Is Amtrak losing too much hair

[Anderson]

You know, I can't help but wonder...if Amtrak can't get a bid for 40 Acela cars to work, why not seriously look at simply moving the Acela II order forward and reworking the existing Acelas as either a smaller second-tier express service or as a higher-end non-express service? As far as I can tell, the cars themselves should be reshufflable, so with 120 trailer cars (20 sets of 6), you could probably go to 15 sets of 8 (or 12 sets of 10) with a couple of cafes redone as "second class" cars. IIRC this was something of the longer-term plan, anyway, and it might free up some Amfleets. Moreover, if operated as a lower-speed service, it seems plausible that you'd be able to pop off the power cars and run the trains along non-BOS/WAS lines. At least from what I can tell, capacity is the big issue at the moment.

On Superliner IIIs, I agree that 25 is too small, but I'm not sure where the lower threshold of "workable" is. Would 50 cars of a single type be large enough to be economical? I might well see a market for the use of 50 Superliner sleepers (though it would be a stretch at the moment, as long as the current trend holds at least modestly well...well, a 15% increase in sleeper demand over 6-7 years isn't too hard to envision). Coaches are a bit harder to see at this exact moment (the order of 130-ish cars for the states should do some real damage to this shortage for the moment, and it seems plausible that this order could nudge slightly higher), and food service cars just aren't going to be "on" in large numbers unless a lot of other stuff is also coming down the pike (not to mention that a few of those are likely getting freed up by the state order as well).

 

[jis]

They simply do not have funds to do an effective Acela II program at present. Things might look different after the election depending on how it all turns out. It could look much better or much worse. So we will just have to wait and see.

 

[Anderson]

They simply do not have funds to do an effective Acela II program at present. Things might look different after the election depending on how it all turns out. It could look much better or much worse. So we will just have to wait and see.

I can, quite sadly, accept this point. With that said...how much would an Acela II program cost, and how much could be saved by adhering as closely to the original Acela designs as is practical do?

 

[Ryan]

and the fact that MTA is selecting Bombardier does not - repeat - not - affect that Amtrak is operating the Penn Line, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Is that officially official? If there was an announcement, I missed it.

 

[bmorechris]

and the fact that MTA is selecting Bombardier does not - repeat - not - affect that Amtrak is operating the Penn Line, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Is that officially official? If there was an announcement, I missed it.

If you are referring to MTA selecting Bombardier to operate the Brunswick and Camden lines, check this Baltimore sun article from Saturday. Not sure if its officially official, but that is apparently what is happening. If you are talking about Amtrak's continued operation of the Penn line, I don't know anything about that.

 

[fairviewroad]

5. Silence on the planned Acela tests at 165mph. Maybe this was done to avoid unwanted audience crowds, maybe something else.

It's 160 MPH, not 165. And there is no need to advertise things. It has nothing to do with the public.

I guess someone at Amtrak feels differently about the need to let the public know about it!

WASHINGTON— Beginning tonight and continuing into next week, Amtrak plans to operate high-speed test trains at 165 mph in four areas covering more than 100 miles of the Northeast Corridor. The tests in Maryland / Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are locations that may at some future time experience regular 160 mph service.

Full press release here.

 

[Ryan]

and the fact that MTA is selecting Bombardier does not - repeat - not - affect that Amtrak is operating the Penn Line, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Is that officially official? If there was an announcement, I missed it.

If you are referring to MTA selecting Bombardier to operate the Brunswick and Camden lines, check this Baltimore sun article from Saturday. Not sure if its officially official, but that is apparently what is happening. If you are talking about Amtrak's continued operation of the Penn line, I don't know anything about that.

Thanks, I hadn't seen that.

AU member Rafi gets some air time at the end of that article:

Rafi Guroian, chairman of the MARC Riders Advisory Council, welcomed the news that the state had found a new operator.
"In the long run, it's going to be beneficial, certainly from the perspective that CSX made no secret that they wanted out of the operator business," he said.

Guroian said CSX, primarily a freight carrier, has been doing a better job in recent years but was reluctant to do any new hiring as vacancies occurred. As a result, he said, there were times when trains were understaffed and had to be delayed.

As a taxpayer, Guroian said, he is happy to see a new operator because the MTA has been paying financial penalties to CSX for the delays in finding a successor.

Owens said those penalties have amounted to $1 million over the past year.

"That cost will go away with the new agreement," he said