So, we're soon (e.g. in a month or two) going to have enough V2s to reinstate a diner on the LSL. Once that happens, what is the plan for the remaining diners? Amtrak is taking delivery of 25 diners, but as of right now only 11 plus protect/shop covers are needed, giving probably 8-11 (if we include 8400) "spares".
Remember near the dawn of time when the announced plan was for CAF to build baggage cars on one production line and on the other one to assemble the diners, the bag/dorms, and then sleepers? The plan changed to first build all the baggage cars a.s.a.p. using both lines.
Now we all probably assume CAF and Amtrak will continue producing two cars a month using both lines even as production shifts to bag/dorms and then sleepers.
So in about 2 or 3 months, Amtrak may have about enuff diners for today's demand. I'd cut back on diners to produce one a month, on one line. And on the other line start up bag/dorms. In other words, bring forward half a dozen bag/dorms that will immediately produce revenue, while postponing an equal number of what may be surplus and excess diners.
This move would to some extent postpone the decisions on what to do with a handful of surplus and excess diners. It allows other ideas to percolate while the facts on the ground may shift, for better or worse. For example, one political possibility is that if the Trillion dollar tax gut bill passes, it will be followed by massive spending cuts, including a deadly whack at Amtrak. On the other hand, after the Congressional election in November 2018, appropriations could increase substantially.
On another front, currently, and next year and the next, Amtrak has no spare single-level coaches to use for anything new or different. But when the [Nippon Sharyo] Siemens order starts to deliver 137 new cars, mostly to the Midwest, some 70 - 90 Horizon cars could cascade to other routes.
Again, depending on the election returns next year, a massive order could be placed to replace , and possibly to expand, the current flee of Eastern trains. So at some point it could be possible to add a revived "Broadway Ltd", to extend a branch off the Crescent to Dallas, and so forth.
If replacing the fleet is only possible in a half-funded, half-assed way, which we might expect of Congress, so that only added single-level cars are available soonish, but no new bi-levels, then switching the Capitol Ltd. to single-level equipment would free up Superliners to augment the Western fleet; likewise with the City of New Orleans. But to make such equipment changes, Amtrak would need more Viewliner diners. In that case, once enuff coaches are available, the surplus and excess of diners we fear now would be put to good use.
O.K. Enuff thinking big picture.
With a potential surplus of diners, could they be added to existing day trains? Without sleeping car revenues to offset the diner losses, it could reveal awkward numbers, or not. But are we sure there would be losses if the Palmetto or Carolinian, or the Pennsylvanian, or the Maple Leaf or Adirondack offered sit-down, table dining? Yeah, I know, you can grab a breakfast in Penn Station, but I'd gladly pay another $10 or maybe $20 to sleep 20 minutes later and eat breakfast at leisure onboard. Or maybe any dining car losses could be hidden by including meals in a business class fare.
Or try two diners on the Meteor, maybe one full kitchen and one and a half cars of tables, with the other kitchen operating diner lite or as a lounge, with mostly snacks and sandwiches to take back to your seat. (Eliminating only one chef's position saves over $600,000 a year on the City of New Orleans.)
Last but not least, if it becomes clear that five or six diners really are surplus and excess, well, the Viewliners are supposed to be modular. So write them off as a loss -- folded in with the larger CAF loss who will know or care? -- and blame it all on Boardman. LOL. Then rip out the kitchen and table modules, and insert roomette modules to make new sleepers at a bargain price. I'm sure Amtrak can find a way to add another sleeper to one of the Eastern trains.