On the Rails at the Bear Back Shop

Are you superstitious? Do you dread dates like Friday the 13th thinking bad luck shall befell you? Sit back and relax, we got you covered at the Bear Back Shops, it’s going to be a good day and night!
Now here’s a little history of the AMTRAK fleet and the number 13

SPV #988-999
13 SPV2000's were built between April and July 1980 by Budd. Intended to be a modern RDC, the name SPV stood for Self Propelled Vehicle designed to go into the year 2000.

Delivered to the Connecticut DOT for use in Amtrak and local Conneticut service.

Considering their history maybe they should have made 12 or 14- cold weather for the famous New England winter caused frequnt failures - the running joke was SPV stood for Seldom Powered Vehicle

In Jan 1986 all were withdrawn from service and stored.

Amtrak's Wilmington Shops worked with Connecticut DOT to rebuild the remaining fleet into coaches and cab cars. Four cab cars and seven coaches were produced from the ill fated fleet of 13.
Check out the pictures of the SPV's in the photo album labeled AMTRAK Fleet.

ACTION ALERT! AMTRAK BILL WILL CUT PROMOTIONS AND DISCOUNTED FARES

The appropriations law just enacted, which funds Amtrak for FY 2006, contains a provision that will make rail travel unaffordable for many Amtrak passengers, reduce Amtrak’s revenue, harm bottom line performance and possibly place long distance routes and trains in jeopardy of discontinuance. This provision prohibits Amtrak from selling at tickets at fares that are less than half the “normal, peak fare." Currently, 40% of Amtrak’s regular revenue-managed fares and many promotions – including some that are written into Amtrak’s contracts with states – fall below that level.

WE MUST CONVINCE CONGRESS TO ELIMINATE THIS PROVISION BEFORE IT TAKES EFFECT ON MARCH 1, 2006.

Please write your representative asking him/her to push for repeal of this provision. If you can, mail a copy to the local district office and fax a copy to the Washington office. Contact information is at Make sure that you sign the letter and include your address and phone number.

Senate-- http://www.senate.gov, choose your state from the drop-down menu
House-- http://www.house.gov, either chose your Representative from the drop-down menu or enter your zip code at the top of the page.

For a sample letter to Congress CLICK HERE

Those who cannot write should call Congress. The number for the switchboard that I have is: 1-800-426-8073

30th Street Station? City deserves better
Philadelphia Inquirer - Philadelphia,PA,USA
... because Ben Franklin and Philadelphia are synonymous, and because a change of name would distinguish Philadelphia from other Amtrak Northeast Corridor ...

Illinois legislators seek state money for more Amtrak service on 3 ...
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - St. Louis,MO,USA
Three Illinois legislators were riding the rails Tuesday calling for increased Amtrak passenger service on three routes, including Chicago-St. Louis. ...

Mudslides Tie Up Washington Rail Traffic
Houston Chronicle - United States
SEATTLE -- Heavy rain triggered mudslides that halted Amtrak passenger train service between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Ore. ...

Remote Control Trains in Tucson are Cause for Concern (KOLD)
BLE concerned with Union Pacific's use of remote control locomotives in Tucson.

Amtrak train slams into car's wreckage
Chicago Sun-Times - United States
Local authorities notified the wrong railroad of a car wreck on tracks near Romeoville on Saturday night, causing an Amtrak train bound for Chicago with 143 ...

Amtrak suffers because of hurricane repairs
Access North Georgia - Gainesville,GA,USA
... The Amtrak Crescent, which operates between New York and New Orleans, has reportedly been running late because of congestion on the tracks. ...

Group sponsors rally to save Amtrak at EL station
MSU State News - East Lansing,MI,USA
On Saturday morning, the train from the Blue Water line slowly pulled into the East Lansing Amtrak station, 1240 S. Harrison Ave. ...

Time for people to get on board this rapid transit idea
Troy Record - Troy,NY,USA
... Of course, both Amtrak and the federal government will have to cooperate. Amtrak has this annoying habit of hollering "Bankruptcy ...

Amtrak breakup advances


The Amtrak board has approved an essential step in the Bush administration plan to break up the railroad, voting to carve out the Northeast Corridor, the tracks between Boston and Washington, as a separate division.

The board, made up entirely of Mr. Bush's appointees, voted in a meeting on Sept. 22 to create a new subsidiary to own and manage the corridor, which includes nearly all the track that Amtrak owns.

The vote was not announced. It was reported on Wednesday in the newsletter of the United Rail Passenger Alliance of Jacksonville, Fla., an organization that has been highly critical of Amtrak management.

The plan, which would require action by Congress, is to transfer the corridor to a consortium including the federal government and the governments of the states in the region that would share the costs to maintain it.

That would relieve Amtrak from spending billions of dollars to build and rebuild bridges, rails and electrical systems, but still let the company run its trains.

The plan would also remove Amtrak from control of that sector, a condition that the railroad's senior executives say would doom high-speed long-distance service. Managers say they have to be able to give their trains priority over local traffic if they have any hope of keeping their schedules.

A large majority of trains in the corridor are shorter-distance commuter trains operated by state agencies in metropolitan regions, although Amtrak trains accrue a majority of the miles traveled.

The four-member board has shown ambivalence to some aspects of the administration's proposal.

On April 21, the chairman, David M. Laney, testified before a Senate committee, "We have concluded for now that the complexities and risks associated with such a split outweigh any benefits."

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Mr. Laney denied that the vote to make the corridor a separate operating division was a precursor to separating it from Amtrak entirely.

He said it was a way to make the costs clear, for the Northeast corridor, other corridors around the country and for long-distance and transcontinental trains. Such clarity is needed, Mr. Laney said, so Amtrak could ask states for subsidies for operating costs or capital costs, without the states' believing that their money was going to pay for operations in other regions.

"The combination of federal and state support for intercity passenger rail is the only way it's going to be revitalized, in our judgment," Mr. Laney said. "But we've got to be able to deliver numbers to Congress, to the corridor states and the other states where we have operations."

Amtrak supporters saw darker motives in the board's vote. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, one of four main sponsors of a bipartisan bill to shore up the railroad, said separating the corridor was intended to package it for a change in ownership.

"The Bush administration wants to hold a fire sale on Amtrak and dump its best asset, the Northeast Corridor," Mr. Lautenberg said in a statement. "Selling the Northeast corridor is the first step in President Bush's plan to destroy Amtrak and intercity rail service in America."

At the National Association of Railroad Passengers, which lobbies for more subsidies for Amtrak, the executive director, Ross B. Capon, said that separating the corridor into a distinct business entity was a step toward moving it out of Amtrak entirely, but that the move would also have a second effect, insulating the commuter operations in the Northeast from Amtrak troubles. That, Mr. Capon said, would give more leverage to the Transportation Department, which has been leading the charge to close Amtrak or break it up.

"Their dream is an Amtrak crisis where the commuter trains are unaffected and, therefore, the political power behind the protest is that much smaller, and they can go ahead and do whatever they want with or too Amtrak," he said.

A spokesman for the Transportation Department had no comment.

Although the administration has proposed phasing out Amtrak unless major changes are enacted, the House has approved an appropriation of nearly $1.2 billion for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1, about the same level as the previous year. The Senate may take up the appropriations bill next week. The version passed in committee calls for $1.45 billion.

By Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times, Oct 13, 2005