Posted on 05/13/2015 12:22:18 PM PDT by Publius
Thirty-nine minutes into his southbound ride from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, DC, Joseph H. Boardman, president and CEO of Amtrak, begins to cry. We're in the dining car of a train called the Silver Star, surrounded by people eating hamburgers. The Silver Star runs from New York City to Miami in 31 hours, or five more hours than the route took in 1958, which is when our dining car was built. Boardman and I have been discussing the unfortunate fact that 45 years since its inception, the company he oversees remains a poorly funded, largely neglected ward of the state, unable to fully control its own finances or make its own decisions. I ask him, "Is this a frustrating job?"
"I guess it could be, and there are times it is," he says. "No question about that. But—" His voice begins to catch. "Sixty-six years old, I've spent my life doing this. I talked to my 80-year-old aunt this weekend, who said, 'Joe, just keep working.' Because I think about retirement." Boardman is a Republican who formerly ran the Federal Railroad Administration and was New York state's transportation commissioner; he has a bushy white mustache and an aw-shucks smile. "We've done good things," he continues. "We haven't done everything right, and I don't make all of the right decisions, and, yes, I get frustrated. But you have to stay up." A tear crawls down his left cheek.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaljournal.com ...
The trains are even longer today. If you ever take a trip to the 48, check out certain rail lines out west where UP and BNSF run trains that are incredibly long.
I am counting stops. Not as many as the Silver Star makes, though (which stops 36 times en route); most likely stops at Washington DC and a few of the major cities in the Carolinas and Georgia.
A super-express (no stops) could make the journey in a little over seven hours. I’m basing that on the highway distance between the two cities (about 1,279 miles) divided by an average speed of 180 mph, since most new high-speed trains now run at about 196 mph or even faster. Of course, however, the feds want to spend over $200 million per mile on a high-speed railroad through the “Corridor” states (mainly MD/DE/PA/NJ) when the private sector could build cheaper, alongside major highways (if the government would not get in the way of that).
The Mich. DOT took over large parts of the old Michigan Central mainline from NS to upgrade the track and signals for higher speed Amtrak use.
And the trains using it are now rolling along at 110 mph.
The Maintenance of Way costs of air travel is low, plus the route is not fixed.
It actually gets worse than that. Since there are passenger rail services divided between the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Railroad Administration (the latter over the “general railway network”), the classification of heavy (subways) and light (trolley) railways fall under the FTA’s jurisdiction, and apply to operations not on the FRA’s network.
Nowadays, the FTA is even differentiating “light rail” (trolleys that serve suburbs) and “streetcars”, e.g. the difference between the MAX and Portland Streetcar in Portland OR; the latter is far cheaper (at $10 million per mile versus MAX’s $60 million per mile for its first line, the Interstate MAX).
Locomotives would seem to be a much simpler task to make autonomous than a road vehicle.....take MUs as the already accomplished first step example.
$200 million per mile for 1400 miles is $280 BILLION.
They are still in the process of installing the signals.
Passenger trains are pre-1950s modes of transportation.
That’s what the federal government would want to charge to build such a railroad, to be sure. Private companies can do it for less than a twentieth of the cost, if so high.
Of course, the FRA would institute maddening requirements that no other high-speed railroad has, including 30-foot track centers (distance from center of one track to the other), among other things.
If you want to believe the federal government, then they are.
Yep, there aren’t many canal boats carrying passengers these days.
SWA should fly out of Grumman’s old place....
Because people like me wouldn’t ride them as long as ther are cars and airplanes!
I rode a train once, never again!
At least the federal government doesn’t run whatever passenger barges are still out there.
However, there are some ferryboats that are run by city government, such as the Staten Island Ferry. They don’t let road vehicles on anymore after 9/11; and they currently run passenger service free of charge whereas at one time the fare was 50¢ and only payable on the St. George (Staten Island) side.
Which train?
Especially in downtown Columbia SC.
Another reason I avoid downtown.
One reason to go is (in my case long overdue) is the Thursday night model railroad club. They crammed a lot into a tiny building and done well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85_WYWnQUMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VTobWJlKlQ
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