September Surprise from Amtrak

[edding]

I know it's an un-realistic dream, but : Return real train service to Phoenix/Tempe!! Please!!!

 

[afigg]

If e-ticketing and WiFi are already ruled out, there are only 3 possibilities:

-8400 launch

-Great Dome

-Resumption of Michigan service to normal schedule

The 8400 diner entering service is a possibility although it is not much of a "surprise". On the other hand, the Great Dome shows up on the Adirondack every year. I don't see getting the Wolverine service back on schedule because of track repairs qualifying for anything more than a press release.

The announcement might still be Wi-Fi for the NE trains depending on what the wording was in the posts.

If Amtrak were to announce that the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle and the Cardinal were both going to daily service in October, that would qualify as a big surprise. Besides the Pennsylvanian getting sleepers to connect to the Capitol Limited, any other new services over existing routes that could be added with the equipment available? Such as Minnesota & Amtrak agreeing to support a second daily Chicago to Twin Cities train?

 

[afigg]

I hear that It's in the final stages. I think that they just need to get CSX and the Buckingham Branch to work out the logistics. That is where the problem is. Not equipment, at this point.

They really need to make the Cardinal more profitable, and I think that the belief at Amtrak is simply, that the Cardinal must be a daily train.

I don't see that as a surprise, since it was already announced. That is not too big of a deal at this point. I don't really see how would that be a surprise?

The Cardinal going to daily service was never announced, it was just a recommendation and proposed plan in a PRIIA report that most Amtrak passenger have never heard of. That Congressman Rahall of WV, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure which oversees Amtrak, has repeatedly called for daily Cardinal service to WV is not a small consideration. Amtrak should get some political points with him and the 2 WV Senators with daily Cardinal service.

Oh well, we'll find out in the next several weeks what the "surprise" is. Odds are, that it won't be much of a surprise or that big a deal.

 

[MattW]

Might be the announcement of the Acela II.

Maybe they're going to make Atlanta a new system hub with routes into South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama with LD routes as far as Chicago, Knoxville (Lynchburger to Boston/Springfield), New Orleans on the old Crescent route, Wilmington, NC via Augusta and Columbia, and down to Miami using FEC trackage.

 

[Trogdor]

I can guarantee that no currently non-daily train will be going daily this year.

It would take at least six months from go-ahead to hire and qualify enough crews to increase service. Then there's still that little deal that the host railroads have not approved such (and aren't anywhere close to approving such, either).

The Pennsylvanian-Capitol Limited through cars will not be implemented until after the completion of the CSX tunnel project, which will last until about this time next year.

No new routes or reroutes are close to happening, either.

That said, I have no idea what this facebook "surprise" is all about. Given that it's from marketing, it's either something you already know about (the dome car schedule, for example) or something boring like a big discount fare sale. It ain't gonna be anything to do with frequency increases, reroutes, or anything of the sort (not if the surprise is going to happen any time soon, that is).

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

Amtrak broke even on operations for July!?! Maybe, possibly, with all the disruptions and craziness going on, something crazy happened with their finances in a good way.

 

[stntylr]

I'm guessing that it's another big discount on travel on the NEC. They seem to think that's the greatest thing around.

Either that or a free Amtrak softball cap for the first person to successfully complete the CZ route from Emoryville to Chicago.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I have it on good word that Amtrak and the US Post Office will be announcing a partnership to fill up their baggage cars with bulk rate mail.

 

[Anderson]

Well, is it possible that the "surprise" will be an announcement of something coming up later (i.e. something that won't happen until spring)? And I thought 8400 was in service already on the LSL?

 

[stntylr]

Since the surprise is from the marketing department I'm guessing some kind of travel discount.

It might even include areas other than the NEC.

Such as.....

Drink Pepsi!

One dollar off your Amtrak ticket for every pound of Pepsi cans brought to your local ticket office.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Since the surprise is from the marketing department I'm guessing some kind of travel discount.

It might even include areas other than the NEC.

Such as.....

Drink Pepsi!

One dollar off your Amtrak ticket for every pound of Pepsi cans brought to your local ticket office.

Noooooooo! Oh, wait, can they be full cans? (Coke drinker here) :giggle:

 

[Ryan]

Well, is it possible that the "surprise" will be an announcement of something coming up later (i.e. something that won't happen until spring)?

Absolutely.

I don't know why track work near Cumberland would prevent a through car from the Cap that gets cut off at PGH. If anything, it provides a little more flexibility for travelers that currently go north from WAS. Anyone heading to a NEC destination can be routed via PHL instead of put on a bus if a train misses the window.

 

[Trogdor]

I don't know why track work near Cumberland would prevent a through car from the Cap that gets cut off at PGH.

Because the switching required would take time (even if only a few minutes), and there's no way anyone would permit something that could further delay a train that's racing to make a cutoff window.

 

[jis]

Well, is it possible that the "surprise" will be an announcement of something coming up later (i.e. something that won't happen until spring)?

Absolutely.

I don't know why track work near Cumberland would prevent a through car from the Cap that gets cut off at PGH. If anything, it provides a little more flexibility for travelers that currently go north from WAS. Anyone heading to a NEC destination can be routed via PHL instead of put on a bus if a train misses the window.

There is the pesky problem of the absence of a crossover track that needs to be in place at the west end of PGH station as spelled out clearly in the relevant PIP, that denizens here are forgetting about. Amtrak and NS both have said that they expect to have the crossover in place by next year. So I would be immensely surprised if anything happens in the area of through cars from the Pennsy to the Cap this year.

 

[Ryan]

No, I haven't forgotten about the crossover track - someone mentioned in a thread here recently that they had conceived a method of doing the switching without it in place.

As far as "racing to make a cutoff window", that decision is made at Cleveland. The few minutes extra only comes into play in the narrow case where the train just barely makes the cutoff at CLE by whatever amount of time the switching takes and would only delay the start of work by the few minutes that it takes. Can't see that being a huge issue.

 

[the_traveler]

I think Amtrak is going to announce that they are converting to an inter-city bus service (dba Amroad) as of October 1.

No, because "Amroad" was already used in the movie "Silver Streak", and they got tired of throwing the same passenger (Gene Wilder) off the train over and over!

And don't forget the arrival in Chicago!

They got tired of having to rebuild the station after every arrival!

 

[PRR 60]

I think Amtrak is going to announce that they are converting to an inter-city bus service (dba Amroad) as of October 1.

No, because "Amroad" was already used in the movie "Silver Streak", and they got tired of throwing the same passenger (Gene Wilder) off the train over and over!

And don't forget the arrival in Chicago!

They got tired of having to rebuild the station after every arrival!

Someone actually insisted to me that the ending scene of Silver Streak was real: that they intentionally ran a train into the station, then repaired the station after the scene was shot. They were serious. I nodded my head in mock agreement. There is no arguing with logic like that.

 

[dlagrua]

Its been mentioned earlier in this post. Amtrak is offering a 50% bonus on travel points purchased in Sept 2011. Since an Amtrak guest rewards card was used for the purchase,I purchased 5,000 +2500 +137 points for $137.50 this morning. Since sleepers have risen in cost ( and no longer open at low bucket) the option to purchase points really helps.

 

[Ryan]

That's nice, but it isn't the September Surprise (and it isn't 100% factual - low bucket sleepers are still out there).

 

[abcnews]

I don't know why track work near Cumberland would prevent a through car from the Cap that gets cut off at PGH.

Because the switching required would take time (even if only a few minutes), and there's no way anyone would permit something that could further delay a train that's racing to make a cutoff window.

How long does it take to disconnect a car off the rear of the train? The Capital Limited could actually pull away - without any delay at all, simply by dropping the Viewliner in the station - as long as that track is blocked and protected. And then, once the Capital Limited is well out of sight, the empty Pennsylvanian would pull into the station (or back into the station) and hook up to the Viewliner. It's only one car - thats all. No other switching is required.

 

[Ryan]

You wouldn't be able to put the VL on the back unless you started running with 2 trans dorms. Or put the bag on the back, but then you'd be dropping it with the VL. Unless you put the bag between the transdorm and the VL, then you'd have to walk through the bag to get between the VL and the rest of the train, and that ain't happening.

 

[PRR 60]

You wouldn't be able to put the VL on the back unless you started running with 2 trans dorms. Or put the bag on the back, but then you'd be dropping it with the VL. Unless you put the bag between the transdorm and the VL, then you'd have to walk through the bag to get between the VL and the rest of the train, and that ain't happening.

I get the sense that the idea of transferring a Viewliner sleeper between the Pennsylvanian and the Capitol Limited was the brainstorm of the marketing people, and that they neglected to consult the operations people before made the plan public. That kind of communications, or lack of same, is quite common at Amtrak. One silo often has no clue what the next silo is doing.

Now, if they took a sleeper, coach and a food service car from the Pennsylvanian and tacked it on the end of the Capitol simply as a means of getting the cars and passengers from PGH to CHI, then operationally, that would work. The Pennsylvanian passengers would not need access to the Capitol consist. Whether that would be a nice thing for the passengers is debatable.

 

[dlagrua]

That's nice, but it isn't the September Surprise (and it isn't 100% factual - low bucket sleepers are still out there).

I don't know how the bucket pricing structure has changed but I can relate an actual experience. Last month we decided to book an AutoTrain trip to Florida in May of 2012. Used Amsnag to check prices for the month.(Thanks again to the creator) The planned booking was 10 months out at that point. The bedrooms were going for (IIRC) $586 so we booked using points. Low bucket fare is somewhere around $290-$350 for a bedroom on this train. Try Amsnag at the 11 month out booking point and I believe that you will find the same pricing. I will agree that low bucket fares are still available but its now pot luck as to how you can get them.

Perhaps the 50% bonus points is not the Amtrak surprise so lets wait it out and look for a further announcemnt. Amtrak ticket revenue is up of late so they have a few extra bucks to play with so who knows what they have in mind?

 

[jis]

You wouldn't be able to put the VL on the back unless you started running with 2 trans dorms. Or put the bag on the back, but then you'd be dropping it with the VL. Unless you put the bag between the transdorm and the VL, then you'd have to walk through the bag to get between the VL and the rest of the train, and that ain't happening.

I get the sense that the idea of transferring a Viewliner sleeper between the Pennsylvanian and the Capitol Limited was the brainstorm of the marketing people, and that they neglected to consult the operations people before made the plan public. That kind of communications, or lack of same, is quite common at Amtrak. One silo often has no clue what the next silo is doing.

Now, if they took a sleeper, coach and a food service car from the Pennsylvanian and tacked it on the end of the Capitol simply as a means of getting the cars and passengers from PGH to CHI, then operationally, that would work. The Pennsylvanian passengers would not need access to the Capitol consist. Whether that would be a nice thing for the passengers is debatable.

Please do read the PIP before passing judgement like above. In addition to the PIP, having talked to several folks at Amtrak including the guy who manages the whole thing, I know for a fact that it was discussed with ops people and it was determined that it cannot be done efficiently without putting in a crossover at the west end of the station. Too bad that even folks here who have read the PIP have chosen to forget that part, and are going on and on about something that cannot be done this year.

The Chicago section is slated to be placed between the bag and the Transdorm in the Cap. It is also stated explicitly in the PIP that the goal is to give the NY section folks access to the Superliner section of the train between PGH and CHI. That is why a crossover to a siding to keep them in is required at the west end of the station.

It is indeed true that without the crossovers they will have to flip the train, i.e. place the Transdorm and the bag in the back of the train to sort of be able to do it. But they had decided against that, for various logistical reasons.

 

[Trogdor]

As far as "racing to make a cutoff window", that decision is made at Cleveland. The few minutes extra only comes into play in the narrow case where the train just barely makes the cutoff at CLE by whatever amount of time the switching takes and would only delay the start of work by the few minutes that it takes. Can't see that being a huge issue.

The decision is made at Cleveland on the basis of there not being any switching done in Pittsburgh. If there were through cars in Pittsburgh, the "Cleveland cutoff" time would either not be there (i.e. a Pittsburgh cutoff instead of a Cleveland cutoff), or an earlier time would be specified at Cleveland.

There's a little bit more involved in cutting a car than just opening the coupler and pulling away. You have to set handbrakes on the cars being cut, you have to shut off the HEP, you have to disconnect the HEP cables and the air hoses, separate the train, close the HEP loops, do an air test, etc. All that is on top of the normal station work (i.e. letting passengers off and on the train).