Railroad Forums 

  • Amtrak Starts the Process for New Overnight Train Sets

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
It is currently Sun Jan 29, 2023 9:42 pm

Amtrak Starts the Process for New Overnight Train Sets

Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

Re: Amtrak Starts the Process for New Overnight Train Sets

  by eolesen
 
Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:41 pm Why replace the Viewliner II’s? Didn’t they just get those?
Don't get too far ahead of the process here...

A RFI (Request for Information) is just a starting point to give supplier a chance to highlight their capabilities, for Amtrak to put out a non-binding straw-man for the possible scope of a RFP (Request for Proposal), and gauge the overall interest in responding to the RFP once it's issued.

Lots of projects I've been involved with skip the RFI process altogether unless you need to get more details on a business case justification. The flipside of that is that the RFI process usually helps guide what ultimately goes into the specs that RFP responses would be based on.

Continuing with the rabbit hole I like to keep going down, it could be a matter of looking outside Amtrak's internal discussions and soliciting the suppliers to make a strong case for single-level vs. bi-level equipment...

It's no secret that suppliers would rather sell an existing design than take the risk of a new design like Nippon-Sharyo did, and most of the long-distance designs the existing suppliers have to offer are single level.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by eolesen
 
STrRedWolf wrote:
The real question is, does the demand on LD services require bi-level LD services?
The data over ten years pre-pandemic has said categorically "no" at the macro level. Autotrain is the outlier. Everything else runs 60% or less, so all that extra complexity on 100% of the West fleet is wasted space most of the time.

Airlines stopped flying larger & more complex A380/747/A340/MD11 and replaced them with lower capacity B777/A350/B787s. The bigger airframes really only filled up some of the time. During the times they do fill up, prices are higher, and yields are higher.

Its time Amtrak plan their fleet around the 45 weeks a year they're empty vs the 7 weeks they might be full.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk
Last edited by eolesen on Tue Jan 24, 2023 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by RandallW
 
Even with that plan for 45 weeks of not full, given no other constraints (like platform height or max car height), it's the weight per passenger that really matters in a passenger rail car in terms of its operating costs, and the Superliners designs have any single level car beat hands down on that for any possible seating arrangement.

Re: Amtrak Starts the Process for New Overnight Train Sets

  by Jeff Smith
 
Regarding the View II's, they run primarily in the Northeast. I think their inclusion is probably superfluous as these routes are not Silver, Palm, or LSL.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by Gilbert B Norman
 
eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:50 am Airlines stopped flying larger & more complex A380/747/A340/MD11 and replaced them with lower capacity B777/A350/B787s. The bigger airframes really only filled up some of the time. During the times they do fill up, prices are higher, and yields are higher.
Off topic, and will fully understand if killed.

I did a little "airviewing" yesterday at MIA. I allowed three hours before flight time to get from Downtown to MIA. While the elapsed journey time on Metromover, Metrorail, and People Mover, was 55min. I had been told that TSA there was some kind of "clown act", which it was. So there I was waiting at a gate at end of a concourse with good airviewing (well, until some guy stood in front of the window just looking at his phone :( )

But I observed many a 747 take off roll; only difference was they were flying under foreign flags (some without any visible markings on the hull) or for airlines that "only the Defense Department knows". :wink:

Re: Amtrak Starts the Process for New Overnight Train Sets

  by Jeff Smith
 
nomis wrote: ↑Mon Jan 23, 2023 7:37 pm That “different perspective” thread will cut up and merged here if I carve out enough time at a computer to do it correctly.
Thanks brother.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by RandallW
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Jan 24, 2023 8:10 am But I observed many a 747 take off roll; only difference was they were flying under foreign flags (some without any visible markings on the hull) or for airlines that "only the Defense Department knows". :wink:
DoD commercial flights are out of Jacksonville, not Miami. Those minimally marked 747s were most likely air freighters (the last few orders for new 747s were air freight firms) as air freight firms rarely benefit from advertising at airports.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by Gilbert B Norman
 
OK; back to the rails.

Now that any airline I've heard of has decided on a livery that turns the fuselage on an aircraft into a billboard, will Amtrak follow suit with the new equipment that is either on order or planned to be?

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by ExCon90
 
Not much sense in a railroad advertising itself on its own boxcars; most people waiting for a freight train to clear a grade crossing are not industrial traffic managers controlling $millions in freight shipments, while everyone at an airport is a potential future customer for some airline or other. As concerns Amtrak, many recent comments suggest that washing the cars would do a lot to encourage future travel by rail.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Let us hope that Amtrak does not try to "air commercials" over the PA system on its trains. Even the "car cards" found on commuter railroads and mass transit lines I have always considered intrusive. I don't know how one could make anyone buy something, but I guess they do.

Even non stop advertising has filtered on to airlines. As I shared at several postings about the site, last weekend I was in Miami. The flight down was on an A-319, which had no TV monitors and which the safety briefing was done the old way by the Attendants. However the return was on a B-738 which did have monitors, not only for the safety briefing (I'm fine with that) but also ads for cruises and other vacations for which thankfully the audio was not aired through the cabin.

So I guess I must wonder why one, after having paid for a ride on any transportation company, has to be bombarded by any kind of advertising.

Re: Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level from a different prospective.

  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Continuing, Mr. Olesen, WAAAY off topic; yes, the in-flight/transit (Amtrak has also had one varietal or the other of that species) magazines seem to be gone, but at least those could just stay in the seat pocket and not otherwise intrude.

The two print newspapers I subscribe to - Journal and Times - both have so-called Style magazines. Mine usually never makes their way into my house, having dumped them on a neighbor's porch where she is "interested in that kind of stuff". But once I did take one in, I counted pages and some two thirds of it comprised ads.
 Return to “Amtrak”
 - All times are UTC-05:00 -