Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgrath618
This is all mostly correct.
However, there is a chance that in June, the Keystone and Pennsylvanian services will be taken over by SEPTA. There is pending legislation that would give control of the line to the state, rather than Amtrak.
|
I think Amtrak does a better job in maintaining rail service for the Keystone and the Pennsylvania services than a regional transit agency like SEPTA. I don't see SEPTA going all the way out to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh just to maintain service when SEPTA maintains bus and rail service for the five-county SE PA region.
SEPTA could expand it's regional rail system from the five-county area to Lehigh, Northampton, Berks and Lancaster, as each county maintains it's own bus systems. Amtrak is a federal agency, meaning that it's interstate, and I'd want to see Amtrak maintain rail service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, however, if there's a way to privatize that line, and make it high speed the way they're doing in Florida with the new Brightline, then I'm all for it. Only problem is that the Brightline is only planned to operate in FL and no other state.
Amtrak needs to consider the possibility of tunneling through our mountainous topography if it wants to make statewide high-speed rail a reality as it's just not feasible to operate high-speed rail with the current rail infrastructure between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. You're going to have to create another high speed rail right-of-way in order to not interfere with local and freight rail service. Once high-speed rail gets complete, then we could see high-speed service between Philadelphia to points west such as Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, St Louis, and Chicago. Amtrak just needs to get the high speed game right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgrath618
I have also heard whispers that part of Biden's massive infrastructure plan was evaluating a high speed corridor between Chicago and Philadelphia via Harrisburg. Not sure how far that'll get, but at least it's being discussed.
|
Let's hope that this becomes a reality. The high-speed rail system in America needs to be vastly expanded from just offering high-speed service from the Northeast, and nowadays FL. I also hear that TX is developing a high-speed rail system from Houston to San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, which would help the state and I believe that it's going to be privatized, the same way as FL's Brightline. CA, however has a hard time getting the funding from the federal gov't.
If Biden can get this plan going since we already have the Avella Liberty as the rolling stock to replace the Acela, then it would be one of the few things that I can respect out of the man. everything form the election, to the executive orders, to the controversy to his dementia and his lack of accountability have made me lose confidence in the Democrat party, and I say this as a registered Democrat. Let's see what Biden can do, because I'd love for Philadelphia to be a high-speed rail hub for the Northeast.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgrath618
The Avelia Liberty trainsets will be doing 165 out of the box, and following track upgrades in New Jersey, will be doing 185. This will cut travel times between NYP and PHL to about 80 mins. The trainsets are equiped with camber tilting, which must be disabled (and actually removed from the trains entirely) should Amtrak want to be able to achieve 200+ mph in operation. This means that the train would be slower in the curves, but faster in the straights. With the track layout in CT, I don't see them getting rid of the camber anytime soon.
|
I've stated that there needs to be straight line tunnels between Harrisburg and State College, State College to St Mary's PA, State College to Altoona, and from Horseshoe Curve directly to Pittsburgh rather than the current Main Line which runs from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. From the 19th center onward, it was a testament to technology, however, because of the ever evolving rapid speed of trains, our rail system needs to adapt.
I still say to keep the Main Line and provide heritage trains from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh while the Amtrak service will shift to the high speed tunnels. Since PA is very mountainous compared to OH, IN, IL, MI, and MO, I'm assuming that this project if going to cost no more than up to a trillion dollars just to bore and construct the rail tunnels statewide and I'm only estimating. I'm hoping that the total cost of the tunnels would be half that cost,