Corona virus impacts on Amtrak

Tadman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 8:12 am As hikes and walks are acceptable part of "social distancing" (why we had to come up with a new term for "keep your distance" or "stay away" is beyond me) I've been out in the state park system north of New Orleans and noticed both 58 and 59 are running full consist. Further review of instagram (where I posted pics of 59 under @railroad_dot_net as well as a few of the alligators I crossed paths with while chasing trains) have revealed that most long distance trains are running at/close to full consist.

Given that Amtrak's revenues have cratered and people are under hard instructions not to travel, why are they still running daily full-consist LD's? I think Via has just canceled the Canadian for now. Acela is off the table as well. Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to do a 3-car M/W/F version of the long distance trains? Sleeper-coach-cafe?

As for the City of NO, I think the current consist is needed to meet the CN minimum axle count. I noticed that in addition to the reduced frequency of the Chicago-Quincy train, it has gone from 5 cars in January to 3 cars currently. The SW Chief has also dropped one coach.

Sorry if the repeats something that was said before, but with the reduced equipment demand isn't this a great time to catch up on equipment overhauls at the various car and locomotive shops?

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:46 am I'm surprised the LD's haven't stopped.

If the malaria related drugs prove out to be effective, I think we'll see a lot less resistance to travel. It's not a preventative, but if this becomes easily treatable with a faster recovery, it becomes a lot less scary to the general public.

If there's any more of long-distance transportation where you can conceivably keep 6 feet away from other humans at all times, it's a train.

Wash wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 4:23 am

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Mar 24, 2020 2:46 am I'm surprised the LD's haven't stopped.

If the malaria related drugs prove out to be effective, I think we'll see a lot less resistance to travel. It's not a preventative, but if this becomes easily treatable with a faster recovery, it becomes a lot less scary to the general public.

If there's any more of long-distance transportation where you can conceivably keep 6 feet away from other humans at all times, it's a train.

Flights are operating at about 11% capacity right now. Social distancing is everywhere.

east point wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:02 pm Until a vaccine is developed which is highly unlikely this epidemic is going to extend out. At the present time prior immunity appears to be limited to a very small percentage of persons especially older persons. If that is true most of us can expect to catch the virus sooner and preferably much later. So until I and most other persons catch the virus and recover the need to be close to good medical facilities seems the most prudent thing to do ? Once we recover then that will be a great time to travel.
All this isolation now is a try to keep too many persons from getting sick at once.

Going by various news sources (not social media)... They're working on a vaccine, but the timelines are going to be at least 18 months to "get it out the door". That's too late for everyone. (Source: https://time.com/5799718/coronavirus-va ... l-studies/)

A rough 3 month lockdown seems to be working, as China's lifting the restriction in Wuhan on April 8th. (Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... on-april-8 )

What does this have to do with Amtrak? Everything. If both coasts are locked down for 3 months, that's 3 months of lost revenues.

Well spoke, Mssr. Norman.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:25 am Off rails but on topic; trust Moderator will agree.

I would expect the "all clear" will sound early July, maybe by "the Fourth".

Regarding Mr. Boylan's thoughts on highway travel, drive rested, sober, defensively, and observe the "three C's; Caution, Courtesy, Common.Sense.

Observed #3(24) today. Seven cars; Bag, Dorm, Sleeper, Diner, Lounge, two Coaches.

Appears one Sleeper line has been blanked. Hardly as Draconian as the several "rumor mill" sites have posted (Coach and Snack-Bar only).

I am really surprised that the diners have not been dropped. With so few passengers, it is even harder to argue that the diners are needed and they are a big cost factor. I'm not saying they should go permanently, but at least until the ridership improves.

It would seem an opportune time for WSDOT to retire their fleet of Talgo trainsets and reduce service to 3x-day Seattle-Portland using the two ODOT Talgo trains. Given that Seattle-north and Portland-south were already fairly low ridership, now would be a great time to get rid of the older trainsets that are all but condemned by the NTSB, and use motorcoaches where they are more efficient on the lesser ridden segments while keeping the trains busy doing what they do best.

When service is ready to be restored the two Wisconsin Talgos can join in and add potentially another set of trains Seattle-Portland.

Looks like the Vermonter is the next state supported train to bite the dust......last full day of service is tomorrow and it will run one more time southbound Thursday (northbound only to NYP on Thursday) and starting Friday it will truncated to just the federally funded portion of the route (New Haven - DC)

I would be very nervous traveling especially through the hotspots and NYP. NYC metro area has an infection rate of 1:1000 according to the daily briefing, apparently 5-10x the rate in the second worst area of Washington State. NYC is going to run out of capacity to handle cases very soon.

Once tests become available, they should round up a major tunnel work crew, set up temporary housing, test everyone & sequester them, then start rehabbing one of the tunnels. It would be a great "stimulus project" that is "shovel ready". Is there an emergency failure scenario plan on the shelf that can be dusted off & used to quickly fully rehab one tunnel?

Longer consists means they can practice better social distancing ?