A southbound Amtrak Northeast Regional train pauses in Trenton, New Jersey, to pick up and drop off passengers. In the meantime, passengers for a northbound train are getting into position on the opposite platform as their train to New York will be arriving soon. The image was made on May 14, 2016.
Amtrak has rolled out a new website page called “BidUp” to give passengers holding coach tickets an opportunity to bid for an upgrade to business class.
The site (https://www.amtrak.com/BidUp) enables passengers to bid on an upgrade up to two hours before departure.
There is no fee for bidding and the site contains pointers on how to increase the chances of submitting a winning bid.
The advantage of the bid option is the prospect of landing a business class seat at less than the advertised price if a passenger were to buy it upfront when making a reservation.
This could particularly be the case on days in which normal sales of business class seats are light.
That is less likely to be the case with Midwest corridor trains in which business class often sells out and availability is smaller to begin with.
Some trains, particularly in the Northeast Corridor, carry cars in which all of the seating is in business class.
A Montana senator has introduced legislation to require Amtrak to reinstate daily service to most of its 15-long distance routes.
The bill sponsored by Jon Tester (D-Montana) also would require the passenger carrier to reinstate furloughed workers.
Last October, Amtrak reduced the frequency of most long-distance trains from daily to tri-weekly.
Less than daily operations of two New York-Miami routes began last July while two other routes, the Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Los Angeles) and Cardinal (Chicago-New York) have operated tri-weekly for several years.
Only the Auto Train between Lorton, Virginia, and Florida has continued to run daily.
Amtrak cited steep ridership and revenue declines triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic for reducing the frequency of its long-distance trains.
In introducing his bill, Tester said in a statement that Amtrak’s service reductions “were an unacceptable attack on rural America.”
Tester’s bill would authorize and appropriate federal grants to Amtrak to pay for reviving daily service and recalling furloughed workers.
In a statement, Amtrak said it wants to resume daily service on route that had it before the pandemic and to recall furloughed workers.
The statement noted that a pandemic relief bill approved by a congressional committee contains funding to do that.
That bill is pending before the full House of Representatives.
Tester said he hopes that daily service on Amtrak long-distance routes can be achieved before the start of the summer travel season.
Bonding authorization for development of a Chicago-Twin Cities train was included in a proposal issued this week by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The governor’s $518 million capital investment bonding proposal includes $10 million for the train, which would be the second to serve the route via Milwaukee.
Amtrak’s Empire Builder currently operates tri-weekly on the route on its Chicago-Seattle/Portland trek.
Minnesota’s funds would match a a $32 million federal grant awarded last year.
Studies have concluded the cost of creating the additional Chicago-Twin Cities service will be $53 million.
That includes $40 million for track and signal work in Minnesota to add capacity for passenger and freight trains.
Amtrak and the State of Wisconsin have already approved their share of the matching funds.
The new service is projected to serve 13 stations and have ridership of 124,000 annually.
Virginia lawmakers have approved creation of a passenger rail authority that would promote extending Amtrak service to the New River Valley region of the state.
The new service would be achieved by extending an existing Amtrak Northeast Regional train to Christiansburg, Virginia.
The new passenger authority would include government bodies and universities that are expected to share the cost of building and maintaining a station in Christiansburg.
Virginia legislators are still negotiating the funding for the new service.
Gov. Ralph Northam is seeking $50 million for rail passenger service, which is what the House of Delegates has approved. The Virginia Senate has approved $137 million.
Officials expect the cost of starting the service could reach $200 million.
Transportation officials in Maine are searching for a site for a new station to serve Amtrak’s Downeaster trains.
The current station is off the main line used by the trains and reaching it adds 15 minutes to each trip.
Nate Moulton, director of freight and passenger rail services for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the agency has “come to a point where the department is willing to pass the baton on to [the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority] to work on whether we can get a facility located on the main line.”
An MDOT study concludes the best location would be on St. John Street between Congress Street and the entrance to the Veterans Memorial Bridge.
Patricia Quinn, executive director of the authority, said quick action is needed, as other potential sites have already been developed.
In a related development, Quinn said her agency is looking to restore a fifth Downeaster round trip to Boston by late May.
The additional service was called for in a recently survey conducted by MDOT.
The Amtrak wayback machine has landed us in Steilacoom, Washington, on Aug. 12, 1974. We’re just in time to see E8A No. 346 leading a corridor train between Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
The photographer didn’t say which train it was but it appears to be either the Mount Rainier or the Puget Sound. Both of those trains in 1974 operated with dome coaches and offered snack and beverage service.
No. 346 was built for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in September 1950. Amtrak would retire the unit a year later.
CSX track work will affect operations of the Palmetto and Silver Meteor through March 11.
The southbound Palmetto will operate on Mondays only from New York to Washington with no alternative transportation being provided south of Washington.
On Thursdays No. 89 will operate only between New York and Florence, South Carolina, with no alternative transportation provided south of Florence.
On Saturdays the Palmetto will operate the length of its route from New York to Savannah, Georgia, but will be rescheduled to arrive in Savannah at 9:14 p.m., 10 minutes later than normal.
The northbound Palmetto will operate only from Washington to New York on Mondays with no alternative transportation available between Savannah and Washington.
Train 90 will operate from Savannah to New York but depart Charleston, South Carolina, a 10:02 a.m., two minutes later than normal; Florence at 11:44 a.m., five minutes later than normal; and Fayetteville, North Carolina, at 1:15 p.m., 10 minutes later than normal.
The southbound Silver Meteor will depart Charleston at 5:01 a.m., 10 minutes later than normal, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Other schedule adjustments for Train 97 include departing Yemassee, South Carolina, at 6:03 a.m., 20 minutes later than normal; and Savannah at 7:10 a.m., 30 minutes later than normal.
The train will operate on a later schedule at all stations from Savannah to Miami.
The northbound Silver Meteor will depart Yemassee at 8:30 p.m., 10 minutes later than normal; Charleston at 9:37 p.m., 20 minutes later than normal; and Florence at 11:42 p.m., 30 minutes later than normal, operating on a later schedule at all stations from Florence to New York.
The Auto Train is expected to incur delays of 30 minutes in both directions between Savannah and Florence.
Recent filings by Amtrak and Chicago commuter carrier Metra with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board show that the two sides remain are fighting over which party will control the station.
Amtrak owns the facility but claims in its filings that Metra is trying to wrest away control of the station.
The two have long been at odds over a new Metra lease and Metra has raised questions about Amtrak’s ownership of the building.
Metra contends Amtrak unlawfully merged long-time station owner Chicago Union Station Company into Amtrak.
The ownership issue had arisen in 2018 but at the time the STB said it would be premature for it to rule on that matter, indicating it would issue a ruling at an unspecified future date.
Metra contends that Amtrak “bias” stemming its ownership of the station is the basis for many of the ongoing issues separating the two sides.
The commuter rail agency argues that if the STB agrees that the parties would be better served by “balancing public interests” then there would be no basis for imposing Amtrak-requested terms that derive from an entirely different perspective.
Amtrak said in its filing that it must have the ability to manage, oversee, and coordinate service and operations at its station.
Therefore Amtrak said it is seeking clear rights and responsibilities to be delineated in a future access agreement.
The intercity passenger carrier called “not feasible” Metra’s demand that any reduction of the number of Metra trains or revision of peak periods must have its consent.
Metra wants to be able to increase its train movements at Union Station by 5 percent.
Amtrak said as owner it must have the ability to control and coordinate train schedules.
This includes dwell times for Metra trains. Amtrak wants to decree that Metra trains have as little as 10 minutes of dwell time during peak periods, some thing Metra has called “wasteful, unnecessary and arbitrary” because Amtrak has not presented any evidence that the limits are based on operating experience or need.
Amtrak also expressed concern about a Metra proposal that it be allowed to store some trains in the station overnight.
The Oregon Department of Transportation’s POINT Amtrak Thruway bus service has changed some of its schedules.
Bus 5504 is now operating 1 hour and 10 minutes earlier, departing Eugene station at 7 a.m.
Bus 5506 is now running 1 hour and 5 minutes earlier, departing Eugene at 1:10 p.m. while Bus 5518 will operate five minutes earlier, departing Eugene at 11:45 am.
Bus 5503 will operate 25 minutes earlier, departing Portland station at noon while Bus 5547will operate 30 minutes earlier, departing Portland at 5 p.m.
Other POINT bus schedules from Portland are unaffected by the changes.
Multi-ride tickets are available for use on both Amtrak Cascades and POINT services between Portland and Eugene.
Amtrak in the Heartland 