http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241267278292
Click on the link titled “Amtrak Ready with Big Plans for 2010”
Does this mean they are going to purchase more Superliner cars?
lets hope so… some of them are in pretty bad condition.
That appears to be their intention.
It all starts with a funding request. If the request is not entertained by the Congress, and then approved, there is no new equipment. If I remember correctly (and that can be called into question), the request and proposal was supposed to be presented to the Congress about February or so.
Amtrak does need new cars and it they probably will need more then a few hundred so this is a start I guess. As for the rest, incremental improvements and not a whole lot so far with the stimulus funds. Sure would be nice to see a new high speed line put into operation from point A to point B somewhere outside of the Northeast.
Sounds more like Amtrak is finally getting to the business of taking a cold, hard look at the LD trains. The press release mentions the 5 that they are looking at. My hunch would be that the existing Superliner fleet is more than sufficient for Amtrak’s needs if they can keep current with rebuilds. No need to throw good money after bad there by replacing perfectly good, if sometimes threadbare, equipment. Some higher capacity cars for the NEC would be a good thing, though. Would help Amtrak stay with existing train capacity at stations - DC Union Station and NY Penn, in particular. Cascading the Amfleet cars to new non-NEC corridor service would work well.
I hope Amtrak isn’t going to waste more money on LD services.
Amtrak should order new low-level equipment to replace ALL Amfleet cars. The old ones could me cut in half, have new trucks and vestibules, etc., added and sold to Chicagoland. Them guys will ride anything and be happy about it. A little more TLC (better maintenance) will keep the Superliners in service for quite a while. Hard to do when so many of them are bad-ordered in Bear and Beech Grove. Does Amtrak make any money chartering their equipment? I’d rather see it in its intended service, including shopping, rather than pulling some “Thomas the Tank Engine Foamers” around. Amtrak was able to “spare” a P40 (?) to pull the silly Disney train around, and other publicity gigs, and is looking to buy new engines? Priorities, Joe!
Actually, the Disney train had two engines, and I see nothing wrong with Amtrak running charter service, or with engaging in an activity that puts them in the public eye among tens of thousands of potential riders.
If priced correctly, charters are one area where Amtrak actually can turn a profit. Even without charters, though, there has been a complete lack of numbers of equipment for existing service and protection of that service. With all the demands placed upon Amtrak for route studies, and the need to rebuild existing equipment, plus possible alterations to existing LD services (sorry Don, don’t look for discontinuances) the need for additonal equipment becomes quite evident.
On the power side, the P42’s are very old, older in fact than a lot of F units when they were retired, and the technology, while fine 17 years ago, could stand replacement with locomotives which are even more fuel efficient.
Amtrak needs new equipment, period. A recent article in USA Today indicates that the traveling public is disgusted with the overall hassle and privacy invasions required for air travel, and that, once again they are turning to other forms of transportation, notably automobiles and trains. And as one person noted, driving in a car will eventually get old, by reason of cost and hassle, so those folks will look toward Amtrak as well.
I feel that the only reason, in many instances, why Amtrak’s ridership doesn’t grow more is that the lack of equipment places a cap on it. Yes, new equipment is a definite need, in all areas of the operation.
Last year I took the train from Taylor to Dallas three times. I was staying in Dallas for a concert, so taking the trai
Every time you post a picture to this website without sizing it properly, you distort the view for subsequent users. You should speak to the webmaster if you believe the problem lies with Trains. Most other people don’t see to have this problem. By the way, I like most of your pictures.
I’m all for anything that will slow the red ink bleeding out of those trains. The better they perform, the more likely they’ll stay around and not raise a lot of eyebrows. Right now, they are an easy target for the “anti-rail” gang and make it much more difficult to get any traction for new or improved corridor service. “Amtrak” is a broad brush.
Only if you can keep the charter equipment busy enough to cover the capital for the equipment. A hard thing to do w/o a regular schedule.
Along with charters, it is an opportunity for Amtrak, but I suspect it will be missed because of the lack of vision and leadership there. sam1 is very correct; the dilution of scarce resources on a very thin LD network (infrequent, slow, etc.) takes away from developing a corridor-based system.
I like Phoebe Vets pics also. I wondered though if there is something I’m missing about sizing? All the pictures are already on websites.
Sam:
Thank you for the compliment. They don’t distort the forum on my computer, it just resizes them to fit with a box on top to show it full size in another window if desired.
Is anyone else in here having the problem Sam is having?
It’s happened on mine a few times but not just for pics, but everything gets narrowed. Your pic shows up with a box saying it was resized to fit and click to see it in glorious full-size in another window. Great pic, BTW! Yours? If so, how do you post your own? Do you upload to Flickr or something?
Yes, I took the picture when the train was at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. I have quite a few pictures of that train, inside and out.
I upload them to Photobucket. Most of the pictures I post are mine, but some of the old Lackawanna and D&H pictures are not. When a photographer has put his name on a photo, I always make sure not to crop it out. That’s why some of the old pictures have descriptions in the image. It’s because the photographer’s name is in the description, therefor I won’t crop it.
Thank for posting this. I missed seeing it when it came thru Atlanta. (BTW,it works just fine on my computer)
The announcement about long distance cars may refer to a previous one calling for more Viewliner-type cars (for Florida services?) and baggage cars. I don’t recall anything about Superliners except for repairing existing cars. No one else has posted anything more definitive.
The Midwest doesn’t need being the step-child. Keep the Amfleet in the East, rebuild inexpensively, add tilting suspension and push-pull control, refurbish or replace the interiors and mechanicals, and bracket with new 150-mph electrics. You’ll ride anything too; and this is a way to upgrade NEC Regional services.
You would cut the bodies in half? How would that work? This seems like an awfully expensive and radical rebuild just to get new low-level(?) equipment elsewhere.
Even with the wide-open spaces in the Midwest, there are enough curves for new Talgos to make a difference on most existing and potential routes as well as afford easier boarding, even if we have to buy them ourselves, and Wisconsin already put in an order. Capacity and train length aren’t issues in most cases, so double-deck equipment such as a California car isn’t needed as much as the tilting capability. Ironically, the Hiawatha service is the one instance in the Midwest where higher capacity equipment would be desirable in the peaks due to present limited route capacity and demand for both Metra and Amtrak services.