COLUMBUS, Ohio — Amtrak has put a nearly $518 million price tag on Ohio’s plan to restore passenger train service to its major cities, a higher-than-expected cost driven by the need to buy new rail cars that challenges the state’s goal of running trains as early as 2011.

Amtrak’s inventory is tight, and because of the significant number of train sets and coaches required to launch service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, about $175 million in new equipment is needed instead of refurbishing cars currently in storage, the agency recommended in a study released last week. That would bump up the expected cost to $517.6 million, Amtrak said. State transportation officials had anticipated the overall cost to be lower, closer to $400 million.

Designing and delivering the new train cars would take several years, Amtrak said.

“I think 2011 is pushing it,” said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, a rail advocacy group.

The much-anticipated Amtrak study gave Ohio the key data it needs to meet an Oct. 2 deadline to apply for a slice of $8 billion in federal stimulus money that President Barack Obama has set aside for rail projects. Front-runners appear to be high-speed rail projects in the Midwest and California.

Amtrak predicted that startup service in Ohio, with conventional-speed trains running up to 79 mph, would draw 478,000 riders each year, comparable to the agency’s Chicago to St. Louis route, which has similar demographics. About 6 million people live along the 255-mile Ohio route, making it one of the most heavily populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest.
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By Matt Leingang, Forbes.com, >>> continue reading

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USA West By Train: The Complete Amtrak Travel Guide

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Look out to the left, the captain said, and you can see killer whales. Now that’s not the kind of invitation you expect when you’re on a car ferry, especially if you are more used to the hop between Dover and Calais, when there is normally nothing to see… except other ferries.

But this was Canada and I was on a 90-minute crossing from Swartz Bay near Victoria on Vancouver Island to Tsawwassen, about 15 miles south of the city of Vancouver on the Canadian mainland.

For me, the sight of whales is one of those things that always thrill me to my boots (like the sudden and occasional views of Concorde we used to get). But, clearly, they are no big deal to Canadians, since few of my fellow passengers bothered to stir themselves from their breakfasts to catch a glimpse of the passing pod.

People are just used to things being on an epic scale here, and not just the wildlife. Vancouver Island, for example, may look like a dot on the map – inviting comparisons with the Isle of Wight – yet it is nearly 300 miles long and some 50 miles broad at its widest point.

Standing out on deck, gazing east, I strained for my first sight of the Rockies. On the horizon is what looks like a sweep of steepling peaks but as you approach, these turn out to be modest foothills. Beyond lurk the real mountains. So, even on these first tentative steps towards the country’s heart, you begin to grasp that this is a place created on a vast scale. It’s the world’s second biggest country, roughly 36 times the size of Britain, but is home to 33million people – half the UK’s population.

I had arrived in Canada via the ‘back door’ after taking another ferry, the high-speed service from Seattle to Victoria. One minute I was in fast-paced America – Seattle is home to Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft – the next, I was in Victoria, taking the five-minute walk from the sedate ferry terminal to the even more sedate Empress Hotel.

It’s a journey of just a couple of hours up from the US, but Canada is light years apart from the States in most respects. Victoria, the state capital of British Columbia, feels more like Torquay. Actually, given the ever-present Scottish heritage that surrounds you in Canada, you are reminded more of, say, Rothesay on the Isle of Bute.

In America, you never feel able to drop your guard but in Canada I felt instantly as if I had never left home.

At the excellent Empress Hotel, for example, they serve a regular lunchtime curry buffet as fine as anything you can find on a British high street. And at any time of day you can always be sure of a real cup of tea.

The Empress Hotel, by the way, provides a worthy introduction to the chain of magnificent ‘railway hotels’ – now under the Fairmont banner – that stretches right across Canada. Like the country itself, these hotels are built on a grand scale in a style described as ‘chateau-esque’.
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By Frank Barrett, Mail Online, >>> continue reading

Railway Map Guide:British Columbia & Canadian Rockies

As Calgary’s glass towers disappear into the distance, prairie gives way to rolling foothills and the Rocky Mountains take over the landscape, I stand on the back of Canadian Pacific Railway’s Mount Stephen car on the same platform where world leaders and royalty once perched.

The distinctive black-topped maroon passenger car, built in 1926 for $72,522, is outfitted with leather armchairs and plush couches, and is where, according to CP lore, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mackenzie King talked strategy before the Quebec Conference in 1943 when the Allies plotted the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France. On the walls hang pictures of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their 1939 Canadian tour, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh during their coast-to-coast trek in 1951, as well as Churchill with King on that historic ride, each person standing in the same place I have settled in.

On this excursion, three diesel locomotives power the 12-car train, which includes a recently completed museum car that tells the 128-year-old story of CP, and its inseparable link to the development of Canada as a nation. We are bound for Field, B.C., 220 kilometres west, in Yoho National Park or, more chiefly, the Spiral Tunnels carved through the indefatigable Kicking Horse Pass. Construction of the Spiral Tunnels is credited with helping goods and people move more quickly – and safely – across the spine of the continent.

“In the railway industry, it’s known as the holy place of railroading,” says Doug Welsh, a retired 33-year veteran of CP, who is along for the ride.

When British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, it was on the condition that prime minister John A. Macdonald agreed to tie it by rail to the rest of fledgling country. CP plugged away at the project, but faced a significant challenge on the steep western slope of the Rockies. The railway could have found an easier route by looking farther north, but it didn’t want to chance abandoning territory to tenacious American railroaders to the south.

Under pressure to complete the transcontinental railway, CP was excused from the railway rule of track that the grade not exceed 2.2 per cent. Trains were not supposed to climb or descend more than 2.2 feet for every 100 feet of track (the railway still operates exclusively in imperial measures), but CP would be allowed a 4.5-per-cent grade. What was supposed to be a temporary fix, which was completed in 1884 and became known as Big Hill, lasted 25 years.
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By Dan Walton, Globe and Mail, >>> continue reading

Railway Map Guide:British Columbia & Canadian Rockies

The Government of Canada and VIA Rail announced today a $20 million program to renew and improve two key components of its nationwide locomotive and rolling stock fleet, funded from the $407 million investment in passenger rail improvements under the Government of Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce the overhaul of 78 cars and 21 locomotives for improved service across VIA Rail’s transcontinental network,” said the Honourable Rob Merrifield, Minister of State (Transport). “Combined with the other capital projects announced recently, it will give Canadians a more efficient, reliable and comfortable passenger rail network”.

“Equally satisfying for all of us at VIA is the fact that this program will create and maintain skilled employment, contributing to the government’s strategy of employment and economic stimulus”, said VIA Chief Operating Officer, John Marginson. “This initiative is creating 58 positions at VIA’s Montreal Maintenance Centre (MMC): 51 positions for the HEP 1 project and seven positions for the P-42 locomotives. When coupled with our other fleet renewal programs, it adds up to the largest investment ever in Canadian passenger rail equipment”, added Marginson.

This project includes the renovation and upgrade of 78 HEP 1 long-haul cars of various types and of 21 P-42 diesel-electric locomotives. The HEP 1 stainless steel cars are primarily assigned to VIA’s world-renowned Toronto-Vancouver streamliner, the Canadian, which is an important contributor to Canada’s tourism industry. The P-42 locomotives haul VIA’s fastest trains in the busy Quebec-Windsor Corridor.

The first of the 78 HEP 1 stainless steel cars to be overhauled will be 40 Manor sleeping cars, followed by the dining cars, Skyline dome-buffet-lounge cars and other car types within the fleet. The overhaul will include new and brighter interior carpeting, wall designs and upholstery. Mechanical work will include the renewal of the electrical, drinkable water, heating/ventilating/air conditioning and underframe systems. This overhaul of VIA’s long-distance trains will proceed at the rate of seven cars per month. The first cars are scheduled for completion this fall.

The P-42 program includes work on the underframe systems, main diesel engine, alternator and generator. As well, there will be minor structural repairs and touch-ups of the car body, along with winterization programs. This will prepare the P-42s for another 1.6 million kilometers or eight years of reliable service.

About VIA’s fleet renewal program

These programs fleet renewal programs are part of an unprecedented investment by the Government of Canada in the improvement and expansion of passenger rail service across the country. It is being funded under a $516 million passenger rail capital improvement program announced in October 2007 and another $407 million investment under the Economic Action Plan.

About VIA Rail Canada

As Canada’s national rail passenger service, VIA Rail Canada’s mandate is to provide efficient, environmentally sustainable and cost-effective passenger transportation, both in Canada’s business corridor and in remote and rural regions of the country. Every week, VIA operates 503 intercity, transcontinental and regional trains linking 450 communities across its 12,500-kilometre route network.

For further information: Malcolm Andrews, Via Rail Canada Inc., (514) 871-6604; Chris Hilton, Office of Minister of State (transport), (613) 991-0700

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Canada By Train: The Complete VIA Rail Travel Guide

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Via Rail may be forced to cut routes and lay off staff as part of a government cost-cutting exercise, warns a transport watchdog group.

Earlier this year, the Conservative government asked the Crown corporation to identify lower priority and lower performing programs that represent 5% of its parliamentary allocation.

“Via doesn’t have any fat to cut,” said Transportation 2000 Canada’s president David Jeanes. “The only way they have to achieve those types of budget cuts is to completely eliminate or drastically reduce services, for example cutting the number of trains across the country.”

Jeanes is worried declining passenger rates on Via Rail’s western and eastern routes to Gaspe and Halifax will make the regions particularly vulnerable to cuts.

The Canadian Auto Workers’ Bob Chernecki said the union met with Via Rail management three weeks ago and raised the issue with them, but so far it has not been notified of any cuts.

“Absolutely no decisions have been made regarding any effect that this process could have on any part of our operation, let alone the passenger rail network,” said Via Rail’s spokesman Malcolm Andrews. “None would be taken until some time in early 2010.”

Andrews said fewer passengers are riding the railway because of the economic crisis and a drop in tourism.

By ALTHIA RAJ, NATIONAL BUREAU, >>> continue reading
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Canada By Train: The Complete VIA Rail Travel Guide

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Civilized and unhurried travelling, slow cooking and refined dining, listening to re-mastered stereo albums of The Beatles on vinyl, film noir from the ’50s, nostalgia fashion and re-discovering weekend getaways without going far away are lifestyle trends that are coming back in style in Canada.

This means that the concept of leisured journeys like it used to be is currently being enjoyed by today’s generation of Canadian baby boomers and their elders who are enjoying their golden years.

Both groups have the time, the money and the ability to enjoy life to the fullest. They have countless opportunities to reshape contemporary lifestyle because of their demographic power. Slowing down does not mean slacking down on worldly activities.

Because of the economic downturn, more and more Canadians are staying at home and enjoying weekend getaways close to where they live.

One mode of transportation that is now enjoying a healthy comeback is travelling on VIA RAIL CANADA to enjoy once again Canada’s legendary and classic train journeys. It’s a travel experience unlike any other. It’s comfortable, luxurious and romantic. You travel in classic stainless steel and art deco-style cars, just like in the movies.

You don’t suffer the indignities of waiting at crowded airports, taking your shoes off when your luggage is checked, cramped airline seats at coach, bad or no food, suffer the noise of wailing children or being treated like a cow by a harassed attendant or fear that the customs officer may think that you have liquid explosive in your bottled water.

One can book a three-day and two-night journey on VIA RAIL from Vancouver to Jasper and back. The train travels 1,160 km between the Rockies and the north Pacific coast through breathtaking and varied landscapes. It is a voyage of discovery and the realization that Canada is truly a vast country and it has kept the beauty of rich forests, natural landscapes and its wilderness.

The Vancouver to Jasper run is short and long enough to experience trail travel. The train leaves Vancouver at 8:30 p.m. on a Friday, arrives Jasper Saturday afternoon. A night at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and dinner at the world-renowned Edith Cavell restaurant are highly recommended.

Return to Vancouver is on Sunday afternoon, to arrive Vancouver Monday morning around 9 a.m., fully refreshed. It is best to check the schedule that fits your travel plans.

I have vivid memories of sipping champagne in the observation dome car while Vancouver slowly faded from my eye level, drinking coffee while working at the game room with large picture windows, taking long naps in a functional private compartment and a long shower before breakfast. There were memorable breakfast, lunch, dinner, all freshly prepared by the on-board chef. The chefs prepare seasonal cuisine to fully showcase the best of Canadian ingredients, vegetables, meats and fruits.

Jasper was a revelation. Besides the National Park which is a wildlife sanctuary, there are unforgettable mountain lakes and views. It is no wonder that over two million visitors travel to Jasper and is among the country’s most-photographed places. It has a laidback mountain lifestyle but offers first-class accommodations and gourmet dining in several renowned restaurants.

By Mel Tobias, Philstar.com, >>> continue reading
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Canada By Train: The Complete VIA Rail Travel Guide

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