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Yeah i haven’t ridden since they started doing the flex plus thing on the lake shore where they’re plating the flex meals with a full table setup in the diner so things may have changed since then.

I think the way they are doing it now is it is cafe meal and snack for lunch on 449. On 448 if you are on board the Boston sleeper before Albany they take your order before the split and you get a flex meal heated in the cafe for dinner along with a snack from the cafe instead of the roll/salad.

The funding only covers state of good repair / which would imply existing services. Im all for more equipment to increase service but that’s going to need funding through some of these new route proposals. But the options will be there.

Four out of the five recent board members are advancing to the Senate floor with hopes to approve them before the end of term. David Capozzi who will be the first ADA advocate (position was created a decade ago but never filled), Ron Battory who will replace Christopher R Beall, Elaine Clegg who...

Bilevel is pretty compelling for the Auto Train. I think piggybacking on VIA’s order is a good backup plan and also a good idea for single level fleet, but I’d rather see them try to make bilevel workable. It provides a better viewing experience for the more of the train and there are major...

I read the report pretty much cover to cover. I think Johnston is kind of trying to make it sound worse than it really is. This is by nature a complex project as the OIG pointed out. There are certainly some concerns or areas that require vigilance to monitor I did not find anything hugely...

It was on the Floridian last night. Here is how it looked next to a Viewliner II on the Elkhart Virtual Railfan camera.

Red will denote first class. Light blue will be business and green coach. It sounds like the plan is indeed to get this out on everything except basically the Avelia liberty sets.

Each railcar is evaluated for compliance and I think it's different rules for single level vs. bilevel railcars. Amtrak's approach in their procurement is to create an "equivalent" alternate approach to accessibility so that they don't have to include accessibility features in each car (and...

Now that you mention it there isn't. I guess I inferred it with the whole accessible core thing as I sort of assumed that vestibule width and navigation is an issue with standard coupling and I had seen others inferring semi permanent connections with the accessible section on Facebook but if my...

And soon the P42s as well. I think it looks fine. The Phase IV look on the Viewliners was getting long in the tooth. Glad they did something to refresh the look a bit. If anything this will also finally get all the river name designation tags on the Viewliners 1s.

The Vermonter has a rather complicated one. If you are on the Vermonter you may be assigned to 3 different routes depending on your northern terminus. If the northern terminus of your trip is New Haven or somewhere south of that on the NEC it’s a Northeast Regional trip, if the northern...

They have put a RFQ out for new tier IV locomotives. I get that it’s a US thing but they said they want to meet EPA Tier IV. The rebuilt F40s will get them to a certain point but the literature indicates a desire for new locomotives.

LOL good catch. Edited to catch. Brain lapse.

redacted.

Well I’m not saying they’re operating at a loss. I’m saying when bidding on a contract they can be more aggressive than Amtrak would be with low bidding and take more of a risk if they think they can lower costs and find efficiencies over time once they get their foot in the door because it’s...

According to the September year end monthly report for FY24 none of the state supported routes broke even in FY24, on a Fully Allocated Cost basis, even after state payments were factored in. Berkshire Flyer and Chicago - St. Louis came the closest. The SSBL lost $251.5 million overall...

And if part of the design is bigger and better windows throughout the train then the current Superliners you’ll get a better vantage from all the upper level coach seating than you would from a single level coach car - also a better view when eating in the diner, etc. Of course there’s big...

I’m sure the 360 dome views can’t be beat (unfortunately never been in one myself) but other than a dome being in an upper level dining room, coach, or lounge is going to give you a better vantage point than a single level train without domes would. Domes on Amtrak would be great but the million...

I’m sure the sticking point and what is making this tricky and more complicated with Amtrak’s is the desire to have it be bilevel but also accessible throughout ther core amenities and the workability of that along with the features they want. VIA going single level automatically makes their...