Amtrak(Company)

The **National Railroad Passenger Corporation**, doing business as **Amtrak** /ˈæmtræk/, is a partially government-funded American passenger railroad service. It is operated and managed as a for-profit corporation, and provides medium- and long-distanceintercity service in the contiguous United States. Amtrak was founded in 1971 through the government-sponsored consolidation of most of the preexisting passenger rail companies in the United States.

Amtrak operates more than 300 trains each day on 21,300 miles (34,000 km) of track with select segments having civil operating speeds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 states in addition to three Canadian provinces. Infiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, while employing more than 20,000 people. Nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the ten largest metropolitan areas and 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles. Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D.C.

The name "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "trak", the latter itself a sensational spelling of "track".

## Piedmont History

Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and North Carolina Department of Transportation(NCDOT) founded and run the North Carolina Rail Service and a State Owned Railroad, the Piedmont. The Piedmont was originally a unnamed freight service with two unnamed special painted North Carolina themed GP40PH-2 engines with no names on the sides but numbers 1792 and 1768. The trains were freight only, and only used in North Carolina(Except a few occasion) .They were easy to point out with the "North Carolina" side text and N\*C on the front. The two paired up often together, with Norfolk Southern/Norfolk Southerns, each other, one with other Freight Train/Trains or just by themselves. These trains eventually became passenger trains and 1792 was first to test out passengers.It was successful and its twin, 1768 went next. It was not very successful, as the engine was used to the heavy freight and made several errors. The two eventually got there names on the side, 1792 got "City of Raleigh" where it was launched, while 1768 got "City of Charlotte" where it was purchased and built. This service was named Piedmont. The two were originally bound in their namesake city, but this changed soon after. 1768 occasionally carried 1st class cars but that changed aswell. Earlier in 1997, City of Raleigh made contact with a Toyota Camry that tried to "Beat the Train" and had flipped and tossed the car aside, with minor damage to the front plate. The car driver went to the hospital and no one on the train was hurt badly. This became the first Piedmont accident. In February 1999, a new Piedmont engine, a EMD F59PHI entered service, and was named "1797 City of Asheville" which was colored similar the GP40PH's but the engine was very different. Not long after, the finances collapsed, which almost caused bankruptcy to the Piedmont, which required all engines to work triple time, and several Amtrak engines worked temporarily with the Piedmont. This caused the engine, City of Charlotte to be pulled out of service as it was the lowest quality engine. The crisis lasted for two years, until 2001 when City of Charlotte was sold to Virginia Railway Express, and became VRE v24. This was the first train to leave Piedmont service permanently. The selling brought the finances up incredibly and on February 2002, another EMD F59PHI, entered service as "1755 City of Salisbury". This train was high quality, so it is reliable to keep Piedmont finances under control. The engine replaced City of Charlotte and became a twin of Asheville, and sister of Charlotte and Raleigh. Salisbury entered service unofficially announced, and people thought she was Asheville until it was announced. In 2005, Salisbury slammed into a flatbed stuck on the tracks and pushed the flatbed (which detached from the truck soon after) for half a mile before she stopped completely. The engine was a save, but the nose was a total loss, and was replaced afterwords. This was very close to being a loss, and the aftermath left her different from her twin, Asheville. In 2007, the GP40PH-2 production was discontinued in North America after 34 years of production, and was only purchasable for a high price. On May 13, 2010 City of Raleigh struck a Lowboy Truck carrying a excavator, which was stuck on the tracks, in Mebane. The train exploded then threw the excavator off the trailer and flipped the detached trailer and drove along it aflame which caused it to derail. The debris was eventually cleared and 1792 was carried to the station by a Norfolk Southern. The train was a tragic loss, and was scrapped shortly afterwords, ending a chapter of the Piedmont history. In 2011, a new model, a EMD F59PH entered service as "1869 City of Durham" and in December, a 2nd F59PH "1893 City of Burlington" joined service aswell. The two crashed when passing by each other due to a measurement error and no major damage occurred. A 3rd F59PH entered service in 2012 as "1810 City of Greensboro" and finally, the final F59PH "1859 City of High Point" entered the service, and became the fastest and newest engine to the Piedmont. In 2012 City of Burlington leading City of Greensboro and a Amtrak train crashed into a 18 Wheeler carrying limestone, Burlington sliced through the trailer causing the limestone to batter the train and the impact to dent the train. Greensboro detached and pulled the Amtrak to the Beech Grove for inspection while Burlington was carried by a Norfolk Southern to the Grove, where it spent 3 years at until January 10th, 2016 when it was scrapped. New routes are planned to be finished in 2017 along with 2 New engines and a 2nd City of Burlington.