Regional 66/67 Being Extended to NPN

[Amfleet]

As noted at Trainorders.com and confirmation with Amtrak's online reservation system, Regional train 66/67 will be extended past Washington (WAS) to Newport News (NPN). This eliminates having two extra sets of equipment for Regional train 76/77, which used to operate Washington (WAS) to Newport News (NPN) only and is now being eliminated.

 

[engine999]

Seems like a good Idea. Maybe they will bring back the twilight shoreliner when the extra equipment becomes available.

 

[Amfleet]

Official release from Amtrak.

TRAINS 66/67 RUN THROUGH TO THE TIDEWATER AGAIN
TRAINS 66/67 (FORMERLY CALLED 'THE FEDERAL'), WILL AGAIN RUN

AS ONE THROUGH TRAIN BETWEEN BOSTON AND NEWPORT NEWS.  THE

EFFECTIVE DATES ARE:

EFFECTIVE 01JUL04

TRAIN 67 ORIGINATING IN BOSTON WILL OPERATE THROUGH TO NPN.

LAST DEPARTURE OF TRAIN 77, CONNECTING FROM 67(30).

EFFECTIVE 02JUL04

TRAIN 66 ORIGINATES IN NEWPORT NEWS AND OPERATES TO BOSTON.

LOCAL TRAINS 75, 76, 77 DISCONTINUED.

TRAINS 66/67, IDENTIFIED AS REGIONAL SERVICE, WILL OFFER

RESERVED COACH, BUSINESS CLASS, AND CAFE CAR SERVICE. CHECKED

BAGGAGE WILL BE HANDLED AT BOS, PVD, NHV, NYP, PHL, AND WAS

ONLY (NO CHANGE FROM PRESENT BAGGAGE SERVICE).  NO CHECKED

BAGGAGE SOUTH OF WASHINGTON.

TRAIN 67 DAYS OF OPERATION:

TRAIN 67 OPERATES DAILY.  HOWEVER, THE TRAINS IT IS REPLACING

BETWEEN WAS AND NPN (75 AND 77) HAD SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT

TIMES IN VIRGINIA ON WEEKDAYS VS. WEEKENDS.  THIS VARIATION

WILL CONTINUE, BUT WE WILL USE THE SAME TRAIN NUMBER DAILY.

THE TRAIN STILL OPERATES EVERY DAY.

PASSENGERS ON TRAIN 66 BOARDING IN VIRGINIA MAY WANT TO

TRANSFER TO TRAIN 198 IN WASHINGTON, FOR AN EARLIER ARRIVAL

AS FAR AS NEW YORK CITY.  IF THEY DON'T WANT TO DO THIS THEY

MAY REMAIN ON BOARD TRAIN 66.  (THEY HAVE TO STAY ON TRAIN 66

IF THEY ARE GOING BEYOND NEW YORK.)

UNRESERVED TICKETS SOLD FOR TRAIN 75, 76 OR 77 WILL BE HONORED

ON TRAINS 66/67 SOUTH OF WASHINGTON, OR THEY MAY BE EXCHANGED

FOR RESERVED TICKETS IF DESIRED.

-source: AMTRAK

 

[Amfleet]

Seems like a good Idea. Maybe they will bring back the twilight shoreliner when the extra equipment becomes available.

I doubt we will ever see the Twilight Shoreliner again. However, hopefully the BOS-WAS Federal will return with a sleeper within the upcomming years.

 

[Viewliner]

Seems like a good Idea.  Maybe they will bring back the twilight shoreliner when the extra equipment becomes available.  

I doubt we will ever see the Twilight Shoreliner again. However, hopefully the BOS-WAS Federal will return with a sleeper within the upcomming years.

I think that will be a realistic goal, as it'll probably take that long to have enough Viewliners to do so. Its good to see that service returning, and I think, the sensible (and thus unlikely) thing to do is restore sleepers BOS-NPN, and run it on the Federal's schedule. I would think it would either again become the Federal, or maybe we'll have the Night Owl name resurrected.

 

[Amfleet]

Seems like a good Idea.  Maybe they will bring back the twilight shoreliner when the extra equipment becomes available.  

I doubt we will ever see the Twilight Shoreliner again. However, hopefully the BOS-WAS Federal will return with a sleeper within the upcomming years.

I think that will be a realistic goal, as it'll probably take that long to have enough Viewliners to do so. Its good to see that service returning, and I think, the sensible (and thus unlikely) thing to do is restore sleepers BOS-NPN, and run it on the Federal's schedule. I would think it would either again become the Federal, or maybe we'll have the Night Owl name resurrected.

However, I sitll think in order to get the Viewliners back on the Federal either the Cardinal will have to be re-equipped with Superliners or the Palmetto not get its Viewliner back. One reason maintenance really fell with the Viewliners was because they weren't enough on hand to do a full PM as the fleet was stretched. So even returning the Viewliners to their original trains would still stretch the fleet out.

 

[Viewliner]

I know thats the situation, what I had meant to imply was that it would take years, because in all likelihood, it wouldn't/couldn't occur until Amtrak can purchase more cars, which will probably take years to get the funding for, not to mention construction. The Palmetto should be priority over the NEC in terms of sleepers, because of the distance it's more of a need than a luxury.

 

[P40Power]

I have a feeling that some new Viewliner Sleepers may come in the next few years through the 5 year plan, I would say a good 30-35 would make the fleet plentiful enough to serve the current trains as well as re-equiping the Federal and Silver Palm and allowing some trains to take an extra sleeper during peak travel times.

Now I know the Diner situation is pretty tight too, but are the current rebuilt diners good enough to run for quite a while to come? If thats the case I think I good order of 15-20 or so Viewliner Diners to augment the current rebuilt fleet of 10-15 (I think) would be good, ya know what I think would be cool, a reinstated Federal with sleepers an a full dining car, For breakfast. Maybe a full diner is a bit overkill but it would give the train even more of first class style amentities.

I think a good order of "Amfleet III" next generation long-distance coaches are needed. I envision them to be Amfleet II like, but have the interiors more modern and upgraded from any of the faults that the current Amfleet II cars have.

As for lounge cars, himmm how about those proposed Viewliner ones with the domecar like roofs on one end - all glass, that would be neat.

Hey I can dream, lol hopefully we will at least get some new Sleepers and Diners!!

 

[AlanB]

The Palmetto should be priority over the NEC in terms of sleepers, because of the distance it's more of a need than a luxury.

I'm not sure that running an overnight sleeper between Boston & Washington should be considered a luxury. There were many business people who used to leave their offices late, check into a sleeper, grab a shower in the morning and then arrive refreshed for a meeting in the opposite city. Yes there are a few railfans, like me, who rode this train, but a far larger number of people rode it for the very reasons I outlined above.

Now those same people can no longer do that and must book an overnight hotel in the other city and are probably flying down. That's lost revenue for Amtrak. Quite a bit of revenue, since that sleeper probably had one of the highest occupancy rates within the Amtrak system.

Someone riding the Palm is far more likely to be going on vacation, not a business trip. A vacation would actually qualify as a luxury. And it’s not like there’s an extra night spent on the Palm/Palmetto, both trains have only one night.

 

[Miami Joe]

The diners are not bad cars to work on and are very well constructed.

We have the old style and the new TMI diners on the Silver Service and both have different types of maintenance problems.

What allows these cars to run so long is the design and construction from the 40's and 50's. A car was designed to last 40 years and I'll be amazed if the V/L's make it to 20! :blink:

Right now the old style cars require alot of maintenance, but we are replacing most of the appliances in the kitchen area. The cars are slowly being rebuilt during PM's and B/O maintenance, but need to be gutted and rebuilt soon at Beechgrove. It's costing big money to keep them rolling.

The TMI diners are holding up well. The cars were gutted and rebuilt, but they have unique problems too. The refrigeration systems are now inside the cars, utilize 404a refrigerant and maintenance is not to bad, but everything in the car is new. The worst problem is thay we were never given manuals to maintain the cars, so alot of defects are created by improper maintenance in the yard or it takes days to figure out how to fix the car.

Amtrak halted the TMI project, but bought unused kits for replacement parts. There were a few defects in the design(counter stools,illuminated etched glass panels), but they have been removed.

I wouldn't be suprised to see these cars run for another10 to 15 years!

Miami Joe B)

 

[P40Power]

The Heritage fleet cars to this day still look pretty modern to me, well built heavy duty cars. Budd knew how do to things right back then, and though Ive never worked on them, I think the Amfleets seem to be holding up pretty well to this day too and some of them are creeping up on 30 years old! I bet you will see Amfleets for quite a while to come as well.

I hear the Amfleet IIs have been having some problems though, but its from lack of proper maintence due to the funding problems. That causes alot of freeze up problems and such.