Viewliner II Delivery/Production

Rate of production is often limited by the ability of the final customer to accept deliveries, either physically or monetarily.

Nashville & Montpelier picked up in Elmira today by Amtrak 100 & 520.

Im fairly certain with CAF its the problem where they laid off all the workers to build the cars a few years ago. Theres probably 3 people putting them together now. All of the high skilled labor that put the bodies together is mostly gone. I think they have a lof of empty shells sitting around waiting to be filled as from what we have seen in photos.

Sounds about right to me. I seem to recall reading an Amtrak document somewhere that CAF had "unilaterally" reduced the production rate.

ApproachMedium wrote:Im fairly certain with CAF its the problem where they laid off all the workers to build the cars a few years ago. Theres probably 3 people putting them together now. All of the high skilled labor that put the bodies together is mostly gone. I think they have a lof of empty shells sitting around waiting to be filled as from what we have seen in photos.

Mr. Approach, you surely know first hand just how many qualified workers nowadays are banging at Sunnyside's door begging for work. When CAF was awarded the contract, Chuck and Kris certainly knew there were many of such up that way in the Southern Tier. Now there "ain't no more" than Mr. Approach's HR Dept has to choose from.

CAF whacked them; does that mean they are begging to come back and fill the vacancies?

ApproachMedium wrote:

Tadman wrote:

bostontrainguy wrote:Do they still have to waste a table or two to layout the silverware and supplies or has some kind of improved storage been created to allow more efficient use of all of the tables?

This kind of garbage drives me nuts. It goes right back to "we have no policy so the invidious like crews do as they please".

I cannot imagine the ATSF or PRR let diner crews take an entire table out of service 100% of the time to hold silverware and napkins. I also cannot imagine those legacy roads let crews take an entire table in the lounge/snack car for crew paperwork.

If the diners and snack cars lose money, why do they let the crews take a table for each run, the entire run, that is clearly designed for revenue use, out of service for storage and paperwork?

Because its a NON REVENUE car. It was the same way in the PRR or any other railroad.

There is no way the PRR let crews camp out in the diner. Maybe on the Pokamoke mixed to Winchestertonfieldville, but no way in the big trains.

Besides, non-revenue status denotes whether or not the car sells seats, not whether it can produce revenues to defray costs. This is really simple math. If a diner has 4 tables and 2 settings, it can produce 8 tables of revenue to cover fixed cost X. If a diner has 5 tables and 2 settings, it can now produce 10 tables to cover fixed cost X. This is the same reason they push LTL in the baggage cars. Baggage cars are "non revenue" but they sure as heck produce revenue which helps defray costs of running the train.

According to a 2012 NY Times article, Amtrak lost $834m over a decade in the diners. That extra table is looking mighty useful if they want to keep food service cars, because otherwise they'll truly be non-revenue sitting in the yard laid up under political edict.

It is also about passenger perception, you dont' want then thinking the diner is run for the convenience of the crew, not the passengers.Rightly or wrongly.
In my business, I rarely get a chance to have a proper lunch break.Usually it s grab a bite while doing a invoice or quote on the computer. (or posting on Railroad.net as I am doing now ). The other day a customer came in , and said , "everytime I come in here , you're eating !". he was joking , but it made me think , it really could look that way to customers.
I am surprised they dodnt make an area for culterty etxc on the new diners , if there is a need for it .

David Benton wrote:It is also about passenger perception, you dont' want then thinking the diner is run for the convenience of the crew

On a few of my latest Amtrak trips (long-distance, overnight), I got the impression that the whole train is for the convenience of the crew.

if you really have these kinds of problems with diner utilization cafes etc, write a letter email or contact amtrak via your tweeter account. Complaining about it here otherwise wont solve anything.

SouthernRailway wrote:

David Benton wrote:It is also about passenger perception, you dont' want then thinking the diner is run for the convenience of the crew

On a few of my latest Amtrak trips (long-distance, overnight), I got the impression that the whole train is for the convenience of the crew.

HAHAHAHAHA!!

David Benton wrote:It is also about passenger perception, you dont' want then thinking the diner is run for the convenience of the crew, not the passengers.Rightly or wrongly.
In my business, I rarely get a chance to have a proper lunch break.Usually it s grab a bite while doing a invoice or quote on the computer. (or posting on Railroad.net as I am doing now ). The other day a customer came in , and said , "everytime I come in here , you're eating !". he was joking , but it made me think , it really could look that way to customers.
I am surprised they dodnt make an area for culterty etxc on the new diners , if there is a need for it .

It seems to me that the comments here about the crew taking over tables in the cafe or diner are effectively calling for the return, in some way, shape or form, of a caboose!

(Really, the crew is using diner space during meal sittings??? I've seen it in the cafe on the Downeaster, but most of the traffic there takes their purchases back to their seats anyway. But the LD diners????)

Return of the caboose? Pray tell, how many passenger trains had cabooses?

I will say I think one advantage of the baggage dorms (as few as there will be) is it will give OBS members a place to have some privacy.

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Where the design of accommodations has specific linkage back to railroads and Amtrak, post away about airliners. Where you don't have linkage, it's not a tale to be told here.

Back on topic of Viewliners:

https://www.amtrak.com/onboard/carry-on-pets.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Isn't the car in this photo a Viewliner? Yet it's marked "Coach"?

no its a amfleet type , metro liner cab car, based on trucks .