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As a stand-in for sleepers being refurbished: I agree this isn't really feasible. That being said, there has to be some way to make regularly scheduled PV travel work. By regularly scheduled, maybe just one PV car on the CZ that goes back and forth on the same consist and allows for access to...

I mean, if Amtrak OBS policies differ based on the crew, why should we expect PV owners to standardize? 🤪

I think @Seaboard92 would be the best equipped to say whether or not this is feasible. I've long argued that Amtrak should create some opportunity for the private sector to come in and operate scheduled differentiated services to the general public along the LD routes. That being said, I think...

Based on my experience on the CZ, it seems like they simply don't have enough OBS to serve everyone on the train. Whereas I recall there being two dining car attendants in addition to an LSA, there appeared to be only one exceptional LSA and one unremarkable dining car attendant. There were...

From scratch: Easily $100M. A contract just to spec out all the requirements of the system before writing a single line of code would cost around $1M. The major problem with a major migration like this is not so much programming and replacing all the computers as much as it is transitioning to...

I was on the CZ a few days ago and the diners were always full. A lot of sleeping car passengers were also taking meals to go, there were SCAs ferrying meals every time we were in the diner.

A central commissary has overhead costs, along with the overhead of keeping food on the trains, freshness and ingredient sourcing, etc. The idea is hiring catering vendors, who have other business like weddings and corporate parties, to also provide for the Acela trains. The idea is to provide...

If you wanted to just program the ones that will be in use on your route and hit the "scan" button every so often this is the table to use and scan against: Channel Frequency Times used on EB>CS>CZ route 13 160.305 1 14 160.320 2 15 160.335 1 22 160.440 1 23 160.455 5 24 160.470 2...

Station Channel Frequency Chicago Amtrak Road 13 160.305 Chicago Amtrak Yard 42 160.740 Chicago Amtrak Mechanical 77 161.265 Amtrak Pacific NW Switching Channel 62 161.040 Seattle Amtrak Station Services 23 160.455 Seattle Amtrak Mechanical 45 160.785 Portland...

More specifically, along your entire route: Segment Channel Frequency Road Chicago-Milwaukee 44 160.770 METRA Milwaukee-Portage 84 161.370 CP/Soo Portage-La Crosse (East of Miss. River) 94 161.520 CP/Soo Mississippi River at La Crosse-Mississippi River at Hastings 44 160.770 CP/Soo...

Absolutely not, I complain a lot about the lack of it, even on the same line! Hell, I would love it if Amtrak embraced the term "guest experience", since it seems like a lot of the OBS treats us like two-legged cattle. Anderson's failure, in brief, was trying to do too much too fast and not...

The problem is the PIPs were based on the performance of each rail line. Anderson was more concerned about restructuring Amtrak as a whole and making it less of a series of vaguely interconnected pork silos. Anderson's peak success was unifying Northwest and Delta airlines who had two somewhat...

If you have the cable, you can just use CHIRP. The US Railroad Frequencies are already built in, it's just a matter of picking the ones that matter for your trip. Depends mostly on your antenna and line of sight. A well-tuned VHF antenna on your roof that can be had for $80 will pick up almost...

In a way, you answered your own question...any forum notable enough to be trashed by fans of a YouTuber with a 20k subscriber base is likely the most notable community out there. Collectively, the Amtrak Facebook groups have a broader reach and impact in the aggregate. Second to that would be...

This is the best insight so far. The average company of Amtrak's size generally tries to manage through metrics that are as neutral as possible, giving management a way to assess staff performance in a way that is as insulated from favorites-playing as possible. However, between the unions and...

We were just getting off a two day trip with our almost-one-year-old just as you wrote this! There won't really be room for a travel bed in a normal bedroom. They would likely fit in a family bedroom. Our travel playpen might have just barely fit in crib mode between the chair Mom is sitting in...

Chris, our DEN>GJT conductor was lenient but fair on it. His announcements were politely asking for compliance while giving people some outs. However, our GJT>SLC conductor was "per the contract of carriage", which may have had something to do with the problem they inherited and ended up...

Really depends on the conductor. There's a lot of uncovered noses. Total compliance around 70%

Well, it wouldn't be Amtrak if it were perfect. We were on time right up until a passenger and her five kids were booted off the train in Provo for mask non-compliance. Law enforcement were dispatched. Unfortunately, the Vaccum system in our car stopped working right around then. Long story...

The store in Grand Junction looks like it's been refreshed. Two registers, looks very bright and clean and the folks there were doing a swift business. Cigarettes are $15 (Smokers: Is that expensive?) The personalities of the OBS, if they come out, always seem to come out after Denver. Jerzy is...