TravellingChris

Recently, there have been a number of proposals to either expand Amtrak services or restore defunct trains. For example, Amtrak, VIA and the relevant governmental authorities are currently exploring a revival of direct service between Chicago and Toronto, this time through Detroit and Windsor instead of the old route via Port Huron and Sarnia (which ended in 2004).

Where would you like to see Amtrak's service extended, or what train routes would you like to see revived?

I myself would love to see the Chicago-Toronto through train revived, this time through Detroit/Windsor.

I'm also intrigued by the proposal to revive a version of the Amtrak Pioneer : Seattle-Portland-Boise-Salt Lake City or Denver.

I'd also like to see the Coast Starlight extended to Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, from its current terminus at King Street Station in Seattle. Currently the Cascades is the train that serves the Seattle-Vancouver route but its timings do not connect well with the Coast Starlight in either direction. A Vancouver-Los Angeles train would be a magnificent journey. If extended, it wouldn't replace the Cascades entirely but would operate in lieu of one daily Cascades trip in either direction.

SPN Lifer

I took that round trip in 1962, starting in Toronto, and agree it was very convenient (other than a derailment on the return in December).

Rare

I like all the ones you mentioned. I can see myself using all of them, especially the revised International and the Pioneer. The first one I would add to that is Chicago-Chattanooga-Atlanta-Orlando-Miami.

elpi

The closes to open is FTW to MEI. It will be part of Crescent, if You believe Amtrak.

AndyPatterson

Also, consider more scheduling options on existing routes. For example, going from Washington DC to Pittsburgh requires arriving in Pittsburgh around midnight, and the return trip to Washington departs around 5 am (unless the schedule changed very recently). That's because this is the WAS-CHI route, and the schedule is geared towards people going all the way to Chicago.

Having a second, WAS-PIT train with an afternoon arrival and a mid-morning departure would be more practical for both tourists and business travelers to Pittsburgh and nearby.

KRSW

They really need to restore the Sunset Limited. I don't know what the traffic counts were back in the day, but the only practical travel on Amtrak from Florida is along the East Coast. I can't even get to Atlanta via rail from Florida. We just took our first Amtrak trip last week and I'd love to use Amtrak more...but it doesn't go anywhere from here. At least the Sunset Limited would let us connect and go to New Orleans and connect to multiple routes from there.

Of course, more trains would be more better... only one train a day here is kind of limiting, especially when many of the stops become 2am, 3am, 4am stops. No thanks.

physioprof

Sorry, but where is "here"???

KRSW

Anywhere in Florida, actually. The only Amtrak station on the west coast of Florida is Tampa. ONE train station to service ~15,000,000 people, and cover an area of approx 30,000sq mi, and I'm only counting the counties directly along the Gulf of Mexico. There's plenty of inland counties I didn't include. I had to drive 2+ hours to get to it. It gets worse: there's only ONE TRAIN per day serving that station, the Silver Star. I'm actually not going to complain about on-time performance, as the rails here are all CSX, so that's out of Amtrak's hands. But ONE train a day is almost a "why bother" effort.

For comparison:

1916 Track map

1936 Track Map, note that only Seaboard Air Line's rails are in bold, but there are many more, including all along the East Coast which are in thin lines.





Present-day. Note only red = rail. Green is some Trailways/Greyhound interconnect, no thanks.

Note the dashed gray line which was the Sunset Limited until Hurricane Katrina did some damage. The cargo rail owners managed to repair that by January 2006, but Amtrak never rejoined. From the Wiki: "During that period, the Orlando–New Orleans segment accounted for 41% of the Sunset's revenue." Seems odd to me that Amtrak would leave this cash sitting on the table.

physioprof

A very interesting historical trajectory of rail routes in Florida. Thanks for posting that early map. Of course, the destruction of train routes in Florida (like everywhere in the United States) has nothing to do with Amtrak, nor does the failure to restore any of it. Amtrak is the bandaid on a long-standing grievous wound inflicted by huge forces that have nothing to do with Amtrak.

KRSW

Rail was dying in the 1950s. The Pennsylvania RR sold Penn Station in 1954. So that, I don't fault Amtrak on. BUT, Amtrak's to blame on the Sunset Limited not being restored. The rail line itself was repaired in January 2006... but Amtrak never resumed service. Considering how much revenue (41%) came from the Orlando-New Orleans segment, it seems absolutely foolish for this not to be restored.

At the same time, Brightline, 100% privately owned, has managed to create an entire railroad, including rails and stations, in Florida in 4 years and has been expanding it ever since. 1.2 million people rode Brightline last year. For comparison, Amtrak only had 905,000 passengers for all of Florida in 2019 (no 2022 data published by them yet).

So why can't Amtrak reopen an existing line? Or for that matter, create new / more service? A private company did the whole thing in 4 years. It's been 18 years since Hurricane Katrina.

physioprof

Amtrak is forced to operate an enormous number of money-losing routes.

KRSW

That still makes no sense. The Silver Star / Silver Meteor are Amtrak's most-popular, and among its highest load factor long-distance routes. The Sunset Limited's Orlando-New Orleans portion had 41% of the revenue for that line, which terminates in Los Angeles before Hurricane Katrina. The track has been serviceable since 2006...yet Amtrak hasn't put a single train on there. There's money out there for the taking, with relatively little expense. It's not like Amtrak needs to build rails here -- they already exist. They just need to put some trains out there.

Getting back to Brightline, they're definitely still in the red. There were all of the years of planning and construction without a single passenger. Then there were the early years where they didn't really go anywhere. They shut down entirely for COVID... yet are still expanding and reaping the benefits of it.

rittenhousesq

The other possibility for this routing is to take the Acela or NE Regional to PHL and transfer to the Pennsylvanian to PGH. It would add two hours to your trip, but leaving WAS at 10AM would get you to PGH at 8PM.
For the return, you're looking at a 7:30AM departure with the quickest routing via PHL getting you to WAS at 5:23PM.

AndyPatterson

Thanks for that helpful clarification. But 10 hours to travel from WAS to Pittsburgh is a bit long when it is only about 240 miles by car.

rittenhousesq

OH I agree 100%!! Unless you don't drive. I only pointed out these possible itineraries because at least the timing isn't as bad as the direct WAS to PGH and back trains you mentioned. A 7:30 AM departure is early in my book, but not ungodly like 5 AM!!!