The Long Track Ahead

OOC: With thanks to Toixstory for the title of this timeline, and others for helping me with sketching/drafting stuff out and checking it so far. Here is the first chapter of "The Long Track Ahead".


The announcement of bankruptcy proceedings by Penn Central (then the sixth largest corporation in the United States) would put any future of passenger rail in the United States into serious danger. Passenger rail had been declining heavily in ridership after the end of World War II, much of it escalating further and further throughout the 1960s as attempts to keep passenger rail stable and afloat were done. Many of the attempts had failed, and it appeared with more and more growing concern that passenger rail would collapse. The failure of Penn Central, then the sixth largest corporation in the United States would force action to be immediately taken. The National Association of Railway Passengers (NARP) would be one of many groups leading the charge for the government to keep passenger service alive. This would lead to the Rail Passenger Service Act being passed, which would create the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC).

The NRPC, named as “Railpax” was intended to be a hybrid of public and private funding to stay alive and continue intercity passenger rail operations. For some, they saw it as a quick and easy way to end passenger rail with one last “hurrah”. For others, they saw the need of government intervention in order to keep passenger rail stable and once they made a profit, to be removed from government support. President Nixon himself was against the NRPC at first, but it is believed either just before or just after the signing of the Clean Air Extension Act of 1970, his opinion would shift in favor of the NRPC. While there is no clear version as to why, it is believed it was both a political maneuver by the President and his own views on environmentalism emerging at this point.

The NRPC (the unofficial name changed to Amtrak days before it would start operating) would begin operating on May 1st, 1971. For Amtrak, they would be forced into decisions prior to beginning operations such as the general planning for what they intended to focus on. Two major schools of thought were had, with one being to focus on long distance routes, and the other to focus more on short and medium distance routes to compete with airlines and cars. Eventually, it would be met with a choice to focus more heavily on short and medium distance while also retaining the more financially backed and “stable” long distance routes present. This decision would be met by their initial CEO, Paul Reistrup, who was the Vice President of passenger traffic of the Illinois Central Railroad. His decisions would in some ways help shape the initial Amtrak operations in order to keep the “corporation” afloat and stable.


Mr. Reistrup's eventual decision was based around an industrial method known as the “spoke-hub distribution paradigm” which was intended to primarily use the basis of hubs for major Amtrak transfer points which were primarily centered around crew exchange points, train yards, major railway junctions, fueling stations, and other direct factors to contribute to it. In the Midwest, it was identified for two immediate locations to be done as so-called “hubs”, which were Chicago Union Station, and Cincinnati Union Station. Both of them offered avenues of train operations from each station, and also a center of passenger activity in the Midwest. In the Northeast, Penn Station/Grand Central were the two identified areas for New York City (Penn Station was built along the Northeast Corridor, with Grand Central accepting trains only from upstate New York), and Washington Union Terminal was the other identified location. In the Southeast, no clear location was identified, with proposals to base it in Atlanta (requiring a need to build an entire infrastructure present there), New Orleans, or somewhere in Florida. In the West Coast, it was identified for Los Angeles as one of the hubs, while either Portland or Seattle would operate as another one, with no decision yet clear there. Sacramento was identified as a “third” hub, but to a much lesser extent in comparison.

Amtrak would of course be met with their initial issues as they struggled in their beginnings. They had immediate issues to face as they began operations, much of it extending financially. Stations had had deferred maintenance and the need to restore and rebuild them for usage would be a significant cost, or Amtrak could work on building smaller stations which were cheaper to maintain and less of a capital cost than keeping the large union or central stations around. In Chicago alone, Amtrak had the need to combine seven stations based at Chicago just into Union Station itself. The wide variety of different train cars from different railroads (usually not being able to be connected) required the need to be able to make them compatible with each other, and were issues in initial route changes. Furthermore, sharp difficulties in passenger orders also led to general conflicts in layovers in order to meet other trains would occur.

For many of Amtrak's routes they had seen to continue routes based around the general planning by Mr. Reistrup involving the spoke-hub distribution system and the “hub” networks they had planned for. Previous routes run were modified in order to fit into the new systems along with operating for the primary intercity passenger operations. One such modified route was the former B&O National Limited, which originally ran from St. Louis to Baltimore via Cincinnati and Washington D.C., which was modified by Amtrak to run from Kansas City to Cincinnati via St. Louis. Many of the shorter distance trains would in some extent be lengthened or modified over the period, with trains such as the Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge extended towards Milwaukee from St. Louis, and other trains canceled such as the Lake Shore.


The biggest issue in Paul Reistrup's mind as he began to operate Amtrak was the lack of a unified rolling stock, with all varieties of rolling stock in a variety of maintenance states (many of them in a terrible maintenance state), and obsolete heating designs (the usage of steam generators). Over 1971 and 1972, Mr. Reistrup would draft out a general plan for a new type of rolling stock used by Amtrak to replace many of the older designs in a unified method along with new plans for locomotives. The passing of the Amtrak Improvement Act of 1973, on February 21st, 1973 would approve additional funding to Amtrak to purchase new rolling stock and locomotives and the rights to acquire right of ways and track rights. Furthermore, along with the additional funding supplied to Amtrak, it also had provisions for the creation of experimental routes outlined by the Secretary of the Department of Transportation (at least one route must be created every year for testing for two years, and further operational status will depend on the amount of patronage gathered on the line operation) and immediate steps to support intercity passenger train usage for elderly or handicapped individuals. The initial funding as he saw it would primarily be directed towards new rolling stock additions, and the remains of it to start work on purchasing sections of track that was seen as useful for further financial operations.

The rolling stock plans were initially comprised towards a majority of the “Amfleet” cars as they were known, along with new supporting locomotives. The total amount of Amfleet cars ordered comprised 562 cars, with 69 “Amcafe” cars, 46 “Amdinette” cars, 41 “Amclub” cars, 103 “Amfleet” long distance cars, and 308 “Amfleet” short distance cars. Amcafe's car had fifty-one coach seats, with a snack bar in the middle. Amdinette's had twenty-three coach seats, eight four person booths, and a snack bar in the middle. Amclubs had twenty-three coach seats, eighteen club seats, and a snack bar in the middle. Amfleet long distance cars had sixty coach seats. Amfleet short distance cars had eighty-four coach seats. Another twenty-eight Metroliners were also ordered to help service in the Northeast Corridor in the electrified areas. In terms of general locomotives, plans called for eighty EMD SDP40Fs for service on long distance trains (all fitted with steam propulsion with plans to retrofit to HEP) and one hundred and twenty EMD F40PHs for short and medium distance trains. This did not include looking for a high speed electric locomotive for usage in the Northeast, after the failures of the FRA to certify the General Electric E60 (which was Amtrak's planned successor to the GG1 used by the Penn Central).

In addition to the planned orders of Amfleets and regular diesel locomotives, Amtrak was in the processing of ordering a total of four RTG Turboliner trainsets as a show of “public appearance” by boosting popularity showing off the “new cars” and trains in operation, along with them expected to be cheaper and faster than a diesel train in comparison (due to them using a gas turbine engine). The plans for the Turboliners would follow along primary operations in the Midwest based around Chicago, operating to St. Louis and Detroit respectively. The belief was in terms of passenger operations to those two cities would generate the highest fiscal operations in comparison to the running costs.

As 1973 moved to end, Amtrak was in the process of trying to slowly right themselves from the mess, as organizational efforts looked to be slowly garnering towards a positive, yet significant issues were still in the way as they struggled to get into shallow water. Sections of track Amtrak ran on, were in terrible shape and the forcing of operating over them posed significant hazards to operations. Acquisitions of new rolling stock was underway to hopefully begin standardizing the fleet, along with plans for acquiring track-rights. Five direct routes as President Reistrup saw that needed to be purchase over the 1970s were the 1) Northeast Corridor lines from Penn Central from Washington to Boston; 2) The former New York Central (now Penn Central) Water Level Route from Grand Central Station to Buffalo; 3) The former New York Central (now Penn Central) lines from Chicago to Cincinnati via Indianapolis courtesy of the lack of maintenance on them; 4) The Baltimore & Ohio line from St. Louis to Cincinnati; and 5) The former New York Central (now Penn Central) lines from Cincinnati to Cleveland via Columbus. Unfortunately as the Yom Kippur War broke out in the Middle East, the nations of OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) would launch an immediate oil embargo upon Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As the news set in, President Reistrup is believed to have spoken the following words, “This could not have come at a worse time.”


Northeast Corridor

Bay State: Boston-New Haven (Southbound); New York-Boston (Northbound)
Bunker Hill: Boston-Philadelphia (Southbound); Philadelphia-New Haven (Northbound)
Chesapeake: New York-Washington D.C. (Southbound)
Connecticut Yankee: Springfield (MA)-Philadelphia (Both Ways)
East Wind: Boston-New York (Southbound); Philadelphia-Boston (Northbound)
Free State: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Merchants Limited: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Metroliner: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways); New Haven-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Minuteman: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Narragansett: Boston-Washington D.C. (Southbound)
New Yorker: Washington D.C.-New York (Northbound)
Night Owl: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Patriot: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Senator: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)

Water Level Route

None

Keystone Corridor

Silverliner Service: Philadelphia-Harrisburg (Both Ways)
Valley Forge: New York-Harrisburg (Both Ways)

Northeast

Montrealer: Washington D.C.-New York-Hartford-Springfield-Montreal (Northbound)
Washingtonian: Montreal-Springfield-Hartford-New York-Washington D.C. (Southbound)

Midwest

Abraham Lincoln: St. Louis-Chicago-Milwaukee**
Hiawatha Service: Chicago-Milwaukee
Illini: Chicago-Champaign
Illinois Zephyr: Chicago-Quincy
James Whitcomb Riley: Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati
Ohio State Limited: Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland
Prairie State: Milwaukee-Chicago-Springfield (IL)-St. Louis
River Runner: Kansas City-St. Louis-Cincinnati
St. Clair: Chicago-Detroit**
Shawnee: Chicago-Carbondale

** Indicates Turboliners to enter service next year

Southeast

None

West

Mount Rainier: Seattle-Portland
Pacific International: Seattle-Vancouver
Puget Sound: Seattle-Portland
San Diegan: San Diego-Los Angeles

Long Distance Trains

Broadway Limited: New York City-Philadelphia-Harrisburg-Pittsburgh-Fort Wayne-Chicago
Champion: New York City-Washington-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-St. Petersburg/Miami
Cincinnati Limited: Cincinnati-Columbus-Pittsburgh-Harrisburg-Philadelphia
Coast Starlight/Daylight: Seattle-Portland-Oakland-Los Angeles
Empire Builder: Chicago-Minneapolis-Spokane-Seattle/Portland
George Washington: Cincinnati-Charleston-Washington D.C.
North Coast Hiawatha: Chicago-Minneapolis-Bismarck-Butte-Spokane-Seattle
Pan-American: Cincinnati-Louisville-Nashville-Montgomery-New Orleans
Panama Limited: Chicago-Memphis-New Orleans
Silver Meteor: New York City-Washington D.C.-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami
Silver Star: New York City-Washington D.C.-Raleigh-Columbia-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami
Sunset Limited: New Orleans-Houston-San Antonio-Los Angeles
Super Chief: Chicago-Kansas City-Albuquerque-Los Angeles
Texas Chief: Chicago-Kansas City-Oklahoma City-Dallas-Houston

Looks interesting- id like to see where this goes

300 locomotives is massive overkill if you only plan on running a service with 600 passenger cars, or you'll need to rebuilt the older cars as Amtrak did IOTL. It might be more financially viable at least early on for Amtrak to rebuild as much of their older rolling stock as possible. What might also help them is to have their new cars be double-deckers (OTL Superliners or something different) for the routes out west (where clearances are better) and have the rebuilt rolling stock primarily being kept east of Chicago. It's difficult to make money on the short haul routes without big investments in track and equipment, but the long distance runs can be made to make money more easily due to longer distances allowing for greater fares.

And if you are going for a better Amtrak, the SDP40F is a dead-end - it was only ordered (as was the E60 electrics) because it would be easy to convert them to freight operation (as a number of SDP40Fs were) if Amtrak was unable to stay operating. You'd be better to have more F40PHs than SDP40Fs if you are going to order additional locomotives.

mr1940s said:

Looks interesting- id like to see where this goes

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Thank you very much. Trust me, I am sketching out for the fun time ahead in railroad operations in the United States...

TheMann said:

300 locomotives is massive overkill if you only plan on running a service with 600 passenger cars, or you'll need to rebuilt the older cars as Amtrak did IOTL. It might be more financially viable at least early on for Amtrak to rebuild as much of their older rolling stock as possible. What might also help them is to have their new cars be double-deckers (OTL Superliners or something different) for the routes out west (where clearances are better) and have the rebuilt rolling stock primarily being kept east of Chicago. It's difficult to make money on the short haul routes without big investments in track and equipment, but the long distance runs can be made to make money more easily due to longer distances allowing for greater fares.

Click to expand...

In regards to the numbers, may have gone a wee bit high really (couldn't find initial order numbers for the F40PHs though posing the main issue). I do intend to have the older cars rebuilt though (in certain degrees depending upon type) along with new car purchases in bi-level format though. Equipment numbers at the moment were iffy-ish and I estimated for the amount of cars/locomotives ordered by Amtrak based off the differing conditions here. The numbers might be changed still, but do note those are initial planned orders for Amtrak along with the need to keep funding prepared for once they get an electric locomotive along the NEC.

And if you are going for a better Amtrak, the SDP40F is a dead-end - it was only ordered (as was the E60 electrics) because it would be easy to convert them to freight operation (as a number of SDP40Fs were) if Amtrak was unable to stay operating. You'd be better to have more F40PHs than SDP40Fs if you are going to order additional locomotives.

Click to expand...

As I see it, the SDP40F could have been a design that might have served Amtrak if it was initially introduced with HEP at first and had the right track in mind. It would have worked wonders in the western railroads and long distance trains.

EDIT: I edited the responses a decent portion because I felt like I didn't make my responses clear when initially posted.

Usili said:

Thank you very much. Trust me, I am sketching out for the fun time ahead in railroad operations in the United States...

Click to expand...

I did that for the freight railroads, which is more my specialty (former employee of Burlington Northern, trained civil engineer). Collaboration on an American railroads TL sometime?

Usili said:

In regards to the numbers, may have gone a wee bit high really (couldn't find initial order numbers for the F40PHs though posing the main issue).

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According to what I was able to figure out, Amtrak eventually bought 215 F40PH diesels, but the vast majority of those were built to replace the SDP40Fs, of which Amtrak bought 150, and yet some spent less than a decade in service due to their riding problems. 100 SDP40Fs and 200 F40PHs is gross overkill unless you want to substantially grow Amtrak's operations.

Usili said:

I do intend to have the older cars rebuilt though (in certain degrees depending upon type) along with new car purchases in bi-level format though. Equipment numbers at the moment were iffy-ish and I estimated for the amount of cars/locomotives ordered by Amtrak based off the differing conditions here. The numbers might be changed still, but do note those are initial planned orders for Amtrak along with the need to keep funding prepared for once they get an electric locomotive along the NEC.

Click to expand...

Fair enough on these fronts, but if it had been me running Amtrak I would have moved to rebuild every single one of the passenger cars delivered to me, starting with the Santa Fe Hi-Levels, dome cars and sleeper cars that are in good conditions, with the worst-condition ones getting the rebuilds first. Amtrak's Beech Grove and Wilmington shops both have the ability to do this right from the off. I see that the delivery of the Amfleets is a good idea, but right front the off I'd be working on the stuff I've got. Likewise, it might make sense to skip the SDP40F entirely in favor of Beech Grove rebuilds of the General Motors E8, E9 and F9 diesels that they inherited from the freight railroads they passed services on to. This would allow the longer use of these units, and fitting everything with HEP would also help matters for reliability.

Usili said:

As I see it, the SDP40F could have been a design that might have served Amtrak if it was initially introduced with HEP at first and had the right track in mind. It would have worked wonders in the western railroads and long distance trains.

Click to expand...

To a point I agree, but IMO its wiser to stick with four-axle power for passenger trains as their weight loads are less but their electrical demands are higher at speed (electric motors make less torque at higher speeds, and Amtrak's passenger trains run at 79 mph on most long distance runs and in some places today rather more than that) and the SDP40F was a heavy thing, particularly when it had full water tanks for its steam-heating systems. Fitting it with HEP from the start doesn't like what was ultimately proved to be its biggest reason for the derailment problems it had, namely the fact that the very heavy engines pulling lightweight baggage cars behind it tended to make for harmonic vibration problems. What might work well here is (if you can get GM to go for this) to take the SDP40F frame and make a B-B-B type diesel for Amtrak. Built on a long frame (say 82 ft 4 in, which would be a ten-foot stretch on the standard F45/FP45/SDP40F frame), you use two fuel tanks in the middle and mount the prime move above and forward of the middle truck, with the alternator above the rear fuel tank and a second smaller diesel for HEP above the rear truck to balance out the weight. If you are gonna go with this route, you might be advised to have all of the power possible and go with the big EMD 645 turbodiesel from the SD45 freight unit. The SD45 engine, in addition to extra power (3600 hp against 3000 hp) and had better fuel efficiency (in terms of fuel used per unit of power made) and by the time Amtrak is taking delivery EMD will have licked all of the problems the engines had with broken internals. (Also, Amtrak could say that a easy-tracking B-B-B unit with such horsepower and a high top speed would be a great fast-freight locomotive should they not be able to survive.)

TheMann said:

I did that for the freight railroads, which is more my specialty (former employee of Burlington Northern, trained civil engineer). Collaboration on an American railroads TL sometime?

Click to expand...

Huh, never knew that. And possibly.

According to what I was able to figure out, Amtrak eventually bought 215 F40PH diesels, but the vast majority of those were built to replace the SDP40Fs, of which Amtrak bought 150, and yet some spent less than a decade in service due to their riding problems. 100 SDP40Fs and 200 F40PHs is gross overkill unless you want to substantially grow Amtrak's operations.

Click to expand...

Ah, yeah. Tad overkill. I'll bring it down to around ~80 SPD40Fs, and about ~120 F40PHs for initial orders to compose much of the locomotive fleet after thinking about it. (This does not count rebuilds on the older diesel they acquired from the freight RRs)

Fair enough on these fronts, but if it had been me running Amtrak I would have moved to rebuild every single one of the passenger cars delivered to me, starting with the Santa Fe Hi-Levels, dome cars and sleeper cars that are in good conditions, with the worst-condition ones getting the rebuilds first. Amtrak's Beech Grove and Wilmington shops both have the ability to do this right from the off. I see that the delivery of the Amfleets is a good idea, but right front the off I'd be working on the stuff I've got. Likewise, it might make sense to skip the SDP40F entirely in favor of Beech Grove rebuilds of the General Motors E8, E9 and F9 diesels that they inherited from the freight railroads they passed services on to. This would allow the longer use of these units, and fitting everything with HEP would also help matters for reliability.

Click to expand...

Amtrak never got the yards till 1975 IOTL, and that was when they began to purchase the NEC lines from the looks of it. I intend to cover the Heritage Fleet rebuild somewhat, although I'm not so sure on the general rebuilds on the locomotives though depending upon the wear and tear of the diesel locomotives.

To a point I agree, but IMO its wiser to stick with four-axle power for passenger trains as their weight loads are less but their electrical demands are higher at speed (electric motors make less torque at higher speeds, and Amtrak's passenger trains run at 79 mph on most long distance runs and in some places today rather more than that) and the SDP40F was a heavy thing, particularly when it had full water tanks for its steam-heating systems. Fitting it with HEP from the start doesn't like what was ultimately proved to be its biggest reason for the derailment problems it had, namely the fact that the very heavy engines pulling lightweight baggage cars behind it tended to make for harmonic vibration problems. What might work well here is (if you can get GM to go for this) to take the SDP40F frame and make a B-B-B type diesel for Amtrak. Built on a long frame (say 82 ft 4 in, which would be a ten-foot stretch on the standard F45/FP45/SDP40F frame), you use two fuel tanks in the middle and mount the prime move above and forward of the middle truck, with the alternator above the rear fuel tank and a second smaller diesel for HEP above the rear truck to balance out the weight. If you are gonna go with this route, you might be advised to have all of the power possible and go with the big EMD 645 turbodiesel from the SD45 freight unit. The SD45 engine, in addition to extra power (3600 hp against 3000 hp) and had better fuel efficiency (in terms of fuel used per unit of power made) and by the time Amtrak is taking delivery EMD will have licked all of the problems the engines had with broken internals. (Also, Amtrak could say that a easy-tracking B-B-B unit with such horsepower and a high top speed would be a great fast-freight locomotive should they not be able to survive.)

Click to expand...

I might just borrow this for the timeline, as this works to be a great idea present...

I'm watching this intently.

Usili said:

Ah, yeah. Tad overkill. I'll bring it down to around ~80 SPD40Fs, and about ~120 F40PHs for initial orders to compose much of the locomotive fleet after thinking about it. (This does not count rebuilds on the older diesel they acquired from the freight RRs)

Click to expand...

That's probably more reasonable, but if you keep the SDP40Fs as IOTL, I'd still say jump them entirely. Mind you, if you go with the B-B-B truck idea that changes things, though in that case they would probably be SDP45Fs....

Usili said:

Amtrak never got the yards till 1975 IOTL, and that was when they began to purchase the NEC lines from the looks of it. I intend to cover the Heritage Fleet rebuild somewhat, although I'm not so sure on the general rebuilds on the locomotives though depending upon the wear and tear of the diesel locomotives.

Click to expand...

The NEC's takeover by Amtrak was a condition of the creation of Conrail, but you are correct about Beech Grove being owned by Penn Central until 1975. You could speed that up, and being that Penn Central was the single biggest beneficiary of Amtrak's creation, you could easily get Beech Grove transferred to them early on.

Usili said:

I might just borrow this for the timeline, as this works to be a great idea present...

Click to expand...

Go right ahead. That's why I made it.

OOC: With thanks to TheMann for technical advice on some parts like the "FP45" and other parts of the timeline.


The start of the 1973 Oil Crisis would be immediate as gasoline stations in some ways already suffering slight shortages were further exasperated by the crisis. People desperately struggled to fill their cars up, and lines that had already had their beginning since late 1972 had increased significantly as the crisis emerged. With the oil embargo at hand, the United States government would immediately establish price controls on the price of crude oil, along with the so-called “Project Independence” spoken of by President Richard M. Nixon. Project Independence in his November 7th address outlined six immediate steps to be taken, 1) the conversion of all oil-fired power plants into coal-fired power plants; 2) reduction of fuel available for civilian aircraft; 3) a 15% reduction of heating oil for all households and an average temperature of between 66-68 degrees for heating homes; 4) all government owned vehicles to travel no faster than 50 miles per hour; 5) a push by the AEC to increase licensing and construction of nuclear power plants; 6) seeking ways to stagger working hours, increase carpooling, and improve mass transit. In a further address on November 25th, he outlined that increased production of heating oil (of gasoline) would take place, a ban on filling gasoline into trucks from Saturday at 9PM to Sunday at midnight, a maximum speed limit of 50 miles per hour for all automobiles in the United States, an immediate slowdown of air travel by reducing available fuel load there, and an immediate voluntary cut down of all outdoors lighting except for businesses to reduce the amount of heating oil wasted.


To many people, the long lines of waiting for gas, fifty mile per hour speed limits, and slowdown of air travel would have them heavily reconsider the usage of automobiles and look towards another avenue of transportation. That avenue of transportation would emerge to be Amtrak as more people would take the train to visit family with the way the price of gasoline and oil was. Based off the existing climate, an advertising campaign would be launched to help encourage riders to take Amtrak for the first time as gasoline shortages became apparent throughout the United States. One of Amtrak's most iconic ads was the “Save Energy. Take Our Car” advertisement in this period pushing to encourage people to give up cars and to ride trains. Annual ridership would by the end of 1973 be a total of nearly 17 million passengers, and many believed that with the Oil Crisis it would only go up in passenger ridership.

For Amtrak's entire non-electric fleet, they were nearly all operated by steam based power and heating, and the required locomotives to use them. This was an issue with the new orders of the Amfleet cars and the F40PHs equipped with head-end propulsion, and an issue of incompatibility when they began to enter service. The most economical option that was seen, was to overhaul the older cars immediately starting those in the highest amounts of deterioration, beginning with the Hi-Level Cars. Once the Hi-Level Cars were accomplished in overhaul, it was planned then to begin with overhauling the sleepers, diners, baggage, slumbercoaches, and then coach cars depending upon required numbers to overhaul the fleet and keep existing numbers present in the fleet. Furthermore, there were debates about rehauling the locomotives present if to continue serving the fleet, be scrapped, used as power tenders, or other purposes. The two direct areas for planned fleet overhauls were the Beech Grove Railyards outside of Indianapolis, and the Wilmington Railyards outside of Wilmington, both of which were purchased from Penn Central as part of a whole set of purchases.

While planning for the future was paramount in regards to Heritage Fleet, changes were underway to come for orders underway by Amtrak. After reviewing the new plans for the so-called “Heritage Fleet” (as some in management dubbed the plan of modernizing the older cars) it would be realized that with the new SDP40F cars on order, it would be a serious issue with the future modifications. In addition much of the existing SDP40F was based along a freight locomotive, and would not fit Amtrak well in general passenger operations. Eventually, over a period between May of 1974 to January of 1975 a new deal would be sketched out over the order of the “SDP40Fs” and the trains present between GM and Amtrak. The deal would be one nearly rejected off the bat by the General Motors management, but with decreasing automobile sales with the ongoing Oil Crisis, and an amendment to the contract which would guarantee EMD the right to build Amtrak's next electric locomotive once a proper design had been found. The “SDP40F” saw an extensive redesign from the original plan with a lengthening of ten feet to eighty-two feet to fit as a “B-B-B” style locomotive. Both established fuel tanks for the SDP would be placed in the middle, and the power mover (an EMD 645E3 with 3,600hp) would be chosen as the new powerplant, while a smaller diesel would be placed in the rear solely for HEP usage and to balance out the locomotive. The extensive modifications for the “SDP40F” would force it to be renamed to a “FP45” as an entirely new different locomotive. The FP45 locomotive as it became officially known was due to the basis of an SD45 powerplant and an entire new design to the previous locomotives. General Motors would secure the design for themselves, and in turn market it as a “fast-freight” locomotive for freight usage as well seeing a potential there with the reshaping of the railroads.

As the troubles over the SDP40F were occurring, work was underway further on new passenger cars for the long distance trains operating west of the Appalachians. The bi-level cars would begin initial design work in 1973 in discussions with Pullman Standard Company (wherein the Amfleet cars were being built by Budd Company) over the plans for the bi-level cars, which were heavily inspired by Santa Fe's Hi-Level cars. Coaches, coach-baggage, diner, cafe/lounge, and sleeper cars were planned for the type of cars ordered. Based on the existing long distance trains running from Chicago, the plans for the bilevel car totaled nearly 242 cars, with an amendment to allow an additional 57 cars to be purchased if required. The amendment would be activated, with a total of 299 bilevel cars ordered by Amtrak for long-distance trains. One hundred and ten coaches, fifty coach and baggage cars, twenty-six cafe/lounge cars, seventy-two sleepers, and forty-one diners would be ordered in all by type among the 299 bilevel cars. It was expected that 80-90% of all of the bilevel cars in service be operated on Chicago-West Coast long distance routes, with the remaining cars used in other long distance cars such as along the West Coast and other (as of yet) unidentified routes. By October of 1974, the first Amfleet cars began to be arrived for initial maintenance crew training on them. On February 11th, 1975, Amtrak began to operate the first Amfleet coach cars along the Northeast Corridor.


The Amtrak Improvement Act of 1973 outlined the mandatory requirement that every year the Secretary of Transportation would give at least one route Amtrak must operate for two years, before the Secretary would overview the fiscal conditions of the route to decide whether to continue the route operation or to cancel it. The first route that would be given would occur in 1974 by Secretary Claude S. Brinegar, as the Adirondack running from New York City to Montreal via way of Albany (Schenectady), and Plattsburgh. The Adirondack was intended to be accompanied by the Empire State Express, which would run from New York City to Buffalo via way of Albany (Schenectady), Syracuse, and Rochester but after the New York State government announced they would be funding Amtrak to provide services to upstate New York, the Secretary removed the planned for the Empire State Express and let Amtrak start operations. In addition, the Shenandoah was also approved intended to run between Washington D.C. and Cincinnati via way of the former B&O (now Chessie Systems) passenger between both (it is believed the creation of the Shenandoah was influenced by Representative Harley Orrin Staggers Sr. (D-WV), who was the head of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee) In 1975, the Southern Gulf was given by Secretary Bringear, which would run from Houston to Miami via way of New Orleans, Tallahassee, and Orlando. In 1976, Secretary Coleman Jr. would give Amtrak the Lake Shore Limited, which was intended to run between Chicago and New York City/Boston via way of Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo. At Albany, the Lake Shore Limited was intended to either divide into two sections, or to combine into two sections due to the terminus for the train being at both Boston and New York City. In addition, he would approve the Buckeye which was intended to run from Detroit to Cincinnati via way of Toledo and Dayton, as a way to promote service in Toledo and a secondary connection for passenger traffic from there (scheduling issues to time the Buckeye with the Lake Shore Limited were an issue). The Adirondack's fiscal success (above the loss of 10.1 cents per mile) and ridership figures (150 passengers a mile) would keep it alive, while the Shenandoah was just at the fiscal figures (at 10.1 cents per mile) and above ridership figures (at 161 passengers a mile), due to the transfer of the George Washington to terminate once more at Newport News again. This would barely ensure the Shenandoah's survival for future operations, although recommendations were to attach it to a long distance train instead (there were rumors of a proposal for a long-distance Washington-Denver train in management but nothing would come up as of yet on it).

The passing of the Amtrak Improvement Act of 1973 would give the initial operating funds as necessary to begin planning out purchasing of existing right of way and tracks, but minimum usage of it would be done with the money held. The passing of the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973 would with the creation of the United States Railway Association (whose main job was to organize the collapsed railroads into a coherent entity to be known as the Consolidated Rail Corporation) allow Amtrak to quickly move to purchase their own tracks from Penn Central. The acquisition of the remaining parts of the NEC from Penn Central (with a hope towards securing all of the NEC under Amtrak management in the future...) was the easy part, with plans to purchase another segment the Chicago-Cincinnati segment also planned out (the Cleveland-Cincinnati segment was determined to not be able to be purchased at this time based off existing funds and the need to repair the Chicago-Cincinnati segment). It would be reached in September of 1975 for the purchae of the Penn Central tracks from Chicago to Cincinnati, with plans by Amtrak to work on repairing the track and bring it back up to par for passenger service (areas of the track averaged at ten miles per hour for moving trains, unacceptable in the mind of President Resitrup).

The Northeast Corridor Improvement Project (which would begin in mid 1974 as an amendment to Amtrak's funding in 1974) underway would also be another component of the planned future of Amtrak. The NECIP outlined new safety improvements, modernization of the entire signal system, and to rebuild the track work. In rebuilding the track work, it was primarily oriented towards the rebuilding of the ties and rails, with concrete ties put in to replace the older wooden ties, while laying down continuously welded rail. Both of those contributed to a planned future of high-speed rail for Amtrak, while negotiations began in Congress to fund new construction of electrification between New Haven and Boston to allow the usage of electric trains. The Railroad Revitalization and Regularatory Reform Act of 1976 would put forth the funding to allow construction of the electrification between New Haven and Boston, which was planned by Amtrak to be done after the track work was completed from New Haven to Boston. An issue of concern for Amtrak was the ownership of the New Haven-New Rochelle track segment by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority which would limit future operations in “high-speed rail” as it was called.


As the oil embargo began to settle into public memory slowly, the issues of high gasoline and oil prices were still present throughout the country and Amtrak ridership was increasing due to new cars entering service along with public campaigns. The year of 1975 saw new ridership increase and general plans by Amtrak for the bicentennial of the United States in 1976. Plans were put into place for a “Phase II” scheme to honor the bicentennial and a future scheme for rolling stock, while stepping up for advertisements and showing off Amtrak to the public. Amtrak would be stuck in the middle throughout 1976, as Amtrak trains would sometimes wind up being used to hold Presidential nominees for the Democrats as they crossed the United States, and then carrying both President Gerald R. Ford and Presidential nominee Jimmy Carter for campaign stops. One of the more “famous” notes at this point would be the Presidential Express (a renamed Shenandoah) with President Gerald R. Ford returning from Cincinnati back to Washington D.C. by train, nearly two days prior to July 4th. He would wind up using the Presidential Express in Cincinnati, Cumberland, and Harpers Ferry as a symbol to help drum up support for his campaign and Amtrak. From July 2nd to July 5th, there would be a full-blown push by Amtrak in the Northeast Corridor to go “All-Amfleet” as nearly all Amfleet cars owned by Amtrak would be used throughout the Northeast Corridor over the four day period with significantly boosted patronage over that weekend for bicentennial celebrations. Following immediately after that, the Adirondack, Montrealer/Washingtonian were equipped with Amfleet cars (removed from the NEC to keep numbers of cars up) for the duration of the 1976 Summer Olympics along with advertisements for taking Amtrak in this period. One of the most recognizable aspects from the 1976 Summer Olympics were both carrying and returning the United States Olympic athletes to Montreal from New York City in an agreement between the United States Olympic Committee and the National Rail Passenger Corporation nearly five months prior.

The 1976 Presidential Election would come roaring into the elections as the Ford/Dole ticket and the Carter/Mondale ticket would be neck and neck in the last weeks prior to the election. As Election Day came, both sides eagerly watched the news for the results of the evolution. The two states that could not be decided by nearly 2AM on 11/5/76, were Ohio and Hawaii. Both were close, very close. Everyone would focus on what the results would be. By 7AM, it was clear that Ohio and Hawaii were for Ford, at a combined 5,684 votes between both states to win the election in his favor. The Republicans had kept the Presidency, and for Amtrak's future it looked “safe” with Ford in hand and somewhat in favor of Amtrak. New programs were underway, and everything looked clear in the waters...

“This is Walter Cronkite, with breaking news out of Tehran. The Shah has been assassinated.”


Northeast Corridor

Bay State: Boston-New Haven (Southbound); New York-Boston (Northbound)
Bankers: Springfield (MA)-New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Bicentennial: Boston-Philadelphia (Both Ways)
Bostonian: New York-Boston (Northbound)
Bunker Hill: Boston-Philadelphia (Southbound); Philadelphia-New Haven (Northbound)
Chesapeake: New York-Washington D.C. (Southbound)
Clamdigger: Providence-New Haven (Both Ways)
Colonial: Boston-New York City-Washington D.C.-Newport News (Both Ways)
Connecticut Yankee: Springfield (MA)-Philadelphia (Both Ways)
Embassy: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
East Wind: Boston-New York (Southbound); Philadelphia-Boston (Northbound)
Free State: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Flying Yankee: Boston-New York (Southbound)
Knickerbocker: Boston-New York-Philadelphia (Southbound)
Merchants Limited: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Metroliner: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways); New Haven-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Minuteman: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Murray Hill: Washington D.C.-New York (Northbound)
Narragansett: Boston-Washington D.C. (Southbound)
New Yorker: Washington D.C.-New York (Northbound)
Night Owl: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)*
Patriot: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Pilgrim: New York-Boston (Northbound)
Senator: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Statesman: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Sundown: Boston-New York (Southbound)

*Night Owl operates with sleepers

Water Level Route

Empire State Express: New York City-Albany-Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo (Both Ways)

Keystone Corridor

Silverliner Service: New York-Philadelphia-Harrisburg (Both Ways)
Valley Forge: New York-Harrisburg (Both Ways)

Northeast

Adirondack: New York City-Albany-Poughkeepsie-Montreal (Both Ways)
Montrealer: Washington D.C.-New York-Hartford-Springfield-Montreal (Northbound)
Washingtonian: Montreal-Springfield-Hartford-New York-Washington D.C. (Southbound)

Midwest

Abraham Lincoln: St. Louis-Chicago-Milwaukee
Buckeye: Cincinnati-Dayton-Toledo-Detroit
Hiawatha Service: Chicago-Milwaukee
Illini: Chicago-Champaign
Illinois Zephyr: Chicago-Quincy
James Whitcomb Riley: Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati
Ohio State Limited: Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland-Buffalo
Prairie State: Milwaukee-Chicago-Springfield (IL)-St. Louis
River Runner: Kansas City-St. Louis-Cincinnati
St. Clair: Chicago-Detroit
Shawnee: Chicago-Carbondale
Turboliner: St. Louis-Chicago-Milwaukee; Chicago-Detroit
Wolverine: Chicago-Detroit

Southeast

None

West

Mount Rainier: Seattle-Portland
Pacific International: Seattle-Vancouver
Puget Sound: Seattle-Portland
San Diegan: San Diego-Los Angeles

Long Distance Trains

Broadway Limited: New York City-Philadelphia-Harrisburg-Pittsburgh-Fort Wayne-Chicago
Champion: New York City-Washington D.C.-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-St. Petersburg/Miami
Cincinnati Limited: Cincinnati-Columbus-Pittsburgh-Harrisburg-Philadelphia
Coast Starlight/Daylight: Seattle-Portland-Oakland-Los Angeles
Empire Builder: Chicago-Minneapolis-Spokane-Seattle/Portland
George Washington: Cincinnati-Charleston-Newport News (No Longer Runs to Washington)
Lake Shore Limited: Chicago-Toledo-Cleveland-Buffalo-Albany-New York City/Boston
Lone Star: Chicago-Kansas City-Oklahoma City-Dallas-Houston (Name Change)
North Coast Hiawatha: Chicago-Minneapolis-Bismarck-Butte-Spokane-Seattle
Pan-American: Cincinnati-Louisville-Nashville-Montgomery-New Orleans
Panama Limited: Chicago-Memphis-New Orleans
Shenandoah: Cincinnati-Cumberland-Harpers Ferry-Washington
Silver Meteor: New York City-Washington D.C.-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami
Silver Star: New York City-Washington D.C.-Raleigh-Columbia-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami
Southern Gulf: Miami-Orlando-Tallahassee-New Orleans-Beaumont-Houston
Southwest Limited: Chicago-Kansas City-Albuquerque-Los Angeles (Name Change)
Sunset Limited: New Orleans-Houston-San Antonio-Los Angeles

Didn't see the Shah's assassination coming...

Waiting for more!!!

Have any plans for Texas high speed rail?

Oh hey, Amtrak timeline. I'll be watching this.

I like how there are some minor changes to the greater world leaking through, notably the Shah's assignation and Ford winning reelection. Timelines that focus on a very specific aspect sometimes have a tendency of not applying changes to the outside world, so it's nice that some thought has been given to the wider world.

Any plans on what happens to commuter rail service? It'd also be interesting to see if the Northeast Corridor electrification eventually gets extended down to Richmond and/or Norfolk News.

Not running the Empire State into Manhattan? Heresey! Burn the witch!

In all seriousness this looks great. We don't get enough railroad TLs on this site. Following this with a whole lot of interest.

OOC: Sorry about the delay for Chapter III guys. Been a bit busy, and also thanks to TheMann with help for technical advice, clarifications, and other components for this timeline.

The start of 1977 for Amtrak would be one of initial concerns with oil prices skyrocketing with the assassination of the Shah, and a full blown crisis within Iran. Concurrent with that, the economy still recovering from the 1973 Oil Crisis was thrown into turmoil as it struggled and moved downwards towards an immediate recession, one in which would immediately begin impacting Amtrak with proposals by Congress to reduce Amtrak funding over FY78 and for route cancellation in addition to that. The proposed Amtrak Appropriations Bill of 1977, would be appealed by Paul Reistrup in a session prior to the bill being passed, which would cancel seven long distance trains (Broadway Limited, George Washington, Lone Star, North Coast Hiawatha, Pan-American, Shenandoah), two short distance trains (Prairie State, Pacific International), slash funding for all Turboliners in operation of Amtrak, cancel the order of bilevel cars, and reduce the planned “Heritage Fleet” program by nearly 20% in a severe round of cuts. Mr. Reistrup would manage to keep the funding for the Heritage Fleet, and bilevel cars around, but the Pan-American, the Prairie State, and all Turboliner associated trains would be cut. This had however, wasted the last of Mr. Reistrup's political capitol and on March 7th, 1977 be voted out as the first President of Amtrak.

The next President of Amtrak would be the second Secretary of Transportation, John A. Volpe (considered to be the direct founder of Amtrak). Mr. Volpe would be recommended at the behest of Mr. Reistrup, and at the suggestion of President Ford with the vote in favor of John A. Volpe to take over as the second President of Amtrak by the board. Mr. Volpe as he came to the Presidency had the issues of increasing costs (due to the new Heritage Fleet programs underway, orders for cars, new routes under consideration, the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, allotments for new tracks (and rebuilding), and fuel costs), along with an apparently hostile Congress against Amtrak would force him to immediately plan new decisions for Amtrak. The cancellation of the Turboliners and Prairie State to some extent were a relief with rolling stock shortages endemic for Amtrak operations. Service to Detroit was still present in the form of the Wolverine, although only a single daily service in between both cities (compared to the twice daily service) along with reduced numbers for the Wolverine were issues with keeping passenger service up. The Prairie State's route was also held by other trains also less in daily numbers and in a similar situation to the Wolverine. The biggest issue would be the cancellation of the Pan-American as the sole train to run to Louisville and Nashville. This would immediately need to be rectified, and a proposal by one of Mr. Volpe's staff would start the ball rolling to bring service back again.

The discussions over a successor train running from Nashville to Cincinnati via Louisville would enter significant problems with discussions over where the tracks would run, what cities would be promised service by Amtrak, and so on. Governor Carroll of Kentucky wanted service through Louisville and Bowling Green (which was fairly easily to accomplish with a train running to Nashville), but wanted promises of future service through Lexington (which was more difficult to accomplish based off existing tracks). Governor Blanton of Tennessee however was much more difficult in comparison to Governor Carroll. He wanted a passenger service through Knoxville, Chatanooga, Clarksville, and Jackson in addition to the service through Nashville, however funding for that would be limited if that was done and be in an additional appropriations bill for funding it... with Amtrak having to start the service to those cities first. Clarksville would be simple to accomplish with the train running to Nashville, but the proposal about having to run a train through Tennessee without any funding at all from the Tennessee state government was something that Mr. Volpe could not agree to. Near the end of 1977, Mr. Volpe and Governor Carroll would reach an immediate agreement for the funding of the train, with Kentucky providing a majority of the funding and additional capitol improvements to help with upgrading some of the infrastructure. The new train known as the Bluegrass would run starting on July 1st, 1978 once the available cars had been acquired for operations.

One of the biggest issues as Mr. Volpe saw as he took over was the issue of the price of gasoline and diesel, both of which were rising (the former much so than the latter) which were in some part straining the Amtrak fuel budget as costs went up. The best way he could see was trying to make the locomotives more efficient in fleet operation and general usage. He would approach the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, making the F40PHs and FP45s for Amtrak about possibilities on making them more efficient. The basis of the microprocessor controlled system for the engines and power transmission on the Dash 2 series of locomotives, was in discussion seen as an apparent way to modify the FP45s and increase the amount of efficiency in long distance trains. Furthermore, Mr. Volpe would learn of work on the so-called “variable displacement” under work by General Motors in new automobile engines designed to improve efficiency of operations. In an inquiry, he would ask if it would be possible to be retrofitted to diesel powered locomotives, and no general response was set. The FP45s still on order (numbering 61) would be planned to be retrofitted with the new efficiency designs in play, and the other FP45s retrofitted as the newer ones came into service. By this point, Amtrak had selected their first new electric locomotive as a variant of the Swedish Rc4 electric locomotive with orders for fifty-four AEM-7 type electric locomotives placed. The new electric locomotives on order would helpfully contribute significantly to replacing the older fleet, and allowing diesel locomotives to be moved once the electrification from New Haven to Boston was complete (which was expected in 1980 or 1981 depending on when the NECIP was complete).


The ongoing process of the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project was slow, but progress was moving well in modernizing the section between Penn Station and Washington D.C., with the first centralized electrification and traffic control (CETC) center finished in Philadelphia (one of three being built by Chrysler as part of the NECIP) by the start of 1977. The ongoing work in modernizing the section between Penn Station and Washington Union Station was expected to be done by October of 1979 at the latest, with plans to start working on the Penn Station-South Station (Boston) segment in July of 1977. One of the biggest issues encountered would be price overruns in replacing the track and ties. Bethlehem Steel and Heidelberg Cement (both located in the Lehigh Valley) were the main contractors to work on replacing the old wooden ties and riveted rail with new concrete ties and continuously welded rails. Issues with shortages of components, and quality concerns were heavily noted by the Amtrak work crews, with materials sent back at times due to failing to meet checked quality, yet progress was still underway on the NECIP.

The other major Amtrak owned portion, the former Penn Central line from Chicago to Cincinnati via Indianapolis was also being restored slowly with funds allocated as part of the funding for 1977 through 1979. It had been noticed that much of the entire infrastructure needed to be replaced in full for railway operations to continue along that line. Maintenance could keep it in check, but the amount of deferred maintenance by Penn Central alone would require much of the entire line (if not all) required it to be replaced in full. In addition, with costs present there were ongoing discussions on whether or not to electrify the line or not, but funding had been secured to rebuild the entire track line. Construction would begin in September of 1977 initially from Cincinnati towards Indianapolis and Chicago.

The bilevel cars, in preparation for their delivery would begin a naming competition for the cars with names to be submitted by employees throughout the company, with the winner being granted several free train rides for himself/herself and his/her family with it. Numerous names would be presented such as “Amcruiser”, “Vistalevel”, “Amliner”, “USA Cruiser”, and other names presented through the competition. The name selected would be the “Vistaliner” eventually designated for the bilevel cars, the first cars designed entirely to Amtrak's specifications. The first Vistaliner coach car would be rolled out in October of 1977, and dispersed throughout the network to train crews as other cars begin to enter service for training (and eventually regular service). The coach cars would be delivered first, followed by cafe/lounge cars, then coach and baggage (bagdorms) cars, then diner cars, and finally sleeper cars last of all primarily in terms of deliveries of the cars for Amtrak service. The last cars would be delivered by April of 1981 for Amtrak, with all 299 cars in service on long distance cars from Chicago heading to the West Coast and back.

The Chicago Union Station Company was the proprietor and owner of the Chicago Union Station, Amtrak's hub for long distance trains to the West Coast from the Midwest. As such, it would be seen as a significant move to secure CUST for Amtrak operations, and by 1977 that had been completed with CUST primarily owned by Amtrak in the amount of stocks available for the company. As such, under Mr. Volpe a study would begin to figure out the best way to improve traffic flow for the terminal which was encountering a few issues (due in part to the double stub nature of the station). One proposal to improve traffic would be to convert the four easternmost double-stubbed tracks (two from the north and two from the south) and merge them together into two through tracks for operations. The issues with doing that was the engineering difficulties with the baggage movement underneath all the train departures and arrivals. To design such a measure, engineers would need to check the structural suites to see if it was possible and in addition the estimated cost to retrofit the station to handle such traffic flow. The engineering studies would begin in late 1978, and estimated to finish sometime in late 1980 to early 1981... when the next President would be elected.

The Lone Star as it was known, was primarily a long distance train from Chicago to Houston, but more and more it had been serving as a “north-south” train between Houston and Kansas City primarily, and where more of the monetary gains were from. As such, Mr. Volpe would in mid 1978 approve a change of the route to run from Houston to Kansas City, which was intended to meet with the Abraham Lincoln and the River Runner from Kansas City both ways. The changing of the Lone Star, was one of a set of discussions with the Texan State Government about new trains running in the state of Texas. Funding would be approved by the State Legislature to run a train known as the Texan Ranger from Dallas to San Antonio via Austin, with future planning on the books for a possible extension towards Laredo, with the train authorized to start running in 1979. Meanwhile, studies were also being drafted by Amtrak and the Texas Department of Transportation for a train running from El Paso to Houston via San Antonio in the event of further funding being acquired for such a route.

Over 1977-1980, additional routes would of course be authorized by the Secretary of Transportation. The Southern Gulf however would not reach the fiscal criteria of the loss rate (at 9.6 cents per mile compared to the mandated 10.1 cents per mile) meaning its cancellation and the first new train (of 1977) approved as the San Joaquin running from Oakland to Los Angeles over the Southern Pacific tracks (including the Tehachapi Pass) in 1977. The San Joaquin was primarily held to be funded by Amtrak, with a consist planned for Hi-Level cars and an FP45 locomotive to carry the cars with it being a daily train north and south. The San Joaquin, by the next year was reaching its traffic capacity for service and considerations underway to add a second daily train between the north and south. In 1978, the Lake Shore Limited was kept with the fiscal success also present for the operations (although Congress was rumored to be making tougher fiscal parameters for the continued success of trains), and one new route would be approved the Bluegrass (mentioned above) both of which required the approval of the Secretary of Transportation to authorize in new transit roles. In 1979, the San Joaquin was showing off admirably in terms of both fiscal and passenger capacity and was kept on per the requirements. The next train added would be the Texan Ranger (mentioned above), a state sponsored train which was seen as an additional component of the Amtrak system and increasing ridership. In 1980, the Bluegrass would barely be kept in operation meeting the required fiscal numbers, and as part of the Amtrak Appropriations Bill of 1980, no further routes were to be authorized by the Secretary of Transportation with the funding for new routes to be run removed from the operating budget and dispersed through the system. However, two other routes not mentioned which were acquired were the Crescent (operated by the Southern Railway) and the California Zephyr (Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad) in 1979 each (the California Zephyr was added with the new Vistaliner rolling stock available and the opening of track by the D&RGW).

Unfortunately, the Amtrak Appropriations Bill of 1980 was like the previous bill one seen more in line with consolidating Amtrak's services present. Two direct areas expressed for changing and improving operations were expressed in the Midwest and the Northeast Corridor. For the Midwest, an area of redundancy in some cases were expected for train service along with “long-distance” runs by trains. In the Northeast Corridor, it was identified a need for immediate consolidation of all operating trains throughout the Corridor and a general uniformity among them. This would be addressed as the Northeast Corridor Service, which was to be a new “train name” for all trains operating within the Northeast and set standardized consist numbers. The Night Owl would remain unique in this regard retaining her sleepers for overnight service in between Washington D.C. and Boston. For the Midwest it was identified a need for a direct train running in between Chicago and Washington D.C., and one of the three trains running from Cincinnati to the East Coast must be cut immediately. In this case, Amtrak would choose to cut the Shenandoah from the service between Cincinnati and Washington D.C. while drafting up a train to run from Chicago to Washington D.C. via Columbus, Pittsburgh, Cumberland, and then to Washington.

The winter of 1977 to 1978 for Amtrak would hit them hard, much of the brutal cold extending downwards to Tennessee and the Carolinas. The Heritage Fleet Program (still underway) had a significant number of steam-heated cars still in service for Amtrak, and the winter would bring utter hell upon them. Numerous cars would be frozen fully, the steam systems unusable in any format. Tens of steam-heated cars would be shuttled south to be thawed out as HEP-based cars struggled to take up the workload throughout the winter. Numerous delays and cancellations over the winter impacted Amtrak hard along with ridership, facing concern issues over capacity of rolling stock present as further rolling stock issues were encountered with report of shortages present in dispersal of them throughout the network. This would not paint a pretty picture for Amtrak.

In the Middle East, things had rapidly changed after the assassination of the Shah. Many were unsure of the matter in all practicality about whether it had been an assassination by a single figure or if it had been perpetuated by the military which had rapidly moved to secure control over Iran. As the struggles were occurring, Saddam began a rapid militarization of Iraq even more to set itself up to defend against “Iranian Aggression”. The military however had to deal with a rapidly moving populace fighting against the military, thrusting much of Iran into chaos over the late 1970s as the military moved to establish full control being completed by early 1980 in some sense. On the other side of the Middle East, the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty in late 1979 (led by President Ford) would help to end the long standing hostilities between Israel and Egypt, with Israel withdrawing in full from the Sinai Peninsula, the Sinai being a demilitarized zone, Egypt recognizing Israel, and other components. This would help to establish a hopeful end of hostilities in that part while American foreign aid would start entering into Egypt. However, tensions were simmering in Egypt with the signing of the “peace treaty” with Egypt.

The 1980 Presidential Election as it geared up would in all cases be seen as a Democratic victory by many in 1979, yet still the Republicans would fight to win the nomination. The Republican Presidential Primaries would be a long hard fight between the “moderate” and “conservative” factions of the party, eventually leading to John Connally of the moderate wing being nominated as the Republican Presidential nominee. Jack Kemp, a Representative from the state of New York would be nominated as Connally's VP for 1980, leading to the Republican ticket of Connally/Kemp. For the Democrats, it was more seen as a fight between the two main contenders, Jerry Brown and Ted Kennedy between who would get the Presidential nomination. It would eventually wind up as a nail biter, and in Madison Square Garden, Mr. Kennedy would be nominated as the Democratic Presidential nominee. His Vice President would be Cliff Finch, the governor of Mississippi, widely seen as a “populist” and ranking fourth in the primaries by the amount of delegates. As such, the Democratic ticket would be assured as Kennedy/Finch for the 1980 Presidential Election. Some of the major issues dealing over the election would be national defense, the economy, and the “Rust Belt”. For the Rust Belt, it had been increasingly reported about a serious loss of industry in much of the Northeast and Midwest which had been formerly the industrial belt, now being called the “Rust Belt” as the New York Times first reported it in November of 1979. On Election Day, the Democratic ticket would win 351-187 against the Republicans in the EV, and 54.4% Popular Vote to the Republicans 43.9% ushering in the next President of the United States, Ted Kennedy.



Northeast Corridor

Bankers: Springfield (MA)-New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Bicentennial: Boston-Philadelphia (Both Ways)
Bostonian: New York-Boston (Northbound)
Bunker Hill: Boston-Philadelphia (Southbound); Philadelphia-New Haven (Northbound)
Chesapeake: New York-Washington D.C. (Southbound)
Clamdigger: Providence-New Haven (Both Ways)
Colonial: Boston-New York City-Washington D.C.-Newport News (Both Ways)
Connecticut Yankee: Springfield (MA)-Philadelphia (Both Ways)
Embassy: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
East Wind: Boston-New York (Southbound); Philadelphia-Boston (Northbound)
Free State: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Flying Yankee: Boston-New York (Southbound)
Knickerbocker: Boston-New York-Philadelphia (Southbound)
Merchants Limited: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Metroliner: New York-Washington D.C. (Both Ways); New Haven-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Minuteman: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Murray Hill: Washington D.C.-New York (Northbound)
New Yorker: Washington D.C.-New York (Northbound)
Night Owl: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)*
Northeast Corridor Service: Washington D.C.-Philadelphia-New York City-New Haven-Boston
Patriot: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Pilgrim: New York-Boston (Northbound)
Senator: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Statesman: Boston-Washington D.C. (Both Ways)
Sundown: Boston-New York (Southbound)

*Night Owl operates with sleepers

Water Level Route

Empire State Express: New York City-Albany-Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo (Both Ways)

Keystone Corridor

Silverliner Service: New York-Philadelphia-Harrisburg (Both Ways)
Valley Forge: New York-Harrisburg (Both Ways)

Northeast

Adirondack: New York City-Albany-Poughkeepsie-Montreal (Both Ways)
Montrealer: Washington D.C.-New York-Hartford-Springfield-Montreal (Northbound)
Washingtonian: Montreal-Springfield-Hartford-New York-Washington D.C. (Southbound)

Midwest

Abraham Lincoln: St. Louis-Chicago-Milwaukee
Bluegrass: Cincinnati-Louisville-Bowling Green-Nashville
Buckeye: Cincinnati-Dayton-Toledo-Detroit
Hiawatha Service: Chicago-Milwaukee
Illini: Chicago-Champaign
Illinois Zephyr: Chicago-Quincy
James Whitcomb Riley: Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati
Ohio State Limited: Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland-Buffalo
Prairie State: Milwaukee-Chicago-Springfield (IL)-St. Louis
River Runner: Kansas City-St. Louis-Cincinnati
Shawnee: Chicago-Carbondale
Turboliner: St. Louis-Chicago-Milwaukee; Chicago-Detroit
Wolverine: Chicago-Detroit

Southeast

None

Texas

Texan Ranger: Dallas-Austin-San Antonio

West

Mount Rainier: Seattle-Portland
Pacific International: Seattle-Vancouver
Puget Sound: Seattle-Portland
San Diegan: San Diego-Los Angeles
San Joaquin: Oakland-Emeryville-Sacramento-Fresno-Bakersfield-Los Angeles

Long Distance Trains

Broadway Limited: New York City-Philadelphia-Harrisburg-Pittsburgh-Fort Wayne-Chicago
California Zephyr: Chicago-Omaha-Denver-Salt Lake City-Reno-Sacramento-Oakland
Champion: New York City-Washington D.C.-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-St. Petersburg/Miami
Cincinnati Limited: Cincinnati-Columbus-Pittsburgh-Harrisburg-Philadelphia
Coast Starlight/Daylight: Seattle-Portland-Oakland-Los Angeles
Crescent: New York City-Washington D.C.-Greensboro-Atlanta-Birmingham-New Orleans
Empire Builder: Chicago-Minneapolis-Spokane-Seattle/Portland
George Washington: Cincinnati-Charleston-Newport News
Lake Shore Limited: Chicago-Toledo-Cleveland-Buffalo-Albany-New York City/Boston
Lone Star: Chicago-Kansas City-Oklahoma City-Dallas-Houston (Terminus at Kansas City)
North Coast Hiawatha: Chicago-Minneapolis-Bismarck-Butte-Spokane-Seattle
Pan-American: Cincinnati-Louisville-Nashville-Montgomery-New Orleans
Panama Limited: Chicago-Memphis-New Orleans
Shenandoah: Cincinnati-Cumberland-Harpers Ferry-Washington
Silver Meteor: New York City-Washington D.C.-Charleston-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami
Silver Star: New York City-Washington D.C.-Raleigh-Columbia-Savannah-Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami
Southern Gulf: Miami-Orlando-Tallahassee-New Orleans-Beaumont-Houston
Southwest Limited: Chicago-Kansas City-Albuquerque-Los Angeles
Sunset Limited: New Orleans-Houston-San Antonio-Los Angeles

Unknown said:

Didn't see the Shah's assassination coming...

Waiting for more!!!

Have any plans for Texas high speed rail?

Click to expand...

Thanks, posted the next chapter therein.

High speed rail will be a separate chapter coming up, and I have some plans where they might be presented initially.

Zachanassian said:

Oh hey, Amtrak timeline. I'll be watching this.

I like how there are some minor changes to the greater world leaking through, notably the Shah's assignation and Ford winning reelection. Timelines that focus on a very specific aspect sometimes have a tendency of not applying changes to the outside world, so it's nice that some thought has been given to the wider world.

Any plans on what happens to commuter rail service? It'd also be interesting to see if the Northeast Corridor electrification eventually gets extended down to Richmond and/or Norfolk News.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the "watch" of this.

Commuter rail service is going to be moved to transit authorities primarily (like OTL to some extent), and possibly a "few" lines might be given to Amtrak depending upon how the future turns out. And for electrification, wait till when we start with the first term of President Kennedy.

joeferrito said:

Not running the Empire State into Manhattan? Heresey! Burn the witch!

In all seriousness this looks great. We don't get enough railroad TLs on this site. Following this with a whole lot of interest.

Click to expand...

The Empire State Express does run into Manhattan. (Grand Central rather than Penn Station). If you are thinking of the Empire Builder, that was a train inherited from the previous railroads they decided to keep (like OTL)

Great update as usual- though why was Connolly nominated instead of Reagan?

This timeline is shaping up to be very interesting. I look forward to reading future updates!

mr1940s said:

Great update as usual- though why was Connolly nominated instead of Reagan?

Click to expand...

While this was somewhat OTLish, there wasn't a leak that Connolly was trying to buy the black vote in South Carolina. This, combined with Bush not running (seeing 1980 as a lost cause) led to Connolly being nominated whom I say as the strongest candidate that could be done in 1980.

Aero said:

This timeline is shaping up to be very interesting. I look forward to reading future updates!

Click to expand...

Thank you very much. And after all, there are still another thirty+ years to go.

Alas, no Southern Crescent or Palmetto.

Subscribed. Intriguing TL here.

Orville_third said:

Alas, no Southern Crescent or Palmetto.

Click to expand...

The Crescent does live on. The Palmetto's route here is pretty much taken up by the Silver Star/Silver Meteor twins, there isn't much need for it, at least not yet. (Running a more coastal, leisurely, tourist-friendly route and serving Norfolk, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, the Outer Banks or all four might be what gives the Palmetto a reason to live.)

If I was to make a suggestion for the long-distance routes, once you have the equipment available you might want to consider twin trains, that being two separate named trains that allow a choice of arrival and departure times and somewhat split destinations, such as the Western Star as a slower twin to the Empire Builder in the Northwest, and with the Western Star going to Portland while the Empire Builder heads for Seattle. My idea is that the Empire Builder run on its current route (though if you can use the Milwaukee Road or Northern Pacific cross over the Cascades you can save time as opposed to using Stevens Pass) to Seattle, while the Western Star runs from Portland to Spokane (meets with Empire Builder there, so that passengers who want the faster route can catch a connection there), then along the ex-Milwaukee Road to serve Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Billings and Bismarck before running on the same routes again east of Fargo, ND.

Likewise, you could get in on the tourist market with the Pioneer by routing it on UP from Seattle or Portland through Boise and Pocatello to Salt Lake, along the D&RGW to Denver (a much more scenic route than UP's Overland Route via Cheyenne), then south along the East edge of the Rockies to serve Colorado Springs, Pueblo and into New Mexico, with the trip ending at Albuquerque or running east into Texas to San Antonio. This route is a real roundabouter, but it serves almost every inch of two of most scenic routes in American railroading.