Amtrak combining the Silver Star and Capitol Limited (a new Floridian?)

Tadman wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 5:56 am You can imagine what a snowstorm in NW Indiana would do to a train two days later in Florida. What would be wrong with just running the Star DC-MIA if they want to cut tunnel traffic?

Or HOB-MIA to allow NEC cities one-seat service without overloading the tunnel. There's a wye at West End and LD consists were once turned at HOB.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 6:42 pm What is most interesting is an inquiry I made to the Amtrak website.

For a date during January and a slower period, I loaded in Cumberland to Raleigh. The result returned showed originating on #30, Capitol Limited and then CONNECTING to #91, Silver Star.

So apparently even though the.single level equipment moves as a through train, the passengers are to be booted off #30 at Wash and reboarded on #91.

In short, there is no single seat (well; officially) ride Cumberland to Raleigh available. All told, Amtrak is not reentering the Chicago-Florida route with a single train.

Well, that's simple. Capitol Limited is Superliner equipment and terminates in DC. Silver Star is Viewliner equipment and comes from NYC.

In the hypothetical case of a Cap-Star combo, the equipment would idle and restock for an hour in DC, before continuing on.

How many trips originate before the Star hits DC? Can the Regionals at that hour sustain that demand, with a transfer in DC Union? There's the matter of luggage as well for those Star passengers.

I like the idea of a new "Floridian", and I give Amtrak credit for trying. Timekeeping will be a challenge, though.

You bring up a good point with luggage, since people will have to carry on suitcases after DC, or return to Penn Station at a later time to collect their checked bags.

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Tue May 21, 2024 7:43 am How many trips originate before the Star hits DC? Can the Regionals at that hour sustain that demand, with a transfer in DC Union? There's the matter of luggage as well for those Star passengers.

I like the idea of a new "Floridian", and I give Amtrak credit for trying. Timekeeping will be a challenge, though.

What do you mean? Are you talking about how many passengers heading to NYC would need to switch trains in this scenario, and the logistics of getting a sleeper passenger off, get their luggage out, and then onto the next Regional?

Erie-Lackawanna wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 6:55 pm

dowlingm wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 4:59 pm Is there any chance such an idea is intended to mitigate OTP impact from construction related capacity issues to/from NYP?

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 6:42 pm What is most interesting is an inquiry I made to the Amtrak website.

For a date during January and a slower period, I loaded in Cumberland to Raleigh. The result returned showed originating on #30, Capitol Limited and then CONNECTING to #91, Silver Star.

So apparently even though the.single level equipment moves as a through train, the passengers are to be booted off #30 at Wash and reboarded on #91.

In short, there is no single seat (well; officially) ride Cumberland to Raleigh available. All told, Amtrak is not reentering the Chicago-Florida route with a single train.

After inquiring with people in the know, I’ve been told the current plan is to combine and through run the Capitol and Silver Star as one train. No firm date has been decided; as Mr. DowlingM suggests, it is to reduce movements through the East River Tunnels while Line 2 is rebuilt. The plan is to run it as a single-level train, and no, psgrs will not be booted off at WAS. Apparently, the working train name at the moment is…the Floridian.

Anything could change, but this is the plan as of today.

As Mr. Norman noted, there’s a need for efficiency with equipment in general as well as a desperate need of freeing up Superliner capacity. Anything helps, even three train sets of the Capitol Limited and its spares in Washington DC. The Star and Capitol can easily run as two night through train. Some are speculating that this is temporary……but who knows. I just hope they put THREE VIewliner sleepers for this through train. It can be done with the Viewliner Sleeper inventory. It’ll be needed with the through train popularity and comparative between Superliner and Viewliner sleeper capacity! Amtrak’s barely got 40 out of 75 Viewliners in “assigned” service. Way too many Viewliners unassigned. The standard was a 20% reserve. But a 15% reserve (11 to 12 Viewliner sleeper) reserve should be adequate once the Viewliner I’s are refreshed and Viewliner II’s are brand new!!!

jp1822 wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 8:57 pm As Mr. Norman noted, there’s a need for efficiency with equipment in general as well as a desperate need of freeing up Superliner capacity. Anything helps, even three train sets of the Capitol Limited and its spares in Washington DC. The Star and Capitol can easily run as two night through train. Some are speculating that this is temporary……but who knows. I just hope they put THREE VIewliner sleepers for this through train. It can be done with the Viewliner Sleeper inventory. It’ll be needed with the through train popularity and comparative between Superliner and Viewliner sleeper capacity! Amtrak’s barely got 40 out of 75 Viewliners in “assigned” service. Way too many Viewliners unassigned. The standard was a 20% reserve. But a 15% reserve (11 to 12 Viewliner sleeper) reserve should be adequate once the Viewliner I’s are refreshed and Viewliner II’s are brand new!!!

I hope they put in three Viewliner TWO's or at least the refurb Viewliner I's that do NOT have the toilet in the roomettes. Damn thing is laughable.

Viewliner I's are only getting a cosmetic refurb. The toilets are staying in the room. Yes, the plan was to mirror them to the Viewliner II Sleepers, but that has long been dropped - before COVID and before the VIewliner II Sleepers were even fully delivered. I share the sentiments though of having the restroom not next to the bed.......or seats.........

Could it be that Amtrak does not want to tie up V-1s for a complete redo? Now if Amtrak when it gets all V-1s in service if it allows the reserve to decrease below 20% then we may understand its motives?

jp1822 wrote: ↑Sat May 25, 2024 8:51 pm Viewliner I's are only getting a cosmetic refurb. The toilets are staying in the room. Yes, the plan was to mirror them to the Viewliner II Sleepers, but that has long been dropped - before COVID and before the VIewliner II Sleepers were even fully delivered. I share the sentiments though of having the restroom not next to the bed.......or seats.........

That's a shame. I have yet to try a Viewliner II; the Viewliner I roomette? Pure joke. Refurbing them into Viewliner IIs would of been a step up.

While of course the Res system can be programmed to sell 12RM's in this line number and 11RM is that, I must wonder if maybe an hour before "set time" the 12RM V-I had to be BO'd for whatever reason, and they had to protect with an 11RM V-II.

You feel like being that passenger who has to spend the night in Coach? Guarantee you, I wouldn't.

Of course being a bureaucracy, Amtrak likely plays it safe and sells only 11RM in any V-I or II leaving the 12th in a V-I unsold.

It gets a little worse, as Room 12 is for the sleeping car attendant, and room 11 is really for "linen" and other types of storage. So with the Viewliner II Sleeper, you are really down to 10 roomettes at most that are booked out, then add in the roomettes that get reserved for onboard staff......

Amtrak has been careful to assign VIewliner II's to certain trains and sleeper lines only. I would think that Amtrak would want to concentrate the Viewliner II's on the Silver Meteor (12 sleepers needed) and Star (8 sleepers needed) right now, and leave the Viewliner I's as the "reserve" and backups between NYP and Hialeah. Get the Viewliner II Sleeper off the Cardinal and Lake Shore (Boston section). Move the Viewliner Bagg/Dorms over to the Meteor and Star too, same setup, but now use the Viewliner Bagg/Dorm for onboard staff since there's slightly more staff on these two trains with the traditional dining. This gets the onboard crew out of the revenue space that could be sold on Viewliner Sleepers, and perhaps allows storage with the Viewliner Bagg/Dorm in the consist.

Cardinal uses the Viewliner Bagg/Dorm for revenue and crew space, and there are 9 (NINE) roomettes in the Viewliner Bagg/Dorm. The Cardinal needs another coach and should have two Viewliner I's to achieve above plan if the Viewliner/Baggs are transferred over.

Right now the Viewliner Bagg/Dorms are on the Cardinal and Crescent (6 assigned, 4 in reserve!!!).

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?

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.

Family rooms disappear from the Capital Ltd. leaving Chicago after Nov. 9, 2024. The Silver Star is Sold Out between New York & Washington starting Nov. 11, 2024.