Amtrak Roadrailers will be gone by Oct.1. They are going to TripleCrown (NS) for their own use. How many Roadrailers does Amtrak have in Service. Will Amtrak make Millions by sale them to the NS. [:)]
I hate to see that happen - that is the only way I ever got to see any at all!
Mookie
Well I think it’s a shame in one way. Amtark is critisized so much and European trains glorified but, one major critisism I have for passenger trains especialy in Europe compared especialy to intercity buses ((greyhound)) and airlines is that modern passenger trains carry only passengers.
Other modes carry other tarffic as well as passengers to help balance the sheets but a train wich has the potentail of carrying more cargo space and pul car loads somehow almost always carry only passengers.
In the old days passenger trains carryed express and mail and milkvans etc… wich to me is what a train should do. So in that sense I regret the loss for Amtark to be a good potential example in this way by carrying express and refers and roadrailers… why not? Too bad.
I don’t know why Amtrak and UPS never teamed up for joint roadrailer service. I like triple crown and all but I am concerned on the lack of competition in that field of intermodal service. I think roadrailer is the LTL answer to “next door” service because it is so easy to assemble so I am hoping that it stays that way.
Do they have enough high speed boxes to make-up the capacity slack. I know that some of the LTL freight will quit with loss of rubber tired flexibility.
I’m not sure how many road-railers we have (that’s not my dept.), but, I had once heard that the truckers opposed Amtrak claiming unfair competition since Amtrak is a private corporation that is funded by the gov’t. Then, again, the other possible scenario is: Amtrak is no longer interested in having road-railers. They usually limit our speed to 90mph maximum on the northeast corridor where we usually run at 125mph.
I’m sure its just another rumor, trains like the Three Rivers are almost all RoadRailers and would hurt if this happened.
Them Roadrailers was a money pit from the Start when they got them also the BoxCars too. All that money they spend on the Railrailers and BoxCars should have went to buy more Cars? [?]
It doesn’t seem like much of a loss for the few that ride the Empire Builder. The NS / UP Triple Crown service from Chicago to the Twin Cities makes a lot more sense, both in terms of schedule and efficency.
On the face, it would seem that getting a few more bucks by adding some freight to already “bought and paid for” passenger trains would be a worthwhile effort.
Instead of having to go to the goverment there is no doubt that Dave Gunn would rather generate the cash needed by Amtrak from the business. He has a little training and experience in the process of digging through the numbers to get to the truth. For Amtrak, the express business is a looser and that is why Gunn is in the process of getting rid of it. Frankly, I don’t think there is anybody that could prove him wrong.
It seems like I heard on another thread that Amtrak got rid of its reefers. Is Amtrak getting out of the freight business?
Probably wouldn’t work for UPS, but I wouldn’t put it past DHL. They’re out for all the business they can get from UPS and FedEx!
-Mark
Milwaukee, WI
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken
You know, that’s actually kind of funny!?!
I think that Amtrak needs to re-think its image. Bolder “corporate” image i.e. paint and graphics, streamlined operations, improved marketing, different means of dependence on government. Unfortunately, it’s that last item that will cause none of this to happen, but if, somehow, Amtrak could be run like a business and not like an arm of government, those who run it could really make something of it.
[2c],
-Mark
Milwaukee, WI
http://www.geocities.com/fuzzybroken
I heard elsewhere that the switching in or out of reefers or roadrailers mid-route caused noticeable delays to the trains, example SouthWest Chief in Kansas…
It just goes to show that government can’t do anything right.
I hope amtrak makes 10 to 30 million off of the sale of them Railrailers to the NS.[8D]
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the 1971 act that created Amtrak meant to provide continuation of passenger service as the major railroads were filing for Chapter 11 or discontinuing passenger service entirely?
Where in the act or the subsequent reauthorization does it require or allow Amtrak to compete directly with private freight industries?
Wayne
I have never read it, so I don’t know if it does. Weren’t some freight railroads fighting to keep Amtrak from hauling freight on their lines a few years ago? I am assuming they lost.
Wayne you are right but it seems that every passenger railway in the world has an excuse not to haul anything but passengers. All other modes cary anything that fits.
It’s a train, and trains have room to cary alot of people and stuff.
I know that freight lines were instrumental in urging Congress to create Amtrak but not to compete with them in hauling freight. I understand there is a pretty complex series of agreements between with the private roads, including a sweetheart-deal that was made with Conrail and was subsequently transferred with the sale.
I use Amtrak whenever I can and appreciate that this is a service run by the government. (It’s a big player in the Northeastern states.) I’d prefer to see Amtrak polish up its passenger service as it was created for and not undercut the private freight lines. I know that in the reauthorization, Congress mandated that it pay its own way or die. Seems if this burden were placed on the Federal Highway System, every road built with Federal funds would be a toll road, making a profit or being plowed under.
Wayne