The big ax just fell. Long distance to 3x/week.

And "maintain frequencies" is a very open ended term, I can tell you, it's hard to get places these days. It takes twice as long to fly somewhere now.

eolesen wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 1:03 am That's a mistake. Requiring the airlines to maintain frequencies/service and not lay off employees has resulted in around $100M of cash burn DAILY for that industry.

Amtrak needs the ability to determine its own schedule without interference from politicians.

Amtrak is the definition of interference from politicians a little more interference is expected, as long as the checks keep coming.

I am looking to book an Empire Builder trip the first few days of October, and the system is showing me daily availability. Has the plan to reduce to thrice-weekly been cancelled or delayed, or is the reservations system not updated so it is showing availability for days when there might not actually be a train? Has Amtrak said which three days each train would operate?

Probably the latter.

Amtrak originally proposed to cut all LD trains within their system (except the Auto Train) to tri-weekly service starting October 1st, and would last until June 1, 2020. Since there has been much speculation that this is an attempt for Amtrak to rid of their "unprofitable" LD trains (again), the government stepped in and made terms for their $26 billion funding plan, stating that if Amtrak cuts at least one scheduled train from any service, it will receive zero of the $26 billion in funding.(This is also a historic amount of funding for Amtrak, the most they have ever received if I recall). I believe there has been no official announcement regarding Amtrak accepting or rejecting the funding plan with this term, and that once one is made it will be a top story for rail-related news outlets around the world, but judging that Amtrak is still offering daily availability after October 1st probably means they took the money and ran, and will not be cutting any LD services (thankfully). Another close call for the LDs.

Mr. Pennsy, while I'm not certain what your source is for your immediate, but if there is foundation to it, then what a disservice Congress is doing to the investor owned railroad industry.

The LD system, to which I ask you remember, I was in the industry on A-Day and had left it during '81, which I believe was before you were born. The consensus was that the LD system was simply an "ease the pain placeholder". It was to be gone in an orderly manner, starting about '76; the Carter Cuts actually got it going during '79, but not before Superliner and A-II equipment had been ordered (bad decision). If you wonder why I have often referred to the roads signing up, simply because they were desperate (think airlines during this COVID present), as "the Faustian pact with the Devil", it's because those trains are still there today interfering with their operations - more true as the industry adopts Precision Railroading - and for bargain basement remuneration.

LD's will be gone in Canada; they have been "Long Gone" in Mexico, and largely gone throughout South America. Time for them to be gone here in the USA - and this COVID crisis is the perfect opportunity for that to happen.

disclaimer: Long UNP

Other than corridor service, has Amtrak totally outlived it's usefullness?

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 1:21 pm LD's will be gone in Canada; they have been "Long Gone" in Mexico, and largely gone throughout South America. Time for them to be gone here in the USA - and this COVID crisis is the perfect opportunity for that to happen.

Mr. Norman, even though these claims are true in terms of freight railroads viewing these LDs as an annoyance and with there being numerous attempts to discontinue the LDs by the government and Amtrak (as they are now trying to use the pandemic as an excuse to do so), keep in mind that there are still millions of Americans who rely on these LD trains to commute from one town and city to another. Even though I feel that in order to solve this problem in terms of frequency, the LDs should be split into regional trains, there should still be at least one daily through train, or through coaches that travel the entire journey of the LD route.

CarterB wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 3:13 pm Other than corridor service, has Amtrak totally outlived it's usefullness?

Yes. The long distance trains have less than 1% of their market.

With all due respect, please move philosophical debate about the usefulness or overall purpose of Amtrak to a thread for that topic, and please use this thread to answer the original simply question about whether or not thrice-weekly service will go into effect in October and if so on what date. Thank you for your cooperation.

Morning Zephyr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 5:15 pm With all due respect, please move philosophical debate about the usefulness or overall purpose of Amtrak to a thread for that topic, and please use this thread to answer the original simply question about whether or not thrice-weekly service will go into effect in October and if so on what date. Thank you for your cooperation.

Moderator Note: agreed. We have enough threads in which to argue about the various LDs’ usefulness.

I hope accepting the $26 billion requires Amtrak to restore Silver Star and Silver Meteor back to daily service since they have already been cut back to 3 or 4 day per week service(if you can call it service).

Keep in mind, the new stimulus hasn’t been signed into law yet. Amtrak may be holding off on schedule changes until they have cash in hand.

I found an interesting article consisting of former Amtrak president Tom Downs' opinion regarding Amtrak attempting this move, and how they attempted to do so in 1995.

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... ly-service

WASHINGTON — Any savings Amtrak management may achieve by reducing most long-distance trains to triweekly service will be overshadowed by a precipitous drop in revenue, additional unforeseen expenses, and a crippled ability to restart service.

That assessment is the consensus of former Amtrak managers contacted by Trains News Wire: former president and CEOs Thomas Downs and David Gunn; former vice president of transportation Bob Vander Clute; and two product line managers responsible for growing revenue and managing costs in the mid-1990s, when many long-distance train frequencies were reduced in a bid to cut expenses while promising to keep routes intact.

Amtrak has announced plans to cut long-distance frequencies as of Oct. 1 as a result of COVID-19-related revenue losses expected to last through most of 2021. This is the first in a series of articles on the impact Amtrak frequency reductions had in the 1990s, and the historical perspective that might provide the current proposal.

This is a pretty significant piece of reporting by Trains. I think it helps a lot to see this level of information and perspective out there.

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