That's what I would suspect. And more cars may be coming due for overhaul. They may be storing them and focusing the shops on revenue and food service cars - I suspect baggage cars are at the bottom of the priority list. The other thing is the Silver Meteor is returning October 3rd which is the same day the baggage cars come off the Carolinian and Pennsylvanian - that train will require 4 baggage cars. The cut from those two trains is likely to ensure that they have baggage for the Meteor when it comes back as it will be in peak season for Florida service. For the Cap and Chief they're more saying it "may" not have it on certain trips (Though it's not suspended outright.) Likely they can't guarantee that they'll have a coach bag available in every consist and may need to sub in a regular coach (which would mean no baggage.)
Very good point - they might just be better off suspending it so as not to confuse people.While I can understand the operational issues, what is a hapless customer supposed to do with the helpful information that they may or may not have checked baggage service? For planning purposes that pretty much amounts to they won;t have baggage service.
But then again, they have been on the verge of saying that a customer may or may not have Sleeper service too
It is a good thing that American travelers are a pretty docile lot. I had asked my cousin, who was eventually a member of the Indian Railway Board, how they would handle a situation where they could not be sure that a train would have all the cars of the right type for which tickets have been sold. His answer was that they would notify a few days in advance for any deviation offering alternative arrangements or full refund. If that did not work out, they would arrange to have riot police on hand.
Although the notice says the baggage cars will come off the Carolinian on October 3, they actually came off on 9/12/2022. I see the train everyday and was warned in advance about it, so I was watching for it.
If we’re just talking baggage service on a few days here and there when they don’t have a true baggage car on hand how about a coach/bag car or any car that is available for axle count that day. To me that’s an easy workaround. God knows they are willing to use anything as an axle count, why not get some value out of it while using it.
Those trains aren't running with a full baggage car at the moment. A coach/bag is what they are running with. I suspect what it means is they may have days where it's a coach instead of coach bag due to equipment shortages. Unsure of the exact details on the ground whether its one of the rotating consists doesn't have a coach bag so its whenever that consist is running or if they all do but there's no contingency if they have a bad ordered car (it would be replaced by a regular coach for example). Not defending the wording or announcement simply offering a possible operational explanation for what may be going on in the field. I certainly agree that this "maybe" thing is not a way to communicate with customers. If there is indeed an unsurmountable operational crunch preventing consistent baggage service on these trains for the next couple months there are better ways of which they could handle it then putting out a "maybe we'll have it" announcement.
Thanks for that correction. I would still suspect the Meteor's return could be a contributing factor (due to its need for 4 bag cars.)
Amazing!What? A service cut that doesn’t affect the Texas Eagle?? Say it isn’t so!!
On the Destinations page for Cap Ltd, there's this:
