Alan: I guess that my numbers were off by a few cars but the info that I get was from unofficial sources. The Viewliners appear to have a much higher survival rate than the Superliners so if 50 out of 52 remain then that pretty decent. Only 35 are needed for service so Amtrak has a good back up supply that I assume are used for service rotation. As for the baggage cars; if Amtrak has 70 and they need 52 to meet the schedulke then they have quite a few of these available.
First I wasn't trying to be critical just correcting the numbers, sorry if it appeared otherwise.
Next, my source for the baggage cars is
OTOL, hardly an official source. So it comes with a caveot, that being that the numbers there are what's listed on the active roster. A car that has been wrecked can remain on the active roster if it's expected to return to duty in a short period of time. So it is possible that some of those 70 bags aren't actually currently being used.
The Viewliner's it's just a matter of my knowing the history. There have been a few times however where the active roster was less than the current 50, when major wrecks occured and there was no money to repair a car, so it was removed from active service.
Finally, while it's true that they only need 35 to cover all the trains, that doesn't mean that the other 15 are just sitting around as spares. At all times there is supposed to be 1 spare in NY and Hialeah. The plan also calls for a spare when available to be positioned in Chicago, however it doesn't seem like that happens very often. So we'll call that 2 cars, bringing things to 37 needed.
Last I knew officially, at any given moment Amtrak allows for 2 cars to be in Beech Grove for overhaul work and the FRA required annual inspection. I had heard a rumor that was to be bumped to 3 cars in BG, but that isn't confirmed. Also according to plan, at any given moment at least 4 to 5 cars are out of service (OOS) in Hiahleah Florida for PM work, 92 day inspections, and other needed repairs. During the winter months with freeze problems there may be even more cars OOS in Hialeah.
So while that still potentially leaves a few spares, again it's not like Amtrak has 15 Viewliners available to put into service at any given time to replace a Viewliner that needs repairs or worse gets wrecked.
As for the Viewliner's survival rate, the are the newest cars Amtrak has in the long distance fleet. That does help! They also cost less to fix when they are damaged by comparison to a Superliner. But Amtrak thankfully to date has been rather lucky too with regard to the Viewliners. Let's hope that trend continues!
This is also not to suggest that the Superliners have a terrible record either. There are more of those cars and they run on more trains, therefore they are more likely to be in a wreck. Out of the original 479 purchased, 23 have been scrapped because they were too far gone. As of May 1st, 25 are listed as wrecked. Of that number, 5 are on the list to be fixed by the Stimulus monies, leaving 20 who's fate & future status are unknown. I suspect that at least a few may well be beyond repair and are awaiting scrapping or are being used for parts. Others are recent wrecks simply awaiting their turn in the shops at Beech Grove that have been full with the Stimulus work over the last 2 years. While others may require major work and therefore are awaiting the funds to be restored.
