Amtrak owns most but not all of the major intercity passenger rail lines along the NEC. Of 899 route-miles along the corridor, 546 are Amtrak owns, with holdings concentrated in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York (Gallaway 2014). As Amtrak owns the majority of the rail lines, it is an important stakeholder in all of the projects of the Northeast Corridor. One thing you can generally count on: if there is rail, Amtrak is involved. Amtrak’s power can be seen in the fact that it has major control centers in both Boston and New York, from which it dispatches trains along the entire Northeast Corridor. The Amtrak rail lines essentially connect all of the individual station projects, therefore the company is very concerned with the success of the projects. Delays due to poor planning and overcapacity in one station affect arrival times down the rest of the line. While Amtrak receives heavy federal support, it is still a company looking for a profit. If there are delays and poor rail service, people are more likely to blame the Amtrak name than the individual train stations. Currently, Amtrak is collaborating with station master plan projects not only in Boston, New York, and D.C., but also in Philadelphia and Baltimore (Gallaway 2014). While in the case of South Station (which Amtrak does not own) and Union Station, Amtrak seems to be less involved in the station planning processes, simply providing support, insight, and funding. In the New York case however, Amtrak has embarked on the enormous undertaking of planning the Gateway Project.
51 Amtrak: Connecting the Dots
Connecting
amtrak logo from http://logonoid.com/amtrak-logo/
train photo by James R. Griffin 2008
from http://users.sisna.com/jimbobnay/amtkpower.htm
the Dots...
Dots...