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Bye Bye Joe; Welcome to Wick
Here it is the first of September, 2016, and a new Amtrak era begins at the top of the ladder. Wick Moorman, 64, until last year the CEO of the Norfolk Southern Railway and a 40 year career there, has taken the reins of the leaderless horse called Amtrak and been given a list of…
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Amtrak Long Distance News in the New Year … the good, some bad, and the expected “ugly”
Let’s start with the ugly status of the Dining car removal from the Silver Star train, since it’s the hottest news. On January 28, just as this is being written, URPA learned that Amtrak employees were told the day before that the Star’s dining car is PERMANENTLY gone. As predicted here since this “experiment” was…
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Western Long Distance Trains at the End of 2015: A Positive Report
Here we are, Christmastime 2015, and lo and behold the Amtrak long distance trains continue to roll and to some extent thrive despite the negative publicity that they are “money losers.” In recent posts this writer has talked about the positives that are being accomplished on the Coast Starlight, and the opposite effects that are…
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The Coast Starlight: Paso Robles to Eugene; not endpoint travel! What about the food?
Report and Commentary by Russ Jackson with Ralph James Amtrak likes to tout its end points and the volume of traffic it gets between those departures and destinations on all of its routes, but while some passengers do that it is the intermediate station travel that fills up the trains. Can you imagine, as RailPAC…
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The Eagle, the Sunset, the Star, a Trip Report, and a rowdy car
Whenever a passenger is ready to travel by Amtrak, has a ticket in hand and is ready to go to the station to board the train the first anxiety is always whether the train will be on time or be running late (in many cases hours late). For this trip let’s get the on time…
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BYE BYE to Amtrak’s Dining Cars?
What would travel on Amtrak’s long distance trains be like if there were no Dining cars?
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Amtrak at 44: “Happy Birthday” to the Southwest Chief and Sunset Limited
It is no secret that for 44 years Amtrak’s long distance trains have had a target firmly placed upon them. From the nitpicking of the Congress to the war against growth within Amtrak, we have to ask who is standing up for these trains besides us in the rail advocacy community? If it weren’t for…
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Could a Grilled Cheese Sandwich Help Save Amtrak’s Food & Beverage Service?
As we say on the radio, “but first….” Two major Amtrak-related items have occurred this winter. First was the cutbacks in long distance train consists in January and February. Second was the U.S. House of Representatives actually passed a bill, and it was one that affected the future of Amtrak and what its customers will…
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January, Amtrak Consists, and the Southwest Chief
Report and Commentary by Russ Jackson January in any year brings the anticipation of problems for passenger trains encountering winter weather all across the country. January, 2015, was no exception what with the winter storms that dominated the news along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. All intercity train service north of New York City into New England…
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Capitol Corridor statistics for December, 2014
From David B. Kutrosky, Managing Director Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority December 2014 marks the ninth consecutive month of ridership and revenue increases for the Capitol Corridor. The Capitol Corridor trains carried 116,309 passengers in December 2014, a 4.1% increase compared to December 2013, with revenue increasing by 0.8% compared to December 2013. With year…