For the last couple of weeks I've been looking over plans that I've gone over in my head for improving Amtrak service across the country taking current equipment limitations into account.
The pros:
1) Decreases costs associated with labor (turning a train takes a bit of time).
How so? Assuming you're talking about the corridor, it doesn't take a great deal of time since Amtrak controls access. Additionally, the labor is the same since you'd still need a crew to take it to the mechanical facility, which is where most trains are turned. Additionally, now you need mechanical personnel to perform inspections on the cabbage since it would still be considered a locomotive.
2) Checked baggage on the NEC outside of the ex-Night Owl trains (65, 66 & 67)
This may be a moot point. There a few regional trains that are under consideration for baggage cars. It will be determined by the state of the heritage bags. Even if that plan doesn't come to fruition, it hardly seems worth the cost to maintain another specialized fleet to haul a few bags.
3) Recently NCDOT (from what I heard from a fellow NARP member) is now running the Piedmonts with locomotives on either end. Might be better to run them with just another locomotive.
Piedmont's are diesels, so they need proper pointing. That's the beauty of the electric fleet. They don't need pointing since they have dual cabs. You can run around the train if you so desire, which minimizes the need for cabbages.
I know there's issues with this idea
1) Old habits die hard. Amtrak is used to turning trains at WAS and BOS (I don't know whee the wye's are in both cities) and NYP (through the Sunnyside loop).
Actually, turning most of the trains is not an old habit. Up until the closed the dump in the upper level in WAS, it was not uncommon for a train to come in, add a motor to the other end, uncouple from the previous motor and the train would turn right in the station. Once the train left, the previous motor would leave the track and repeat the process on other trains. This practice still occurs in WAS on occasion, especially on weekends if the train doesn't need dumping or watering.
It was quite common for trains in NYP to arrive and the motor would run around the train in the station.
However, as facilities become crowded with commuter traffic, this left little space for a train to hog valuable real estate. It also represented a duplication of facilities. As such, there isn't much call for a train to need push pull since they tend to dwell.
Another factor is the the tracks that are used to turn trains also contain the car washes. Chances are, the train is going out there at some point.
2) Lack of desire. An AEM-7 is worth money as beer cans (to borrow an airline industry expression)
Why should Amtrak desire to keep 30+ year old engines with millions of miles and failing/rusting bodies that leak in service when they just bought new engines? Just because it is cabbage doesn't mean it isn't still a locomotive. Therefore, it must be maintained and inspected as such. This represents a major expense. There isn't much need for another fleet of NPCU in the Amtrak system to make any long term investment in converting these units to cabbages. That is why Amtrak backed off their initial proposal to turn some of them into cabbages. It isn't worth the cost or investment.
The AEM-7s aren't being retired just for the heck of it. They are tired and worn out. Finding parts for it is a challenge. Even if you take out the traction motors, the bodies are still beat up and leaking. Some of them couldn't even handle the car wash because they'd take in too much water and components would have trouble.
3) Seats don't turn on the Amfleets (at least on most of the rebuilds). They should, but don't. I don't know how they do Acela layovers. I could be wrong.
I'm not sure where you're getting the seats don't turn. They turn on the Amfleets and they turn on the Acela sets.
