14 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

Just want to say I am very interested in a January New York Rail Fest. It would be my first rail fest. I've got $400 in Amtrak vouchers from my honeymoon. When my wife and I took our honeymoon trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, our shower/toilet did not work. The voucher would almost completely cover round trip railfare from Atlanta to NY Penn, with a roomette on the way up.

Preston

Preston, we'd be happy to meet you if you can make it. Hopefully by sometime in October I'll announce something definite.

[KevinKorell]

I know it's probably not wise to look at things too far off in the distance, but long range I think things may need to change with regard the order in which we do the summer Fests.

I was checking out the projects under construction in both Salt Lake City and Denver. Both have a lot in the pipeline in various stages of construction or planning. Denver's next light rail line, the West Corridor, is well under construction, with a target completion date of early 2013. In Salt Lake City, while FrontRunner South to Provo may not be open until 2015 (they say it could be earlier), the Airport TRAX, West Valley TRAX, and Mid Jordan TRAX are all under various stages of construction, and should be opening between 2011 and 2013.

With that in mind, it may be wise to hold off on a Rockies RailFest (which would involve these two cities, as well as round trips on the California Zephyr hopefully over its normal route, until a few years later, perhaps 2014. Or wait until FrontRunner South is open.

In its place for 2011, we can move up the Southeast RailFest (Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis) from 2012 into that slot, since there won't be any new rail lines opening in those places in the near future.

Or, would you rather we do the Midwest RailFest (Minneapolis, Chicago) ? It does not appear that we will be seeing the Central Corridor LRT between Minneapolis & St. Paul during the relatively short time frame these Fests are planned for. But there's still the Hiawatha Corridor LRT and Northstar. In Chicago there's always plenty to ride, and if the trip is planned carefully so that it involves a Sunday afternoon/evening in Chicago, a round trip to Kenosha, WI to do that city's streetcars is also possible. (Sunday is the only day the METRA schedule works for a reasonable turnaround in Kenosha.)

Any thoughts?

[steve4031]

Either one would be fine with me. I liked the north Carolina fest too

[KevinKorell]

Either one would be fine with me. I liked the north Carolina fest too

Steve, yes I'd love to be able to find time to do a North Carolina fest too. I even considered adding a stop in Charlotte to a Southeast RailFest trip, in other words another stopover like Atlanta would be on the Crescent (only one can get to Charlotte via other trains). However, given the unfriendly times of night the Crescent calls at Charlotte both ways, it's not feasible. So given the choice we're really limited to the Carolinian, the Piedmont, and/or whatever the new CLT-RGH train will be called if and when it starts. The only reason an NC Fest also includes Raleigh is so that we can ride on NC's unique fleet of equipment, used on the Piedmont and slated for the third frequency as well. Since it's still just a 3-day fest we would tack it on to something else or do it during August in a year when we have a relatively short fest in July.

[KevinKorell]

I've had several requests about the date and activities of the Fest in the New York City area in January of 2010.

As we've usually held this Fest over the MLK weekend the past several years, I see no reason right now why that would change. So the dates would be Saturday 1/16/10 and Sunday 1/17/10. I have nothing planned for the preceeding Friday afternoon or evening, and as usual nothing on the Monday holiday. If enough people are in town Friday and are looking for an activity, we can ride subways in NYC that some of you perhaps have not yet ridden on previous Fests or on your own.

However, This is NOT a formal announcement. Please do not make any hotel or travel reservations that you cannot cancel.

As for the itinerary and what we will be doing, I plan to make that announcement in about a month. The Long Island Railroad's timetables will next change around November 8th, and they have been known to make significant changes in the schedules. So once the new timetables are published, and it is verified that the preferred plan will still work out, the itinerary will be made public.