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If I wanted to do a stop gap sort of test operation, I would start using currently approved privately owned heritage sleeping cars for which refurbishment wasn't needed for them to demonstrate proof of concept, even if that meant not being able to run enough cars to meet full demand, or being...

I don't think it would take as short a time as you think to rebuild the hi-levels; I don't even think asbestos mitigation was done on them yet.

I wasn't talking about the PPCs; I was talking about the use of the existing other Hi-Level cars to launch a new overnight sleeper service. I suspect that if they were to pick an off the shelf bi-level coach, and build the train from scratch, the cost difference vs refurbishing these antiques...

I’ve said this before, both here and to various rail fans and advocates, and I’ll say it again: Budd cars are the most durable rail car design ever made, and a 70+ year hard service life is possible for the car bodies. But that’s the point: it is possible, with parts (the acquisition of which...

I assure you that as soon as somebody who knows something along those lines and is at liberty to discuss that knowledge, they will post it.

The 25 year old cars? There are no national Amtrak cars that are about 25, except the Acela sets. V2s are 5-10, the V1s are about 30, the S2s are about 33. Replacement of these cars are not what this discussion is primarily about; they may choose to also replace the S2s and turn those into surge...

The problem you run into is that when you are done spedning more likely nearly 2 million per car (1 million would have been a good estimate before the Pandemic turned a bunch of things on its head, particularly skilled labor cost) to end up with a car that is substantially into its limited...

Well, here goes. About 18 years ago, I was platonically friendly with an anthro artist who had no money, and I bought her a year subscription to an art site we both used, me for photography. Her response was to draw me a representational character, based on the colors of two cars I had owned or...

Amtrak can not lengthen any platforms to accommodate single level trains, I don't think. In order to lengthen a low level platform for the purpose of accommodating single level trains, they would have to convert that platform to high level, which is in itself expensive. Additionally, the gauge...

Much like the Viewliner II options?

They had a vanity, a dinette seat, a couple of stools, and a rest room with a door off to the side, as built. They got modified every which way over the years. I had always thought it would be a good place for a couch shower.

So they got rid of the changing lounge.

Both times I’ve stayed in NOLA, I stayed at a beautiful independent hotel called La Pavillon that is an easy walk from the station, for a tripod like me. (I.e. I use a cane)

I am pretty sure the primary purpose for these 'modernization reimaginations' is reducing overall service, probably quite substantially.

I'm pretty sure all of those cross-canada trains were named Niagara Rainbow, although the name was also applied to a once-each-way a week night train between New York and Toronto. What they had in common is that they crossed the Niagara River on the Rainbow Bridge.

Allow me to hypothesize a bit here. The Amtrak Roomette is a model of space efficiency for transporting a lot of passengers in mediocre sleeper comfort, but it is not a great design as far as luxury travel is concerned. Gallery style cars would not offer private rooms on their upper level...

Midtown direct also massively increased ridership of NJTs commuter lines. I think it should have included extra tunnels at that time, and it is not good that it didn’t. It really depends what one’s goals are when you wonder if a project is good or not. The Lackawanna Coalition, for example, is...

I don’t have any evidence of Budd gallery cars; my library Indicates only ex-CNW Pullman gallery cars. However, while during the Rainbow era and pre-heritage era Amtrak never had more than 2000 cars in active service, over 10,000 cars passed through their paper roster between 5/1/71 and the...

I have a number of books (one of them is really a binder) detailing Amtraks pre-heritage fleet fluctuations. It’s a fascinating subject on its own; I was going to write a book but I stumbled onto a rabbit hole doing it, ended up promising somebody I wouldn’t discuss what was in it, and decided...

This whole thing is a disproportionate response. The baggage car is always a buffer; somebody briefly attending to their pet in a baggage car that may possibly not have all the structural integrity it once did is not a sensible example of excessive risk. We have no safety inspection in NJ, and...