Viewliner II Delivery/Production

Tadman wrote: Is it really that bad? I fly international business class often enough, and the food is certainly no world beater despite the tremendous price tag of the tickets. To clarify, I do not fly ultra-lux carriers like Etihad or Emirates, it's usually either Delta, Aerolineas, LOT, or KLM. Either way, I would not be disappointed with what Aerolineas or Avianca served me over the last month as a sleeper meal in-cabin.

If what I was served in Acela 1st Class for breakfast looked anywhere near as good as that pictured, I'd be there no problem! For comparison, both the Cardinal and the current Lake Shore Limited diner breakfasts FAR exceed what I got on the Acela! I've had breakfast on all 3 trains mulitple times in the past year or so!

Who does the Boston commissary use? Aramark?

I was thinking a bit more about the "missing" Viewliners.
It seems as if we skipped Concord 68009, Dover 68010, Frankfort 68011.
And if my memory is accurate, the most recent two were delivered after a gap of a month plus.

Makes me suspect some sort of flaw was found and it was easier to fix the flaw in the lesser assembled Frankfort 68011 and Harrisburg 68012 and ship them in about the regular rotation schedule.
This makes me wonder if we'll see perhaps 3 or even 5 come out next month once they can fix whatever hypothesized flaws there were in the missing 3.

Thoughts?

Rockingham Racer wrote:Who does the Boston commissary use? Aramark?

I would guess it's the New York commissary that provides the lousy breakfasts, given that the only Acela I sometimes ride is #2190, which originates at NYP.

jp1822 wrote:

OrangeGrove wrote:
Where would you propose to get single-level coaches - already in short supply, probably more so than any other car type - to equip a hypothetical single-level Capitol Limited? Restored through cars at Pittsburgh (Three Rivers) doesn't require both trains use low-level equipment.

If Amtrak wanted to operate a single level Capitol Limited WITH a combined Broadway/Three Rivers at Pittsburgh, it could find single level coaches by:

1) Removing the Amfleet II's from some of the long distance DAY trains (eg Pennsylvanian, Maple Leaf) after all that's "not always been." Replace with low density Amfleet I's. Recall that the former Metroliners ran with low density Amfleet I cars. That would be six train sets to potentially look at for Amfleet II's, replacing with low density Amfleet I.

2) Convert the Cardinal back to Superliner, but truncate at Washington DC. Only two Superliner train sets needed, and perhaps you'd get a Cross Country Cafe and Sightseer Lounge for a spectacular route. I only suggest this as it would still lead to a "Superliner" equipment gain, put better "sightseeing equipment" on the Cardinal than Amslits, and would increase amount of Viewliners (sleeper and diner) needed.

Restored through cars don't require same equipment type, true, but it would certainly make Amtrak's life simpler if you had a single level Capitol Limited AND restored Broadway/Three Rivers combining or completely detaching at Pittsburgh.

This of course could also NEVER happen till the CAF order is completely delivered! So there could be more coach options then too!

And what are you smoking? Amtrak still has 2 regional trains combined with a long haul train because we DO NOT have enough amfleet 1s available to run needed corridor service. There are no extra cars to be shifting to other lesser services off of the NEC, at least not until the midwest gives up their high speed amfleets IF they ever get their bi level cars!

mtuandrew wrote:

bostontrainguy wrote:

Greg Moore wrote:BUT, keep in mind, there IS an order of baggage/dorms coming that does exactly what you suggest, put in rooms for 1/2 the crew. This is a small, but significant increase in sellable space. For example, I believe 448/449 is scheduled to get a baggage/dorm so it'll add revenue space to itself (and by extension to 48/49) and still have enough baggage.

Doesn't the Lake Shore actually have two baggage cars? Maybe they will still need a full one to NYP but could use a dorm to BOS?

That is the idea, yes.

FWIW, I'd expect the opposite - full bag goes to/from BOS on 448/449 while bag/dorm goes to/from NYP, with the food-service crew sleeping in the bag/dorm. It makes sense to me that the diner crew's rooms should travel with the diner to/from Sunnyside, and putting them in the bag/dorm keeps them out of the passengers' hair.

That's assuming, of course, that there would be enough baggage room in the bag/dorm for the checked bags and Amtrak Express shipments to/from NYP - about which I have no data.

NYP does not accept incoming shipments, other than rare occasions so the need for a full bag back to NYC would only matter during holiday seasons and if somebody is planning to ship something down that way. I dont believe there is even baggage service for amtrak between Albany and NYP other than maybe Poughkeepsie? Croton Harmon?

ApproachMedium wrote:I dont believe there is even baggage service for amtrak between Albany and NYP other than maybe Poughkeepsie? Croton Harmon?

None of the above.

ApproachMedium wrote:NYP does not accept incoming shipments, other than rare occasions so the need for a full bag back to NYC would only matter during holiday seasons and if somebody is planning to ship something down that way.

Interesting. Not surprising ... Curious how much revenue they are leaving on the table (assuming they could do anything more without impact to service) ...

The ALB-NYP baggage car gets more use than you'd expect for that city pair - 13 area colleges in ALB mean lots of students using checked baggage to move larger things. Back in my college days, on my weekend trips home I'd check a suitcase containing various electronics back and forth (monitor, desktop computer, VCR, PS2 - not all at the same time!). Clothes being swapped in/out of "NYC rotation" would be the packing material. I wasn't the only one. They would take the checked baggage on the LSL while I rode an Empire Corridor some other time during the day (since back then the LSL did not allow local travel).

Essentially, the entire day's worth of Empire Corridor checked baggage was put in that car.

gokeefe wrote:Interesting. Not surprising ... Curious how much revenue they are leaving on the table (assuming they could do anything more without impact to service) ...

Its damn near impossible to take LCL loads on and off in NYP so only baggage is offered there. You cant get a forklift on the platforms.

Well ... That's not surprising considering that mail and express used to be done on other platforms anyways ... Too bad for Amtrak I'm sure if they could fix the logistics there would be quite a bit of revenue on the table.

It's interesting to see the complications created by the above capacity loads of passengers.

Is the "Mail platform" at NY Penn totally unusable?

The See and Guess dept and the Track Dept have a monopoly on it right now. But when they finally decide to use it for the Empire service as a dedicated platform to ease congestion in the station, its going to have to be repurposed. As it is right now the platform is totally inaccessible from the station and post office and does not have any platform ends on it to be able to safely allow anyone but train workers to get in and out of the trains.

About 2 years ago, Amtrak reduced the number of paid excess bags a passenger could check from 3 to 2. There had been earlier weight per bag reductions to decrease potential excess baggage revenue.