56 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

From Shreveport, LA Times, 11/10/04:

Bossier City Mayor George Dement still has one campaign promise to fulfill after four terms and 16 years in office: bring in an Amtrak system.

Don't they mean Amtrak train, not "system"?

Story is here.

Kevin's turn: The Shreveport/Bossier City area was in line for an Amtrak train a few years ago when the wonderful Network Growth Strategy (NGS) called for a train called the CRESCENT STAR which would split from the existing CRESCENT train at Meridian, MS and run across the northern part of Louisiana and eastern Texas into Dallas and maybe Fort Worth. But as we know, very little of the NGS ever came to fruition.

Amtrak is still banned from starting any new services until they repay the DOT loan they got a few years ago. In the annual budget battles, the final figure that Amtrak has gotten did not include repayment of this loan. I guess they can still run test trains even if they cannot start service for real.

[EvergreenRailfan]

The loan could be on it's way to being paid off by now if the Freight Railroads and Amtrak had worked on getting the NGS to be viable, with Mail and Express. Congress should have come up with something to keep that line of Amtrak working. It was a failure, but that is because Amtrak charged into uncharted territory without thinking things through. IF they had worked with the railroads first, they might have got some co-operation. Maybe what the railroads did to Amtrak was punishment for not consulting them first. The 5 year deadline was unreasonable, as it took Amtrak about 2 years just to come up with the NGS.

[KevinKorell]

From KTBS-TV, Channel 3 in Shreveport/Bossier City, LA, 12/6/04:

Bossier City met with Amtrak Representatives

Advocates of bringing Amtrak passenger rail service to Bossier City met with railroad representatives to plan a trial run of the rail service.

Bossier City Mayor George Dement first brought up the idea of Amtrak service in 1989 and has been pushing it ever since.

Read this story here.

[NickG]

From the Shreveport, LA Times, 12/8/04:

Details of Amtrak trial still unclear

Plans for a trial Amtrak route that would stop in Bossier City remain sketchy after a meeting earlier this week between city and Amtrak officials.

The full story is here.

[KevinKorell]

From the recently cited article:

The Fort Worth Amtrak station is larger and has more connecting trains than the station in Dallas.

Dallas Union Station is pretty big, and I haven't seen the new Fort Worth Intermodal Center to compare it to DUS. When they say that Fort Worth has more connecting trains, they are referring to just the HEARTLAND FLYER, which probably should continue east to Dallas anyhow, and which is an endangered species if more funding is not received by this coming September. It is not without reason that the demonstration project may come to fruition after the HEARTLAND FLYER has been terminated.

Riders can access either of the Texas cities from the other via Amtrak or light rail service.

Only if the demonstration train happens to get to Dallas with a decent layover period would it be proper to consider Amtrak as a means of traveling between Dallas and Fort Worth. The TEXAS EAGLE's timekeeping, while it has recently improved, cannot be considered reliable enough to be depended on for a demonstration project where new passengers are being courted.

And as far as the mentioned light rail service, this is wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG !!!! . Yes Dallas has DART, and it does serve the suburbs to the north, south, and northeast of the city well. But it does NOT go to Fort Worth!! I am betting that the writer, joining the bandwagon in embacing the term "light rail" here in the 21st Century, intended to say "commuter rail", as in the Trinity Railway Express. The latter has an erratic schedule, has some trains that short-turn shy of Tarrant County, and does not run on Sundays.

[KevinKorell]

Now that I've cooled off, here is another article on this topic from the Fort Worth, TX Star-Telegram, 12/8/04:

Officials push for rail line to casinos

Rail supporters are hoping that soon North Texans will be spending less time behind the steering wheel, and more time in front of the roulette wheel.

Louisiana leaders are reviving a 15-year-old effort to connect by rail Fort Worth and Shreveport-Bossier City, La., home of several popular casinos.

This side of the story is here. Free registration required.

[KevinKorell]

From Bossier City, LA Press-Tribune, 12/10/04:

Amtrak station in Bossier one step closer to reality

BOSSIER CITY – Progressive steps are being made in Bossier City to bring a new mode of transportation between here and Dallas.

City officials along with members of the Bossier Chamber of Commerce, the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau and the casinos met with officials from Amtrak in a meeting Monday evening to discuss the logistics of bringing an Amtrak station to Bossier City.

It's here.

[KevinKorell]

From Bossier City, LA Press-Tribune, 12/13/04:

A tale of two projects: Amtrak and the Benton Road overpass

In retrospect, it’s timely that two transportation issues discussed at last Tuesday’s Bossier City Council meeting occurred one right behind the other: the potential for Amtrack passenger service locally evokes a mental image of a new type of train slowly crawling past the Benton Road Overpass sign near the Benton Road rail crossing.

Full story is here.

Now some comments, if I may:

• There is no "C" in Amtrak, a mistake that was made 7 times in the text, but not in the headline.
• This bugs me:

  That cost, said Jones, would pay for Amtrack to temporarily shut down service on an existing route in order to provide the local demonstration run service.

  That means that due to a 4-day demonstration run over a very small percentage of the TEXAS EAGLE's route, the TEXAS EAGLE will be temporarily shut down. So Amtrak is paid for this by Bossier City, but passengers who need to travel during that period have to suffer. Union Pacific can't handle these 8 extra movements over their railroad?

[NickG]

From the Shreveport, LA Times:

Don't expect to see an Amtrak train rolling through Bossier City any time soon.

Joe Littlejohn, who has for years chaired a committee to bring Amtrak to town, announced Monday that city officials are no longer interested in having a demonstration route between Bossier City and Fort Worth, Texas. They are, however, still very interested in creating a permanent route.

The full story is here.

[EvergreenRailfan]

Wasn't running one or two demonstration services a year in the original Amtrak Legislation?