Amtrak confirms ‘Phase III’ scheme for 'Empire Service' locomo

[rrdude]

This might have been posted, but if it was, I missed it, and the mods can merge.

From Trains NewsWire:

By Chase Gunnoe | January 12, 2016
RELATED TOPICS: AMTRAK | PASSENGER | LOCOMOTIVES | RAILFANNING



No. 704 trails on the westbound 'Cardinal' as it arrives in Chicago on Jan. 7.
Mark Hinsdale

NEW YORK – Passengers along the Empire Service route to Upstate New York can look forward to more of Amtrak’s "Phase III" paint scheme.

GE P32AC-DM No. 704 rolled into the windy city last week displaying a Phase III paint scheme....................

 

[rickycourtney]

I really don't get Amtrak's current obsession with Phase III.

I'm not sure if it's being driven by the marketing department... or one executive that really liked Phase III... but I bet the obsession isn't from the financial department. The railroad spent the last decade (and I'm sure plenty of money) putting everything into Phase V and IVb... just to change it back.

I get that paint is usually reapplied as a part of the normal maintenance cycle of equipment... and most of the locomotives were repainted accordingly... but it all seems like a huge waste to me.

 

[TylerP42]

I really don't get Amtrak's current obsession with Phase III.

I'm not sure if it's being driven by the marketing department... or one executive that really liked Phase III... but I bet the obsession isn't from the financial department. The railroad spent the last decade (and I'm sure plenty of money) putting everything into Phase V and IVb... just to change it back.

I get that paint is usually reapplied as a part of the normal maintenance cycle of equipment... and most of the locomotives were repainted accordingly... but it all seems like a huge waste to me.

All of the new Viewliner II's will be painted in Phase IIIb (diners, baggage dorms, sleepers), and there are a lot of rumors and some from good sources that they intend on going system wide with the Phase IIIb (All locomotives too, except for NEC/Sprinters/Acela). Maybe repainting amfleets, but my guess is they'll wait until the new coach cars come out.

 

[capltd29]

I really don't get Amtrak's current obsession with Phase III.

I'm not sure if it's being driven by the marketing department... or one executive that really liked Phase III... but I bet the obsession isn't from the financial department. The railroad spent the last decade (and I'm sure plenty of money) putting everything into Phase V and IVb... just to change it back.

I get that paint is usually reapplied as a part of the normal maintenance cycle of equipment... and most of the locomotives were repainted accordingly... but it all seems like a huge waste to me.

I completely agree. Unless they repaint the whole single level long distance fleet, it will likely look pretty atrocious to have a handful of cars in a different scheme.. I liked Phase III. It is the livery I remember as a kid, but Amtrak finally has a fleet that looks uniform, so I'm not sure why we're gonna change it now.

 

[TylerP42]

I really don't get Amtrak's current obsession with Phase III.

I'm not sure if it's being driven by the marketing department... or one executive that really liked Phase III... but I bet the obsession isn't from the financial department. The railroad spent the last decade (and I'm sure plenty of money) putting everything into Phase V and IVb... just to change it back.

I get that paint is usually reapplied as a part of the normal maintenance cycle of equipment... and most of the locomotives were repainted accordingly... but it all seems like a huge waste to me.

I completely agree. Unless they repaint the whole single level long distance fleet, it will likely look pretty atrocious to have a handful of cars in a different scheme.. I liked Phase III. It is the livery I remember as a kid, but Amtrak finally has a fleet that looks uniform, so I'm not sure why we're gonna change it now.

Because when someone sees a dirty grey and blue "professional" look train, it's not exciting, doesn't peak interest. When someone boards or sees a train go by that's flashy red white and blue, they think "cool" and get interested in figuring out what it was.

 

[R30A]

When I see phase 3 I think 1985!

This is not the image i think Amtrak wants to portray.

That said, I'd give a lot to ride today on a heritage consist with slumbercoaches, ex US Army lounges, with everything in the train being bright orange tan and brown.

But I am an oddity. I accept that. Which makes this bad marketing for Amtrak to go with.

 

[TylerP42]

When I see phase 3 I think 1985!

This is not the image i think Amtrak wants to portray.

That said, I'd give a lot to ride today on a heritage consist with slumbercoaches, ex US Army lounges, with everything in the train being bright orange tan and brown.

But I am an oddity. I accept that. Which makes this bad marketing for Amtrak to go with.

It's targeted more I think to people that have never ridden Amtrak.

 

[neroden]

In marketing terms, Amtrak couldn't possibly do worse than the blue, grey, pinstriped "Navy" look they've been using. Phase IIIb is a vast improvement from a marketing point of view.

I presume they're repainting them as they go through their regular cycle of painting so that there's no extra financial cost. Given what a dull scheme the previous look was, I honestly think a mix of IIIb and whatever they were using before is going to look like... IIIb with some cars missing their paint job.

 

[mfastx]

Looks terrible IMO, never been a fan.

Mismatched paint schemes on a single train look awful, very unprofessional.

 

[Ryan]

Amtrak announced over a year ago that the entire single level long distance fleet was going Phase III.

 

[Seaboard92]

My question is the entire fleet of cars going to Phase III. Or are some of the Amfleet Is remaining in phase iv. Same goes for the Superliners. From a marketing point I see phase III as the best. And I personally think it's the best paint scheme Amtrak has ever had. But it looked god awful on the AEM7s

 

[jis]

Originally I got the impression a year or so back that the Amtrak single level LD fleet was the one going to Phase IIIb. But with some of the latest happenings, it seems more like everything (with emphasis on single level fleet) will eventually go to Phase IIIb as they rotate through maintenance cycles.

If they were focusing on LD, they would not have started putting Phase IIIb on the 7xx DMs which are arguably all used just in the NYP - ALB sector. Also the strong rumors floating around about the P42s and P40s getting Phase IIIb striping suggests that at least all the diesel fleet might get these colors. I am not sure what, if any implications can be derived from this regarding passenger cars. Clearly the Viewliner generation of cars seem to be destined to go Phase IIIb. Who knows what is planned for Amfleets and Superliners? I don't.

 

[frequentflyer]

Looks terrible IMO, never been a fan.

Mismatched paint schemes on a single train look awful, very unprofessional.

It doesn't look uniforn now. The Acela livery Genesis with phase 4 pax cars.

 

[frequentflyer]

When I see phase 3 I think 1985!

This is not the image i think Amtrak wants to portray.

That said, I'd give a lot to ride today on a heritage consist with slumbercoaches, ex US Army lounges, with everything in the train being bright orange tan and brown.

But I am an oddity. I accept that. Which makes this bad marketing for Amtrak to go with.

The last time Amtrak was ran by a railroader, the late great Graham Claytor. The last an Amtrak train looked uniformed from the locomotive to the pax cars.

 

[frequentflyer]

This might have been posted, but if it was, I missed it, and the mods can merge.

From Trains NewsWire:

By Chase Gunnoe | January 12, 2016
RELATED TOPICS: AMTRAK | PASSENGER | LOCOMOTIVES | RAILFANNING



No. 704 trails on the westbound 'Cardinal' as it arrives in Chicago on Jan. 7.
Mark Hinsdale

NEW YORK – Passengers along the Empire Service route to Upstate New York can look forward to more of Amtrak’s "Phase III" paint scheme.
GE P32AC-DM No. 704 rolled into the windy city last week displaying a Phase III paint scheme....................

Too much black on the front of the locomotive, the black should have stopped above the front headlight, just like on the AEM7,F40 and P30.

 

[mfastx]

Looks terrible IMO, never been a fan.

Mismatched paint schemes on a single train look awful, very unprofessional.

It doesn't look uniforn now. The Acela livery Genesis with phase 4 pax cars.

They were the same colors at least. Pick one livery and stick with it. Amtrak interchanges rolling stock/locomotives too often to have different schemes for different routes.

 

[jis]

The Phase V P40/42s Shamus do not have the same color as the Phase IV Amfleet and Superliners. They are very different. Even the shade of blue is different.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

This might have been posted, but if it was, I missed it, and the mods can merge.

Amtrak 704 new paint and logo?

 

[Palmetto]

I don't see the penchant some have for uniformity. It certainly didn't exist prior to 1971 when cars were switched en route an added to other railroads' crack trains. Frankly, I don't care what color the trains are, as long as they perform well and get passengers to places with some modicum of timeliness.

 

[jis]

I don't see the penchant some have for uniformity. It certainly didn't exist prior to 1971 when cars were switched en route an added to other railroads' crack trains. Frankly, I don't care what color the trains are, as long as they perform well and get passengers to places with some modicum of timeliness.

I agree. Uniform livery varnish for a few top of the line trains can be afforded only by a huge passenger operation which of course the Amtrak LD system is not. It is more or less a skeletal operation. For it providing superior service in clean, comfortable accommodation in a predictable way is more important than matching livery. They could pay more attention to washing their equipment to improve their image as a starter.

 

[frequentflyer]

You

I don't see the penchant some have for uniformity. It certainly didn't exist prior to 1971 when cars were switched en route an added to other railroads' crack trains. Frankly, I don't care what color the trains are, as long as they perform well and get passengers to places with some modicum of timeliness.

I agree. Uniform livery varnish for a few top of the line trains can be afforded only by a huge passenger operation which of course the Amtrak LD system is not. It is more or less a skeletal operation. For it providing superior service in clean, comfortable accommodation in a predictable way is more important than matching livery. They could pay more attention to washing their equipment to improve their image as a starter.

All of it is important,if a livery wasn't important airlines would not spend millions finding the right look.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Frequent flyer: I agree about the airlines spending millions on paint schemes but IMO today's look doent hold a candle to the old classics like American, Pan Am, United,Braniff etc.

I agree that Amtrak needs to do a much better job on maintence and cleanliness of equipment rather than wasting money on paint schemes which is like putting lipstick on a pig.YMMV

 

[jis]

You

I don't see the penchant some have for uniformity. It certainly didn't exist prior to 1971 when cars were switched en route an added to other railroads' crack trains. Frankly, I don't care what color the trains are, as long as they perform well and get passengers to places with some modicum of timeliness.

I agree. Uniform livery varnish for a few top of the line trains can be afforded only by a huge passenger operation which of course the Amtrak LD system is not. It is more or less a skeletal operation. For it providing superior service in clean, comfortable accommodation in a predictable way is more important than matching livery. They could pay more attention to washing their equipment to improve their image as a starter.

All of it is important,if a livery wasn't important airlines would not spend millions finding the right look.

But it is not unusual at all to have two or three liveries existing side by side for differentiated branding or livery transition reasons. At the end of the day though very very few, if any, choose to fly an airline because of its livery.

 

[frequentflyer]

Again, all of it is important, operation metrics are very important, no one cares about a livery if the product is habitually late or dirty. But your livery does give an impression of your brand. Why did the FEC pick a vibrant livery, why not go with Euro White and a logo? Will the bright yellow livery have an impact on operations, nope, but it projects a brand to the customer.

Like it or not, the last time Amtrak had a consistent "brand" image that was from locomotive to last car was Phase 3. And it lasted for over 20 years. Why Amtrak is going back to phase 3, I have no idea. It brings back some fond memories such as "All about Amtrak" slogan, Turboliners (yeah they were junk) and trains gone forever such as the Pioneer and Desert Storm.

 

[Alexandria Nick]

You

I don't see the penchant some have for uniformity. It certainly didn't exist prior to 1971 when cars were switched en route an added to other railroads' crack trains. Frankly, I don't care what color the trains are, as long as they perform well and get passengers to places with some modicum of timeliness.

I agree. Uniform livery varnish for a few top of the line trains can be afforded only by a huge passenger operation which of course the Amtrak LD system is not. It is more or less a skeletal operation. For it providing superior service in clean, comfortable accommodation in a predictable way is more important than matching livery. They could pay more attention to washing their equipment to improve their image as a starter.

All of it is important,if a livery wasn't important airlines would not spend millions finding the right look.

But it is not unusual at all to have two or three liveries existing side by side for differentiated branding or livery transition reasons. At the end of the day though very very few, if any, choose to fly an airline because of its livery.

It takes a long time to cycle all those airliners through the paint shop too. There were plenty of white America West patched as US Airways alongside the dark blue US Airways ones while everything was being redone in the white US Airways livery. I flew on a Song livery 757 right after Delta bought them out.

I see more Southwest 737s that don't have the new gigantic SOUTHWEST on the fuselage than ones with!

Geez, there's so many US Airways planes out there that sometimes I forget they don't exist any more!