Maybe they’ll let Brandon Bostian drive it.
http://www.chipleypaper.com/news/20161213/officials-briefed-on-amtraks-return-to-panhandle
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/amtrak-gulf-coast-republicans-katrina-233080
Personal observation from having the Sunset Limited operating on ‘my territory’ in the pre Katrina days. The railroad then was ill suited to the operation of the train, especially on the one day per week when both the East & Westbound trains werer on the territory at the same time.
That being said, the departure from NoLa approaching Midnight does not give the Gulf Coast communities the kind of ‘service’ they will want. Who wants to wait for or get off a train at O dark 30. If a service is to be operated, it has to be stand alone and not connected to the schedule of the Sunset Limited’s operation West of NoLa in either direction.
I met an older lady on a recent Texas Eagle trip. She was taking the Orlando to D.C. to Chicago to San Antonio then onto Maricopa routing because she was used to the leg between Jacksonville, FL and New Orleans and wanted to see her Grandson in Phoenix again.
Imagine if frieght were that flexible with rail routings…heh-heh.
Absolutely! Amtrak needs to stop its “old thinking” or paraphrasing don oltmann, “Doing things this way because that’s the way we always did it.”
You would be surprised at some of the routings individual cars and/or blocks of cars are taking in todays railroads.
Have to agree with BALT: An early mornig departure from each end of route seems to be the best alternative. Thru NOL passengers are going to have problems no matter what. It may be an expanded lounge in NOL might be the best alternative. Inbound passengers could leave their belongings in the lounge check room, vist - party - etc until tired. Stay in lounge until the morning departure to Houston, Atlanta, or Orlando. Now how Amtrak would even handle such a proposal is higher than my pay grade.
Has there ever been a study of how much passenger potential there is for thru travel ? NOL as a final destination appears to be a medium to small market except during Mardi Gras ? The annual NS maintenance cancellations of M- Th trips do not help.
Depending on how soon service begins (?) the need to provide for equipment has not been disclos
One can only wish a reporter assigned to cover stories such as this had even a little bit of the knowledge of the subject as that exhibited by this forum.
Another argument that far better marketing and cross promotion at Amtrak is needed. Time permitting (as an LD train trip implies) I would love to spend a little time in NO and visit local attractions like the National WWII Museum. One or two nights in a three star hotel would be far superior to hanging out in a train station lounge. Don’t any of these hotels have shuttle service?
Yes, more equipment is needed for a separate NOL - Florida service. As discussed ad-infinitum the tradeoff is not running the wheels off of the existing equipment which is happening now anyway.
Even when the L&N and SAL were providing service - The Gulf Wind - with 5PM departures at both origins provided service at 0 dark thirty for many of the communities serviced. The arrival and departure at Jacksonville were aligned to match up with SAL’s Silver Meteor. The Western connections at NoLa were more numerous that what Amtrak has in the Sunset and City.
http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track2/gulfwind194912.html
It all comes down to money. Amtrak studied this in a “Report for the Southern Rail Commission on Potential Gulf Coast Service Restoration Options” in December 2015. They found that a daily round trip between New Orleans and Orlando would require 3 train sets and cost $18.43 million. The projection was 69,100 passengers and $4.03 million in revenue which results in a total cost of $14.4 million. This does not include any station costs or CSX requirements, and had a departure from New Orleans at 5:00 PM and from Orlando at 4:15 PM. By combining this with the “City of New Orleans”, there would be 138,300 passengers, 2 train sets, and lower the total cost to $5.48 million. Other studies of round trips between New Orleans and Mobile were made, but these would cost the states money. Combining with the “Sunset” was deemed too unreliable.
While the House of Mouse is the admitted draw to Orlando, with equipment being tight why not plan it NoLa to Jax - 2 sets of equipment and decent connections to the Silver service pair, Metor and Star! Doubt there is sufficient demand for a 3rd train between Jacksonville and Orlando.
I always thought combining it with the City of New Orleans was a good idea. It’s the cheapest way of getting a Chicago to Florida train back. However, I don’t see Amtrak expanding any more Long Distance train runs without substantial state support unless the expansion of the run is break even or a money maker.
I think the Kansas City expansion of the Heartland Flyer has a better chance than New Orleans to Jacksonville service just because the BNSF railroad is relatively ambivalent and you have some state interest in supporting the new service.
Back in the pre-fly/drive days, it was important to connect the “big dots” with schedules tuned to best fit those travellers and leave the “small dots” to deal with it.
Example: the crack NY-Chicago trains all ran overnight schedules to get folks between NY and Chicago overnight. These trains were not designed to serve Altoona or Syracuse…
Amtrak is not a player in the NY to Chicago market, so why does the train still run a schedule designed for that traffic?
If you are going to run a NOL to Jax train, I think you’d want to design the schedule to fit connecting the small dots to the big dots. A day train between the two would do that. Connections at NOL? Shuttle the few passengers to a hotel and put them up overnight. Make that part of the ticket they purchase from Amtrak. Just have to partner up with a local hotel in NOL.
As a railfan, I would love to see daylight trains with hotel packages at overnight stops. I would like to see something like what CP had with hotels at major stations.
Hmmm, if we could get Amtrak Management to consistently pick decent hotels with their Amtrak Vacations arm…I might agree but it is no Rocky Mountaineer when it comes to the hotel choice operation.
You could split the Crescent at Altanta, the LSL at Buffalo, the Capitol at Pittsburgh, the CZ at Denver and SLC. Others?
Splitting LD routes into corridors is one thing; entering the tourist trade with deluxe hotels is another. Amtrak’s mission is supposed to be providing transportation that is hopefully a reliable, fast, convenient service that can be competitive.
no reason a given train cannot be both, and they are not incompatible
Splitting long distance into corredors may make sense in some cases, and Milwaukee - St. Louis did not work well, mostly because of the limitations of CUS. But if you were to split Boston - Washington at NY-Penn, you would reduce Penn. Sta. capacity and reduce patronage New Haven - Philadelphia, for example. In my opinion, Bangor or Portland - Florida is one long corridor.
NY - Chicago via Albany and Cleveland is another long corridor that could benefit by fast and frequent service. And an all-daylight 14-hour NY - Chicago schedule should be possible. The onei. overnight sleeper each way can serve corridor functions on the ends, and in the middle be the one student bus-competitive low-cost coach filler-upper for those not splurging on a bed and hotel-like services. The day through trains leave NY at 7, 8, 9, arr. Chi. 20, 21, 22, lv. Ch. 6, 7, 8, arr. NY 21, 22, 23. But 80% of the business on these three through trains would not be end-to-end. Other trains, giving hourly departures from both end-point all day, would serve only parts of this corridor as appropriate. A midnight departure from NY might just go to Albany, with a 6AM Albany departure to NY. The 7AM would be the thru from Chicago oernight.
Dave you hit the nail with the hammer. Long distance trains can only be successful with multiple trains. Most ld routes have corridors within them. It’s impossible for just the lake shore Ltd to successfully serve all of its route efficiently. The same with most other ld trains.
I fail to see how. Changing trains or engines is one thing; changing stations in Boston (North Station to South) is quite another.