Planned Reduced Winter Consists

Matt Johnson wrote:My question is has something happened recently to greatly reduce winter demand, or has Amtrak just been running empty trains during the winter for all these years (or decades)?

My impression, is that they have in fact been running empty space, more often than not. I would be very pleased to be informed to the contrary.

I just heard from a fellow private car owner who has commenced a previously approved KCY - LAX - SEA - CHI - WAS - MIA - WAS - CHI - KCY trip on Amtrak. Now Amtrak has just informed him that they can't handle his car from CHI to WAS on either train 30 or train 50 later this week, due to shortened consist capacity constraints. As a result, he will cancel the CHI - WAS - MIA - WAS - CHI - KCY segments of his trip and return directly from CHI to KCY. Amtrak will loose the revenue (mileage and parking charges) from those canceled trip segments. Disappointing.

Mr. Deasy, can you enlighten us a bit regarding what the shortened consist capacity constraints are? Is Amtrak now running the trains with fewer locos, and thus lacks the power to pull a PV on some routes? Or is it something else? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Station Aficionado wrote:Mr. Deasy, can you enlighten us a bit regarding what the shortened consist capacity constraints are? Is Amtrak now running the trains with fewer locos, and thus lacks the power to pull a PV on some routes? Or is it something else? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

They didn't specify the reason why they could not get the car on either train 50 or 30 on the planned dates. I will speculate that it is driven by the maximum number of cars that can be handled by one locomotive on those routes. There may be other factors.

Regarding Mr.Deasy's comment and my Chief observation, it is surprising they didn't try to get away with only one unit. I'd guess Messrs. Buffet, Cajon, and Raton had different ideas.

Station Aficionado wrote:Mr. Deasy, can you enlighten us a bit regarding what the shortened consist capacity constraints are? Is Amtrak now running the trains with fewer locos, and thus lacks the power to pull a PV on some routes? Or is it something else? Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Yeah, I would expect Amtrak to have less issues accommodating private cars. I guess they could be trying to run a single locomotive, but I thought one big reason for running two locos was in case the first crapped out en-route. After HEP loss a single P42 is only going to be apply about 3600 HP at the rails.

Based on my observations this weekend Chicago is very short on power because of the cold (surprised that all the cold-related delays and Chicago meltdown haven't been discussed here). 30(10) was actually sent out with a P42 and P32-8WH, the latter of which had repeated mechanical problems.

Hadn't thought of cold-related probs. Chicago hasn't been as bad as last winter, but the weather has been awful cold just the same. That's got to make running a railroad a crummy job in those months.

When Old Man Winter comes on strong, I feel a particular appreciation for the Amtrak employees who have to inspect, service and repair equipment while working outside in the cold, without the "comforts" of working inside an S & I building. Niagara Falls NY (NFL) would be # 1 in that category in my book.

Having taken my PV there numerous times, in warm weather, I have much respect for those men working at NFL. I know other friends who are PV owners who feel the same respect for the ground crew at NFL. The passengers don't get to see there people at work, but they do enjoy the fruits of their work. They take good care of visiting PVs and most are willing to help out if you need assistance to complete some additional repairs or maintenance actions.

http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/page ... 012_2.html

Did Amtrak make the Winter Capitol Limited and Cardinal so short that they use 1 less train crew person, and adding 1 Private Car non public would require more labor?

Wondering that myself, Mr. Boylan.

However I have learned the standard crew consist is Conductor and Assistant. Trains such as the 400 Shuttles are a special agreement allowing Conductor only.

Naturally Amtrak is free to assign more than the standard consist. In the Corridor, it seems to be practice for one Assistant for every two cars lest Farebeaters eat you alive and since Amtrak only wants passengers boarding and alighting where a crew member is present. That kind of holds down on contrived injuries.

At one time, 7 versus 6 cars required an extra train person, but I don't know if Private or other non-public cars count.

Only once have I taken a midwinter lake shore and there were three entirely empty cars

The 400 series shuttles have 2 conductors. (At least all the ones I am on.)

I should mention that Northeast Regional trains operating south of Washington DC (to Richmond VA, Newport News VA and Norfolk VA) have fixed 8 or 9 car consists, yet several of the rear cars are usually closed and empty south of Washington DC. By running the fixed consist to/from the terminals in Virginia, Amtrak eliminated the need to switch coaches into and out of the consists during the station time at Washington DC. This may have allowed them to cut operating costs by eliminating one of more switch crews at WAS.