A new Super Chief

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The only way I could see business travelers going back to rail would be something catastrophic happening to the airline industry such as a massive solar flare knocking out planes (and that would be temporary and too short lived for rail to build up quickly enough) or some sort of terrorist action. Or perhaps a fuel issue which rail electrification could work around.
 
west point said:
Airlines could be severely disabled if another volcano such as Iceland, Indonesia, Philippines, or Mt St. Helens throws a lot of ash in the air. o
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Or if the Yellowstone hotspot kicks off, likely in the mountains south of Livingston, MT, which could plunge us into up to ten years of volcanic winter.
 
If Yellowstone goes off, we won't have to worry about traveling for a while, tell you that much. Thankfully it's not due for an eruption for a while.
 
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Airline and private jet travel being curtailed to combat global warming would certainly help passenger train traffic. Not likely to happen, however, as the ruling classes like their ability to fly around as desired.
 
west point said:
Airlines could be severely disabled if another volcano such as Iceland, Indonesia, Philippines, or Mt St. Helens throws a lot of ash in the air. o
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I don't need Mt. St. Helens anymore, since I've hiked it, it can blow up again, then I will hike it again. How big are the other volcanoes? Could that affect air travel across the world?
 
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Carolina Special said:
Airline and private jet travel being curtailed to combat global warming would certainly help passenger train traffic. Not likely to happen, however, as the ruling classes like their ability to fly around as desired.
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And the unruling classes like their ability to travel cheaply and quickly
 
norfolkwesternhenry said:
west point said:
Airlines could be severely disabled if another volcano such as Iceland, Indonesia, Philippines, or Mt St. Helens throws a lot of ash in the air. o
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I don't need Mt. St. Helens anymore, since I've hiked it, it can blow up again, then I will hike it again. How big are the other volcanoes? Could that affect air travel across the world?
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The one I cited is one of the largest on the planet, and it would be very hard to survive anywhere in the northern hemisphere if it goes off at the larger eruption levels it's capable of.
 
keelhauled said:
Carolina Special said:
Airline and private jet travel being curtailed to combat global warming would certainly help passenger train traffic. Not likely to happen, however, as the ruling classes like their ability to fly around as desired.
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And the unruling classes like their ability to travel cheaply and quickly
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Actually it is to quite an extent. the latter. The net travel done by the ruling class could be accommodated in relatively small number of flights specially if they can be herded off of private jets and onto commercial jets and raise fares enough so as to make it difficult for the masses to use flights, like it used to be before deregulation.

Of course it depends on who is considered the ruling classes. The top one percentile? five percentile? ten percentile? The answer changes slowly as ylou make the size of the "ruling class" larger and larger.
 
Well. this has certainly gotten off-track. Volcanos? Really?

The only way a luxury "Super Chief" would return would be as a privately-run service like the American Orient Express. Of course attempts to run such services in the U.S. in the past have all failed, so I wouldn't count on such a train being successful. I also wouldn't count on business travelers flocking to LD trains. On 500 miles or less corridor service, yes. LD, no.
 
Part of the failure of the AOE was it didn't have enough ridership. When you think most sleepers only had five rooms. And each car requires additional horsepower. That poor marketing, Amtrak, and a recession hit. It was a beautiful train. But their equipment in the final years wasn't that great from what I've heard and would cost a lot to keep it to standard. Especially if any cars came due for a 40 year truck inspection. So yes the concept could work but if someone tries it again they need to watch carefully the failures that proceeded before them. And correct those.
 
It looks like the latest version, Pullman Rail Journey's, has also called it quits, or perhaps gone 'on hiatus'....I looked at their website, and they don't seem to offer regular service hitched to the CONO currently....

On the other hand...operations like Rocky Mountaineer, as well as the various cruise line cars hitched to the Alaska RR are still going strong....
 
PRJ officially got suspended last winter. Amtrak has refused to carry them from what I've heard. Not sure if it was putting a dent in amtrak's revenue for first class. They are still technically around but I honestly don't know what they are doing. And my source is from hearing things while working other pv's so secondhand and some first hand I work with iph people too
 
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That's interesting....I wonder what legal basis Amtrak has for choosing which private cars it will or won't carry? As long as they meet FRA and Amtrak safety standards....
 
I don't remember the reason. I know they suspended it with a major service disruption to the CONO. Amtrak has the right to deny anything I believe. And if your chartering from them good luck. If they don't know you or like you good luck.
 
Metra Electric Rider said:
Caesar La Rock said:
If Yellowstone goes off, we won't have to worry about traveling for a while, tell you that much. Thankfully it's not due for an eruption for a while.
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That's a relief - I'm heading to that area tonight!
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If it goes off in a big way, no human is safe from its effects. Most of the population base in Montana is in the immediate kill zone, and the rest of the state would be dead in the first day...
 
railiner said:
That's interesting....I wonder what legal basis Amtrak has for choosing which private cars it will or won't carry? As long as they meet FRA and Amtrak safety standards....
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I heard that IPH had negotiated a special rate for the CONO below the normal PV charges. When that contract expired they were unable to come to an agreement on a renewal and IPH decided not to continue with the service if they were going to have to pay the full PV rate.
 
looshi said:
railiner said:
That's interesting....I wonder what legal basis Amtrak has for choosing which private cars it will or won't carry? As long as they meet FRA and Amtrak safety standards....
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I heard that IPH had negotiated a special rate for the CONO below the normal PV charges. When that contract expired they were unable to come to an agreement on a renewal and IPH decided not to continue with the service if they were going to have to pay the full PV rate.
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Now that sounds like a more logical explanation....I can't see how Amtrak could get away with refusing to haul their cars because they were 'taking business away from them'...
 

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