5 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

I have updated a few of the future Rail Fests.

First of all, I have scrapped (for now), the Canadian West Fest 201X. The reasons include:

• The cost of first class on the Canadian
• Calgary is not served by anything intercity except infrequent, expensive bus service.

While I would love to ride the light rail systems in Edmonton and Calgary sometime, they are just too inaccessible for us, and getting there is unaffordable for most. If anybody has any ideas how this could be accomplished, please let me know.

So I decided to move Vancouver back to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) RailFest 2010. After hearing input that one day would be too rushed, I scheduled two days there, with one night's hotel stay. The Amtrak Cascades train goes up from Seattle in the morning and we would go back to Seattle the following evening.

A visit to Vancouver would be post-Olympics, which takes place in the winter 5 months before this Fest. The plus side is that improvements made for the Olympics will be in place and already in regular service. For SkyTrain Automated Light Rail, besides the existing Expo Line and Millennium Line (both primarily east of downtown), by 2010 there will also be the Canada Line which will run south to Vancouver International Airport and Richmond. Unfortunately, unless things change, the West Coast Express commuter rail line between Vancouver and Mission would be impossible due to the line's rush hour orientation to and from the city. Another project, the Evergreen Line (.pdf file), a light rail (not Automated Light Rail like the other lines) line that will connect with the West Coast Express at an intermediate station... but unfortunately it is not scheduled to open until 2011.

To make room for two days in Vancouver, I had to cut Minneapolis from the PNW Fest. We would be away too many days. The cut means that we would just ride through to Chicago the same day. However, if enough people feel that it's still worthwhile to make our 24-hour stopover off the Empire Builder as part of the return trip from Seattle, I am still open to putting it back. As it is now, for those from the east coast, this would be a 12-day span of time. With Minneapolis it would be 13 days.

The new itinerary for the PNW Fest is here.

But don't fret, we can still do Minneapolis another time. Read on.....

Now regarding Chicago.... My thought in the past was to have another Windy City RailFest 200X like we had in 2003, at least on paper. The feeling was that while we were on our way to California, the Pacific Northwest, or elsewhere, we would try to ride some lines during our layover, and then I would cut them off the potential Chicago event. Well that hasn't been happening because we have had a few tight Amtrak connections there. So what I've done is to make Chicago a destination again, but I added two side trips to other cities. Note that spending a full Sunday in Chicagoland is crucial because it is the only day of the week that allows for a reasonable layover on the UP North Line in Kenosha, WI to ride the streetcars there.

And here is where Minneapolis comes in. What I have done is to maintain all of the activities we have not yet done in the Chicago area, but I also worked in a round trip to Minneapolis on the Empire Builder, and an overnight round trip to Memphis on the City of New Orleans. Minneapolis, when approached this way, would require a two-night stay since the westbound EB gets there in the late evening and the eastbound EB leaves in the morning. But one gets a full day to do the Hiawatha LRT line, and perhaps by then there could be a Northstar commuter line and a Central LRT line to St. Paul. Ample time would be available to explore Mall of America (which is the largest mall you will ever see since we won't be laying eyes on the West Edmonton Mall for reasons already stated).

Memphis, on the other hand, would require zero nights in a hotel. The CONO gets there southbound in the early morning, and it leaves northbound late at night. Two nights would be spent aboard the train, but a very long day can be spent in town and still ride all the trolley lines. There might be time for Mud Island (or visiting Elvis if time, available transporation, and funds allow).

So the former Windy City RailFest 200X has been renamed Midwest RailFest 2012, and it will be 10 days long for those who come from the east coast. The itinerary is located here.

Therefore, where we stand now, our tentative schedule for the next 5 summers trips is as follows:

2008 - Florida (Tampa, Miami, Jacksonville)
2009 - SoCal (Los Angeles & San Diego definitely, and maybe an Albuquerque stopover, and maybe riding out to San Pedro to do the Red Cars)
2010 - Pacific Northwest (now Portland, Seattle/Tacoma, Vancouver)
2011 - Rockies (Salt Lake City, Denver)
2012 - Midwest (Minneapolis, Chicago, Memphis)

I also have in the wings the Crescent Fest (Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston), which I removed following the damage that came from Hurricane Katrina. That damage will have been rectified (save for the necessary rebuilding of the red streetcars) when the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line reopens for its entire length. Also, there is a North Carolina fest that can be returned to rotation once the CAT Lynx Blue Line opens up and the historic trolleys are restored over the same route. Before we get to all these Fests, I will qualify to live in certain retirement villages. So many trains, so little time!

[KevinKorell]

Reactivated a potential North Carolina RailFest now that Charlotte's Lynx LRT has opened, and that the heritage trolley will be starting up again by March 2008.

Homepage here.

[KevinKorell]

Based on the discussion we had during the most recent Sunday chat session, I've taken the proposed Southern California RailFest 2009 and turned it upside down, at least in terms of the long distance travel. Instead of going west on the Lake Shore Limited (49) and Southwest Chief (3), and returning on the Sunset Limited (2) and Crescent (20), we will now do it clockwise instead. Thus we go south on the Crescent (19), west on the Sunset Limited (1), and east on the Southwest Chief (4) and Lake Shore Limited (48).

Reasons for this change were to ensure better arrival and departure times in New Orleans, and to make sure we ride over the Huey Long Bridge in daylight. (I don't think we're too comfortable with #2's 4 PM NOL arrival time! )

The stopover in Albuquerque was preserved on a Saturday, only it's on the return trip.

The activities within California remained the same as they were before. If by chance we do have a later than expected arrival in LAX, the activity later that day of taking a bus to San Pedro and riding the Waterfront Red Car can always be dropped. That would buy us back 3-1/2 hours if we are severely late.

I also made the San Diego to Los Angeles trip on the Pacific Surfliner later in the day since #4 leaves LAX four hours later than #2 does.

All of this pre-supposes that the Sunset Limited will still exist by then in its present form. If things are changed, then it's back to the drawing board. The upside of the threatened change is riding through New Orleans, and the downside may be some extra time in San Antonio (where at least for now, Amtrak is the only train game in town).

Oh yeah, the revised homepage is here and the revised itinerary is here.

Edited by KevinKorell, 15 December 2007 - 12:03 AM.

[KevinKorell]

Florida RailFest for the summer of 2008 has had some very minor changes. Due to Amtrak's rescheduling of the northbound Silver Star and Silver Meteor, the itinerary reflects the following changes:

• Since the Silver Metor will be running in the Miami timeslot that the Silver Star occupied, we will take the Silver Meteor MIA-JAX instead. This will ensure a much better arrival time in JAX (5:10 PM vs 10:17 PM). The trip is actually shorter since the Meteor does not dogleg to Lakeland and Tampa. (Downside, we get fewer Am-miles!)
• Silver Meteor times were adjusted for the next day's JAX-Northeast trip ending the fest.
• JTA bus and Skyway times were adjusted to allow us to get from and to the Amtrak station at the revised times.

Homepage here.
Itinerary here.

[jis]

To make room for two days in Vancouver, I had to cut Minneapolis from the PNW Fest. We would be away too many days. The cut means that we would just ride through to Chicago the same day. However, if enough people feel that it's still worthwhile to make our 24-hour stopover off the Empire Builder as part of the return trip from Seattle, I am still open to putting it back. As it is now, for those from the east coast, this would be a 12-day span of time. With Minneapolis it would be 13 days.

I will be very tempted to make it a 13 day anyway, but not with Minneapolis, but with a day's stop at Essex MT at the Izaak Walton inn

[KevinKorell]

I will be very tempted to make it a 13 day anyway, but not with Minneapolis, but with a day's stop at Essex MT at the Izaak Walton inn

I'd be tempted to have the entire group make a 24-hour stop in Essex, MT too, that is, if there was a transit system to ride there!