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Disantis thinks rail travel should be a private entity's responsibility, but he just signed $970 billion of public funding for roadway improvements the next five years. Please someone explain that logic to me

Adding a fourth track to the three track sections might be of benefit, since the right of way still exists.

That's not how to pronounce Kearny. More like carnie.

I vote for "TheRocket"

Conversion to the standard 60-Hz frequency is long overdue. Amtrak is one of the very few users of 25 Hz power and it is getting harder and harder to get parts or even power at that frequency.

I live on the Coast Starlight route in the town of Mount Shasta. The route I’d like to promote is from Davis (Sacramento) CA to Eugene OR up the I-5 corridor. There is an existing Class 3 RR from Davis north to Tehama Junction where it joins the UPSP. Then it goes through Redding CA up the Sacramento River Canyon to Black Butte Junction. There is descends into the Shasta River Valley, crosses the Klamath River and summits of the Siskiyou Mountains. It then continues to Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass, Roseburg and finally Eugene Oregon. this would connect the California Amtrak routes with the OR/WA Cascades.

YOOO, I didn’t know safe harbor supplies energy to the NEC I thought it was just power for homes, I used to fish off of safe harbor, Best catfishing I’ve ever done. Very good video and a great explanation on the problem 😁

Unexpectedly good video, keep it up 👍

National City (not San Ysidro) the original SF route goes to National City, 6.5 miles from downtown SD.

Crescent Star

San Francisco Chief

The Floridan is coming back as an amalgamation of the Capitol Limited and Silver Star..

While rails to trails has a lot of upside, there was so much shortsided thought that cant be seperated. To me, no high speed idea will work until routes are completely void of at-level roads crossings. This means brigde all of them. Only then will it be viable

CSSSB completed conversion to constant tension catenary.

Stainless steel is timeless.

Seems reasonable to a point for freight and passemger to share a row with gentile curves and good population for added grade separation rather than needing to diplicate improvements on both lines (read this NC?).

I'm glad that Amtrak seems tp be reconsidering all-single 45:44 level cars.

MSP - KCY could connect with both the Zeph and SW,

After a Amtrak - auto collision n of Ocala, FL, I clocked my Floridian at 100 mph to Jacksonville behind an SDP40.

As someone who will likely be using the VRE in the near future, this upgrade to the lines in Virginia is welcome news. Thank you.

"Well that didn't work". Time traveling into the future...

I just want them to be faster and on time. It's doesn't have to be "high speed rail" but get it up near 100mph average and the let the ore and ammonia tank trains wait *their* turn.

Want Acela to be high speed? Upgrade catenary add more track for local trains. Then add bypass line in LI. And bridge/tunnel

They could have utilized Thermal- and Renewable power stations for railroad electrification!

I think that what a lot of Americans aren't aware of is that 20% of the GDP in the United States is generated within the Boston - Washington megalopolis. If the NEC is not maintained into the future, it could have significant though indirect economic consequences for the rest of the country

It was good that you made mention of the Baltimore to Newark, Delaware section of the line.

I'd always believed that the chief technical issues with the NEC involved track geometry. I'm reminded by your expository that improvements in the catenary wiring are of relatively equal value. Thank you for sharing your insights

The Nalaxone ads on the sides of the train are a great look for Amtrak.

Please remember, The now operating PCCs are technically PCC-llls. There are no original operating components in them. Also these new components are not like the PCC in San Francisco with Modern PCC technology, based off the original design. These have been fully overhaul 2 times and do not even have the original trucks….sadly. It is great to see these back on the streets! Great video! If you come to Baltimore you can operate a PCC!

I would love to do one of these with you! Great video!

Get the high-speed corridors in place first & running , and then you can increase the trains later with improvements...

I remember riding Amtrak's combined Desert Wind/California Zephyr back in the mid 1980s from Los Angeles, CA to Glenwood Springs, CO.....but the Desert Wind certainly did not extend to Denver or Cheyanne. Rather both the Desert Wind and the Pioneer ran from their respective coasts to meet at Salt Lake City with the California Zephyr, where through cars headed east were added to the Zephyr (...and presumably, the Westbound Zephyr detached through cars for Los Angeles and Portland...) It was timed with all three Eastbound trains arriving in the early a.m. hours. I was woken at about 5 a.m. by our arrival in SLC, and watched the switching from the station platform while I ducked out to get a newspaper. I'll be honest. I think a return to these two routes by this model is a lot more practical than your Desert Wind routed over Sherman Hill to Cheyanne and then Denver from the North.

The problem with restoring the National Limited in Ohio is that the original train did not go through Cincinnati; the route would have been too circuitous. Now the only choice would be just the opposite; it would have to go that way because all of the trackage that once connected Columbus to Indianapolis is gone. A train would have to go Cincinnati and then back-track a long way, presumably via the Cardinal route. It could be done, but it's a considerable detour for passengers wanting to get to Indianapolis and beyond.

15:51 - These Metroliners by Budd are not boxy. They are rounded as a fast airliner fuselage.

Septa cars do have plugs in the very front and the very back!

It’s an interesting production. Some years ago (1994) I did travel from Boston to Washington along that route (with a few days in NY), and didn’t know anything about the set up of the overhead line electrification (OLE), although I noticed via signage etc that it operated at reduced frequency, not your standard 60 Hz. As a (now retired) engineer in the UK, the financial problems to with the upgrade is quite familiar. While I was a railway signalling engineer, I was familiar with a lot of electrification and permanent way issues that my colleagues dealt with in detail. A project that ended up with financial difficulties recently was the Great Western Main Line one, which got out of jail on account of many of the new trains being dual mode, made by Hitachi, so instead of electrifying the whole route, it ended part way. There are services between London & Cardiff that carry a fair bit of unused diesel generators and fuel etc that are not used en route, unfortunately. At present it is electrified from London Paddington to Cardiff, and to Newbury and Chippenham only, at 25 kV on the contact wires with 50 kV transmission most of the way from grid connections via autotransformers set up to -25/0/+25 roughly every 10 km or so. Part of the problem can be unbalanced loads with grid connections. Sometimes being a relatively small customer at the point of delivery can be tolerable, sometimes not. There are some locations elsewhere at which modern “static frequency converters” (SFC) which actually rectify the incoming 3 phase, and generate the output required for the contact wiring. A bit like frequency changing, I suppose, and no doubt with some thermal waste as well. Constant tension has long been the norm on 25 kV OLE in the UK, much of it using weight loads, but the latest sections use spring tension. There are some stretches that use overhead contact rail where there is not enough clearance otherwise - typically old tunnels that are too tight otherwise.

As someone who lives in NJ and regularly takes the NEC to DC, this video was incredibly enlightening. There isn't a soul in NJ that will claim NJ Transit brings joy into their lives, but videos like this help explain why so many problems exist and what can be done about them instead of just complaining about them.

If you look at the catenary now thru Princeton Junction, you will see they have spaced the auxiliary further away from the contact wire. Because the auxiliary wire expands and contracts faster than the other two. Problem solved ?

You could have used many other examples of catenary for your thumbnail but use you use the new stuff east of New Haven that was built in the 90s XD

Major issue with West Chester service is that its way quicker for someone around West Chester to drive to Exton and catch an R5 (or Keystone) instead of go to a closer R3 station and take the curvy route in.

The reason they are looking at 80 is likely lower certification costs. Also the design should focus on passenger, not crew comfort. Both the LIRR and MNRR have had issues with the full cabs becoming defacto crew lounges where they hang out and avoid doing their jobs. The LIRR especially since there is no way to see in from the passenger area.

Also you know that the fires at Metra TOWER A-2 are just for ice and snow melting. Its a low pressure natural gas system so instead of small blue flames they are large and orange.

This is what happens when you hire airline executives to run a railroad. I’ve worked for Amtrak for 32 years. It’s so sad to see the lack of standards allowed. I’m actually embarrassed to say I work there.

Where is that charming model railroad park in your film located? I'd love to visit it!

I have alot of stronge feelings about this, i know the guys that will be working on the new SEPTA LRV “Snakes” from alstom. I honestly would love to sit down with you and have a dialogue about phillys future and some of the issues thatll face them, as it has with other transit systems updating equipment.