Texas Eagle discussion H2 2024

[F900ElCapitan]

I’ve noticed the extra coach that’s added between CHI and STL is almost always a snack coach. With the recently added revenue cars, are they staffing the snack bar? Seems it would make sense with potentially three sleepers and 5 coaches for that section and otherwise only the Cross Country Cafe to serve food.

 

[CHImdw1522]

I’ve noticed the extra coach that’s added between CHI and STL is almost always a snack coach. With the recently added revenue cars, are they staffing the snack bar? Seems it would make sense with potentially three sleepers and 5 coaches for that section and otherwise only the Cross Country Cafe to serve food.

On Saturday, December 7, 2024, the extra section was a coach cafe car. There was a "stored" curtain mid-car which was sometimes used to designate the front half as "business class" on other routes. On this train all seats were coach, and all passengers were destined to Bloomington-Normal, IL. The cafe was NOT in use. The cafe space seems to have been used as an employee lounge.

 

[F900ElCapitan]

On Saturday, December 7, 2024, the extra section was a coach cafe car. There was a "stored" curtain mid-car which was sometimes used to designate the front half as "business class" on other routes. On this train all seats were coach, and all passengers were destined to Bloomington-Normal, IL. The cafe was NOT in use. The cafe space seems to have been used as an employee lounge.

Thank you for the info. Seems odd that they wouldn’t add the service, but it is Amtrak.

 

[thefirewarde]

Thank you for the info. Seems odd that they wouldn’t add the service, but it is Amtrak.

If they can't consistently get a snack coach and provision it and staff it, or if the existing onboard F&B offering doesn't see elevated business volume during that period, I absolutely think they're correct not to operate the second snack bar.

I also think that more routes could benefit from a vendomat like the Piedmonts already have, as a supplemental food option.

 

[drdumont]

Flex meal crap version, whatever. It would help if they just had two simple sandwiches.

Midrats on the old Diesel Subs was better. The stewards left bread, bologna, peanut butter and jelly out on the mess table. And any pie, cake or anything left. Only caveat, you didn't clean up after yourself at your own peril. But the worst Mess Crank was better than some of the Mess Cranks on Amtrak nowadays.

 

[CHImdw1522]

If they can't consistently get a snack coach and provision it and staff it, or if the existing onboard F&B offering doesn't see elevated business volume during that period, I absolutely think they're correct not to operate the second snack bar.

I also think that more routes could benefit from a vendomat like the Piedmonts already have, as a supplemental food option.

I did not mean to give the impression that the train did not have a cafe. The Texas Eagle that day did have a cafe/snack bar car between the last sleeper and the first coach toward the front of the train.

The last coach was the coach cafe with a cafe that was not being used. The car was simple being used as a coach - which was dropped (I think) in St. Louis for use on the return trip to Chicago.

 

[F900ElCapitan]

If they can't consistently get a snack coach and provision it and staff it, or if the existing onboard F&B offering doesn't see elevated business volume during that period, I absolutely think they're correct not to operate the second snack bar.

I also think that more routes could benefit from a vendomat like the Piedmonts already have, as a supplemental food option.

Currently Amtrak has 9 snack coaches on the roster, with 1 that seems to be out of service. As far as required services I believe they only need the 1 on the Heartland Flyer. So I would think keeping two cars dedicated to this service, as they seem to be doing now, wouldn’t be a big deal.

As for demand, with the newly expanded consist, the CCC potentially has to serve meals to over double (on 421/422 days) the sleeping car customers, in addition to cafe service to two additional coaches (now 5 on 421/422 days and 4 on the others). Even before ridership and the consist had picked back up, I have witnessed very long lines for the cafe window, even outside of the very busy STL-CHI corridor. So I don’t see how the demand wouldn’t be there.

Plus the time window these cars operate in does cover meal times.

 

[F900ElCapitan]

https://fortworthreport.org/2024/12...wwfDB8MjQxNzUxMjg2fDExNDl8MHwwfHw4MzIzMTZ8MA2

Good news from Fort Worth

 

[Cal]

Thank you for the info. Seems odd that they wouldn’t add the service, but it is Amtrak.

Considering the Eagle has it's own cafe I don't think it's necessary to have two cafes on a single train. If all the passengers were going to Bloomington-Normal too, that's not a very long trip, so no real need for a cafe.

 

[trimetbusfan]

Currently Amtrak has 9 snack coaches on the roster, with 1 that seems to be out of service. As far as required services I believe they only need the 1 on the Heartland Flyer. So I would think keeping two cars dedicated to this service, as they seem to be doing now, wouldn’t be a big deal.

As for demand, with the newly expanded consist, the CCC potentially has to serve meals to over double (on 421/422 days) the sleeping car customers, in addition to cafe service to two additional coaches (now 5 on 421/422 days and 4 on the others). Even before ridership and the consist had picked back up, I have witnessed very long lines for the cafe window, even outside of the very busy STL-CHI corridor. So I don’t see how the demand wouldn’t be there.

Plus the time window these cars operate in does cover meal times.

Not to get off topic but I’m pretty sure the Chicago to Carbondale services (Illini/Saluki) run with snack coaches for the time being since the host railroad has forced Amtrak to run superliner equipment on this route.

 

[F900ElCapitan]

Not to get off topic but I’m pretty sure the Chicago to Carbondale services (Illini/Saluki) run with snack coaches for the time being since the host railroad has forced Amtrak to run superliner equipment on this route.

Good point. So that’s 2 trainsets? So 3 cars are in required service. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Rasputin]

If I understand correctly 21(21) failed south of St. Louis and had to be towed back to St. Louis. The train was cancelled and passengers were then bused back to their poinst of origin. Corrections and additional information would be welcome.

 

[Bob Dylan]

If I understand correctly 21(21) failed south of St. Louis and had to be towed back to St. Louis. The train was cancelled and passengers were then bused back to their poinst of origin. Corrections and additional information would be welcome.

As long as Amtrak continues to run the Eagletes with 1 P-42 between Chicago and San Antonio, there will be lots of problems like this due to lack of spare engines, and the "rode hard and put up wet" condition of the P-42s!

 

[west point]

As long as Amtrak continues to run the Eagletes with 1 P-42 between Chicago and San Antonio, there will be lots of problems like this due to lack of spare engines, and the "rode hard and put up wet" condition of the P-42s!

Maybe Amtrak will decide on 2 locos eventually when consists gets back to normal? This incident just makes one note that Amtrak needs to keep a P-42 located at various locations as a spare engine once enough of the new Siemens are operating reliability.

 

[Cal]

As long as Amtrak continues to run the Eagletes with 1 P-42 between Chicago and San Antonio, there will be lots of problems like this due to lack of spare engines, and the "rode hard and put up wet" condition of the P-42s!

Still embarrassing that they have no spare power in STL despite it being a critical stop for the Eagle, and two corridor routes (one of them being pretty big).

 

[trimetbusfan]

As long as Amtrak continues to run the Eagletes with 1 P-42 between Chicago and San Antonio, there will be lots of problems like this due to lack of spare engines, and the "rode hard and put up wet" condition of the P-42s!

When I rode the Eagle last summer, they were running two P42s daily. I wonder why they stopped doing that.

 

[Bob Dylan]

When I rode the Eagle last summer, they were running two P42s daily. I wonder why they stopped doing that.

Shortage of P-42s in running condition and Poor Maintainence by the infamous Chicago Shop!

 

[Cal]

When I rode the Eagle last summer, they were running two P42s daily. I wonder why they stopped doing that.

Possibly due to a lack of engines.

 

[frequentflyer]

22 had 10 cars today through Fort Worth. Made me a little nostalgic for the old days.

 

[Bob Dylan]

22 had 10 cars today through Fort Worth. Made me a little nostalgic for the old days.

But still No Sightseer Lounge and Flex Meals served in the CCC!!!

 

[Keith1951]

Joelkfla beat me to it! Let us know how the trip goes!

Ok. Going to catch the TE in April and spend a week in LA up in Hollywood. To me the train and then LA is two vacations in one.

 

[railiner]

Ok. Going to catch the TE in April and spend a week in LA up in Hollywood. To me the train and then LA is two vacations in one.

That’s another one of Amtrak’s combined trains, in this case the Eagle from Chicago, and the Sunset from New Orleans, combining at San Antonio to Los Angeles, each carrying their own train number the whole way for reservations purposes.
One more is the Seattle and Portland sections of the Empire Builder combining in Spokane on to Chicago again carrying their own numbers for the res system.

 

[John Santos]

Ok. Going to catch the TE in April and spend a week in LA up in Hollywood. To me the train and then LA is two vacations in one.

The TE is an even more complicated case than the LSL! The Eagle runs daily to San Antonio (and the reverse), but 3 days a week, it meets up with the west-bound Sunset Limited, which left New Orleans that morning. Both the SL (train 1) and the TE (train 21) arrive in SAS in the evening and two cars (a sleeper and a coach, and maybe the cafe?) join up with the west-bound SL, which departs early the next morning for LA. When you are reserving tickets, you might see options for 1, 21 and 221, depending on which car you are riding in. Beware of split tickets (part way in 21, part way in 1, for example) because that means you'll have to change cars or rooms in the middle of the night! To make it even more confusing, during busy times of the year, the TE has an extra coach from CHI to Saint Louis, which it drops off there. This is in the ticketing system as train 421! If you are booking tickets between two points west of San Antonio, you might see two choices, either 1 or 21. These are both on the same train!

East-bound the 2/22 splits in San Antonio, with the 1 part continuing to NOL and the 22 continuing North to CHI.

The 21 arrives in SAS about 10:15 on the second night, but doesn't leave until about 4 or 5 AM. (I don't know; I've always been sound asleep!) Anyway, it's at least an hour after the 1 arrives at 2:45 AM (if on time). If the TE isn't too late, you have plenty of time to take a long walk (the River Walk is a few blocks from the station) and get a late dinner at one of the dozens of restaurants in the area. Also visit the Alamo, which will be closed, but you can see the outside! Lots of people have warned that if you don't get back to the station in time, they will make you wait outside until they start boarding the 1, in the wee hours of the morning, but this has never been an issue for me. Either I got back before they closed the train, or if they see you approaching and recognize you as a passenger, they'll let you back on. Or maybe this is one of those "It's Amtrak, Jake" situations and it entirely depends on the crew. At least once, the sleeper and coach were sitting by themselves (no engine) on the track near the station. There was power, so they must have had it plugged in to a power supply on the platform.

This is one of the fun things about Amtrak, it is always an adventure, even when things are working perfectly!

 

[zephyr17]

When you are reserving tickets, you might see options for 1, 21 and 221, depending on which car you are riding in. Beware of split tickets (part way in 21, part way in 1, for example) because that means you'll have to change cars or rooms in the middle of the night! To make it even more confusing, during busy times of the year, the TE has an extra coach from CHI to Saint Louis, which it drops off there. This is in the ticketing system as train 421! If you are booking tickets between two points west of San Antonio, you might see two choices, either 1 or 21. These are both on the same train!

The through LA cars on the Eagle/Sunset are "train number" 421/422, not 221/222.

I don't know what the St. Louis cutoff coach is when it runs, but it isn't 421/422. Someone here posted it doesn't have a separate number any more, which I find dubious because of ARROW limitations.

 

[Bob Dylan]

The through LA cars on the Eagle/Sunset are "train number" 421/422, not 221/222.

I don't know what the St. Louis cutoff coach is when it runs, but it isn't 421/422. Someone here posted it doesn't have a separate number any more, which I find dubious because of ARROW limitations.

321/322 are the STL Cut out Coach designations.