Airo - Amfleet I replacement Siemens Inter City Trainsets (ICT) (2-3Q 2024)

[Lcon]

I can’t comment on most of these services but when they announced the Consists for the New Haven Springfield service and Vermonter I was surprised.
The Hartford line service is usually one locomotive and 3 coaches. The Airo they plan for it is 6 coaches though those coaches now include a cafe car.

The Vermonter on the other hand is usually a 5 car consist. Airo would go up to an 8 car.

I keep seeing mention of a Business class which also doesn’t exist on the Flyer. It technically does on the Vermonter but it’s an awful lot of money for a can of soda.
In the Northeast regional it’s even worse as they use Amfleet 1 coaches. The Flyer and Vermonter use Amfleet 2 for coach. It’s almost like Amtrak is punishing business class for not taking the Acela.

Anyway this makes me wonder if Amtrak isn’t just looking to improve its rolling stock but also improve and expand its business class services across its commuter trains.

 

[Harmon Shay]

Sounds like Amtrak is going to be hauling a lot of empty seats around on New Haven-Springfield and the Vermonter, unless they're planning on doing a heck of a lot of promotion to generate new ridership.

 

[MARC Rider]

I'm curious to know if the Northeast Regionals fill 8 o9 9 cars south of DC and north of, say, New Haven. Just wondering how many empty seats are being dragged around in this now mostly fixed-consist era.

Believe me, I've seen the Northeast Regionals fill up north of New Haven. As for the south of DC service, a large percentage of the Boston-Washington trains are continuation service from Virginia. Thus, they either need to haul the 8-9 cars into Virginia, or break the train up and have a cross-platform transfer in Washington, which I would think is undesirable. Hopefully, with the reduction in dwell time in Washington now that an engine change is no longer needed and the improvements in infrastructure planned by Virginia, there will be a lot more Northeast Regional through traffic down into Virginia in the future, thus filling those 8-9 cars south of Washington.

 

[BlackDiamond]

I can’t comment on most of these services but when they announced the Consists for the New Haven Springfield service and Vermonter I was surprised.
The Hartford line service is usually one locomotive and 3 coaches. The Airo they plan for it is 6 coaches though those coaches now include a cafe car.

The Vermonter on the other hand is usually a 5 car consist. Airo would go up to an 8 car.

There is also the Downeaster which is supposed to get Airo. I don't know what size consist they will use. Currently it is 5 coaches, one of which is a cafe/BC car.