Viewliner II Part 3: Bag/Dorm Car Production, Delivery, Speculation

[cocojacoby]

I should add that I suspect one room may become the conductor's office, to empty out lounge car space...

God I hope so. It's not very customer friendly having an entire table taken up by the paperwork and personal items of the crew.

 

[brianpmcdonnell17]

There was a bag dorm in addition to two standard sleepers on the eastbound Cardinal leaving Chicago tonight. That route could be an effective use for them since there are few stations with baggage service and it often has only a single sleeper.

 

[Thirdrail7]

The last two will emerge and should be in their usual locations on the usual days next week.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Next step figure out what to do with them. Only 10 railcars.

 

[Thirdrail7]

Next step figure out what to do with them. Only 10 railcars.

My guess is based upon their desire to tinker with the Silver Meteor. If they go through with it, you'll only need three for the Meteor, two for the Pigeon and four cars will go into the Crescent. That leaves one for a protect. That is hardly ideal but it is a possibility.

Maybe they'll just use them as axle cars.

 

[toddinde]

Because instead of, say, promulgating a rule that "there must be X portion of disability-accessable rooms", the rule is "there must be at least one per car". Now, I suspect that Amtrak could probably defend selling space in the bag-dorm on a theoretical train with four full Viewliner sleepers on the grounds that said train would, in fact, have more accessible rooms than any other overnight Amtrak train (save for the Auto Train)...but that would basically involve defending an attack on the regulations in question.

Now, I'm not saying that doing so would be impossible...but seeing all of the effort done to provide an accessible booth in the Viewliner diners so that, quite literally, one room can access the diner (a wheelchair can't make it from any sleeper but the 10 sleeper because of the corners) and given the overarching history of Amtrak's dubious compliance at times, I'm not sure how that would go.

If Amtrak did want to push that envelope, my guess is that they'd let some space out for a few days at a go during the major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas) and simply not make a big deal about it. If they did that, I think there's a decent chance it would be at least a year or two before anyone with standing would notice and Amtrak could probably hide under cover of a booking system "error".

Playing that kind of game gets people fired, fined or face criminal charges. I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to do it, and nobody is going to be dumb enough to lie to regulators to cover it up. That’s a serious federal crime. More likely, somebody would report it to the IG immediately.

 

[Anderson]

Meteor uses 4 trains set, since you stated 3 train set and a desire to change it. One thinks we’re going back to a schedule that permits a same day turn around in NYC.

Now off to the schedule website to find out when that last occurs and what a same day turn looks like for connects, and major stops.

My guess would be three for the LSL (pick your section), two for the Cardinal, and four for the Meteor. That's nine, presumably with one shop/protect in New York.

 

[jis]

If the rumblings turn out to be true it will be three for the Meteor.

 

[neroden]

If the rumblings turn out to be true it will be three for the Meteor.

OK, how are they planning to run the Meteor with three trainsets? Doesn't appear to be possible based on the timetable. They already know that the traffic is largely from NYC (from previous experience with the Cardinal) and there aren't enough NE Regionals to take the traffic from NYC to DC, so they can't cut it back to DC. What else is there to cut? Could cut to Orlando if Brightline opened, but that'll be years from now.

 

[Thirdrail7]

OK, how are they planning to run the Meteor with three trainsets? Doesn't appear to be possible based on the timetable.

From earlier in the thread:

My guess is based upon their desire to tinker with the Silver Meteor. If they go through with it, you'll only need three for the Meteor, two for the Pigeon and four cars will go into the Crescent. That leaves one for a protect. That is hardly ideal but it is a possibility.

Maybe they'll just use them as axle cars.

A thread-jacking conversation ensued and PennyK wisely moved it to its own thread:

Possible Schedule Change to SB Silver Meteor - train 97

 

[jis]

OK, how are they planning to run the Meteor with three trainsets? Doesn't appear to be possible based on the timetable. They already know that the traffic is largely from NYC (from previous experience with the Cardinal) and there aren't enough NE Regionals to take the traffic from NYC to DC, so they can't cut it back to DC. What else is there to cut? Could cut to Orlando if Brightline opened, but that'll be years from now.

If the Meteor departs NY late enough to give enough time in NY to turn a consist the same day then you can run it with three consists. that is how it used to run before it was changed to the way it is now. Look at any timetable before the change to the current schedule was made. In all those cases only three consists were used. You don’t need to cut anything.

 

[mgl1978]

Dorms headed south on the RF&P 1/29/2020:

 

[neroden]

If the Meteor departs NY late enough to give enough time in NY to turn a consist the same day then you can run it with three consists. that is how it used to run before it was changed to the way it is now. Look at any timetable before the change to the current schedule was made. In all those cases only three consists were used. You don;t need to cut anything.

Thanks for the quick answer. That's cool. I approve of a late departure from NY (makes it way easier and more reliable to connect from upstate NY), so I hope they do that. The freed-up equipment will hopefully go to a daily Cardinal (I can dream, right?).

 

[me_little_me]

Thanks for the quick answer. That's cool. I approve of a late departure from NY (makes it way easier and more reliable to connect from upstate NY), so I hope they do that. The freed-up equipment will hopefully go to a daily Cardinal (I can dream, right?).

Fantasize?

 

[mgl1978]

Bag/dorm on shortened 19 3/20