The 3 Amtrak Routes that can be Electrified Tomorrow

"Public services do not need to be profitable. They need to SERVE THE PUBLIC." I cannot believe this needs to be said as much as it does.

I feel like amtrack is achievemnt hunting in a game like " Stay un- electrified for 100 years"

Also, I find that Detroit has such potential for a great commuter/regional/international rail system but it's being hindered by old ideologies and the dark legacy of the fall of Detroit.

The freight rail line Amtrak from Michigan city to Chicago is sooo slow, using the SSL right of way is actually brilliant

The same fight about electrification has been going on in the UK for DECADES. The fact is that government agencies find it super hard to finance capital expenditure for electrification (with a repayment time of 60 years or longer) versus the "quick fix" finance deal you can get for some modification to the trains. It's incredibly frustrating.

I'm an airline pilot based out of Chicago, one of the routes I fly is Chicago-O'hare to South Bend airport. It's a 20 minute flight but it usually takes almost 2 hours from boarding to deplaning after you add up boarding time and taxi time to get from the runways to the terminal at O'hare. Many times the flight is delayed due to weather at O'hare or mechanical issues with the aging CRJ-200s that we use to run the route. The South Shore Line pulls directly into the South Bend airport terminal, but to get from the South Shore Line stop at the SBN airport to O'hare takes THREE AND HALF HOURS and there are only seven trains a day. Even driving can take up to three hours during rush hour. So this totally absurd and pointless flight will continue to exist for the foreseeable future because we can't get our trains to go 90 miles in less than 2 hours. Don't get me started on the Milwaukee-O'hare route, which already has a bus service that takes less time than the flight.

8:30 - "You don't need to make public services profitable, you just need to make it serve the public." Well said!

Imagine if tomorrow, Amtrak announced that they were planning a new electrification project on one of these lines.

While my parents are from NJ, I was born in Westchester. They specifically chose Westchester because of the convenience of the Metro North's Hudson Line to NYC where my father worked as an attorney. Heck, I was almost named Hudson because we lived by the river. We lived up a hill and only around a ten-minute walk down to the Metro North station in a very walkable area. The Hudson Line/southern Empire Corridor line along the Hudson is one of the most beautiful routes in the nation simply because of the views at 0:00. ESPECIALLY during Fall. Seeing those Palisades makes me grateful of all the nature that the US has to offer. The US is BLESSED to have such wonders, and it saddens me when such nature is threatened. It is why we must protect it.

I've lived in Madison, Wi my whole life and it's so infuriating to know that despite being a growing city of about 300,000 (and about 700,000 in metro area) and once having two railroad stations, now the closest Amtrak station is 28 miles outside the city in Columbus. It's so dissapointing to see all the stations in Madison and surrounding cities just sitting there. There was a plan in 2011 to have a high speed rail system connect from Chicago to Minneapolis that would finally reconnect the city, but our then governor (Scott Walker) refused the $810 million provided to fund it's construction because "It wouldn't be profitable". He then decided to spend $1.7 billion on reconstructing the Zoo Interchange in Milwaukee that solved little to nothing in traffic...

How can fucking America not have electrified rail? As an Euroman it's an absurd.

Honorable mention for the Pacific Surfliner made my day. Especially since the segment between LA and Anaheim will need to be electrified for the CAHSR. My big wishlist would be for LOSSAN to electrify the entirety of the Pacific Surfliner corridor from San Luis Obispo to San Diego as well as all of the Metrolink lines.

I was talking to a guy that worked on that line when they were upgrading it. He said the line is ready for electrification. They future proofed the line. Eventually they want to use the New Haven to Hartford portion for HSR to Boston.

Electrifying the Wolverine Corridor and using the SSL right-of-way makes a ton of sense. Maybe even stopping at Gary, too. And keep in mind that a good chunk of the line in Indiana is slated to be double-tracked. Only problems I could see would be having to deal with CN (like you said) and track speed, especially between Miller and Kensington.

Yes pls do a video on the entire empire corridor, upstate has some great cities with good bones and decent public transit and I feel like strong train lines would be a huge boost to an area that’s a lot better than ppl give credit

Pennsylvania having one of the best electrified routes with the Keystone Line (Philly to Harrisburg) is so funny to me.

I just wish Amtrak had more vertical lines. There is no reason that going from Detroit to Buffalo requires you to go all the way back to Chicago to go east. Literally one short line would save hours on a trip.

The stretch of rail from Washington, D.C. to Richmond, Virginia is a prime candidate for electrfication also.

The great thing about Virginia is that not only did it indeed buy the CSX ROW between DC and Richmond, but it also bought the CSX S-Line in tandem with North Carolina. This means we could build an entirely new passenger-rail corridor from Raleigh to DC and up the rest of the NEC.

What we here: A man speaking straight facts what the US government hears: An actual good use of taxes What congress here's: A complete waste of their money