Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha & Pennsylvanian studies released

[RailCanon]

http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/PRIAA/NorthCo ... eStudy.pdf

http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/PRIAA/Pennsyl ... tudies.pdf

Pretty cool readings. Really hope the North Coast study actually takes off.

[GTW6401]

I believe that Amtrak would be better off reinstating trains such as the Desert Wind, which operated from Los Angeles, California to Ogden, Utah until 1997. Las Vegas would provide more income to Amtrak than a stop in Bismarck, North Dakota would.

Reinstating the Floridian would provide a direct link between Chicago and Florida - but I would run it similar to the Auto Train, in which Amtrak could provide transportation to Midwesterners that vacation or spend the winters in Florida. The auto train operated between Louisville, Kentucky and Sanford, Florida for 3 years starting in 1974, but this service reported losses well into the millions.

[RailCanon]

I believe that Amtrak would be better off reinstating trains such as the Desert Wind, which operated from Los Angeles, California to Ogden, Utah until 1997. Las Vegas would provide more income to Amtrak than a stop in Bismarck, North Dakota would.

That's the concensus I'm seeing elsewhere too. I think the absolute top priority right now is to get the Pioneer back, but the Desert Wind should definitely be up there too. There IS a demand for service to Las Vegas. Hanging out at the Amtrak station in East Lansing, I've seen a lot of people ask the agent here about the possibility of buying a ticket to Vegas. The train seems like it would be very easy to implement too...all you need is one engine and about 4-5 Superliners. I'm kind of surprised that a study wasn't done for the Wind.

1994 shot from Las Vegas.
On the N.C.H., however, you actually would hit some higher population centers than the Empire Builder does, as all of Montana's major cities are situated along the route, plus you can't count out Bismarck, as it is the second biggest city in North Dakota, plus the state capitol.

Reinstating the Floridian would provide a direct link between Chicago and Florida

I could have sworn there was a report to be issued on this too, but I guess not. It would be nice to have, I agree. Tennessee and Kentucky would benefit greatly from it as well.

[GP30M4216]

Thanks for posting this. I had read through the Sunset Limited reinstatement document before, but these two were new ones. No matter what happens, it's great to see these studies actually happening - it means somewhere someone is getting more serious about long distance rail service in this country.

I think the doubling of service on the Pennsylvanian route is the easiest and makes good sense. After all, for how many years did the current Pennsylvanian share that exact routing from NY to Fort Pitt with the Broadway Ltd. and later the Three Rivers? The stations, track, and capacity are already there. Put a refurbished diesel and 5 refurbished Amfleets to work fast!

As for the NC Hiawatha - I'm surprised this route is being reconsidered, but am glad to see it. The Empire Builder is Amtrak's busiest long distance route, and hopefully the addition of a second train partially along the same route and partially along a new route would only increase Amtrak ridership along the way.

I too thought there was some kind of reinstatement document coming from a Floridian type route - perhaps the biggest gap in the current Amtrak system in my opinion, and one that would be sure to get good patronage... not to mention reconnect several currently disconnected places.... maybe next year.

The Pioneer seems to have some of the strongest community support, and would also fill a void in the western part of the Amtrak map. This would also require less equipment than some of the other service-increase proposals.