Drew Dowdell

Until the 5-series grew and gained lots of weight with the latest generation, the CTS was within less than an inch. So unless the old 5-series as "too small" to compete with the new 5-series....

other publications are reporting the assumptions of the original author.

I take it there is no indoor waiting area there? That is a highly location specific issue. The company I work for is doing recharging stations at retailers.

Well... at 110v, yes. But the quick chargers that are going into a bunch of parking garages, restaurants, and retail establishments can "fill up" a Leaf from stone dead to full charge in 30 minutes. Who here can't easily blow 30 minutes in a Best Buy, Home Depot or Bob Evans? Who here wouldn't pay $3 to for 100 miles of range? To put that into perspective, it costs about $14 to go 100 miles in a car that averages 25 mpg. Even a Prius driver is paying $7 per 100 miles assuming 50mpg. $3 dollars to charge (the price being thrown around right now for places that aren't offering it for free) is still profitable for the retailer and still a decent deal for the driver. Even a Plug-In-Pruis driver would benefit from a $1 - 10 minute pit stop at Home Depot if they were in Regen mode. The fear of electric cars is more and more unfounded as more and more charging stations are installed.

Amtrak is not commuter rail and these corridor services work in exactly the opposite direction you describe. The Lynchburg train is doing very well and actually returning a profit. So think about that for a second. The traffic on that train is not coming from a bunch of DCers who for some reason want to go to Lynchburg. Corridor service, i.e. the Wolverine, the Keystone (Harrisburg - Philly - NYC), Lincoln service (St. Louis - Chicago) isn't about connecting those end points, it's about connecting the points in between to those end points. Cleveland - Chicago is already pretty well served. Waterloo, Indiana - Chicago isn't. There are lots of flights from Detroit to Chicago. From Kalamazoo to Chicago, the selection diminishes substantially.

love those in all black

eh, I thought this would be the B-body one. That would be a fair price for a B-body... jeers.

To the trains, nothing. The P40/42 diesel is already certified up to 110mph. The corridor cars are certified up to 125mph. The Wolverine however sometimes uses the double deck coaches called SuperLiners. Those are only certified to 100mph... so I'm betting those will no longer be used on this route and will be deployed elsewhere. To the stations, nothing. The track work was continuously welded rail with concrete ties in certain sections, but that was completed in 2005. Some of the grade crossings were also moved/removed. To get to 110mph, the line required PTC or Positive Train Control. Basically a highly automated signaling system that can stop or slow down a train remotely without direct human intervention. The system has the ability to detect a train in the block ahead and inform the engineer. If the engineer doesn't make the adjustments in the time allotted, the computer does it for him (usually snapping the emergency brake). All passenger lines/trains will get the PTC system eventually and any line in the US that wants to do more than 95mph has to have it to get approval for those speeds.

BTW, Amtrak will NEVER be profitable unless it no longer has to pay for the tracks or stations it uses. Highways aren't profitable either and neither is Air traffic control or the dam and lock system on the rivers and neither are the rural airports that we subsidize to keep in service. Every time you get in your car and drive on an interstate you get getting subsidized because the gas tax you pay only covers about 48% of the cost of keeping the interstates running. There is more money being spent on a 5 mile stretch of highway outside of Chicago than the entire Amtrak budget... not just Amtrak's subsidy... the entire yearly budget. For that same amount of money, Amtrak moved 30 million people last year. Amtrak is a bargain.

Well, that isn't entirely true. The Ohio service would be 110 service just like this Michigan release and it is still on the list of projects to complete. They want to get that done because it would also speed up two of the long distance trains. I don't understand this "you're left without a car" thing. Call Enterprise, they pick you up, and they have an agreement with Amtrak so if they know you're coming by train, they will bring the car to you if the train is early or late.

Most of the corridor services are getting mighty close to break even. It's the overnight trains with sleeping car service and a full diner where they bleed money. As more high(er) speed rail comes on line, critical mass of passengers becomes a reality. Amtrak already is facing a new problem they haven't before: Shortages of equipment. Not because they've lost or retired anything, but because traffic keeps going up at double digit rates. One of the services Amtrak introduced last year was a train from Lynchburg Virginia to Washington DC. The money was originally floated by Virginia DOT who expected they would be kicking in some money every year to keep the train running. At the end of it's second year, Amtrak is actually returning some profits back to VaDOT. As the Michigan service continues its speed upgrades, I would expect it to approach break even as well. As I noted above, the Wolverine is already bringing in 18.7 million a year which is equal to what the substantially more expensive to operate Capital Limited (Chicago - DC, "my train") brings in. OCN, I'm not sure where the scandal is. I'm reading a press release from Jan 19th that says the first stage of the Lancaster station restoration will be completed in a few weeks and that the first stage involved some emergency work to secure the structure of the building. The second phase is to start this spring and will include major work that doesn't get fully completed till 2015. Then there is a third phase....

When the ITCS is extended to Dearborn, that could end up cutting nearly an hour off the Detroit - Chicago run. That puts the run at about 4:35 minutes at a base price of $32.

February 14th, 2012 - Drew Dowdell - CheersandGears.com Michiganers will soon be able to get around a little faster without risking a speeding ticket. The US Department of Transportation has approved Amtrak to run 80 miles of the 97 mile section between Kalamazoo, MI and Porter, IN at 110mph, the first such service outside of Amtrak's North East Corridor. This move comes after the successful implementation of Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) along this section of the route. The two routes that use this section of line are Amtrak's thrice round trip daily Wolverine service, service Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Pontiac to the east and Chicago to the west, and the Amtrak Blue Water train with daily service east to Lansing and Port Huron and west to Chicago. Amtrak began upgrading this line above the Federal speed limit of 79mph in 2001 to 90mph with an additional limit increase to 95mph in 2005. The new 110mph service will take 10 minutes off the current schedule and is an improvement of 20 minutes over the 79mph schedule. Amtrak President Joseph Boardman pointed out that this is just the first of two 110mph spokes from Chicago, the other being a planned line from Chicago to St. Louis. Further development of the Michigan line will include 110mph service from Kalamazoo to Dearborn Amtrak ended its fiscal year 2011 in October with a record 30.18 million riders. The Blue Water and Wolverine ridership ended the fiscal year up 18.6% and 4.4% respectively. Revenues for the trains were up 22.3% and 11%. Updated schedules are to be announced at a later date. Source: Amtrak Media Relations View full article

Price it closer to the CTS-V coupe and I'd give it a hell yeah, but knowing there the price is likely going to fall and comparing performance per dollar, I can only give it a "meh" and then wander back to the Cadillac display.

A few of the big trucks are exceptions just because they have such large tanks. The biggest sellers like Camry, Accord, Corolla, Sonata, and Cruze top out between 350 - 400 miles cruising range in non-hybrid form.

Well, I could... but I agree with you on the naming.

Why such a high bar for electrics to surpass? 1,000 miles on a charge? Our CR-V barely gets 260 on a fill-up around town. I don't think most Americans expect more than about 350 miles to a tank.

all this does is get the look in line with the rest of the lineup, it really adds nothing much new to the game.

Actually some of the funniest things about the Versa were the sounds it made. Please do share, after all we do find sounds especially body function sounds to be funny in the US. Just watch Rocket Man to see how funny sounds can be. Chris and I were actually talking about doing a video of all of the bad noises it makes..... all before turning the key.

I wonder if 2.5 production can't be ramped up fast enough to cover all of these vehicles at once.

Happy Birthday CD

A what now??

There is a lot more to performance than 0-60 measurements. In normal driving, the gearing is such that you'd think there is a small 6 under the hood. Perhaps you're talking about the eAssist Regal, because I've driven the base version and thought it was incredibly sluggish. Nope, and even BV will back me up on this one.

ok, I had to read that 3 times and I'm still not sure I got it.....