A while back, we spotlighted the TARC Bike Rack Rap. Now, in our own backyard, the Long Island Railroad has come out with The Gap Rap, performed by Dr. John Clarke, their Medical Director.

Love that catchy refrain, “Look down, step over, and watch the gap!”

The Auto Train is non-stop 855 mile trip between Sanford, Florida and Lorton, Virginia. The Auto Train is so named because it is the only Amtrak train that transports both passengers and their cars, vans, motorcycles, boats, etc. The train is scheduled at 17.5 hours, and operates at an end-to-end average speed of 49mph, but often arrives early. This year, it was ontime 88% of the time. The north and southbound trains both leave at 4PM, and are scheduled to arrive at 9:30AM the following morning. My train had 486 passengers onboard, 220 cars, 4 vans, and 4 motorcycles…at least according to the conductor.

Ridership of the Auto Train is about 233,000 passengers and 111,000 vehicles a year, and other routes are being looked at periodically. Such things are dependent on money, but Amtrak did research adding an Auto Train service from Chicago to Phoenix, a route which has the same features as the VA-FL route in terms of demand, probably linking it with an existing route.

They could do better on the speed, but there are restrictions due to freight trains on the route as well as other issues. The train makes a single refueling stop in the middle of the night in Florence, SC. The route is actually one that makes profit for Amtrak, and thus has many amenities.

One-way coach fares range from $93 per person to $228. Roomettes and bedrooms are also available, at a cost of $219 to $1,024 per traveler. One-way fares for vehicles range from $152 to $304 for standard automobiles; up to $339 for oversized cars; and up to $225 for motorcycles. The prices include dinner and breakfast.

My trip started when I flew down to Florida to bring back a relative’s car. I drove to the Sanford AutoTrain station, which recently received 10.5 million dollars to be renovated and updated. This is good, as the current station, while nice, is not befitting such a route. Upon arrival, your automobile is assigned a number and videotaped to document its condition. Then you can check in as a passenger and pick your seating and your meal time. The train had three dinner sittings and a choice of multiple options, including a vegetarian option. You can even pre-order a kosher meal, if your dietary needs are such.

While I was in coach seating, the car had several sleeper cars. I did walk through them, but after we started off, that section of the train wasn’t available to me…and people don’t appreciate you taking pictures of their rooms(Here is Amtrak’s page on sleeping arrangements). it was a full train, so next to me was a complete stranger. Each seat had two outlets, but I did bring a splitter…just in case. Many people, including my seatmate and myself, brought portable computers. I brought a prepaid cellular modem that I’d gotten a daypass on, and had a signal pretty much all of the way.

After boarding the train, you can stop by the dining car for a complimentary wine and cheese tasting. Ironically…wine and cheese free. Bottled water or soda…not. The train stores potable water, and in the middle of the coach car is a spigot and cups.

Superliner coaches have wide two-and-two reclining seats, with foot-rests and retractable leg-rests. The 50-inch pitch of the seats is more than you will get in a business class seat on a domestic flight, but puts the foot-rests out of reach of some passengers. The recline of the seats goes to a near flat position, and travel pillows and blankets are provided. Many people brought along their own pillows for increased comfort.

I’ve done coach seating before, on the Lake Shore Limited, from New York to Chicago(which didn’t have outlets at the time) and wouldn’t have minded trying sleeper service, which I have not, but all the sleeper cars were booked. Sleeping wasn’t bad, although I’m not used to sleeping in that position and I spent much of the time enjoying the scenery, watching the movement of the train on my GPS, and once it grew dark(thus no scenery), I was online.

The train also felt friendlier in some ways. Perhaps it was the large amount of friendly senior citizens. The Auto Train does skew older, and I traveled in a period when there would be fewer families with children. There were also many college-age students, moving their cars elsewhere. When you sat down in a lounge car, it was quite possible someone might want the seat next to you, and a conversation might ensue.

Early, we pulled into Lorton, VA…the end of the line. The Lorton station has been renovated, and the Sanford station’s renovation will bring it more in line with this large glass structure, which befits the popularity of this route.

The offloading of cars was just as organized as the loading, although it seemed more efficient to many I spoke to in Lorton than Sanford…but I have no hard data on this. While you wait in the waiting room, they call the car numbers over the loudspeaker. When your car is offloaded, they expect you to get on the way to clear space for the offloading of other cars.

And that brought the trip to an end…at least on the train. Maybe someday the AutoTrain will have a terminus further north. I could see them, even out of Florida, splitting a train in Lorton, VA or elsewhere and taking it further north, perhaps New Jersey. Admittedly, the tunnel clearance is an issue, but there are alternate routes that could be used. Or maybe the Chicago-Phoenix route will come to be someday.

Who knows what the future may bring? Until then…we have the Auto Train, and its an established Amtrak cornerstone you should try.

There can be no doubt that James McCommons is a man who loves trains.  While he may not be a foamer(the term for a railfan who could be called excessively enthusiastic), McCommons spent a year riding intercity passenger trains around the country and meeting with every important player in the passenger rail industry.

That intercity passenger rail exists at all in this country, McCommons tells us, is nothing short of the miraculous result of a series of compromises, of a political machine bent on killing it, and of small groups at the margins fighting to preserve what remnants they could.  Amtrak was founded on the premise that passenger rail, including infrastructure costs, could be profitable, when no such demand was ever made on road or air travel, the infrastructure of which is heavily subsidized. Without specific funds earmarked for Amtrak, every year became a funding battle, and another opportunity for opponents to kill it.

McCommons’ narrative has the feel of a journey by train; the details of different lines and the passengers who he meets gently blend together like scenery quickly passing by a train’s window. McCommons captures the serenity of train travel, the ability to contemplate, to meet interesting people. In a world where air travel has become steadily more unpleasant, and surging fuel costs and environmental concerns have led some to diminish their automobile use,  intercity train travel could be an increasingly viable alternative, if only routes existed, were run at sufficient frequency, and with reasonable on-time performance.

Unfortunately, there is little incentive for the freight rails which own the track to upgrade their infrastructure to allow greater speed and throughput.  Until recently, there has been little federal money available for infrastructure upgrades. Where individual states have allocated funds there are pockets of better service, but they are rare, and there has been no clear national strategy.

When given a competitive rail option, it is clear that many Americans will choose it. McCommons reminds us how much we all love trains, and paints a tragic picture of the lost opportunity that our deteriorated passenger rail system represents.  Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service–A Year Spent Riding across America presents a case that is subtle and understated, but ultimately convincing.  It should be required reading for all legislators who might be convinced that a strong intercity passenger rail network serves a vital national interest and is crucial to continued American prosperity. For the rest of us, it’s a pleasant diversion; a fine approximation of the experience of riding every Amtrak line, and awakens in us a longing to ride the rails.

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In the early hours of Sunday morning, a driver on Philadelphia’s SEPTA system noticed one of her passengers, an elderly man, was unresponsive, had urinated on himself, and was drooling. When advised, the control center ordered her to continue to operate her route, not wanting to delay service. A supervisor boarded as she proceeded and checked the man, advised he was breathing but unresponsive, then instructed her to proceed to her terminal, making all stops, where the police would meet her.

Roughly 40 minutes later, at the terminal, the man was pronounced dead. A spokesman for SEPTA insists protocol was followed, and that it appeared to be an intoxicated passenger who had passed out, a not uncommon occurrence. Approximately, 10 to 12 people die on SEPTA vehicles or in stations each year.

Transport Workers Union Local 234, which represents the driver, intends to file a grievance.

We’re just as shocked as the driver here. A passenger was unresponsive and in possible need of medical assistance, and the driver was ordered to proceed for another hour to the Frankford Transportation Center. Here’s a transcript of communications between the driver and dispatch.

Let’s assume the supervisor legitimately thought the passenger was merely passed out from excessive drinking and wanted the route to continue undisturbed. Was the supervisor qualified to give a medical diagnosis? Did he have any medical training?

Why weren’t the police dispatched to a stop much closer then the end of the line? Why were the police dispatched and not qualified medical personnel? Has SEPTA not heard of the expression abundance of caution?

What do you think?

The Consumerist reported last month that on the story of Miriam. Miriam bought a Greyhound ticket, but the bus skipped her stop without notifying her. They refused to provide her money, as she’d purchased a nonrefundable ticket. She was advised the stop was skipped as the bus was running late. That is disappointing enough, but no announcement was made. According to someone Miriam spoke to at the bus station, it happens all the time. Schedules are more like suggestions, we suppose, than anything else.

Elsewhere, courtesy of the same site, Richard, who is in a wheelchair, tried to take Greyhound, using the service Greyhound provides, which requires he make reservations so they can schedule a lift-equipped bus. but, he felt as if, every step of the way, he was ignored, forgotten, and treated as a burden to Greyhound personnel.

Now, both of these stories are examples of horrible customer service. Now, in all fairness, Greyhound is trying to improve its image. They have started deploying new buses to compete with smaller companies. These buses offer free wi-fi, seatbelts, and outlets. But, as Gadling said, in their recent article, Greyhound Travel: The Imperfect Lover, “Bus people have a certain air of resignation and quiet about them. Their expectations are low.”

Other companies, such as Megabus, have come in because they recognize there is a call for inexpensive, clean, and well-run bus service on various routes. They are looking for a higher quality of bus service. It isn’t just about the wi-fi…every form of transport is jumping on that bandwagon. It is about making people want to ride the bus again.

What could Greyhound have done? Well, for Miriam, revise their stopping procedures. It is all right to miss a stop if you know no one is there. But if you require reservations for passengers boarding in less popular places, then you know someone is waiting. It is time for Greyhound to live up to its promise to clean up its act.

For those of you who do not know, intermodal transportation is transportation that covers multiple modes of transport…bus, train, plane.

It is a significantly overlooked part of the bigger transportation picture. Why can’t plane connect to train or connect to bus? Most cities don’t look at these things as connected.

Los Angeles World Airports announced earlier this month a three-year license agreement with the City of Irvine permitting the FlyAway bus service to operate nonstop from Irvine Station in Orange County to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The Irvine Station is the fourth location in the FlyAway network, the others being Van Nuys, Westwood and Union Station. Together, the three handled more than 1.5 million travelers combined for the year ending in June.

Both Irvine Station and Union Station provide links to Amtrak, commuter rail, and other bus service. The FlyAway service began in 1975 at Van Nuys, with service added at Union Station in 2006 and Westwood in 2007. The routes are all Express. The ticket price is $7 for the Union Station and Van Nuys routes, and $5 cash for the Westwood route. Children 5 and under ride free. The proposed price for the Irvine service would be $25, but has not yet been set.

This is one of many good transportation programs. It brings people from the airport nonstop to central transit hubs and locations. As we mentioned in our previous post, about our hometown, New York City, direct and regular service from city center to the airport is critical. But things become unfortunately spread out. The main intercity bus terminal for New York City is on 42nd street, 0.6 miles away from Penn Station, where one commuter rail and the Amtrak station is. The rest of the commuter rail is 1 mile in another direction, at Grand Central. One mile isn’t much in a rural area, but in a densely populated and congested city, it is.

Cities need to improve these links. More direct links to the airport. More links between train and bus. Airlines reoriented around the hub and spoke system. Buses use the same system, often terminating at a common terminal. Why do we not think of it in a progression and see how that changes our thinking? Local buses as subway and commuter rail delivery systems. Intercity buses as airport and long-distance train delivery systems…short route buses to medium-haul-trains to long-haul planes.

Now, this isn’t the model that works for everything. Some people are not trying to go from their door to Wisconsin, they just want to get to the local market and back, which is a totally different set of assumptions. When doing planning, people have to envision both scenarios, both short and long. For the long-haul, creating points of easy connection between different modes of transportation is key to the future of our transportation infrastructure.

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MTA Luggage Rack

The MTA rolled out the first buses with luggage racks this week. The racks, which replace several seats toward the back of the bus, will be on the M60 route between Broadway and 125th St. and LaGuardia Airport. Eventually, the MTA will have racks on 10 buses on seven routes that include stops at LaGuardia or Kennedy Airport. The routes include B15, Q3, Q10, Q33, Q48, and Q72.

Many other cities offer luggage racks on select routes. It is an interesting balance. The M60 bus is goes from Broadway and 125th street to LaGuardia, with stops in Astoria, and is local, and runs roughly every 10 minutes. The Q48 runs from the terminus of the 7 Subway to LaGuardia, also local, and operates roughly every half hour.

The subway also offers a connection to the JFK AirTrain at the Howard Beach station(A Train), and the E,J,Z and the Jamaica LIRR station, but the connection costs $5 to take the AirTrain into JFK on top of the transit fare.

The city hasn’t redrawn the airport connections in years and he only Express Bus Service from the heart of Manhattan to the airport is privately operated New York Airport Service, which charges $12 to LaGuardia and $15 to JFK.

These shuttles should be more efficient. Why is there no shuttle that just runs from Astoria and Willets Point, the two closest subway stations to LaGuardia, to that airport? Why does the Port Authority charge $5 to ride its short shuttle train to JFK? Does that really encourage people to take the public transit option? Why is there no city-operated express bus service to the airports?

The MTA should be looking at new options, and while the luggage racks are nice, they don’t change much.

From 2004 to 2009, New York 1 offered a weekly 15 minute Transit News show, “In Transit“. This week, Bobby Cuza, who started the program, which aired on Friday and repeated on Saturday and Sunday, announced that he was leaving the transit beat to become a political reporter for the station, and thus In Transit is canceled, perhaps forever.

The format of the show was simple. Cuza, or sometimes a guest host, would recap the top transit stories of the week, update us on weekend subway diversions, show us a clip of NYC Transit in the Movies, and then fill the rest of the time with a discussion with a guest, 99% of the time Pete Donohue from the New York Daily News.

The only other regular transit show in New York is the MTA’s own show, Transit Transit. It is a 30 minute show produced once monthly, which promotes destinations for the MTA and its partner organization, features programs and services offered, etc. It isn’t a timely or as news focused.

In Transit was a valuable tool for keeping us informed about transit developments in New York City, our hometown. We think New York 1 should have found someone else to take it over, and committed to the program before Cuza announced it was leaving, but there is always hope.

There are other resources for New York City and other transit news. We’ll be adding some to the sites link section, and covering them in the future. Until then, stay tuned.

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which operates Boston metro area commuter rail, is set to vote on extending commuter service to T.F. Green Airport. Tentative schedules show a travel time from Boston’s South Station to the airport of one hour and fifteen minutes, which is dependent on skipping some local stops on the route. The Providence/Stoughton line has consistently ranked as the MBTA’s busiest commuter line, with 2000 people boarding daily in Providence alone.

The new T.F. Station would be, according to officials, the closest a rail line comes to an airport in the country. A 1500-foot moving sidewalk would take passengers from the station to the ticket counters, which is currently under construction and will be completed next year.

The proposed extension would go beyond the airport to a total of 20 miles of additional service, terminating in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Rhode Island is investing millions to upgrade the Amtrak-owned tracks, construct two new stations, parking garages, a rental car facility, and the moving sidewalk. The state will also pay Amtrak for the use of the tracks.

Massachusetts won’t pay any of the costs, but will pay operating expenses on the line. They keep all ticket revenue on service into Rhode Island, while Rhode Island picks up the bill for construction and rail cars.

A Green Line train derailed in a switching area near Government Center Wednesday evening. The train, which was carrying no passengers, went off the rails as it was moving at low speed to an outbound platform from a turnaround loop.

Service operated in two parts, inbound stopping at Park Street, and North Station to Lechmere on the other side of the accident. Passengers were redirected to the Orange Line.

More on this as the investigation reveals why such a thing happened. The T, especially the Green Line, has been the subject of several safety issues in the last year. Hopefully, these incidents are not indicative of the general state of affairs on the line.