The End of an Era

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Ryan

Ryan

Court Jester
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Apr 14, 2008
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18,051
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Off looking for his sense of humor
On 7 January 1830, the Baltimore and Ohio started the nation's first scheduled passenger service using a set of horse drawn passenger cars in Southwest Baltimore. Steam replaced the horses, and diesel locomotives replaced the steam. That legacy has continued unbroken by the B&O's predecessors with the last holdout being the CSX operated MARC Brunswick and Camden Lines.

Until today.

Today marks the final passenger trains operated by CSX, who has wanted to get out of the business for some time. Monday morning the trains will still run on both lines, but be operated by Bombardier, but a 183 year history of passenger train operation by a single company will come to a close at 8:55 PM this evening when MARC train 856 pulls into Camden Station.

Pictures to follow....
 
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The mention of Bombardier in this context makes me wonder if the likes of FEC may be talking to Bombardier regarding a potential Design, Build, Maintain and Operate deal for the rolling stock and service on the Miami - Orlando service. Just wondering aloud.

(null)
 
Jis: That makes a lot of sense. It would also make even more sense if the FEC seriously expects a commuter contract from Tri-Rail (since I suspect FEC will want to deal with a single operator for the two services).
 
Ryan said:
Monday morning the trains will still run on both lines, but be operated by Bombardier, but a 183 year history of passenger train operation by a single company will come to a close at 8:55 PM this evening when MARC train 856 pulls into Camden Station.
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Nice info and nice photos...but this is one of those trivia notes that only a railfan would appreciate. (Unless Bombardier screws

things up royally, of course.)
 
I wasn't aware that CSX had still operated the MARC trains. I am surprised that MARC doesn't want to operate their own trains like some other agencies do. Does Amtrak operate the NEC line MARC trains? Who operates the Virginia Railway Express trains?

So how many other 'legacy' railroads still operate the commuter trains over their own rails under contract? BN? UP? Doesn't Metra operate some of their commuter trains and contract out others? It all gets complicated. Now added to the mix are outside contractor's like Bombardier, Veolia, etc....
 
First, Ryan - nice avatar! :)

Second, I didn't realize Bombardier was taking over. Sad. :( At least the trains on the Camden line still operate over a small portion of that 1830 roadbed. ^_^

Third, I think jis is probably not far off the mark. Bombardier, Talgo, and others offer these services. It would not surprise me. ;)
 
Amtrak has actually lost many many commuter contracts over the last decade, and very few of them have been totally disastrous. Given Amtrak's attitude towards its customers in that space, my prediction is that they will continue to perform poorly in terms of retaining commuter contracts. On the whole that may not be a bad thing, since rightfully Amtrak should concentrate on running their core business, which is intercity passenger rail. They could do things better than they do in the space that is their primary responsibility. they should focus on that and get rid of other activities that distract them from it.
 
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Ryan said:
VRE seems to be doing quite well under their new operators. The level of communications that they maintain with riders is pretty fantastic.
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Take the May, 2013 copy of their newsletter "Ride VRE" as an example.

From the newsletter:

Getting you to your destination safely and on time are VRE’s main goals each day. VRE and our partners strive to achieve

a high percentage of on time arrivals because we want to provide you with consistency you can rely upon. For over a year now

more than 90% of all trains were on time; regardless of weather or other factors beyond our control.

Last month our on time performance was 98%, the third month in the past year that we achieved this lofty level.

Many of you long time riders will recall that it wasn’t always this way. Back when on time performance was not as good as we would have liked, we initiated several steps for improvement.
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At the end of the day though even though Amtrak may not provide T&E or Mechanical for a large number of commuter agencies there is still a relationship with nearly every agency. In the NEC Amtrak has to have working relationships with VRE, MARC, SEPTA, NJT, SLE, and MBTA because all of them operate over tracks owned and dispatched by Amtrak. In the case of MARC and SLE Amtrak T&E are operating the service as well. But even outside of the NEC Amtrak has to work with agencies like Metra, Tri-Rail, Metrolink, and Sounder because of operating on agency owned tracks or sharing stations.
 
jis said:
The mention of Bombardier in this context makes me wonder if the likes of FEC may be talking to Bombardier regarding a potential Design, Build, Maintain and Operate deal for the rolling stock and service on the Miami - Orlando service. Just wondering aloud.
(null)
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I'm not quite sure why Bombardier should want to move in and become an operator.

Seeing Bombardier's customers are all operators, such a move will effectively make Bombardier a direct competitor of its own customers as operating contracts come up for renewal.

That could lead to some customers distrusting them.
 
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railiner said:
I wasn't aware that CSX had still operated the MARC trains. I am surprised that MARC doesn't want to operate their own trains like some other agencies do. Does Amtrak operate the NEC line MARC trains? Who operates the Virginia Railway Express trains?So how many other 'legacy' railroads still operate the commuter trains over their own rails under contract? BN? UP? Doesn't Metra operate some of their commuter trains and contract out others? It all gets complicated. Now added to the mix are outside contractor's like Bombardier, Veolia, etc....
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I believe some Metra services are operated by BNSF.
 
cirdan said:
railiner said:
I wasn't aware that CSX had still operated the MARC trains. I am surprised that MARC doesn't want to operate their own trains like some other agencies do. Does Amtrak operate the NEC line MARC trains? Who operates the Virginia Railway Express trains?So how many other 'legacy' railroads still operate the commuter trains over their own rails under contract? BN? UP? Doesn't Metra operate some of their commuter trains and contract out others? It all gets complicated. Now added to the mix are outside contractor's like Bombardier, Veolia, etc....
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I believe some Metra services are operated by BNSF.
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BN operates the line to Aurora and UP operates the UP West, North and Northwest lines under contract with Metra. The crews, maintenance staffs and even ticket clerks are UP and BNSF employees. Metra employees operate the other commuter lines which are either directly owned by Metra (Electric, Rock Island and Milwaukee) or run under trackage rights (Heritage Corridor, North Central, both with CN) or lease (Southwest Service, from NS).

I believe BNSF operates the Northstar commuter line in Minnesota.
 
In addition to everything MikefromCrete said, I believe BNSF also operates Sounder in Seattle.

So CSX, NS, KCS, and CN operate no more passenger trains. CP operates one GO Transit line and one tourist train. UP operates the three lines in Chicago under the Metra contract and the occasional tourist train. BNSF operates three lines in different parts of the country, two of which are fairly new, and is the only Class I which has started running new passenger operations since the 1980s.
 
jis said:
On the whole that may not be a bad thing, since rightfully Amtrak should concentrate on running their core business, which is intercity passenger rail. They could do things better than they do in the space that is their primary responsibility. they should focus on that and get rid of other activities that distract them from it.
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Unless there are synergies bewteen commuter operations and Amtrak's core system, such that losing those contracts may be driving up costs elsewhere through loss of these synergies (maybe in terms of procurement, holding of spare equipment, joint maintenance and staffing facilities, etc).

This is one of the reasons that operating costs in the UK shot up so much after privatisation.
 

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