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Future Fests as of Winter 2013


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 09:55 PM

Fresh thread for Winter 2013 to discuss our future plans. The most previous thread, now closed and unpinned, is here. The reason I do this seasonally is that the older threads generally have links to pages on my site that no longer exist or have been removed or renamed.

In person at the OTOL New England RailFest 2013 held in January, I told people that the next Fest, to be OTOL Atlantic Coast RailFest (ACRF) 2013, will be starting on Sunday, July 14th. It will run 6 days, thus ending Friday, July 19th. It is still listed on my site as a "future fest"; when more pages are put together I will officially launch it.

As I said to some people, and alluded to in the previous Future Fests thread (link above in first paragraph), there are a few things to discuss about ACRF, which we will do once the launch takes place. It is, therefore, as always, subject to minor tweeks as we make those decisions.

Our Fest Calendar page has been updated, to remove the 2012 events, and to include ACRF and next Winter's event, which will be in the Washington, DC area. At the latter event, we will hopefully get our first look at the Metro Silver Line, and have some streetcars to ride as well. Unlike the recent 3-day event in Boston, at this time I forsee it as two days Saturday and Sunday. Optionally for those in town Friday evening, some suggestions might be VRE, MARC, or an Amtrak "points run" between Washington Union Station and either Rockville, Alexandria, or BWI Airport. No web pages have yet been created for this, so your suggestions are welcome. It could be possible to do Washington Metro one day, and Baltimore Metro & light rail the other day, while maintaining a hotel room in one city or the other.

Thinking further ahead, I still am hopeful for a Rockies RailFest (RRF) 2014 event next year. Pieces are falling into place nicely in Salt Lake City with the new lines opening up on time. Denver, so far, looks like it can be done in one day, but that may be subject to change once the West LRT Line schedule becomes available. RRF so far looks to be an 8-day event, including Amtrak travel between Chicago, Salt Lake City, Reno, and Denver. The 8 days does not include travel time for those living east of Chicago. We can also discuss whether to add a day in Chicago like we did for CRF 2012 to ensure we can ride something there. The bucket list for Chicago still includes a few Metra routes or segments we have not yet done.

Still in the future, we have two events planned to feature Texas, which continues to have much to offer in the way of passenger trains, and adjacent states. OTOL Texas RailFest would feature Houston and a return to Dallas, once both cities open up more light rail lines. OTOL Eagle RailFest (arbitrary name based on 2005 trip but it could change) would take in other cities in Texas, including Austin (Cap MetroRail) and going through Fort Worth in order to take a side trip to Oklahoma City on the Heartland Flyer. Of course the Texas Eagle would be used between most of the locations. A 24-hour stopover would be done at Little Rock, AR to ride that city's streetcar lines, very similar to the Tampa operation. San Antonio could come into play as well if we wait until L-Star is completed.

Another event that will be based in Chicago but also include travels to Minneapolis/St. Paul and the two large cities in Missouri would be the OTOL Midwest RailFest. A return to St. Louis to at least ride the LRT segment that opened well after our 2005 visit would be included, and now that Kansas City is getting a streetcar line by 2015 we will have something to do at the other end of the state.

Pittsburgh and a Montreal return remain on the back burner. The former still lacks a useful fare instrument geared to visitors, and the latter has promised a new commuter rail line but its projected opening keeps getting postponed.

Besides, there's too much else to do in the upcoming years! :)


Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ





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