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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:48 pm
by flyingember
Amtrak only owns 14% of it's ~500 stations. Ouch
And of the 500, only 3 of them are 100% accessible to the disabled. (Both physical and sensory)
http://consumerist.com/2013/10/17/repor ... -disabled/
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 3:59 pm
by shinatoo
flyingember wrote:if you haven't been following the cameras, the 2nd bridge over the Osage River is in the process of the track connection
which as I've seen, is the last segment east of Jeff City to go two track
link to web stream?
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:51 am
by flyingember
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 2:08 pm
by DaveKCMO
http://www.rtands.com/index.php/track-s ... hannel=283
Officials will have several design considerations to deal with on the potential project. The corridor has five cures that would require a larger radius to accommodate higher speeds for passenger trains. The centerline of the new second mainline would need to be 20 feet from the centerline of the existing track, wood crossties would be replaced with concrete crossties and the rail strength would be increased. Additionally, culverts and bridges would be extended and resized to allow for adequate drainage and an access road for maintenance vehicles would be provided. The project would also require a large number of grade crossings to either be consolidated, grade separated or have their warning devices upgraded.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:01 pm
by Eon Blue
It seems like a few times a year you hear about an accident at the Hamblen Road crossing...bad geometry.
If anyone's curious, it's my guess that the second main would start at the end of the siding that ends behind the warehouse on Thompson Road, south of the small yard in LS and run to the west end of the siding that starts west of Strasburg. The three bridges east of Strasburg make a nice argument for stopping it there for now. The existing siding at Pleasant Hill would be upgraded to second mainline status.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 5:08 pm
by flyingember
Eon Blue wrote:It seems like a few times a year you hear about an accident at the Hamblen Road crossing...bad geometry.
If anyone's curious, it's my guess that the second main would start at the end of the siding that ends behind the warehouse on Thompson Road, south of the small yard in LS and run to the west end of the siding that starts west of Strasburg. The three bridges east of Strasburg make a nice argument for stopping it there for now. The existing siding at Pleasant Hill would be upgraded to second mainline status.
wonder if all the sidings up to being a high speed segment? I bet some are purposefully maintained to a level for lower speed traffic
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 9:17 am
by Eon Blue
flyingember wrote:wonder if all the sidings up to being a high speed segment? I bet some are purposefully maintained to a level for lower speed traffic
I'm sure they are, but it's much easier to upgrade a siding to ML status than to construct an entirely new main, especially in physically constricted areas like Pleasant Hill. In Illinois for the High-er Speed Rail segments between Chicago and St. Louis a lot of the upgrade work done consisted of tie replacement, re-ballasting and grade crossing improvement. If the sidings here are older, they may have lighter and possibly jointed rail that would need to be replaced with heavy CWR to bring it up to snuff. Geometry wise, since these sidings typically parallel the mainline, no re-alignment would be necessary to enable them to run at higher speeds.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:19 pm
by longviewmo
Eon Blue wrote:It seems like a few times a year you hear about an accident at the Hamblen Road crossing...bad geometry.
If anyone's curious, it's my guess that the second main would start at the end of the siding that ends behind the warehouse on Thompson Road, south of the small yard in LS and run to the west end of the siding that starts west of Strasburg. The three bridges east of Strasburg make a nice argument for stopping it there for now. The existing siding at Pleasant Hill would be upgraded to second mainline status.
It's actually going to start at 4th Street in Downtown LS.
http://www.lsjournal.com/2013/10/25/107 ... cific.html
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:39 pm
by Eon Blue
I should have clarified that construction of a brand new second main would start south of town. The track at 4th Street is one of the existing sidings I mentioned would be upgraded.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:17 am
by longviewmo
I also misread that post/forgot we had siding in LS.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:11 pm
by DaveKCMO
osage river bridge opens dec. 1. onboard wifi in january 2014.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:23 am
by flyingember
as of yesterday it appears they shut down the old bridge and moved all traffic to the new one. the modot cams show them replacing the track on the now EB side
A really cool still is at 4:38 yesterday
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2013 9:38 am
by DaveKCMO
awesome! headed to STL friday and will report back.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 9:43 am
by DaveKCMO
DaveKCMO wrote:awesome! headed to STL friday and will report back.
it was dark by the time we crossed the osage river in both directions, so i can't confirm that part. i did take verizon and AT&T devices to check signal strength for when they implement WiFi in january, and i can confirm decent coverage until jeff city. big dead zone between jeff city and washington, so don't expect their WiFi to work on that stretch.
we arrived
early in STL and KC, as well as several station stops along the way. i'd guess they could easily cut 30 minutes from the schedule and still maintain on-time performance.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 10:18 am
by Eon Blue
DaveKCMO wrote:we arrived early in STL and KC, as well as several station stops along the way. i'd guess they could easily cut 30 minutes from the schedule and still maintain on-time performance.
That's been my experience on the last several trips.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 11:06 am
by flyingember
how long is it taking to get to StL?
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 11:48 am
by Eon Blue
I think of my last two trips one was early and the other made up time after initial delays to arrive on time.
EB is more challenging west of Jefferson City because Amtrak is running "upstream" against the flow of freight traffic. If that second main gets built south of Lee's Summit, that will help a lot by giving WB trains more room to stack up before entering the KC area.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 11:54 am
by DaveKCMO
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:01 am
by DaveKCMO
after enjoying decades of strong bipartisan support at the state level, improvements to the river runner were not included in the amendment 7 project list. regardless, new train equipment is still scheduled to arrive in 2016.
Re: Missouri Amtrak Service
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:39 am
by shinatoo
There are track upgrades in Jeff City.
What else do we need short of 125 speed trains? (not rhetorical)
One or two more trains per day? Station upgrades?