How Amtrak, Excursion Trains, and Good Marketing could all coexist in the German Style

[Seaboard92]

What would it gain to have sleepers through to the Grand Canyon?

The sleeper doesn't provide any great view as compared to the daytime tourist train.

Amtrak would have to disconnect the sleeper from the SWC (with temporary loss of power and more time lost) to connect to a different train that would need to supply a lot more electricity than the existing cars or run its engine on up the GCR tracks.

Assuming they do get the sleeper up there. People stay overnight? At Amtrak prices, the wonderful El Tovar would look like a bargain and it's right at the edge of the Canyon.

Better might be to cut a deal with the GCR to provide an Amtrak package where people and their bags would be picked up at the Amtrak station, put up at the hotel in Williams Overnight then take the GCR then be provided with the return and meet the Amtrak train.

I don't see your point? I must be missing something. How would you envision the through-sleeper concept would work?

And, I believe, the GCR, the hotel in Williams and all the hotels in the Canyon are managed by a National Park contractor.

I think I can answer this. The biggest issue is for the temporary loss of power and you would be clogging up the BNSF transcon. You would have to build some small facility to do it off the main line. But the basic idea I think of it would be to allow people to go straight from Chicago or Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon without a connection. Me personally I don't know how long one looks at the Grand Canyon so I would be content with a thru car that went to the South Rim and I could switch to the westbound thru car to keep going the way I would be going.

 

[Barb Stout]

I think I can answer this. The biggest issue is for the temporary loss of power and you would be clogging up the BNSF transcon. You would have to build some small facility to do it off the main line. But the basic idea I think of it would be to allow people to go straight from Chicago or Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon without a connection. Me personally I don't know how long one looks at the Grand Canyon so I would be content with a thru car that went to the South Rim and I could switch to the westbound thru car to keep going the way I would be going.

At one time, the average stay at the Grand Canyon was 3 hours. My sister worked as a Park Ranger there back in the '80s and considered such short stays to be sacrilege. But then I guess if it were longer that would clog up the place even more and it's plenty crowded as it is. I used to go there at times, but never less than 2 days, but I always camped; never stayed in a hotel/motel, but next time we go, my sister wants to try for the El Tovar. We'll see.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I think MeLittleMe has the right idea. A connecting bus between the Amtrak station in Flagstaff and the GCR station/hotel in Williams would certainly fill the bill. Transferring a coach and/or sleeper from Amtrak to the Grand Canyon would be a time-consuming and expensive operation. The Grand Canyon Railway offers a variety of accommodations from open window coaches to dome cars to private cars and would be more of an experience than continuing the ride in an Amtrak car.