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With the recent positive climate for AMTRAK...what are the chances for an addition of East/West service to St. Louis? Possibly the former National Limited route? We live in Illinois and a route like this would be great!
Posts: 36 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Unlikely that Amtrak will be instituting any new long-distance service in the near-future. They don't have the rolling stock to equip much of anything beyond what they presently operate. As for the National Limited, parts of that trains' route through Ohio have been downgraded or even abandoned. It would have to serve a different route (like by-passing Dayton I think) if it did return.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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Part of the National Limited route through Pittsburgh (the Berry Street Tunnel) is now a piece of the West Busway.
Posts: 566 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Well, that's not the only missing piece. The "Panhandle Bridge" that carried the St. Louis line out of Pittsburgh Penn Station across the Monongahela River is now a light rail line. Beyond Carnegie, most of the ROW to Mingo Junction is still in use, but unsignaled and downgraded. West from Mingo Junction (on the Ohio River) to Columbus, OH the former PRR belongs to the state and is the main line of the Ohio Central Railroad (single track, unsignaled). From Columbus to Richmond through Springfield, track is still in place but is (I think) unsignaled. From Richmond to Indianapolis it's gone altogether. West of there, the route to St. Louis is intact.
Putting back the missing pieces and putting together a route with reasonable running times would be expensive and time-consuming, and why bother for one train a day?
Finally, where would Amtrak find the equipment?
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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Also remember that in the case of unsignalled rail routes, the top speed for passenger trains is 59 mph. That's assuming that the railroad meets the other FRA and US Code standards for 59 mph track.
-------------------- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the Earth all one's life." Posts: 506 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Mar 2002
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