Viewliner II Delivery/Production

Baggage dorm on the rear of 51 (16) this morning. Not sure of the final destination

gokeefe wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:58 pm

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:10 pmI think the main goal is to get all the food related workers into one space on these trains.

Agreed and it's the right thing to do. The savings could be enormous.

I’ve been advocating for this in some ways, but I wanna push back against a one-car system. Ideally I’d like a multi-level car, or an articulated car like the Southern Pacific had, but it might be worth two cars even if there is a crewmember serving drinks and snacks. Lounge/cafe space on trains is not just a nicety, but a profit center that just isn’t accessible to passengers on planes or buses.

Agreed. Some type of lounge space needs to be offered on long distance trains for sleeping car passengers.

mtuandrew wrote: ↑Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:59 amLounge/cafe space on trains is not just a nicety, but a profit center that just isn’t accessible to passengers on planes or buses.

In my opinion that theory has been proven false on the Downeaster. Even with a contract operator and near ideal route (stadium above the major terminal station) they still are just at breakeven. If you can't make it work on the Downeaster it's not going to work anywhere else because of higher labor costs and/or less consumer demand.

It's a shame that so much time, energy, and money went into properly engineering these new dining cars for full dining car service, only to have the new regime rip 'em apart. I hope that they don't change them so radically that it precludes reinstituting decent meal service at some future point.

Also, no way a single 85 ft car has enough space to take over both sleeper lounge and coach cafe car functions, except maybe on the Cardinal. I suppose the Silver Star runs pretty short these days too, but the new sleepers were supposed to help rectify that situation. You'd think Amtrak would want to increase passenger loads and make the trains resemble what they once were:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fV2QPtKxFM

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 10:37 amHowever, the biggest concern I would have is that the day they commit to rebuild all twenty five cars is the day the edict comes down to restore full-service dining system-wide.

What I noted earlier could well happen; someone else wins a new "Who's on First" skit, and down comes the edict for full service dining - with the conversion program well under way.

If they spent an $M per car to convert seventeen 380XX Diners to the 370XX X-Country configuration ten years ago, they aren't going to get these conversions for an M a throw.

gokeefe wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:58 pm

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2020 8:10 pmI think the main goal is to get all the food related workers into one space on these trains.

Agreed and it's the right thing to do. The savings could be enormous.

Yes...spending millions of dollars on equipment that arrives 8+ years late only to spend more money, ripping out what you just purchased and degrading the passenger's experience by cramming everyone into a small space and reducing the value of the service is definitely the right thing to do.

Maybe we should put cushions in the baggage car and charge a lower fare. The savings could be enormous.

You know some foamers would pay for that, just to say that had ridden in the baggage car!

That's more than fair. My only point is that if they're going to make a policy change they might as well reduce costs while restoring some form of meal service. Yes, the whole thing is a debacle and a half. On the other hand the Siemens and Alstom procurements seem to be going just fine.

I lay a considerable part of the issue with CAF.

69008 trailing on 92 (25) in lieu of the full baggage. Are these cars entering service now?

CNJGeep wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 5:42 pm69008 trailing on 92 (25) in lieu of the full baggage. Are these cars entering service now?

69002-69009 all delivered and in service, all were built between 7/2018 and 10/2019 (assembly line build dates, not date shells were fabricated) and in service 2019. The first two 2014 pilot builds (69000-69001) are still awaiting acceptance.

Sounds like it's time to start cranking out full sleepers. Should be interesting to see how that goes.

I can respect that they want to make sure there are a sufficient amount of new sleepers available for protection, but we do have 4 new sleepers delivered. It would be nice if they deployed one on each set of the Cardinal and deadhead it back to HIA as necessary.

I will be interested to see if as the available sleeper car count goes up they start to flex units throughout the single level routes to follow demand.

After all it's not as if they're going to start taking Viewliner Is out of service the moment they get the Viewliner IIs to online.

R36 Combine Coach wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2020 12:16 am

CNJGeep wrote: ↑Wed Feb 26, 2020 5:42 pm69008 trailing on 92 (25)...

69002-69009 all delivered and in service,....The first two 2014 pilot builds (69000-69001) are still awaiting acceptance.

Gotta say, pretty good equipment utilization for a bureaucracy. Almost getting like an airline. Six in consists, one protect in CHI (anyone know Lumber St. facility code?) and HIA. The "scramble" would be at SSY, where I guess an inbound car on 92 could be yanked for 51 - and hopefully get the bad boy from 50 fixed in time for 91.

So far as 625XX Sleepers go, they probably want two more accepted in order to assign a line to 97-98.