electricron wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 10:28 am
For Viewliner sleepers to be switched on to the Capitol Limited, these cars would have to placed in the consist ahead of the Transistion sleeper if their customers plan to use the rest of the Capital Limited train.
The problem is that the Capitol Limited Superliner cars are shared with the Texas Eagle, which frequently does not have a Transistion car.
Viewliner cars are not as equipped as most privately owned charter cars with their own galleys. How do you plan to feed the Viewliner sleepers when there are no Transistion sleeper car on the Capital Limited?
You may want to go back and re-read from the beginning as Amtrak plans to completely single level the Capitol Limited come Fall 2024. It would then “run-through” from Chicago to/from Washington DC to/from Miami on the Silver Star’s route. The Silver Star would essentially be truncated to Washington DC, where passengers bound for NYC would transfer to a NEC Regional train - hopefully in a cross platform change for ease. A bit unsure if this would be a permanent change or just temporary, or even followed through with, but from Amtrak reservations, it seems like it may be happening.
Presently the Capitol Limited operates with three Superliner train sets and the Silver Star with 4 single level train sets (e.g. Viewliners and Amfleets). The “combined train” would run as a single level train using 5 train sets, instead of what one would think would be 7 train sets. Amtrak gets better equipment utilization, but most importantly, the Superliners on the Capitol Limited get freed up for much needed capacity for the western long distance trains. This plan had been shot down back in the 1990s (claiming that breaking the Washington DC to NYP section of the Silver Star was the deal breaker). But now the tides have seemingly changed.
Keep in mind that in the late 1990s, a Superliner Trans-Dorm operated on the rear of the Capitol Limited and a couple of through coach cars from the then Three Rivers (a NYP to Pittsburgh train after the Broadway Limited was discontinued) were tacked onto the rear of the Capitol Limited at Pittsburgh. Boardman had proposed something similar with the Pennsylvanian and Capitol Limited when ordering the Viewliner II cars.