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Winter and the Amtrak long distance trains
Report and Comments by Russ Jackson The western long distance trains had a rough winter in the northern 2/3 of the country. Some trains were canceled altogether for several days. Here is a rundown of some of the activity by train in the past few weeks. Not everything is included, but here are some highlights,…
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Winter Trip Report: On the Texas Eagle-Sunset Limited
Photos and Comments by Russ Jackson On January 26 we boarded Texas Eagle train #21 at Ft. Worth and set out for a ten day winter round trip vacation back in California. This report is divided into specific train items, rather than day-to-day train operating reports. Amtrak. A trip report always considers the food service,…
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Tracking Rail News: March 2011 (Grand finale)
Photos and Comments by Russ Jackson . . . Rail fans all over the country were chasing newly re-painted Amtrak P-42 locomotive 145 in February as it toured the country leading various Amtrak long distance trains. The new paint job is in Amtrak’s “heritage” colors to commemorate Amtrak’s 40 year anniversary coming up May 1.…
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Tracking Rail News: February 2011
. . . Photos and Comments by Russ Jackson . . . On January 10 Governor Brown introduced his proposed budget for FY 2010-11. While major reductions are in store for “everyone,” that does not apply to the state rail corridor intercity rail operations. $90,247,027 is exactly the same amount as the last three years.…
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Caltrain Summit Meetings: RailPAC was there
By Bruce Jenkins, RailPAC Director, Sunnyvale Two very successful “summit meetings” were held on the San Francisco Peninsuls in January to address the fiscal crisis of Caltrain. Caltrain is the only transit system in the state of California that does not have a dedicated funding source for it’s operating costs. In all it’s operating years…
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Eating at Los Angeles Union Station gets better
PHOTO report by Russ Jackson At the right is the Sunset Limited ready to depart LAUS on February 4, 2011, the date of all 7 photos in this report. In the background is the MTA tower, site of the RailPAC-NARP meeting on March 19. While visiting the train station for the meeting, be sure to…
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Tracking Rail News: January 2011
Comments by Russ Jackson and photos by Noel Braymer, Bob Snow and Russ Jackson . . . December: What a month for weather on Amtrak! The country was treated to real wintry weather, some places had snow for the first time in history, the Northeast Corridor between New York and Boston was closed, and California…
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Tracking Rail News: December 2010
Photo and Comments by Russ Jackson . . . Winter has begun for Amtrak. The Thanksgiving weekend saw the start of Amtrak’s annual battle with winter weather, and nowhere was it more evident than along the route of the Empire Builder. Train #8 (22) departed Seattle 3 hours and 20 minutes late and finally arrived…
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Tracking Rail News: November 2010
Photos and Commentary by Russ Jackson … Retirement and a milestone: We want to note the retirement of veteran Amtrak station agent John Murphy, who has held down the fort at the very busy Davis, CA, station for many years. John’s career included working for the Southern Pacific, and he worked for Amtrak at San…
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What Happens if the Southwest Chief is Rerouted?
Commentary and Photos by Russ Jackson, RailPAC Every once in a while the rerouting Amtrak Trains 3 and 4, the Southwest Chief, off the traditional line from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Hutchinson, Kansas arises, because the line has almost no BNSF freight traffic in Colorado and New Mexico any longer. That is a true statement,…