Bob Johnston's profile photo

Bob Johnston

Chicago

Correspondent at Trains Magazine

Passenger Rail correspondent-Trains Magazine

Featured in: Favicon trains.com Favicon genius.com Favicon patch.com Favicon headstuff.org Favicon ptreyeslight.com Favicon popularresistance.org

Articles

  • Cumberland & Knox runs first revenue train on Maine’s Rockland Branch

    4 days ago | trains.com | Bob Johnston

    BRUNSWICK, Maine — New short line Cumberland & Knox made its debut last weekend, running its first train over a 56-mile,  state-owned former Maine Central branch that hadn’t seen any freight action at all in eight months. The move saw locomotive LTEX 1555, an ex-Canadian Pacific GP9u, pick up 12 covered hoppers from the CSX interchange at Brunswick and haul them to Rockland on Saturday, May 31.

  • Why closing an East River tunnel causes Penn Station congestion headaches: Analysis

    1 week ago | trains.com | Bob Johnston

    NEW YORK — Lost in the debate between Amtrak, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and transportation advocates over the plans to close Amtrak’s East River tunnel for repairs — and the resulting service reductions, especially for Empire Service trains to and from Albany-Rensselaer, N. Y. — are the limited track routing options that exist between Penn Station platforms and the tunnels that feed trains to them.

  • Strong Amtrak summer demand triggers sellouts, high prices, despite some capacity gains: Analysis

    1 week ago | trains.com | Bob Johnston

    CHICAGO — Sellouts in coach and high prices in sleeping cars, if space is available at all, are the rule rather than exception in a News Wire survey of Amtrak long-distance trains as summer arrives. Travelers will often face limited inventory for the rest of the summer despite marginal increases in equipment deployment. In a statement, the company says “Demand going into the 2025 summer travel season is as strong or stronger than last season.

  • Amtrak board meeting reveals strong performance metrics but sidesteps upcoming challenges: Analysis

    2 weeks ago | trains.com | Bob Johnston

    WASHINGTON — Overall revenue is up, costs are being contained, expansion plans remain on track, and Amtrak is taking detailed steps to ensure summer 2024 problems on the Northeast Corridor in New Jersey won’t happen again. That’s a summary of issues covered in the live-streamed public portion of an Amtrak board meeting held today (May 22, 2025) to update financial, commercial, and operational matters.

  • The challenges and opportunities of Amtrak's Floridian: Trip report

    2 weeks ago | trains.com | Bob Johnston

    ORLANDO — Amtrak’s decision last fall to create the Chicago-Miami Floridian out of the Capitol Limited and Silver Star — ostensibly to reduce equipment moves during East River tunnel reconstruction in New York — is facing additional timekeeping obstacles over its 2,076-mile, 44-intermediate-stop route this summer. A cell phone text message dinged Sunday (May 18) as northbound Floridian passengers in Tampa were already looking at a two-hour delay.

Contact details

Emails

[email protected]

Socials & Sites

Try JournoFinder For Free

Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.

Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →

Coverage map

X (formerly Twitter)

Followers
23
Tweets
10
DMs Open
No
Bob Johnston
Bob Johnston @BobJohnston1111
17 Mar 20

.@RepMikeQuigley Amtrak, Florida’s Brightline and commuter rail systems need support NOW.

Bob Johnston
Bob Johnston @BobJohnston1111
17 Mar 20

.@realDonaldTrump Amtrak, Florida’s Brightline and commuter rail systems need support NOW.

Bob Johnston
Bob Johnston @BobJohnston1111
17 Mar 20

.@SenatorDurbin Amtrak, Florida’s Brightline and commuter rail systems need support NOW.