A New Single Level Fleet?

[rail sale]

But in all reality Amtrak is a ways a way from buying new cars, we still have to fix the ones we have now.

I'm sure you are correct battalion51 but would it be possible to retrofit existing cars durring reconditioning.

Maybe Amtrak could pick some up cheap on a United Airlines auction

 

[AlanB]

But in all reality Amtrak is a ways a way from buying new cars, we still have to fix the ones we have now.

I'm sure you are correct battalion51 but would it be possible to retrofit existing cars durring reconditioning.

Maybe Amtrak could pick some up cheap on a United Airlines auction

I suspect that implementing a slumber chair concept could easily be done during a retrofit. However I see a few problems with doing so.

First, is the simple fact that Amtrak is just barely hanging on financially right now. Too many Congressmen seem opposed to having Amtrak do anything new, not just adding new routes. So it would be a very hard sell to even get permission to do this.

Secondly, a retrofit process is too slow of an approach for this type of project. Amtrak needs consistency of accommodations across is routes. A retrofit idea would mean that either you would have to implement the new accommodations one route at a time, as cars become available, or hold all retrofitted cars in the yard until such time as you have enough to implement the new service uniformly across all routes. The first means that you loose the flexibility to substitute and interchange cars between routes. You also create confusion for the paying customer when one train has a feature that another does not.

The later alternative means that those cars are generating no revenue for quite some time while they sit in the yard. At present Amtrak can’t afford to have any cars out of service.

There is no doubt however, that Amtrak really does need a service class in between coach and sleeper. Frankly I suspect that Amtrak had a middle class on its LD trains, that they would improve the LD's bottom line considerably. Presently sleepers frequently sell out on many trains, it’s the coach seats that all to often barely exceed a 50% sell out rate. This is what holds down Amtrak’s revenue and profits for the LD trains.

If Amtrak could pick up some passengers who don’t want to travel in coach, yet can’t afford the higher prices of Amtrak’s sleepers, that would help to improve the bottom line.