Special announcement from Amtrak this weekend?

[cocojacoby]

Is that really the best picture they could find? An Amfleet car under a very rusty train station canopy?

 

[TheVig]

Is that really the best picture they could find? An Amfleet car under a very rusty train station canopy?

Center For Excellence doesn’t have anyone trained in photoshop skills.

 

[joelkfla]

Is that really the best picture they could find? An Amfleet car under a very rusty train station canopy?

Maybe that's the "before" picture, and we'll be treated to the "after" picture this weekend.

From an artistic standpoint, it does have nice composition.

 

[cassie225]

I just want traditional dining back on the Crescent so I can visit my daughter in Jersey, we all got our wish list lol

 

[Rasputin]

They are going to restore the Olympian.

 

[denmarks]

I want them to announce that they are lowering all their bedroom fares and will give me a big refund for my trip next April.

 

[jis]

I suspect there are two major possibilities:

1. something to do with new equipment order, full funding or deployment.

2. Something to do with food service.

But of course we will know in a few days, won't we?

 

[PerRock]

Something to do with new equipment order, full funding or deployment.

That's a good point, there was a Youtuber who recently released a video claiming insider knowledge of a big Siemens equipment order Amtrak had placed. His source was that he had talked to 'someone at Amtrak media relations'. Most of the order was to replace the single level fleet.

peter

 

[Sidney]

A big tease by Amtrak five days ahead of the announcement better be substantial and price related.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

It might be “brightline has bought us. All cars will now be First Class. Free champagne for all adults. For all children, free coloring books with pictures of Amtrak rolling stock and free crayons to color the equipment with nice brightline neon colors. And really good free cookies for everyone.”

Or, more likely, it could be, “Our announcement has been delayed. We will announce it on a triweekly schedule on a day that does not contain a “y.”

 

[chrsjrcj]

Amtrak has already confirmed Siemens for new corridor equipment, right?

Seeing the Amfleet made me think equipment related announcement, but at this point all that is left are long distance. I’m too cynical to believe that’s the case.

 

[neroden]

How about a big announcement that they'll be publishing timetables like every other railroad in the world. No? Not expecting that either.

 

[PerRock]

Amtrak has already confirmed Siemens for new corridor equipment, right?

Seeing the Amfleet made me think equipment related announcement, but at this point all that is left are long distance. I’m too cynical to believe that’s the case.

Sort of, they announced (not considering the one, uncredited youtuber leak I mentioned earlier) the Siemens is the preffered bidder, but not that they had won any bids.

 

[Trogdor]

Equipment orders aren’t the kind of things marketing departments tease five days in advance. Those things tend to be disclosed either as soon as the ink hits the paper on the contract, or once the board votes to approve such a purchase.

And marketing/social media wouldn’t be privvy to the details of contracts before they’re signed.

 

[Cal]

Is that really the best picture they could find? An Amfleet car under a very rusty train station canopy?

They use any and all pictures posted by people on Instagram, which is a good thing imho. Interacting with riders and railfans.

 

[Exvalley]

It's odd to me that they would drop this on the weekend after a major holiday. That suggests to me that it is more leisure focused than business focused. Going by the picture, I am going to say that the announcement will be the restoration of traditional dining to eastern US trains.

But their stunt is working. They have us all talking about it.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

It's odd to me that they would drop this on the weekend after a major holiday. That suggests to me that it is more leisure focused than business focused. Going by the picture, I am going to say that the announcement will be the restoration of traditional dining to eastern US trains.

But their stunt is working. They have us all talking about it.

But cyber Monday is after the weekend. And don’t we all buy our tickets online?

 

[me_little_me]

Bringing back smoking on the train?
Cafe car will now accept food stamps, in order to further bolster equity on the rails?
Partnership with Greyhound?
Troublemakers will be forced to do community service by cleaning Amfleet plumbing systems?
Catering and dining car services will be contracted out to VIA Rail?
All sleeper rooms will have individual cooling/heating units?
Trump will be named CEO?

Anybody’s guess is just as good as the next.

A man after my own heart.

I have a few more:

Amtrak executives will publicly announce their ignorance and incompetence at a public session. Each executive will donate the equivalent of their entire salary of the past 5 years to the RPA and will personally assume the responsibility for cleaning all coach restrooms on December 15 and each subsequent day until every car restroom in the inventory has received at least one cleaning..

Amtrak guarantees that if you take a long distance train during the month of January, you will find an executive riding from end to and, listing all the deficiencies found and interviewing not less than 100 coach and sleeper passengers to get their input on the quality of service.

Amtrak will announce their new, high quality web site and the replacement for Arrow which will be released without a single bug by January 1.

Amtrak executives will live in roomettes on board a stored superliner car from this weekend until the last superliner car stored since Covid began has been returned to full service and all VL2 sleepers are put to use.

Only flex food will be served in the executive dining room and at Board meetings for one year.

Amtrak executives will each ride every superliner train and, until all SSLs are restored, only sleep in the SSL car or the baggage car which means those trains that don't have an SSL will have no place for the executive to sleep other than the baggage car.

Once the penalty phase for freight-caused delays begins, Amtrak Chargers will each pull a disabled P42 engine at the rear end of their train and drop it off behind them at a single-track location every time an Amtrak train is delayed due to freight interference.

Have I missed anything?

 

[me_little_me]

Is that really the best picture they could find? An Amfleet car under a very rusty train station canopy?

So appropriate.

 

[Cal]

Only flex food will be served in the executive dining room and at Board meetings for one year.

We’ll that’d be a death sentence with all the sodium! Or is that your plan….

 

[MARC Rider]

It might be “brightline has bought us. All cars will now be First Class. Free champagne for all adults. For all children, free coloring books with pictures of Amtrak rolling stock and free crayons to color the equipment with nice brightline neon colors. And really good free cookies for everyone.”

There's a widespread belief in some places that all that's needed to increase the ridership and relevance of passenger rail are more luxuries and perks. Personally, I'd like to see more of:

More trains that operate at convenient schedules and competitive speeds with consistently good timekeeping. (i.e., they run on schedule)
Trains in tip-top mechanical condition so that the trip is not rudely interrupted by equipment failure
Staff who are efficient and helpful (most staff are already, but there are some big exceptions.)
Seating and accommodations that are reasonably comfortable. (Someone needs to replace those hard prison mattresses currently installed in the Viewliner I upper level berths.)
Consistently clean restrooms.
Trains that run on time. (I think I already said that, but it bears repeating.)
Safe operations (derailments and crashes, in addition to putting us at risk for personal harm, also mess up the timekeeping.)

While the food service could definitely be improved, it's really not necessary for me to have 5-star gourmet food as part of a 5 - 45 hour train trip. I can get that at a 5-star restaurant at my destination.

 

[Sidney]

We’ll that’d be a death sentence with all the sodium! Or is that your plan….

I always wondered if Richard Anderson ever rode a long distance train for an overnight and ever had the flex food he enthusiastically proclaimed as the new improved dining experience? My guess is no and no.

 

[Tlcooper44]

I suspect there are two major possibilities:

1. something to do with new equipment order, full funding or deployment.

2. Something to do with food service.

But of course we will know in a few days, won't we?

Man I hope you're right.

Given my conversations with various OBS workers, and the chatter over the past 10 months, I actually think a return to some semblance of traditional dining on eastern trains is actually possible.

 

[87YJ]

They are building "new" Pacific parlor cars for the Coast Starlight!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

There's a widespread belief in some places that all that's needed to increase the ridership and relevance of passenger rail are more luxuries and perks. Personally, I'd like to see more of:

More trains that operate at convenient schedules and competitive speeds with consistently good timekeeping. (i.e., they run on schedule)
Trains in tip-top mechanical condition so that the trip is not rudely interrupted by equipment failure
Staff who are efficient and helpful (most staff are already, but there are some big exceptions.)
Seating and accommodations that are reasonably comfortable. (Someone needs to replace those hard prison mattresses currently installed in the Viewliner I upper level berths.)
Consistently clean restrooms.
Trains that run on time. (I think I already said that, but it bears repeating.)
Safe operations (derailments and crashes, in addition to putting us at risk for personal harm, also mess up the timekeeping.)

While the food service could definitely be improved, it's really not necessary for me to have 5-star gourmet food as part of a 5 - 45 hour train trip. I can get that at a 5-star restaurant at my destination.

I heartily agree with absolutely everything you say here. I was just being goofy and having some fun with the brightline comments —everything you mention here is much more important than luxury perks.