have Amtrak ever considered more trains on this route ? why is the schedule of the lakeshore limited so slow over this Route ?
The 448/449 runs daily between Boston and Albany. It is a five-plus hour trip from 1pm to 6:30pm (roughly). However, the train coming into Boston always seems to be delayed coming out of Chicago. Also, Amtrak's route runs over rails owned by CSX Corp., the biggest carrier in the Northeastern US. Their dispatchers have a tendency to allow the slower freights to pass before the Amtraks do. Frankly, I don't think this line is capable of much more traffic without some upgrades. Also, having ridden the 448 before, It is not a very full train. The expense of adding trains would be too much without a significant increase in ridership. ------------------ Corey Lynch VP - Rensselaer Model RR Society NEB&W RR http://www.rpi.edu/~lynchc/Railfanning/railfanning.htm - My Site http://www.union.rpi.edu/railroad/ - NEB&W
I think there was some talk of adding another train for the mail business, but I haven't seen anything lately. The B&A line was mostly single-tracked by Conrail several years ago and at times now runs at capacity. There are more Amtrak trains between Boston and Springfield that run to New York as well.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by solar: have Amtrak ever considered more trains on this route ? why is the schedule of the lakeshore limited so slow over this Route ?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> This train is so slow as it waits in Albany for over 1 1/2 hours to break the consist apart from Boston and the arriving NYC train, and then put it together again. It is a terrible wait, and if you are lucky it is only 1 1/2 hours. The trip from Boston to Albany isn't to bad, but once you go from there to Chicago it is slow... slower .... slowest most of the way. There are a million stops, and even when you do finally get up to speed you stay there for only a few minutes. We have been 4 hours or more late on numerous occasions using Amtrak. This doesn't matter if it is from Chicago to Boston or Boston to Chicago. The ride is fun but dont' expect anything like being there on time. If you have to make it ontime then fly. Most of the time the crew doesn't seem to even know what is going on with the train. You will have them say, "we will be here for 20 minutes" and it is over an hour. Terrible train to ride unless you just want to railfan. Art
