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Future Fests as of Winter/Spring 2018


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 17 April 2018 - 02:38 AM

Time to refresh this thread with current thinking, which has changed just a little.
 
As you know, this past Fest in January 2018 we did the New York City area again.  I am hopeful that we will be able to travel to the Boston area for January 2019, pending completion of the two projects that kept us from there before.  Namely that would be full service along the MBTA Fairmont Line to Readville, and the Royal Junction siding in Falmouth, ME allowing for a Boston-Brunswick round trip with minimal layover time in the latter.   Beyond that.... we'll see.
 
Like always the choices for venues are not solely based on what we have and have not yet done, but also on recent or upcoming line openings to avoid having to go back to complete something we could have waited for.  
 
For the summers, I have said in the past that there is lots to do in and around Texas, which would require a Big Three trips of sorts.  We completed one of them last year with the MTRF visiting the Dallas area.   There are two other cities with existing rail lines (and nothing new down the line in the near future).... Austin and Houston.  Houston I've put as part of a trip to New Orleans, with a round trip on the Sunset Limited between them.  More on that later.   For Austin it would be another Texas Eagle based trip, during which we could also deviate to Oklahoma City once that city's streetcar opens, and also we could make that long sought 24-hour stopover in Little Rock to ride its streetcar system.
 
DISCUSSION OF WHAT IS NOW Louisiana-Texas RailFest 2018 has been moved to this thread.
 
Also on my potential Future Fests for a few years (with necessary refinements) has been a Montreal RailFest, taking in segments there that had not yet been in service when we last visited in 2006.    We also visited Toronto in 2004, and returned briefly as a side trip from Montreal in 2006. Toronto has a lot new to offer, including the Union-Pearson Express to/from the airport, the free airport people mover at the end of it, and the newest addition to the Line 1 subway to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.  There was one new streetcar line added (the 514 Cherry).  Also, some GO TRANSIT commuter rail lines that previously were rush hour only now offer all day hourly service along a portion of those lines.  So one can now ride the Stouffville Line as far as Unionville, the Kitchener Line out to Mt. Pleasant, and the Barrie Line to Aurora. What I did was to take the previous Montreal Fest and added several days in Toronto (including one to ride the Maple Leaf), and connected them with a VIA Rail trip in one direction.  Including one day to ride the westbound Maple Leaf and one day to return from Canada on the southbound Adirondack, the entire Fest would take 7 days.  There would be 2-1/2 days of rail activities in the Toronto area, and 2 full days to ride the rails in the Montreal area.  The new Toronto-Montreal itinerary is here .
 
So we have things to do for the next few years, and certainly after that we will then have more to do in other places, with new streetcars coming online in cities like Milwaukee and El Paso.   Detroit is certainly railfan friendly with the Q-Line adjacent to the Amtrak station.   I wish Cincinnati were possible too, but it's only served by the thrice-weekly and often troubled Cardinal.  We also at some time could return to Atlanta to do its downtown streetcar, and also Charlotte which has a new streetcar currently being expanded in its Phase 2, and a new segment of Blue Line LRT to the north opening in March.

Edited by KevinKorell, 10 May 2018 - 01:15 AM.
Added El Paso


Kevin Korell


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#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 17 April 2018 - 03:15 AM

With the mention above of a possible fest in Canada, there are even more things we can do that are coming online by the end of this year.  By taking either VIA Rail or GO Transit to Kitchener (or a combination of the two to form a round trip), we can ride a new light rail line called ION that is set to open by December 2018.  And we could also return to Ottawa, where the new O-Train light rail Confederation Line (also known as the 1 Line) is planned to be open by November 2018.  The O-Train diesel light rail line we rode back in 2006 is still there but it's been renamed the Trillium Line or 2 Line and will no longer require taking a bus to access it as the two lines will meet (and the new Confederation Line will also serve the Ottawa VIA Rail station). When dust clears from past and pending Fests I'll try to work those options in.



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#3 KevinKorell

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Posted 29 April 2018 - 06:43 PM

As above, I have now re-worked a potential Fest in Canada for 2019 or later, to include the new ION light rail in the Waterloo Region.  One day added to the length of that Fest, and one overnight required in Kitchener or Waterloo.  VIA Rail between Toronto and Kitchener.   GO Transit trains do that run too but they take longer and don't allow us time to do the light rail unless we did it in the dark at night.  Also rather than going from Toronto to Montreal, I made it Toronto-Ottawa and Ottawa-Montreal (just as we did in 2006), with several hours to ride the new and old O-Train lines there in Ottawa.



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#4 steve4031

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Posted 04 May 2018 - 09:15 AM

Looks Great!!

#5 KevinKorell

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Posted 10 May 2018 - 01:28 AM

Going back to the original discussion in this thread, since what has evolved as LTRF will now include Austin, we therefore would have the third of the Big Three involving Texas aligning into place.  There actually would be no more new commuter or rail transit lines yet to explore within Texas, but we would pass through most of it and change trains in Fort Worth in order to get to & from Oklahoma City.  So now to include Oklahoma City as well as Little Rock, I also added back a stopover in St. Louis to finally ride Delmar Loop Trolley since my latest understanding is that it should be open by this summer (2018).  That potential future Fest is here.



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#6 saxman

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Posted 14 July 2018 - 02:53 PM

TexRail opens up late 2018 as well from Fort Worth to DFW Airport. Not sure if there would be time to squeeze in a ride on that during one of the layovers.



#7 KevinKorell

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Posted 14 July 2018 - 04:05 PM

It sure rates us taking it for a spin, Chris. Sounds like the best way to handle that would be a 24 stopover in Ft Worth rather than same day connections there. Thanks!


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