For almost 41 years now Amtrak has been the sole national operator of inter city trains in the United States. As I have previously stated elsewhere for most, if not all of this period, the company has been trying to run their operations in spite of significant disadvantages in quantity and quality of available equipment and the requirement to run historic transcontinental long distance routes.
Over the next few years Amtrak is in position to eliminate, across a broad range of categories, a great deal of the remaining unique equipment in their fleets. Additional efforts in the area of electric motive power will re-standardize a fleet that had become highly fragmented over the years due to the lack of a long term acquisition and replacement program. In some respects the completion of expected acquisitions of new "Viewliner" rolling stock and electric locomotives will represent the culmination of a process that began in 1973 when Amtrak's efforts at fleet modernization and standardization began with the purchase of the first SDP40F locomotives.
As the new acquisitions arrive Amtrak will finally retire its last remaining pieces of "Heritage" equipment, now nearly 70 years old in some cases. However, unlike many previous equipment orders, arrangements have been made to provided expanded capacity of the fleet pool for several rolling stock categories, single level sleepers and diners specifically. Sleeper capacity will also be addressed through the addition to the fleet of new baggage-dorm cars, which for the first time in almost a decade will allow Amtrak to sell all available space in their most frequently sold out "Roomette" accommodations. There have been additional indications that as part of this process Amtrak anticipates rehabilitating their current fleet of Viewliner sleepers once construction of the new cars is complete.
As we watch this cycle come to completion over the next 5+ years Amtrak will in effect be completing a transition that began 40+ years ago on May 1, 1971 when they took over the passenger operations of 20 different railroads and ever since then have attempted to merge, standardize and otherwise create a uniform and seamless operation. Whether or not Amtrak is ultimately able to be substantially more competitive because of these changes is open for debate. They will still be required to operate unwieldy long distance routes across the country which have very low ridership and tend to require enormous resources. However, at the very least they no longer will be missing revenues and market share in places where they clearly can be competitive, such as the East Coast Florida services. Although a continuation of the status quo ante is certainly possible, it doesn't seem likely, especially given the continuing challenges of airline travel.
Any discussion of either the premise or its potential outcomes is appreciated.
Over the next few years Amtrak is in position to eliminate, across a broad range of categories, a great deal of the remaining unique equipment in their fleets. Additional efforts in the area of electric motive power will re-standardize a fleet that had become highly fragmented over the years due to the lack of a long term acquisition and replacement program. In some respects the completion of expected acquisitions of new "Viewliner" rolling stock and electric locomotives will represent the culmination of a process that began in 1973 when Amtrak's efforts at fleet modernization and standardization began with the purchase of the first SDP40F locomotives.
As the new acquisitions arrive Amtrak will finally retire its last remaining pieces of "Heritage" equipment, now nearly 70 years old in some cases. However, unlike many previous equipment orders, arrangements have been made to provided expanded capacity of the fleet pool for several rolling stock categories, single level sleepers and diners specifically. Sleeper capacity will also be addressed through the addition to the fleet of new baggage-dorm cars, which for the first time in almost a decade will allow Amtrak to sell all available space in their most frequently sold out "Roomette" accommodations. There have been additional indications that as part of this process Amtrak anticipates rehabilitating their current fleet of Viewliner sleepers once construction of the new cars is complete.
As we watch this cycle come to completion over the next 5+ years Amtrak will in effect be completing a transition that began 40+ years ago on May 1, 1971 when they took over the passenger operations of 20 different railroads and ever since then have attempted to merge, standardize and otherwise create a uniform and seamless operation. Whether or not Amtrak is ultimately able to be substantially more competitive because of these changes is open for debate. They will still be required to operate unwieldy long distance routes across the country which have very low ridership and tend to require enormous resources. However, at the very least they no longer will be missing revenues and market share in places where they clearly can be competitive, such as the East Coast Florida services. Although a continuation of the status quo ante is certainly possible, it doesn't seem likely, especially given the continuing challenges of airline travel.
Any discussion of either the premise or its potential outcomes is appreciated.
gokeefe