Feb 24
It began when writer Alexander Chee made a simple, obvious statement in an interview with the literary organization PEN: Trains are great places to write. "I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers," he said.
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Feb 06
If you’re in the unenviable position of having to traverse the country by bus or train, you better make sure this map is on your phone.
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Aug 25
While Hurricane Sandy raged over the New York metropolitan area, the underground infrastructure of the city began to flood. Now Amtrak is revealing that they could have let Penn Station flood instead of the Hudson River tunnels, using a long-forgotten barrier designed to protect the city during World War II.
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May 19
May 18
There are plenty of wonderful things about train travel: the leg room, the scenery, the lack of security pat-downs. The WiFi, on the other hand, has long been the slowest thing about Amtrak. The company announced today that it’s finally doing something about its frustratingly sluggish service, upgrading wireless on select trains, including the Acela express between Boston and Washington DC and a few California lines like the Capitol Corridor, Pacific Surfliner and San Joaquin. Travelers to other destinations will have to wait a bit longer for quicker load times — Amtrak has promised that the rest of its WiFi-equipped trains will be upgraded by “late summer.”
Via: Slashdot
Source: The New York Times
May 14
Amtrak to roll out high-efficiency trains with regenerative braking (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Some of us look at electric trains as efficient transportation almost by definition, but that’s not entirely true when they consume a lot of power and give little back. Amtrak is about to strike a better balance now that it’s close to receiving the first of 70 high-efficiency Siemens ACS-64 trains destined for routes across DC, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. Each engine centers on a regenerative braking system that can recover up to 5MW of energy, much of which goes back to the power grid. The machinery is smarter, too: it can self-diagnose problems and mitigate the impact until repairs are possible. Commuters won’t immediately notice the difference when ACS-64 trains reach the rails between this fall and 2016, but there should be important behind-the-scenes savings. Amtrak reckons that the new vehicles could lower energy consumption by 3 billion kilowatts in the long run, which might help both the company’s bottom line and local utilities.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Amtrak
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