160 MPH at top speed. The overall speed from Boston to DC is about 55 mph ON AVERAGE from point to point including stops and the various slow down and delays.
I know 7 hours Boston to DC sounds impressive to most people; until you realize trains in Europe and Asia cover the same distance in half the time.
The US is not lacking technology, we are seriously lagging on infrastructure investment and political will. This is a step forward, but we still are decades behind.
Milwaukee Airport train station expansion construction update
LIRR strike?
Yikes a door fell off a locomotive and nobody noticed?
seems like Amtrak has really gone down the tubes during this administration
how can we trust Amtrak to correctly put in place a Penn Station “Gateway” when they can’t even affix a door properly?
By voting.
Lunatrain has surfaced once again. This time, they have a spin-off where they are now running a service where you can book a trip on existing private railcars with a catch: you have to be a member of the Association of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO) to book. Anyone what owns a private railcar is already a member and there are already reputable sources for riding on a private car, membership in most cases, isn’t required: e.g the URHS Hudson River excursions.
Because they’re still vaporware, basically the next best thing is to become a “marketplace for private rail travel” per their dead (or not even fully set up) social media accounts.
The life-cycle of these companies is so entertaining to watch. It’s the exact same story ever single time.
May we all have the confidence in ourselves that these vaporware CEOs have when they try to break into an industry they know nothing about.
Amtrak has provided an update regarding the East River Tunnel rehabilitation. They’re currently removing the bench walls which contain utilities and other infrastructure.
At some point next year Metro North will extend one round-trip from Poughkeepsie to Rensselaer, encroaching into this Amtrak-exclusive territory for the first time.
I believe this would be the longest (mileage) one-seat commuter-rail ride in the country, at 141 miles (longer than longest direct LIRR trains such as the Cannonball from New York’s Pennsylvania Station to Montauk, which is about 118 miles in length). The Cannonball takes 2h49m to get to Montauk. Amtrak takes about 2h30m to 2h40m to get from Pennsylvania Station to Rensselaer. Presumably the Grand Central-Rensselaer train will take longer than that if it makes additional stops that Amtrak would not make (such as Harlem, Beacon and New Hamburg at the very least). Currently the longest (in terms of time traveled) one-seat commuter rail ride in the country is believed to be LIRR train #18, which leaves Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:30pm and arrives in Montauk at 7:41pm, for a total time traveled of 3h11m.
To provide mitigation for rail commuters affected by the suspension of Amtrak service during the rehabilitation of East River Tunnel, Governor Hochul challenged the MTA and Metro-North Railroad to develop a plan to run Hudson Line service beyond Poughkeepsie to connect Grand Central Terminal with Albany-Rensselaer Station. Metro-North is now advancing a plan to commence this service in early spring of 2026, with non-passenger test trains set to run later this year.
The planned schedule will fill in gaps left by Amtrak service that was suspended earlier this year, with the Grand Central to Albany train departing at mid-morning and the Albany-Rensselaer to Grand Central train departing in the afternoon and arriving at Grand Central in time for evening events in New York City. This service would be the first time Metro-North has run between New York City and New York’s Capital Region. Metro-North’s predecessor on the Hudson Line, the New York Central Railroad, previously ran service between Grand Central and Albany until 1967, including on the iconic 20th Century Limited train to Chicago.
Also, beginning in December one round trip between Rensselaer and Pennsylvania Station will be restored, and the Lake Shore Limited section between Boston and Rensselaer will also be restored (it was “bustituted” after a sinkhole damaged the tracks earlier this year).
Following the cancellation or consolidation of three weekday round trips between Albany and New York Penn Station earlier this year to accommodate Amtrak repairs to the East River Tunnels in New York City, Governor Hochul sought the restoration of as much rail service as possible along the corridor. In support of these efforts, Amtrak will be restoring one round trip between Albany and Penn Station on December 1. Amtrak has also committed to a first-of-its-kind price cap on trips between Albany and New York City, with coach seats capped at $99.
Amtrak will also restore direct rail service between Albany-Rensselaer and Boston on the Lake Shore Limited on December 1, which is currently running with a temporary bus service. This restoration will reconnect rail service between Albany and Massachusetts for the over 80,000 Lake Shore Limited riders who use the station.
@stache - a great deal:
Amtrak has renamed one of its lines in California. This is the Bakersfield-Oakland/Sacramento train.
We now have a date for the addition of the 13th daily round trip between the country’s second- and eighth-largest cities:
Effective January 26, 2026 , the Pacific Surfliner schedule will adjust to reduce wait times between trains along the corridor. Frequent riders can preview the new schedule and get ready to plan their next trip with confidence. Passengers may also use code V526 to receive a 20% discount on Pacific Surfliner rides between January 26, 2026 and March 13, 2026.
“Adding the 13th roundtrip between Los Angeles and San Diego marks a significant milestone in fully restoring pre-pandemic service levels.” said LOSSAN Managing Director Jason Jewell. “This additional roundtrip provides travelers with more options to choose the travel times that work best for them.”
With the added service, Pacific Surfliner operations now include:
- 13 daily roundtrips between Los Angeles and San Diego
- Five daily roundtrips between San Diego and Goleta
- Two full-corridor daily roundtrips between San Diego and San Luis Obispo
These frequencies match the service levels offered prior to the pandemic, fully restoring one of the busiest state-supported intercity rail services in the United States. This was made possible by a $27.1 million grant through the FRA’s Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) Grant Program.
Here’s the timetable:
4310615472_pacific-surfliner-timetable_13th-rt_1-26-26.pdf
What I like is that Amtrak uses clockface scheduling on the San Diego-Los Angeles corridor, with exactly one or two hours between trains at each station depending on time of day. And it’s the same schedule on weekdays and weekends.
In addition, Metrolink has five daily round trips between Los Angeles and Oceanside on weekdays (with various other Metrolink trains covering parts of this corridor) and four round trips on each weekend day. Coaster runs Oceanside-San Diego local rail service (15 round trips Monday-Thursday, 16 on Friday, 12 on Saturday, 11 on Sunday). Which means on Monday-Thursday, there will be 28 daily round trips between San Diego and Oceanside, a very busy passenger rail corridor by California standards.
An additional Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo round trip may start in April 2026.
Damn 5 hours door to door. Trains will never be successful unless they become competative time wise with automobiles.
That’s if profit is the only reason to have trains.
