I'm wondering if there isn't a different mode of use for the Amtrak rolling stock... anyone familiar with "TheWorld" - a 700ft-ish cruise liner, which has been converted from 800 8x10ft rooms, to 160ft sea worth apartments? Where TheWorld basically moves from ocean to ocean 24/7/365 and one just happens to have an apartment that does such likewise [for those not familiar http://aboardtheworld.com/ ]. Yes they're well above the price and class that one can or would expect to find on Amtrak; but they provide an interesting point. Most cruise liners go from Seattle to Anchorage to Seattle to Anchorage etc etc.. and as long as one has enough passengers that want to go from Seattle to Seattle via Anchorage, then one makes money. The model I'm suggesting would be to at least for a couple trains, for a couple months a year, to operate like a roving hotel/hostel.
What I'm wondering - and yes I understand it would take a lot of planning and negotiations with the various track owners - but in a mode the antithesis of the NEC and other commuter trains - one sells tickets for the entire loop: 48 states in 48 days, or subsets of them; and one has one, two 10 car trains which do exactly that. And unlike a train that's trying to get from a to b on a schedule, the 48S48D might spend a night on a siding so that it could traverse a scenic piece of track the following morning during daylight; or might pause somewhere for 18 hrs to that one could detrain and walk to see something.
I suspect initially one might have to experiment with routes and view and track availabilities, but over time, kind of like any good tour agent, one could develop a fixed agenda which catches a compelling collections of scenery/sights. Maybe one only runs such - since clearly it would tourist oriented, not business traveler - for so many month a year. Maybe one starts in April or May and catches a "Spring" route; and one ends in late August or September and catches an autumn leaves route.
Over the years I've been to all 50 states, many/most multiple times - and as far as I can tell, every state has something to offer.... treat the Amtrak consist as a roving/rolling hotel/hostel and set an agenda which sees as much as possible of it (from rails). ... I wonder if such mightn't be a possible market for Amtrak, and one that doesn't pit it against the flying cattle cars, but does something unique. [yes there are bus tours - but one can't/ doesn't want to live a buss... conversely, one can quite well live on an Amtrak train. With the busses one generally has to overnight at hotels and travel during the day - with Amtrak, if such were opportunistic, one could cover dead space at night, basically, magically always having something special outside of the windows; or conversely (per above), intentionally sit on a siding overnight so as have good stuff outside the windows the next day.] ...
I guess the way to view this might be: instead of being in the transportation business, this would be Amtrak, in the tour business.
Though somebody at Amtrak would have to pay more attention to keeping the windows clean ;-) ;-(
What I'm wondering - and yes I understand it would take a lot of planning and negotiations with the various track owners - but in a mode the antithesis of the NEC and other commuter trains - one sells tickets for the entire loop: 48 states in 48 days, or subsets of them; and one has one, two 10 car trains which do exactly that. And unlike a train that's trying to get from a to b on a schedule, the 48S48D might spend a night on a siding so that it could traverse a scenic piece of track the following morning during daylight; or might pause somewhere for 18 hrs to that one could detrain and walk to see something.
I suspect initially one might have to experiment with routes and view and track availabilities, but over time, kind of like any good tour agent, one could develop a fixed agenda which catches a compelling collections of scenery/sights. Maybe one only runs such - since clearly it would tourist oriented, not business traveler - for so many month a year. Maybe one starts in April or May and catches a "Spring" route; and one ends in late August or September and catches an autumn leaves route.
Over the years I've been to all 50 states, many/most multiple times - and as far as I can tell, every state has something to offer.... treat the Amtrak consist as a roving/rolling hotel/hostel and set an agenda which sees as much as possible of it (from rails). ... I wonder if such mightn't be a possible market for Amtrak, and one that doesn't pit it against the flying cattle cars, but does something unique. [yes there are bus tours - but one can't/ doesn't want to live a buss... conversely, one can quite well live on an Amtrak train. With the busses one generally has to overnight at hotels and travel during the day - with Amtrak, if such were opportunistic, one could cover dead space at night, basically, magically always having something special outside of the windows; or conversely (per above), intentionally sit on a siding overnight so as have good stuff outside the windows the next day.] ...
I guess the way to view this might be: instead of being in the transportation business, this would be Amtrak, in the tour business.
Though somebody at Amtrak would have to pay more attention to keeping the windows clean ;-) ;-(
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