What's the current status of the Veiwliner II production?
All baggage cars have been delivered, right?
Two (?) diners have been delivered, right? Out of an order of how many?
What's the status of sleepers? What's the timeframe for delivery of those?
Are we there yet? :giggle:
Not quite.
Yes, 70 baggage cars have been delivered and "almost all" the Heritage bag cars replaced. Three diners so far, one in December, and two more in April, iirc. More are on the way -- this year, maybe this summer, maybe next month, out of the 25 ordered.
Presumably the 10 bag-dorms will be next, followed by 25 Viewliner II sleepers.
The total order was for 130 cars, with an option for 70 more. Unless we can think of a good reason why Amtrak now needs less equipment than it figured in 2010 when placed the order, the Viewliner II fleet will be short by about 70 cars.
Indeed, according to Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewliner
Amtrak's original intention in the 1980s was to order 500–600 new cars, of which 100 would be sleepers and the rest coaches, diners, and lounges.
Amtrak today has 25 Viewliner I sleepers, to be joined by 25 Viewliner II sleepers, (and ten bag-dorms, equivalent to 5 more sleepers), perhaps as soon as next year. The 25 new sleepers (plus the bag-dorms) will improve capacity on all single-level trains by adding one more sleeper to each train set. At that point, the sleeper fleet for the Eastern LD trains will be barely half of the perceived need in the early 1980s, despite the massive increase in ridership since then.
Tho the option has probably expired, there could still be time to place another order with CAF before the production line shuts down and the expensively trained workforce is dissipated. But with Congress gone crazy ...
Hope there isn't a wall to block her reentry. 
