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What would it take?

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:25 PM

     I guess my definition of success would be that it's somewhat self-sufficient in funding, it meets a need of the ridership, and it works well with the owners of the tracks it's using.

     Do the commuter lines running into Chicago share some rail space with freight trains?  For example I've ridden the line in from Schamburg.

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Posted by Norm48327 on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:23 PM

oltmannd

Okay.  I got my snark out of the way.

Lets assume successful is corridor-like multiple trains a day at highway competitive door to door speeds.

You'd need a good, existing, straight, flat route suitable for 90 mph without moving much dirt.  Ideally the ROW would already be graded for mulitple tracks. 90 mph is all you are going to get out of the frt RRs, at least for now.

You'd need a lot of money for track and equipment.  

You'd need to be adding a lot track.  Maybe adding full double track to a single track route, or lots of triple to a double track route.  This is because the frt RRs aren't going to allow even on extra minute of delay to their trains when you add on the passenger trains.

That equipment you need is pretty pricey.  Bring money and have a plan to keep it moving and full.

You'd need sharp, knowledgable negotiatore to deal with the frt RRs to navigate past the stiff-arms you'd get initially.

 

Governor Moonbeam will be here shortly to espouse the benefits of his proposal. (Sounds more like a proposition.) Whistling

Norm


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Posted by oltmannd on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:18 PM

Okay.  I got my snark out of the way.

Lets assume successful is corridor-like multiple trains a day at highway competitive door to door speeds.

You'd need a good, existing, straight, flat route suitable for 90 mph without moving much dirt.  Ideally the ROW would already be graded for mulitple tracks. 90 mph is all you are going to get out of the frt RRs, at least for now.

You'd need a lot of money for track and equipment.  

You'd need to be adding a lot track.  Maybe adding full double track to a single track route, or lots of triple to a double track route.  This is because the frt RRs aren't going to allow even on extra minute of delay to their trains when you add on the passenger trains.

That equipment you need is pretty pricey.  Bring money and have a plan to keep it moving and full.

You'd need sharp, knowledgable negotiatore to deal with the frt RRs to navigate past the stiff-arms you'd get initially.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by Norm48327 on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:14 PM

These, and lots of them.

 

These, and lots of them.

Norm


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Posted by tree68 on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:13 PM

Murphy Siding

To have some successful passenger trains operating in our freight dominated railroad system?

Riders, obviously, but I think the real issue is the interface between the freight and passenger side.  

Even for freight alone, the thing that makes best use of available capacity possible is consistent speeds.  This has been discussed here before.  

Whatever the happy medium (speed) is, anything that runs too fast or too slow tends to gum up the works.  There have been accounts here in several threads about the disruption that an Amtrak train can cause.  

NYC and PRR had specific tracks for freight and passenger on their four track main lines.  

I suspect that some variation of that practice might help the process along.  Unfortunately, many of the possible secondary routes that might make that possible have been torn up.  

It's been argued that there are successful passenger trains even now.  Something we seem to lack is the political will to make passenger service a more desirable option.  Some politicians seem to be taking a page from the railroads of the early sixties in making the trains less desirable.

 

LarryWhistling
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Posted by oltmannd on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:08 PM

Murphy Siding

To have some successful passenger trains operating in our freight dominated railroad system?

     

     

 

Wings.

Or maybe, first, a definition of success.

 

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:05 PM

     Obviously, but I've read that there are a lot of areas that might have enough population to provide lots of riders.  There might be suburbs of San Diego that have a higher population than my state, so we're probably off the A-List.

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Posted by ChuckCobleigh on Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:01 PM

Lots of riders?

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What would it take?
Posted by Murphy Siding on Thursday, December 10, 2015 12:58 PM

To have some successful passenger trains operating in our freight dominated railroad system?

     

     

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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