As reported recently, Amtrak will be reducing its operations with FY21 due to the anticipated significant reduction in ridership that is expected. The level of reduction depends on receiving supplemental federal funding. So, I thought it would be interesting (fun?) to speculate on what that would mean to the LD network. Assume the additional funding is received and Amtrak proceeds on the basis they said ”shifting nearly all long distance routes to less-than-daily service”. The exception apparently is Auto Train.
Looking desperately for a silver lining in all this, I think it’s safe to say that equipment availability for both Superliners and Viewliners will not be an issue. That opens the possibility of changing the make up of trains and running them outside of their normal territory – with Viewliners now solely in the east and Superliners mostly in the west. So what would you do if you had to make those tough choices? I’ll speculate just on the part of the network I know best, the Silver Service.
Silver Service is unique in that there are three trains that cover much of the same territory and in Amtrak’s letter, they in fact said the three would be consolidated but gave no details. I am going to assume that this includes not only the Meteor, Star, Palmetto but also the Carolinian since NC would be looking for a way to retain that train but cut its costs. I think the objective should be one through train from NY to Miami and one daytime train that serves the cities now served by the Palmetto, Star, and Carolinian. Both trains should be daily as less than daily doesn’t save that much, loses ridership and confuses everyone. Many crew starts would be eliminated including all of the Star route and reduced frequency NYP-Richmond as well as the Palmetto south of Florence, SC (a current crew change station).
The Meteor would continue on its present route with the southbound schedule an hour later to provide better times for morning arrival in Charleston and Savannah. Northbound the schedule would be two hours later for better arrival times in Richmond. A separate train would operate Orlando-Tampa-Miami on a reduced frequency basis.
The Carolinian would live up to its name. It would leave an hour later ((Palmetto’s time slot) out of NYP to better connect with inbound regional service. At Richmond a Florence, SC section would split and serve Rocky Mount, Wilson Selma, Fayetteville and Florence. The relatively recent additional run thru track in the station could handle this switching. It would leave a half hour or so behind the Carolinian. At Florence thruway buses would connect to Kingstree and Charleston (and maybe a new one to Myrtle Beach). The Carolinian would continue non stop to Raleigh. There it would split again with a section operating on the Star’s route to Columbia. The remainder of the train would continue to Charlotte as it does now.
The Meteor would have full services, such as they are. The Carolinian would have two cafes for each section splitting at Richmond with only one operating into Richmond. No café Raleigh to Columbia (maybe an NC car with vending.) What brainstorming ideas can you come up with om a new look LD network? And let'shope all routes soon returns to ‘normal’!
Looking desperately for a silver lining in all this, I think it’s safe to say that equipment availability for both Superliners and Viewliners will not be an issue. That opens the possibility of changing the make up of trains and running them outside of their normal territory – with Viewliners now solely in the east and Superliners mostly in the west. So what would you do if you had to make those tough choices? I’ll speculate just on the part of the network I know best, the Silver Service.
Silver Service is unique in that there are three trains that cover much of the same territory and in Amtrak’s letter, they in fact said the three would be consolidated but gave no details. I am going to assume that this includes not only the Meteor, Star, Palmetto but also the Carolinian since NC would be looking for a way to retain that train but cut its costs. I think the objective should be one through train from NY to Miami and one daytime train that serves the cities now served by the Palmetto, Star, and Carolinian. Both trains should be daily as less than daily doesn’t save that much, loses ridership and confuses everyone. Many crew starts would be eliminated including all of the Star route and reduced frequency NYP-Richmond as well as the Palmetto south of Florence, SC (a current crew change station).
The Meteor would continue on its present route with the southbound schedule an hour later to provide better times for morning arrival in Charleston and Savannah. Northbound the schedule would be two hours later for better arrival times in Richmond. A separate train would operate Orlando-Tampa-Miami on a reduced frequency basis.
The Carolinian would live up to its name. It would leave an hour later ((Palmetto’s time slot) out of NYP to better connect with inbound regional service. At Richmond a Florence, SC section would split and serve Rocky Mount, Wilson Selma, Fayetteville and Florence. The relatively recent additional run thru track in the station could handle this switching. It would leave a half hour or so behind the Carolinian. At Florence thruway buses would connect to Kingstree and Charleston (and maybe a new one to Myrtle Beach). The Carolinian would continue non stop to Raleigh. There it would split again with a section operating on the Star’s route to Columbia. The remainder of the train would continue to Charlotte as it does now.
The Meteor would have full services, such as they are. The Carolinian would have two cafes for each section splitting at Richmond with only one operating into Richmond. No café Raleigh to Columbia (maybe an NC car with vending.) What brainstorming ideas can you come up with om a new look LD network? And let'shope all routes soon returns to ‘normal’!
