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Future Fests as of Spring & Summer 2014


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 26 March 2014 - 11:58 AM

The season has changed so it's time for a fresh thread on potential future plans. Previous thread for Fall/Winter closed and unpinned.

As is now being actively planned the Rockies RailFest 2014 (RRF) will take place between July 12-19 of this year as our big summer event. The Fest will include four Amtrak segments on the California Zephyr, including crossing the Fest's namesake mountain range, and a side trip to Reno, which has no transit of its own but will allow us to get on and off the California Zephyr at decent hours. Locally, we will do light rail and hopefully a heritage trolley in Denver, and in Salt Lake City a streetcar, a light rail network, and commuter rail.

The next planned event is Washington, DC Area RailFest 2015 (WARF), set to take place in January of that year. That weekend meet will feature the Metro Silver Line as well as the first segment of the DC Streetcar. Recent news has me nervous about this taking place, as all was supposed to have been in place by the same time this year. The Fest can also include riding lines requested by participants, perhaps weekend MARC service coupled with transit in the Baltimore area -- or other WMATA Metro lines the group has already ridden but some might not have.

Beyond that remains a big question mark. Many ideas have been researched and presented, but we don't know yet what will be available given how projected opening dates can slip. So I'll just throw the links out here and then give a little commentary. None are final products, and some could be combined or moved to other events as we see fit later on.

Midwest RailFest (would include Kansas City & St. Louis if not done as part of Texas RailFest)
Eagle RailFest II
Texas RailFest (direct, and including time spent in Kansas City & St. Louis)

Minneapolis/St. Paul may be ready to host us, as long as the Green Line LRT and the St. Paul Union Depot station relocation for the Empire Builder do go as planned later this year. A Texas RailFest (the red option without spending time in Missouri) would be a good destination as soon as the Green and Purple LRT lines open in Houston, and after DART opens its last Orange Line segment to DFW Airport by this summer. The purple option for Texas RailFest would have to wait until Kansas City Streetcar opens Eagle RailFest does Austin, Little Rock, and the Heartland Flyer to & from Oklahoma City --- all with elements in place already. It can therefore also be a candidate for 2015. I am still exploring ways to possibly combine elements of Texas RailFest and Eagle RailFest into one trip, but it might create a total trip time that is too long for some to be away from home.

And further down the railroad:
Pittsburgh RailFest
Montreal RailFest II

Pittsburgh may be getting closer, as they now have a smart card. But travel would still basically be "a la carte", that is, with deductions made to the smart card for every trip segment. There is still no Day Pass instrument. At least we would not need to travel with a pile of $1 bills and rolls of quarters.

A second trip to Montreal may also be more worthwhile soon, as the Mascouche commuter line is nearing its debut.


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#2 pennyk

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Posted 26 March 2014 - 05:58 PM

Thanks Kevin for your hard work in researching all these options. Every one of them interests me. Although July does not seem to be the best time to visit Texas, I am not sure if there is a good time to visit Texas. :lol: Although I have through Texas by car (in 1974), I have not been to Texas by train. I plan to travel through Texas by train in October, but do not plan to spend any time there. Thanks again. :)

#3 steve4031

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Posted 29 March 2014 - 01:41 AM

I like the purple option.

#4 KevinKorell

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Posted 29 March 2014 - 08:58 AM

In response to post #2 above, we were in Dallas back in 2005, and it was around 100 degrees. We can survive, especially those used to dressing in layers :) . We also endured about 107 degrees in the Mojave Desert in Lancaster, CA in 2009. Key is to keep yourself hydrated. Trains themselves should be air conditioned. My bigger concern from a rail point of view is slow orders on the freight railroads used by Amtrak, and perhaps even slowdowns on the rail transit lines if it gets too hot. Sun kinks are no fun.


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#5 saxman

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Posted 30 March 2014 - 08:17 PM

It seems to be hot every summer fest. Even DC was miserably hot last summer and we survived.

#6 KevinKorell

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Posted 02 June 2014 - 04:47 PM

I made updates to the future Midwest RailFest (MWRF) 201X homepage and itinerary based on the recent Amtrak move to St. Paul Union Depot and the now-available Green Line LRT schedule that takes effect 6/14/14.

Basically, despite the larger number of hotels in the city of Minneapolis, I think staying in Downtown St. Paul would make more sense given that is where Amtrak is, and given the Empire Builder gets there late evening westbound and leaves early morning eastbound. Thus riding the Green Line to & from Minneapolis becomes one of the official activities. I rewrote the Blue Line part as well for easy transfers. We still have about 3+ hours at Mall of America, which is not a bad thing (this includes lunch), but if anyone wishes to go downtown and explore more there, we can do that as well. The schedule is still built around the only possible afternoon Northstar turn, then we'd have dinner in downtown Minneapolis before returning by Green Line to St. Paul.

In addition, I updated things for the Chicago portion of this trip. The Kansas City/St. Louis element more than likely may not happen on this Fest since I've made it work better as part of one of the Texas-based Fests. We could do another Amtrak activity in its place, or do other Metra or CTA lines within the Chicago area.

We'll talk during RRF 2014 about what our best options for Summer 2015 may be. The Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago elements of the above MWRF may well be one of the candidates, along with one of the Texas trips.


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#7 steve4031

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Posted 03 June 2014 - 05:26 PM

Looks like a winner to me. There should be more 110 mph running on Lincoln service by next summer. Be aware that there may be talgos running to Detroit too. That might make a day trip to Detroit more interesting.

#8 KevinKorell

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Posted 03 June 2014 - 05:41 PM

Agreed, Steve, although Detroit would be more interesting after the streetcar comes online.


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#9 KevinKorell

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Posted 04 July 2014 - 11:17 PM

Since nothing much else has changed except for the season into Summer, I changed the topic title to include that. As stated earlier, we can always talk about what's next while together in person at the Fest.


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