Siemens Caltrans/IDOT Venture design, engineering, testing and delivery (2024-2025)

[ryanwc]

MDoT reported at the Michigan ARP meeting that 9 of 17 Venture cafe cars are in service along with all 80 other cars.

What do the Venture cars cost anyway?

 

[GDRRiley]

What do the Venture cars cost anyway?

Initial contract was 2.7M each in Nov 2017 (371M for 137 cars) by Aug 2019 that was 2.8M (25.2M 9 cars). We haven't seen a recent order but I'd expect 3.5-4M each at this point given inflation.

 

[desertflyer]

I got to experience the new Snack Station on the San Joaquins Venture Cars last week. I had made a sandwich for the trip and forgot it at home in San Francisco. Needless to say I was absolutely starving by the time I made it to LA Union Station.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

For what it's worth, I saw San Joaquins Venture Cafe cars 9801 and 9802 on 710 at Emeryville on the 2nd. Not sure how much information is online about these cars, so I thought I'd mention it here.

 

[toddinde]

I know they’ll be a welcome and needed addition. Is the automat concept dead now, hopefully?

 

[GDRRiley]

I know they’ll be a welcome and needed addition. Is the automat concept dead now, hopefully?

No they are still going with that
And given they are looking at the Stadler flirts in short 4 car sets not sure how they'd do anything other than a vending setup without destroying capacity or increasing costs with 2 staffed cafes given trains will need to run in pairs.

 

[toddinde]

No they are still going with that
And given they are looking at the Stadler flirts in short 4 car sets not sure how they'd do anything other than a vending setup without destroying capacity or increasing costs with 2 staffed cafes given trains will need to run in pairs.

In Europe, stations are more robust and there are newsstands and cafe counters in most stations. I suppose that’s what it will be like. People will grab food and drinks in the station. Maybe news butchers will reappear. Then, somebody will have the bright idea that they could actually sell the stuff on the train, and cafe will be born again.

 

[thefirewarde]

In Europe, stations are more robust and there are newsstands and cafe counters in most stations.

If you stuck a convenience/corner store in/at most stations you might get non-transit customers, or people transferring between bus lines if it's a "mobility hub". I can see the argument but it'd be very site specific what setup makes sense where.

 

[Amtrak25]

I don't see Amtrak stations with 1 -3 trains a day supporting any business. That's why God invented vending machine (but they don't belong on trains).

 

[thefirewarde]

I don't see Amtrak stations with 1 -3 trains a day supporting any business.

Exactly. It has to be a location that has enough non-Amtrak traffic that six daily arrivals aren't carrying the whole load. If you have some foot traffic, a couple bike lanes, and several local bus lines also using the station (and maybe some community event space) then that's starting to be viable. Maybe some fast chargers in the parking lot as well as on the track.

 

[Harmon Shay]

For what it's worth, I saw San Joaquins Venture Cafe cars 9801 and 9802 on 710 at Emeryville on the 2nd. Not sure how much information is online about these cars, so I thought I'd mention it here.

I'd like to know if 9801 and 9802 are cafe cars similar to the old SP automat cars with one car per train, or two coaches per train with small numbers of vending machines at one end. I've read that documents from the board that runs the service suggest 14 coaches but this report suggests 7 cafe cars with a combination of tables and coach seats or just tables. Hate to be a pest about this but it's been hard to get a straight answer and I'm curious. Seems to be the whole San Joaquin Venture thing is mysterious.