Once upon a time, not so long ago, both the bald eagle and American passenger rail were endangered. Both have recovered, but an Amtrak train hit an unfortunate eagle near Aberdeen, Maryland recently. The bird was feeding on a deer carcass when it was struck and killed by the train. Several hours later it was removed from the front of the train where it “stuck to the locomotive like an emblem.”
Amtrak released a concept plan entitled A Vision for High Speed Rail in the Northeast Corridor. The plan proposes that new dedicated tracks be built parallel to the existing ones for high speed rail between Boston, New York, and Washington. The existing tracks would be kept for slower trains and freight.
The Auto Train is non-stop 855 mile trip between Sanford, Florida and Lorton, Virginia. The Auto Train is so named because it is the only Amtrak train that transports both passengers and their cars, vans, motorcycles, boats, etc. The train is scheduled at 17.5 hours, and operates at an end-to-end average speed of 49mph, but often arrives early. This year, it was ontime 88% of the time. The north and southbound trains both leave at 4PM, and are scheduled to arrive at 9:30AM the following morning
There can be no doubt that James McCommons is a man who loves trains. While he may not be a foamer(the term for a railfan who could be called excessively enthusiastic), McCommons spent a year riding intercity passenger trains around the country and meeting with every important player in the passenger rail industry.
For those of you who do not know, intermodal transportation is transportation that covers multiple modes of transport…bus, train, plane.
It is a significantly overlooked part of the bigger transportation picture. Why can’t plane connect to train or connect to bus? Most cities don’t look at these things…
