its own rails, just for passenger movement...no freight allowed. You did however, at the end, correctly point out that all this is controlled by our government which is, to put it kindly, a mess these days.
Alot of the problem isn't the freight companies not sticking to the agreement, but freight trains being to long for their own sidings. Also, they have a tendancy to be very loose on timings and schedule.
This inevitably leads to delays as Amtrak takes the brunt of these delays.
Another option is to twin every train track. It's embarrassing that we have lines that are single track. Double track would allow for more capacity, which would inevitably lead toore freight travel and more passenger travel, with less chance of disruptions.
Although this isn't perfect, its alot better than the current situation.
The best option would be to nationalize the rails, we would see much more inovation in the rail sector in the United States if this was to happen.
The recent upturn in derailments and infrastructure failures, while at the same time record profits being made by freight companies just proves that they can not be trusted to invest In their own safety. They seem more interested in keeping a small band of shareholders happy instead of preventing tragedies.
There’s no way to build out a separate rail infrastructure that is economically viable on most routes except in really densely populated areas like the northeast.
The best plan would be to not spend all this extra tax or debt money and shut down all unprofitable routes and only concentrate on the profitable NEC and then expand from there using profits.
But of course Amtrak is run by the government so the odds of that happening are nil.
With political will, the US could have a dispatch system (like the ATC system for airspace) and authority to fine railroads for failure to maintain critical routes. It's not 1870 anymore, we don't have to run the railroads this way.
I had high hopes that Biden would do big things for Amtrak since he personally likes it so much but the steps taken have been somewhat disappointing so far. Good and meaningful, but not quite the high speed rail revolution I’d been dreaming of.
The US NEVER had a unified rail system. It was built by a hodgepodge of various companies over the years (often on a state charter) to various standards. Saying Amtrak should have its own rails is easier said than done, and maybe not even that desirable. Amtrak itself is known for being stingy when it comes to foreign track usage on its own territory.
High speed rail across America would be amazing!
Ah, but that's the problem. Connects US is not high speed, just regular rail on the same slow freight tracks.
@@isaacliu896 baby steps; if people see how beneficial normal trains are, it will be much much easier to set up high speed rail
High speed rail across the US just doesn’t make sense. A plane costs less to operate and gets there much faster. The costs to run the train would outweigh even the benefits to the riders. Higher speed rail and Amtrak actually having priority would be much more beneficial and cost much less. Still a cool pipe dream nonetheless though…
NY to California is too long for people being time effect. The people who like trains want to enjoy scenery so to attract riders trains have to go slower
@@kingchicken8232 Current slow and unreliable long-distance Amtrak trains actually probably harm people's perceptions of train travel
There are also plans for Amtrak to build a route from Cheyenne, Wyoming down through Denver, Colorado through Colorado Springs and down to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The first goal is to re-introduce passenger rail to the region and then upgrade to high-speed rail over time.
That's the state DOTs. There are no plans for Amtrak to build it. It's likely though those state DOTs will contract Amtrak to operate it.
Where did you see these plans? This is a route I've been eagerly wanting!
The problem with any route between Colorado Springs and Albuquerque, New Mexico is that BNSF is downgrading service over Raton Pass. 99% of BNSF freight has been re-routed to the low-grade transcontinental line via Balen, NM and up through Oklahoma rather than the 3.3% grades of Raton. And there is little to no industry, agriculture, or mining along that route generating loads. It's little more than an overflow E to W return route for empty cars for BNSF, and they see little reason to maintain it to high or even medium speed passenger service. There is talk of only maintaining it to FRA class 2 standards.....which would cap freight speeds at 25 mph, and passenger at 30 MPH, unless Amtrak wants to pay the cost to maintain it to a higher standard......which would be prohibitively expensive.
There are no such plans at any government agency, the plans are at railfan meetings.
It would've been nice to continue the Sunset Limited from LA to Florida as it once ran
One thing worth mentioning about Amtrak Connects US 2035 is that it won’t actually do anything for Amtrak’s National Network trains. All of the improvements and expansions included on that specific map are for short corridors that would be considered state-supported routes. So while Amtrak could certainly front some money for capital improvements, state legislatures would ultimately have to provide operations funding.
There’s a separate long-distance study that’s being done to consider the restoration of long-distance routes; perhaps that’s something to be covered in a future video? It’s exciting to see what lies ahead for Amtrak with the short routes, and I hope these long-distance routes will be considered in this vision for the future of rail service in America as well.
It's interesting to see that they plan to bring trains to Ronkonkama, considering it's already served by reliable, double tracked, electrified, LIRR service. I guess it could be like an extra-express train?
What advantages could Amtrak offer on Long Island? Any benefits to Amtrak?
one seat rides from the NEC.
This would also cut down on the transfers at that basement called Penn Station NYC.
@@bridgedestroyer2596 How many riders would benefit?
Actually the LIRR just completed the third track along much of this route. It probably has the most frequent service of any suburban rail line in the country so I"m not sure if adding Amtrak service adds much value. The LIRR is powered by third rail, Amtrak NEC use overhead catenary so that would need to be added.
Getting larger cities with public transportation to have scheduled stops at the train stations, and getting car rental companies to provide some way to get a car rental from the train station would make a significant difference. As it is now, when you reach your destination station, if a friend doesn't come to pick you up, you are stuck with carrying your luggage for blocks to find needed transportation. I recently arrived by train in Raleigh, NC and the nearest restaurants and bus stops were blocks away. Being handicapped, not finding an easy connection for me and my luggage was a major problem for me. Airlines do well because they have these connections at the larger airports. Amtrak could do much better if they at least got the city busses to stop for train passengers both arriving and leaving from the train stations for an hour before and after each scheduled train.
Same thing in Fresno, CA. Closest car rental is 1½ miles.
That last point is excellent. It would be even better if you took away the word "scheduled" there. What if local city busses would get to Amtrak stations a little before and a little after _every_ train even if they're not on time?
E.g., according to Google it's a 20-minute walk from the Amtrak station in Cleveland to Public Square, where most of the city busses run. The trains come through at super weird hours and are routinely more than an hour late. It would be amazing if there was a city bus (technically the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority) scheduled to make that run "twenty minutes after the 29 train arrives" whenever that may be.
There’s also people besides the handicapped such as the older people that shouldn’t be driving because they’re taking medication, or people that can’t drive for various other reasons, but if there’s no way to have public transportation at the train station to get to hotel or somewhere else where they’re going and it’s not as practical. Of course some younger people use Uber.
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957 you'll be shocked to learn everyone can use uber.
@@AllenGraetz i’m not shocked. I already know about Uber. most people know that so what?
Uber works for some people but it can get very expensive when the demand is high and if you don’t have public transportation you’re paying two or three times as much with Uber and times of high demand. My friend went to a music concert and he never learn to drive and the only choice is Uber since there isn’t public transport and he is on a budget so they charged him think two or three times as much since many people going home at once, and demanding Uber.
If public transport was available all of them could fit on the public transport with space left
Amtrak’s biggest problem is reliability. I’m booked for a long distance trip to perform music. If my train gets cancelled I’ll be in trouble even though I’m planning to go a day in advance. I need a day to rehearse with local musicians.
They should have used the time during the pandemic to restore damaged equipment and maintain what was in working order.
They can't, the Superliners have no replacement and the Genesis engine replacement, the Chargers, are defective.
Hoping their plans all work. Love riding Amtrak and vlogging their stations. Someday I will hit them all! Have a great weekend.
Hoping for a stronger future!
Why Re we throwing money away in Amtrak. I'm tired of my tax money going to that loser RR. Let private companies. Build these with out our tax. Money.
@@gregchamberlain8519 yeah Brightline is doing just that and successfully too so far. Orlando and LA to Vegas routes will determine their future success.
@@PrimeTimeTravelers You people keep shilling for Brightline like some simps. Brightline is 90% funded by the government. Even their loans are government subsidized. They exist exclusively to fleece the taxpayers and sell real estate.
Unless we nationalize the big 5 railroad operators and come to the understanding that passenger railroads aren’t meant to turn a profit we won’t have European style high speed rail.
I don't even think we need to nationalize the Big 5. Just the existing rail right-of-way. The freight companies can continue to exist, but the tracks themselves should all be regulated and maintained by the DoT just like the national highway system.
That said, Norfolk Southern deserves to get conrailed after their string of recent fuckups.
Nah, we shouldn't nationalize the railroad operators. We should nationalize the railways themselves. Let the companies still exist as independent organizations but pay to use the railroads to the US government. It is what Spain does. It even allows competition for passenger services as you can get various private passenger train companies running routes on the lines.
@@Ugh-Fudge_Bwana This! The government owns the highways and that is apparently fine with all the right wingers. But the railroads are supposed to somehow exist under the insane private management that we have now. Go figure!
No, that’s actually the worst possible idea. A freight railroad is design-optimized to carry freight, and those things that make it good at freight (like shallow grades, lower speeds, and favoring industrial areas and avoiding downtowns of major cities) make it very bad as a passenger railroad. Nationalizing the freight railroads would cost a trillion dollars because of the Takings Clause and all you would end up with the same shitty Amtrak that you have today, because you’re still trying to run passenger trains over a freight-optimized network. If you want a good passenger network, build a good passenger network. Don’t spend a trillion dollars nationalizing the freight railroads. Spend that trillion dollars building a high speed rail network
@@michaelimbesi2314 Nonsense. Our freight network was mostly build from government subsidies in exchange for caveats to forever carry passengers. As such the cities themselves grew around the rail lines. To this day, the areas around the former rail stations are the densest and the most walkable parts of their cities.
Also, trillions? The entire market cap of all major US freight railroads is under one trillion! In fact, you could create a complete network that serves 95% of the US population for under 500 billion. And that is including all the equipment, the rail yards, a ton of real estate, and non-rail subsidiaries and investments. But we don't need any of that! All we need is the right of way. Worst case scenario this all costs about 200-250 billion. I encourage you to look this up!
We just need to cobble together enough trackage so that there is a complete rail system just like the highway system. That's it.
Alternatively, the government could simply force the railroads to split into trackage companies and rail operators. They can stay private, but they can't monopolize the track. There! Simple capitalist solution. Will increase competition and innovation. Will reduce costs to the consumer. Everybody wins.
I hope I see some of these projects come to fruition in my lifetime
The problem with Amtrak is minimum parking requirements and restrictive Euclidean zoning. Trains can easily compete with cars and planes for intercity travel . In the US, when you get to most stations, you still need a car to get to the final destination.
In Europe, there are plenty of accommodations and establishments around the stations as well as good public transit.
Trains will not be as competitive so long as most people need a car to go from station to final destination.
Car dependent transit (as we call it) will do nothing to help trains become a more viable transportation option. Train stations that are located far out of your way and have ginormous parking lots are nothing but a waste of time and resources. If we want intercity public transportation to become successful in America, the stations should be located in better areas where you can walk or cycle to get to them. Otherwise, if driving is the only way to get to and from the station, you might as well just drive the entire way.
Access to the NEC was one of the major reasons I moved to DC and i finally took it to NY and it was awesome. So much better than a flight. I just want it faster.
Build the I-71 high speed corridor from Cleveland to Louisville. At high enough speeds you could comfortably day trip to any of the four major cities (Cleveland>Columbus>Cincinnati>Louisville) along the route. And with the growth of Columbus it would ease commuting and spur new development north and south of the city.
"will get to enjoy these amenities in my 90s" Now that is a truly realistic viewpoint of our government.
The North Carolina sponsored Piedmonts and the Carolinian are already carrying more passengers than pre-Covid, 2019.
Source?
Amtrak has been the highlight of my ride out of New York state. I rode the old Metroliner in November when it was an express train from New York Pennsylvania Station to Washington Union Station. Then I would visit the Washington Metrorail as my favorite attraction. In July 2002, I had my first ride on the Acela Express. The 7:00 a.m. Acela train made only six station stops between New York and District of Columbia. I enjoyed watching my train skip many stations along that route. That was more exciting than my rides on Metrorail. I am pleased that Congress and President Joseph R. Biden have put forth endeavors to aid Amtrak out of dire straits. Let maintenance lead the way!
Why is there stock footage of Recife (a city in Brazil) at 3:27? I'm guessing you did a search for "northeast city" on some platform with stock footage , and it served up Recife which is the largest city in northeast Brazil... But how do you not notice right away that this is definitely not the United States?
I'm sorry if I'm being overly critical here, I just find it both really funny and hard to understand at the same time.
It seems that this channel has a lack of attention to detail. I have noticed several other small issues as well.
It would be awesome though, if we had coastal link between Brazil’s northeast big cities by train.
Thanks for mentioning this. I was puzzled as well, though being unfamiliar with seacoast cities generally, I had thought it might be Miami or something like that. But in any case, you're right, it was obviously not the northeastern U. S. (Maybe Brazil is hosting an Amtrak side project? 🙂)
Amtrak recently released a second Connects US map, but some of the lines that were in the original one (such as NY to LI and Boston to Concord) were not included in the new map. Thankfully, this revamped map has a bunch of new lines too, but it's based on whatever towns expressed interest in rail service, so their route origins are questionable to say the least. Also, regarding the last sentence, as much as I support Brightline for their quick pace when compared to Amtrak, I still wouldn't go as far as to say we'll basically wait forever for Amtrak projects, since it's too often used as amo to cancel funding for rail projects, so try not to say anything too bad about rail projects in general please. Otherwise keep up the good work. Nice to see that you included some railfanning footage in this video too.
Huh, couldn’t find that. Can you link it for me? That’s good, the LI route was a very strange choice.
@@infrachannel It's technically an edited version of another map that Amtrak showed at a board meeting, but another transit enthusiast covered it here: czcams.com/video/SQ9X5Fl96ZA/video.html
Interesting! Will keep that on file for a future video, the Mexico connection is particularly interesting.
What are you even talking about? Brightline promised to start construction on Brightline West in 2020 and complete construction by 2024. Do you see at least on square foot of concrete poured? Have they even dug a single hole? And most egregiously, have you even seen the engineering blueprints for any of their route?
They've been working on Brightline West since 2018! Zero progress of any kind, just a bunch of press releases with fantasy plans that they don't even have the money for!
That’s just a map with the corridor ID routes (an FRA project) inserted in. So while some routes may be missing it doesn’t mean that’ll they won’t be created
I was wondering why they were spending so much money on the northeast corridor but i forgot that's the only track they own except for 200 miles in Northern Illinois and Michigan, it'd be nice if they could own more track but building or buying rail lines is very expensive
I'd be happy if Amtrak even kept the old cars and engines but Amtrak OWNED its own track. Freight lines have shown they sure haven't deserved the priority and funding they get. Americans (and Amtrak) deserved much much better than they've been given regarding passenger rail.
Anyone who thinks Amtrak can achieve even 20% of these goals hasn't been watching for the last 50 years.
Save American Passenger Rail. On the other hand, Freight rail completely owns America and has huge lobbying power. Which will why imo freight and Passenger should be separated.
The Chattanooga Choo Choo is back!
Or will hopefully be one of these days.
'Since it's run by the government, multiply these estimates by 5'-this is another reason I don't understand why most US voters are so defensive about the 2-party 1PTP system. A lot of governments in other countries deliver projects pretty close to time and mostly on budget, because if they don't, voters will vote for another party, and it won't have to be one whose policy is to destroy government.
2:19 that's the logo of the japanese company
no, but from the finnish one. The roof construction also reveals that it is Helsinki railway station.
I always liked Amtrak. The problems are, taxpayer funding, consistent late arrival (several hours on long trips), many terminals do not have facilities like auto rentals and horrible arrival and departure times at some stations.
I am a fan of Amtrak and a subway buff.
The problem is the lack of control of the rail lines. Between regulatory organizations not having the teeth to punish freight companies for delaying trains to those companies running super long trains that can’t make way for Amtrak the passenger experience in the US is setup to fail
That’s really a function of car-centric urban planning. A good transit hub in a good city doesn’t need car rentals because you don’t need a car in any city or town worth going to.
@@htowncougstro Not the actual problem. The problem is that delays accumulate, and the freight railroads schedule *around* Amtrak. All of the trains they need to get out of Amtrak’s way end up running after the slot scheduled for Amtrak. So if the Amtrak train is more than a couple minutes late, it now conflicts with the train that was pushed back for it and the delays just cascade.
As far as I know, Amtrak's biggest problem was that it was constantly lagging because most of the train tracks it used didn't belong to it. This should be resolved.
I know Amtrak is a huge and federal organization, but I would like to see them try and incentivize state and local governments to strike down very restrictive zoning rules around stations so that there's an incentive for people to live within walking/cycling distance to these new Amtrak stations
I think that Amtrak is not relevant outside the Northeast Corridor. It ought to be possible, for example, to go to Florida via Cincinnati or Louisville via Chattanooga and Atlanta or Birmingham AL.
You are correct
The Texas Eagle from Los Angeles to Dallas last Sunday was a full train.
@@kathyannpardi9888
"The Texas Eagle from Los Angeles to Dallas last Sunday was a full train."
Ah but you see, how many rode it that entire distance? Considering it only takes 3 hours to fly it and 2 days on the train? I bet a lot of them only rode about 50 miles.
That's 1437 miles (2312 km), well beyond the range that's good for HSR.
The map of the ConnectUS you put on screen is the old map, a newer map with more routes was released.
My family and I take Amtrak frequently but they must build dedicated rail to have on time performances and frequencies!!! Along with Ohio’s proposed 3C corridor route another route that just be considered is a Midwest southern route: Detroit-Toledo-Dayton/Cincy-Lexington (University of Ky)-Knoxville (University of Tennessee)-Atlanta this is so badly needed! If Georgia would work with that rest of the country to develop a route from Atlanta-Savannah-Jacksonville would be even more awesome!!!
I love Amtrak and ride the western long-hauls often. Given my experience with upgrades I think your time frame for improvements may prove just a bit optimistic. 😆
Excludes Knoxville TN (879,773 pop) and Lexington KY (747,919 pop). But Asheville NC (469,015 pop) gets a station... Cool cool.
"The NEC has some of the biggest line items..." followed by a wonderful picture of the California coast.
loved the video! im really hoping that Amtrak can get back on it's feet and hopefully, make more HSR corridors in the future similar to the Acela corridor. I honestly think that the best way for Amtrak to expand is to focus on regional corridors and that each have many state supported services as well as two different corridor long services (with one being a standard service that takes longer and serves more destinations at a cheaper price and another being a high speed train which is a limited express and only serves major cities and a few inbetween), as well as long haul trains that travel across corridors. this is basically what the north east corridor has that makes it successful. the NEC has multiple state run routes that go through their main cities (adarondiak and Downeaster for example) as well as line like capital and lakeshore limited that serve major cities as longer trains.
The NEC provides the majority of the revenue because the services run a dozen or more trains a day. But the profit on each train is minimal, plus the heavy overhead of the NEC itself.
The long distance routes are more profitable per train, but they don't run enough trains to cover the fixed costs or the overhead cost which is inflated by payments to cover repairs on the NEC.
Long distance trains run one a day in each direction, except for two lines that run three trains a week. All long distance trains need to run a minimum of twice a day, so every station along the route is served at a reasonably convenient time by at least 1 train.
Amtrak to Long Island would be akin to lighting a pile of their funding on fire. The LIRR already has plenty of service, and the last thug they want is Amtrak trains gunking up their network. The one-seat ride with AmtrK is a myth, as most people would connect to NEC services, and they’re not sending Acelas to Ronkonkoma.
Amtrak will never, ever die.
Government projects never die-they just keep changing their mission and sucking money from the pockets of hard-working people.
Watching this vid while waiting for my LIRR train. :D
Their own tracks even without high speed rail would be a massive upgrade.
Thanks for this one. In any follow up, I suggest talking about affordability. The NE corridor has about the highest fares in the world. It cannot possibly have much of an environmental impact or get the bottom 80 percent out of their cars.
Depending on the destination it can be very affordable tickets from Charlottesville to dc are $7 for like 200 miles
Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?
We can only hope the rails get nationalized or that amtrak gets so much funding it can build its own rails
If the feds try that, the private railways will just file multi-billion dollar lawsuits against them.
@@denelson83 let them try, its worth the court battle
@@adamknott7830 Yeah, and the private railways will most likely win.
@@denelson83 Nah they won’t. They’ve failed to properly serve passenger trains, maintain the infrastructure to the point it no longer has enough capacity nor is of adequate quality, they’re forming two duopolies and generally have a bad safety track record (ahum Ohio). Their case is pretty weak, the political will just isn’t there because “lobbying” is a thing
@@denelson83 we dont know that though. The roads are public so there is a clear logic plus nothing in the constitution to give them an innate right to the rails. Its worth the fight
The money is so fragmented it is going to result in spotty improvements. Connecticut just announced they will spend nearly all the $3 million dollars they get from the huge spending program on replacing THREE miles of track on the northeast corridor in CT. That stretch of track is rated at 70 mph. They will spend the money to upgrade 5 bridges, slightly straighten the track, and reduce the time between New Haven and New York by 30 minutes (90 mph). The Connect program by Amtrak will actually make a much bigger difference. It also shows that having a national agency to prioritize the spending is much better than each state doing a pork project. Improving the feeder lines in CT to the NE corridor would help many more people and be better use of CT money.
What to actually consider in my oppinion is that 3 million dollors is not a lot for rail, and seems like the right amount for a rail line that has 4 electrified tracks and a bunch of bridges. The main difference is the federel government is able to spend much more money.
@@m--a Misses my point. The $3 million dollars could electrify both feeder lines in CT and make service for all the towns along both feeder lines actually useful rather than just existing. The problem is both the Danbury and New Cannan lines which could feed over a 500,000 customers daily only offer up about 50,000 because the train lines, while connected to the NE corridor, are not electrified. So most trains you have to transfer at the end of the line on the NE corridor. If they bothered to electrify the lines then more of those potential customers would switch and stop driving to NYC. All the $3 million will do is make the system slightly faster for those on the NE corridor and it won't increase riders. It is not nearly as useful as electrifying the feeder lines would be - something the residents on the two lines have been begging for over a decade now.
@@Buc_Stops_Here That makes more sense, also bi-mode trains should be considered too.
@@m--a yes. During rush hour there are two such trains on the Danbury line in the morning and evening. Then the trains are six cars long and busy. The rest of the day they only have diesel trains three cars long and are empty. Essentially the line only uses a fraction of the capacity it has. Why I said the money is for pork on the small state projects.
@@Buc_Stops_Here I love pork. Such a good meat.
You want to know I thought the other major that are also good is to electrified any line that Amtrak own like Springfield Corridor, DC to Richmond, also Fully Pennsylvanianian electrification, 1st segment of Empire Service and then between Scranton and NYC id this service is finally created.
Once that happened, theirs is a possibility that Amtraj could electrified other lines even if they *don't own the track, *not that it still Class 1 RR, if Amtrak and state/ local groups get the right odf way from Class 1 RR.
They need to add a Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, Toledo, to Detroit, on one end and Buffalo, Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, Cincinnati on the other. Detroit should end up in Chicago.
The NEC will not be any better until the Susquehanna bridge at Havre degrade and the B&P tunnel in Baltimore are replaced. I'm 62, but don't expect to see a new Susquehanna bridge in my lifetime. I'd really like to be wrong about that though !
They need a dedicated high speed line from Washington to Boston as they do in China and France.
It would be far better to focus on existing lines between large cities like San Antonio to Dallas and San Antonio to Houston and build infrastructure that allows train service at the same speed as driving. Private cars and bus lines take most of the business, but the routes still have high ridership on the single train per day in each direction.
The Avelia is defective, after the Acela was even worse. The Airo doesn't fit in the maintenance bays, so they have to build all new ones. The Superliners are being replaced with Siemens single deck coaches that don't have diners. The Chargers still freeze up in the snow and can't pull a hill, and the Genesis engines are breaking down at an alarming rate now that they aren't being rebuilt.
Oh yeah, Amtrak is doing GREAT!
The California Zephyr #5 is currently 9 hrs behind schedule.
The Long Island Railroad lacks capacity for its own trains, especially since the need to run twice as many of them into Manhattan to serve two stations there arose. There is not the slightest possibility Amtrak trains will be running on the LIRR any time soon, for various reasons that being the most important. Also, the plan to put a tunnel under Long Island Sound to serve NEC passengers is absolutely insane. It's a practical joke that made money for some people. That will never happen, but you could conceivably have a Ronkonkoma-Albany service someday. A first priority for anything like that, Including any pretension to fast schedules on a NY-Chicago route through NY state, would involve getting a station at Albany proper.
I'll believe it when I see it. My last Amtrak ride was longer than driving and on the way back home it was 6 hours behind schedule. I knew what I was signing up for and it was still frustrating. Passenger rail is a joke in the United States.
not through any fault of our own.
It's just the fact the distances involved are much greater.
The only two cities in the USA with population density comparable to a city like London are NYC and SF, and they're 3000 miles apart. It's apples and oranges dude. It's not a lack of priority. Trains became obsolete for North America and Australia as soon as jet travel was affordable.
I live in St. Louis. I have taken the train to Chicago. They need dedicated rails for passenger trains. What is a 4.5 hour drive, takes 5 to 6 hours by train because they use the same rails as freight and the passenger trains have to wait.
The Lincoln Service should be running at 110mph soon, that will cut running time to 4:30-4:40 mins. Future projects will add more trains and further decrease the running time
Yeh, believe it if/when you actually see it. Little good also without electrification.
If Amtrak will use lines that are also used for freight, how is the impact of Precision Schedule Railroading (Not precise, rarely scheduled, and not railroading in the safety first tradition) going to be managed?
From how you highlighted the "connect US" plan, it looks like it is exactly the opposite of what it should do.
Instead of "competing" with other companies, it should focus on increasing connectivity and build their own tracks.
It seems to me that a plan avoiding purchase of lines or right-of-ways guarantees that Amtrak will remain at the mercy of freight train operations.
Am I missing how this will actually improve Amtrak; Won't the speeds outside of the new northeast ACELA line still be slow?
Is there any funding for buying track? Here in California, the Surfliner could be so much better. The NEC is the best part of the system, and that started with track acquirement.
I love rail. Much better than air travel and much cheaper.
They'll piss that money away and be in DC begging for more funds in no time.
Thank you so much for being involved in your community and comment section. I hope this channel takes off soon:]
You would think that Nashville to Atlanta, or Nashville to *anywhere* for that matter would be a connection that would have been done by now
Don't forget Charleston North and South to Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach east and west to Florence and Columbia SC.
1:54 the "Washington" pinpoint is not on D.C., but "Washington, VA" well out in the Piedmont, nearer to the Blue Ridge
2:26 Hey, don't talk about New Jersey like that!
Does this include the lakawana cutoff
They need to electrify the tracks from Montreal to Miami that would increase ridership in a major way.
The main problem with Amtrak is they don't own the majority of track they use.
The great thing about riding the train it puts you downtown n the city. Big sports franchises would be wise to put their weight behind high speed trains 🚄 it would make it easier to go to games.
" Montreal to Miami "
Do you realize how far that is.
1636 miles or 2634 km.
So if you were on an HSR at 200 mph that would take 8 hours. The flight is 3 hrs 25 min.
@@neutrino78x You do realize that most people won't be riding the entire distance, and even if they did the experience would be better. You could get off and explore different cities like in Europe, and you get more comfortable seats. For connectivity between cities along the route it is the better option. The train puts you downtown, the plane puts you on the outskirts of the city.
You can add and extra hour + for the security check and wait time at the airport.
@@theBSisreal
"You do realize that most people won't be riding the entire distance,"
Ok so now you want to make all kinds of stops. So the train will run even slower. So really this isn't about Dense City A to Dense City B, rather it's sparse suburb A to sparse suburb B, that makes even less sense to spend the money required for a true HSR (as opposed to Higher Speed Rail). So you want to spend 100 billion on what's basically a light rail service. lol
"You could get off and explore different cities like in Europe, and you get more comfortable seats. For connectivity between cities along the route it is the better option."
Bro the cities are much closer together in Europe!! We have only a few regions like what you're describing: NEC, Texas Triangle, LA/SD, and the SF Bay Area. And really, only in the Texas Triangle and NEC are the distances right, to where per se HSR might be justified.
Here in the Bay Area, we have major cities close together but they're too close to justify HSR (SF to SJ is only 56 miles). We have lots of trains in the bay Area, but not HSR, because that would be a huge waste of money.
They can do it in Europe (although 80% of the ground traffic in Europe is still done with cars) because the cities are MUCH denser and MUCH closer together. Britain for example, the population density is 10x higher than the USA. The difference is even higher in France.
Alstom, the maker of the flawed Avelia Liberty (Acela 2) is teetering on bankruptcy today. If they fail with the Avelia train sets in storage, it's all over for Amtrak.
And please put the platform at the same high as the coach, my goodnes!
So why is my homestate of Kentucky the only state without any AMTRAK lines in the thumbnail???
Sounds like pork to me. We can't even keep our freight trains from crashing. And when the unions complain about train safety, they are shut down and forced to work.
Nearly every item listed can easily have its money siphoned off with no significant improvement. And in my experience, that's what happens when the government starts handing out money.
I had hoped to get info on the Sunset Ltd. It was discontinued past New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, in the last year they created platforms in the cities to Mobile and had training runs in Jan., then nothing. I love to travel by train and can't do it without a lot of finagling. Not worth the effort.
Amtrak and genius are not synonymous.
Love Amtrak but its falling a part, bad management and the Government, well we know what happens there. Amtrak owns very little of its lines and there is so many cars that need work, they are short of them now. Hope the future will be brighter, but dont hold your breathe.
Why can’t Amtrak sell franchisees like restaurants to expand quickly
Needs to be better regulations and ENFORCEMENT of regulations for rail.
Freight is supposed to prioritize Amtrak traffic over their traffic. By law since the 70s. They don't and nobody enforces it.
Length of freight trains need to be limited to length of siding rails so traffic can pass each other again.
In re, Las Vegas as competition for Brightline."
Brightline is a "pie in the sky" proposal that they have neither the funds, land, approvals, or much of anything beyond an advertising campaign. And that for a ridiculous non-starter service from Victorville to Las Vegas.
By contrast, with an investment in (or reassignment of) rolling stock, Amtrak could reactivate a daily Los Angeles to Las Vegas train in less than a year. It retains the trackage rights over UP from the old "Desert Wind" service from Los Angeles to Las Vegas (and on to Utah if they want to). I rather expect that downtown Las Vegas's Plaza Hotel, where Amtrak had a platform stop would be more than happy to refurbish the minimal area....in exchange for all those passengers debarking on their doorstep. The biggest issue would be finding a place in Las Vegas to service trains for the turnaround trip, which certainly is doable.
To bad so many routes got torn up. That trackage could have been ceded to the state/feds and used for amtrak first, and light freight use second. It would have stopped the problem of amtrak playing second fiddle to the track owners and would provide additional freight capacity and industry options on shipping. Taking trucks of crowded highways.
If I were to sum up Amtrak by citing one example, I would say the AutoTrain.
The genesis behind the AutoTrain was to eliminate the number of cars travelling up and down the East Coast, especially along Interstate 95. The thought was people could take their cars with them on vacation to Florida, and save wear-and-tear and the cars and themselves.
By and large, a great idea. However, to me, the execution seems flawed. The only AutoTrain starts in Washington, DC, (the nation's capital, and where the people who provide funding for Amtrak live and work...what a coincidence!!!) and ends outside of Orlando. For people in and around the 495 Beltway, that's a real convenience. However, for those heading to Florida from New York, New Jersey, and New England they still have to drive I-95, along with the traffic, and possible bad weather.
Imagine having an AutoTrain from a northern city like Seattle or Portland, winding up in Arizona. (Call it "the Snowbird Express", for all I care.) I'm sure there are quite a few elderly drivers that would jump at the chance to use it.
Or, having a few east-to-west AutoTrains; it'd work great for people who are moving cross-country, but don't want to leave their cars behind.
I get what you are saying, but there is not really demand for the other routs you proposed and the existing one starts outside washington becuase it is the southern most city on the nec.
There's a couple things I should clear up here. The auto train has always advertised a direct trip from DC to Orlando but that's technically not true. It goes to 2 areas outside of each urban area (I would say cities but I don't consider DC a city) so you still need to drive on I-95 to get in and out of DC and Orlando. Also, the idea of it going to DC because of the government offices being there is pure coincidence. The auto train started as a private company in 1973 that went out of business I believe in 1980. The amtrak auto train which started in 1983 follows the same original route and serves the same original stations. Otherwise I think this is a good post. Seeing more auto trains would be nice, especially one between DC and New York, Boston and New York, maybe LA and San Diego, and DC and Chicago.
Amtrak's failure to grow is mainly on management. The prices were to high compared to just using an airline.
Of course I don't know the details, but as a veteran that was stationed in Europe, the cost of transportation through rail over flying is obvious.
So in opinion these price points made it popular.
America is really so far behind in public transportation that some third world countries are superior to our current state of infrastructure.
The NEC logo you used is the logo of a Japanese tech firm lol not the northeast corridor.
Great. I hope Amtrak continues to receive greater funding in the future. It's a system that benefits us all.
With the highway and airline industries receiving such ‘healthy’ amounts of federal funding the US passenger rail industry also deserves the same percentage of federal funding!!!
If these are the plans for the future, then its all talk now. America is good for that. Every train shown in the video is still Amtrak, slow and lethargic. America needs highspeed rail. The new acela trains have the capability to reach speeds of 150, 160 mph but is stipulated due to the fact that the tracks aren't built to handle those speeds. New lines have to be constructed to be strong and stable enough to withstand those types of speeds. California highspeed rail project when completed will be the fastest train in America, with top speeds of 225 mph. This is something the mighty United States of America should of had decades ago. Amtrak needs to upgrade, update, and renew so much inorder to even compare to anything currently running in Europe. The far more advanced countries of the far east? Forget it. They supersede the United States greatly. Infact they are now reaching the next level of highspeed bullets. They are currently building the Cho Shinkansen which will connect Tokyo and Nagoya useing cutting edge maglev (magnetic levitation) technology. When completed it will reach speeds of 313 mph eventhough the record speed is 374 mph. To transfer Amtrak over to bullet status, it will cost 117 billion dollars according to the video. Think that's to much? The mars mission will benefit the science community only and the couple of people selected to go, at a cost of 510 billion dollars. Out of the 1.7 trillion dollar spending budget for 2023, 800 billion dollars went to the military. Remember all the money the United States government gave away in stimulus packages during the pandemic ? Cost? A little over 7 trillion dollars (gave away)!!!!! We wount talk about the billions of dollars the United States of America gave, (gave) to the Ukraine so they can fight their war. 100 to 200 billion dollars to build highspeed bullet trains is dirt money and will benefit all americans. Highspeed bullet trains and maglev super train technology, the new american dream.......
I don't believe the Las Vegas service will be Amtrack. A plan is in effect by a private carrier.
That's it? All they can think of on the West Coast is Vegas to LA? Existing slo-o-o-ow service is only 3 times a week from San Diego to Seattle -- gee, I wonder why nobody takes Amtrak.
AMTK in LI ? This makes no sense. LIRR has the commuter service established so why spend the $ to go there? Maybe an extension from NY Penn to Jamaica to alleviate the congestion in the Midtown transfer but that's as far as it should go.
Found the video disappointing "they have a plan"...... What
The freight railroads are supposed to give Amtrak trains priority, not the other way around. Why doesn’t Amtrak raise hell with congress insisting their passenger trains be given priority which is what the original agreement stipulated?
The fact they keep focusing on the NEC instead of Midwest where we own our tracks. 😢
Amtrak should look at what China did to promote and build their train network. Plus keep the Airlines and Automobile companies out of the planning and building stages to completion. NTSB is top heavy by former Airline and Car Executives that prevent Hi-Speed Rail in the first place that put America behind the Chinese to modernize the infrastructure to promote growth. Which is now been shown to have negative effect on the Economy.
Chinas system is good but for that the us needs to build metros and public transit which cost trillions
No problems with Amtrak. Just opportunities
a president of amtrak said:''the Incas had roads but no wheels,I have wheels but not roads''
2:27 "...some of which are in pretty terrible States..." Yeah, like New Jersey.
what's up with the map 5:41? You have incorrectly labeled Augusta as Savannah. Savannah is a coastal city, not inland.
What I would give to be able to use high speed rail for upstate New York