Rail Passenger USA

August 31, 2008

Newsletter

Volume 2, Number 8 - Archive

In This Issue

  • Amtrak Continues to Grow
  • Route Guide Overview
  • Lake Shore Limited Route
    Guide Coming Soon
  • Colorado's Tunnel District
    (Errata)

Contact Us

Amtrak Continues to Grow

Good news and bad news: According to an AP release dated August 20, 2008, "... Already record-high ridership is expected to boom further to 50 million riders a year in ten years, from around 25 million now, meaning Amtrak must double its fleet to meet demand..." (Obsolete Link).

Rail Passenger USA Route Guide Overview

A Route Guide Overview feature has been added to www.railpassengerusa.com. This overview is a slide show that contains a slide for each of Amtrak's current routes. If a Rail Passenger USA Route Guide has been prepared for an Amtrak Route the slide uses green highlighting. If we haven't prepared a Guide for the given route, the slide uses blue highlighting. This Amtrak cross reference will allow us to better track Amtrak Schedule changes and keep the links to connecting trains at each station stop in step with Amtrak updates. Click on the USA icon to the left to go to the overview

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Since Amtrak's last major schedule update of May 12, 2008 Amtrak has updated the following schedules:

Route Effective Date
Empire Service July 7, 2008
City of New Orleans July 14, 2008
Ethan Allen Express/Vermonter August 4, 2008
Keystone Service August 4, 2008
Northeast Corridor 1 - New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington August 4, 2008
Northeast Corridor 2 - Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Newport News,
Virginia Beach		 August 4, 2008
Northeast Corridor 3 -
Springfield, Hartford, New York, Washington		 August 4, 2008
California Zephyr August 11, 2008

As of August 31, 2008 Rail Passenger USA has prepared Route Guides for eleven Amtrak Routes covering over 300 station stops. More than 1000 pages containing local maps and other detailed local information are provided.

With a couple of exceptions, since we're based in the Rocky Mountains, our emphasis to date has concentrated on completing the routes west of the Mississippi. We're now heading east in earnest starting with the Lake Shore Limited.

Lake Shore Limited Route Guide Coming Soon

The next Route Guide to be added to the Rail Passenger USA library will be the Lake Shore Limited - Amtrak Trains No. 48 and 49.

A link to the External Links section of the upcoming Lake Shore Limited Route Guide may be followed by clicking on the photo to the left. The Lake Shore Limited runs between New York City and Chicago via the route of New York Central's historic 20th Century Limited.

Colorado's Tunnel District (Errata)

In July, Rail Passenger USA added an article on "The Tunnel District", a travelogue featuring the California Zephyr's route through the Colorado Rockies from Denver to Winter Park. The published link to this travelogue was incorrectly posted. Click here to go to this travelogue that is now linked correctly.


Happy Rails to You!
Ray York
Rail Passenger USA