Trains would run "Express non stop" politically that isn't going to fly and is also really stupid. Why would you skip cities? Also how would stations work? The current Atlanta station is shit for passenger rail and Nashville doesn't even have an intercity rail station.
Honestly this is why I hate overnight trains, the "who the hell is boarding this train at this hour" stops wake me up everytime. I gave up after three different trips, never again.
Looks like they're wanting to use the same freight tracks that Amtrak already struggles to maintain a schedule on. That seems unwise. The scenario only benefits me if they draw customers from Amtrak sleepers and force Amtrak to reduce prices.
But that doesn't make sense either because those existing Amtrak routes are on net subsidized, so it's not like on-rail competition would be profitable The net effect would instead be to drive Amtrak even further into the ground
Grudgingly yes, the more likely scenario. Or Amtrak might pare down sleeper service along these corridors should this venture conceivably fly.
“Express non-stop” works in this model because the entire market is end-to-end travelers who intentionally want a full night’s sleep on the train. This isn’t competing with driving, it’s competing with flying and getting a hotel.
Yeah. If I could take a train from Chicago to DC that arrives at like 6-7 AM (w/o taking 20 hrs) then I could take that for my business trips there and avoid the flight and first night hotel
Also, who cares how fast you’re going when you’re asleep. Sure HSR from Chicago to Minneapolis would be great, but if I could leave Chicago at 8pm with a private sleeper, the 7’25” Borealis runtime is actually *too* fast, let me sleep in until 6 or 7am
This is how I plan my Daytrips basically
Yeah, that definitely makes sense, still seems kinda weird to bypass major cities like Baltimore, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Omaha, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I'd assume people would probably get on or off at those places, though would it be enough to justify stopping there? Maybe not.
It’d ultimately depend on the runtimes to determine what’s marketable and what isn’t. Milwaukee would make sense IMO on Chicago-Minneapolis because the core overnight segment is MKE-MSP anyway, but like Cleveland is already in the middle of the LSL overnight stretch so it wouldn’t work.
I agree with adding a Milwaukee stop. Buffalo-NYC is fairly large and the train has to stop in Niagara Falls for customs anyways. The last New York City-Toronto departed at 10:30 pm, arriving in Buffalo at 6:05 am www.timetables.org/full.php?gro...
For NYC area I’m sure NJ Transit could be convinced about Hoboken Terminal access for them (or Brightline) for the right $.
I’m sure the Class 1’s will love having to share their tracks more
Other than stations how is rolling stock storage and maintenance going to work? -New/Upgraded stations -Rolling Stock -Storage and Maintenance facilities This is starting to sound very expensive and I don't know where they're going to get the capital from at this rate.
A lot of these routes are also too long of a duration to be night trains. They are just Amtrak ld routes. Need to be in the 8-12 hour range, not 19-20 hours like Chicago to Denver or NYC. Getting these routes down to 12 hours would also be very expensive!