I haven't studied them to have a meaningful opinion. My consideration's would be which one could deliver the best product in the shortest time, at the least cost. Not asking for much, eh?
Those cars are married together in a set. Due to this, there would be a limiting factor for what you could order. It would be a waste to order, say, a full 8-car set for the Pere Marquette just because they're in a joined set. You'd have to split the order in two, one for high-use routes, and one for medium-use routes. I feel like this would be harder for them to do than to just order single coaches that can couple together in a consist based on demand of the route.
If I didn't have to do the formalized government style procurement process where the sore losers can sue in court and possibly win, and assuming the price difference between the vendors wasn't ridiculously great, I'd probably go with the Siemens as a sole-source, as they're already making them for the Midwest corridors (in fact, they've delivered some, I think). They have the assembly line up and running, the design is already FRA approved, it would allow consistency in the fleet, so in a pinch they could swap cars between the northeast and the midwest. (NOTE: I have absolutely NO financial interest in Siemens, or Alstom or Stadler, for that matter.)
The Siemens Venture rolling stock currently in production will be owned by the states that operate the routes they will be used on, so you will never see them transferred to other parts of the country, like the Northeast. In fact, the rolling stock that the RFP mentioned in the title of this tread was issued for would be used to replace the rolling stock on northeastern trains and presumably single-level long distance trains, as well as the Cascades trains that have moved away from Talgo's due to their safety flaws.
Actually, the equipment for Cascades will be purchased by some combination of Washington and Oregon and it will be an add on order to the base Amtrak order for Amfleet I replacement. I presume that Amfleet II replacement will also use the options on the base order sometime in the future. The 2019 Appropriation has $100 million to get the ball rolling on the Amfleet I replacement order.
Siemens designs its equipment to be shells that the buyer can customize them in whatever way they want, within reason. The structure of the car doesn't change just because the interior arrangement does. What would be different would be if Amtrak wanted more single level sleepers or a Superliner replacement.
This.
Birch trees... then more birch trees. Really, there's more to see but for most of the passengers the show is inside the train.
That looks exactly like what is called "2 Tier Sleeper" in India. In addition to that, for those that want to spend even less, there is a 3 Tier Sleeper, which is the most popular form of sleeping accommodation in India. In the fully AC trains there is a ratio of something like 1 AC First Class (compartments) to 5 2 Tier Sleeper to 12 3 Tier Sleeper, or something like that.
None can stop anyone from wondering stranger and stranger scenarios, but based on what we know at present, this won't happen. Cascade order placed by state of Washington and/or Oregon will be a tag on order to Amtrak's Amfleet replacement order (they have pretty much said so already) and hence will be from the same vendor. Neither Washington nor Oregon DOT have any stomach for any further equipment misadventures on their own.
The standard Russian equivalent of a four-person couchette is a "coupe" and that worked fine for a three-night trip. On one night I was alone in the compartment and on one night there were three other passengers. I had talked with several experienced Russian train travelers and their suggestion was that a single traveler was best off in a coupe. In a 1st Class room you might not like the other passenger and be stuck with them. In the open section berth sleepers there might be a party going on all night on some runs -- great if you're under 30. Or just the usual disturbances of people coming and going. In the coupe compartment I was only listening to one person at a time, so it made conversation in Russian easier.
Why? Other than a private company in Florida, and NC tagging on with Amtrak, none are expected to order anything from them.
