Dining car to return to trains 58/59

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Trogdor

Trogdor

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Starting with trains 58(8) and 59(9), dining car service will be restored to the City of New Orleans.

Starting with trains 1(3) and 2(2), the sightseer lounge will be returned to the Sunset Limited. The Sunset will still operate with a somewhat reduced consist, though, having only a transition sleeper, diner, lounge, and two coaches (plus a Texas Eagle coach and sleeper).

The Texas Eagle will slowly regain its sightseer lounge, with cars being phased in over the next week or so, with all four trainsets to (hopefully) gain the car by November 9.
 
This is excellent news! And quite a surprise, too, seeing how a conductor on 59 told me that it was unlikely the diner would return.

The City deserves to have a diner. Even though it may not have excellent turnout, you have to offer a quality product for sleeping car passengers, and those box meals just don't cut it.

Also great to hear about the lounge on the Sunset. I'd say the route of #1/2 is scenic enough to warrant the car.
 
This falls into the "Makes the heart feel good" department.

We need all the good news we can get these days. No amount of rationalization in the world can really make one feel good about LD trains without out diners and or lounges.

Makes me want to get out of here and get on the City out of NOL as soon as possible and sample dinner in the diner, even if I am the only one doing so.
 
Before you make your train reservations, guys, make sure that you can find overnight accommodations in New Orleans, as a transfer between the SUNSET LIMITED in that direction and either the CRESCENT (for you Bill) or the CITY OF NEW ORLEANS requires staying overnight in NOL. The pickings are still quite limited as the city continues to get back on its feet.

The only same-day transfer possible in New Orleans won't be possible for a while, until service can be restored east of there. The CITY and the SUNSET in that direction connected nicely.
 
Now, if Amtrak will only clean the windows on the Sightseer Lounge, it will make it work while...bill
 
The above news is certainly positive. However one thing that would make me much happier about the SUNSET LIMITED, besides a daily schedule, is a return to Phoenix. It's time to get back to that city (particularly because they are building a light rail system now). That would be a lot better than making a stop in the middle of the desert in Maricopa, with no transportation between there and Phoenix.

It's actually easier to get to Phoenix via the SOUTHWEST CHIEF, which has quite a few Thruway motorcoach runs out of Flagstaff.
 
Superliner Diner said:
The above news is certainly positive. However one thing that would make me much happier about the SUNSET LIMITED, besides a daily schedule, is a return to Phoenix. It's time to get back to that city (particularly because they are building a light rail system now). That would be a lot better than making a stop in the middle of the desert in Maricopa, with no transportation between there and Phoenix.
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Tell that to the folks at UP. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to laugh up a storm.
 
battalion51 said:
Tell that to the folks at UP. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to laugh up a storm.
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:lol: :lol: :lol: OBS.....
 
As far as I understand the trains could still go into Phoenix via the east end line, but it would add an hour or two (maybe even more) to the schedule since the trains would need to pull in to Phoenix on a spur off the main line and then return out to the mainline via the same spur.

If Amtrak continues to refuse to operate a thruway bus from Maricopa (the best option since it could make stops in several of the spread out Phoenix cities and serve more passengers), they should bring the train into Phoenix even if it means additing three hours to the run. If they don't have a problem with additing a few hours of padding (eight eastbound when the departure time from LAUPT was moved up), they should not have a problem additing a few hours in the schedule to serve Phoenix!

As another poster mentioned, Phoenix is currently better served by the Southwest Chief via thruway vans that depart from Flagstaff. I visit Phoenix about three times a year and always take the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles and transfer at Flagstaff. I have given up on trying to fit the Sunset's horrendous problems into my often tightly-scheduled (as far as Amtrak goes) vacation plans.
 
As far as I'm concerned the connection to the Chief is the better route for Amtrak performance wise. It's a daily connection that's reliable since the Chief is on BNSF, who doesn't create late trains like UP does. IMHO it's absolutely absurd to pull a Silver Star with the Sunset and go two to three hours out of the way just to serve that one destination. I didn't have as much of a problem with the Palmetto going out to TPA since north of there it covered different stations (by going S-Line rather than A-Line), but the Star stays on the A-Line to Savannah. I know ridership to TPA has gone up since the Star has come to town, yaddah yadddah yaddah, but it's still two hours I don't think the train needs to spend retracing steps. Now if you want to talk about sections I have an easier time with that, since it doesn't create retracing steps for one directional move.
 
The above news is certainly positive. However one thing that would make me much happier about the SUNSET LIMITED, besides a daily schedule, is a return to Phoenix. It's time to get back to that city (particularly because they are building a light rail system now). That would be a lot better than making a stop in the middle of the desert in Maricopa, with no transportation between there and Phoenix.
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Well back to what I was saying about the SUNSET LIMITED, Phoenix is talking about starting commuter rail to compliment its light rail. One route discussed is on the west line out to Yuma. So if the line is good for several commuter trains per day, it should be good enough for a measly thrice-weekly long distance train.
 
Superliner Diner said:
Well back to what I was saying about the SUNSET LIMITED, Phoenix is talking about starting commuter rail to compliment its light rail. One route discussed is on the west line out to Yuma. So if the line is good for several commuter trains per day, it should be good enough for a measly thrice-weekly long distance train.
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I'll admit that I'm not familiar with the Phoenix commuter rail studies. However, I'd presume that any such line to Yuma would require reactivating/rehabilitating the line west of there.

As I understand it, Union Pacific abandoned the line. Just because it might be good for several commuter runs a few years from now doesn't mean it's good for a long-distance train today.
 
As I understand it, Union Pacific abandoned the line. Just because it might be good for several commuter runs a few years from now doesn't mean it's good for a long-distance train today.
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I'm sure that if there is a market for commuter service, whatever entity operates it will also eventually own the line (since UP doesn't want it). With a passenger friendly host, Amtrak would surely be welcome, and its calling times in the area based on the current timetable and being somewhere close to on-time, would not interfere with commuter operations.

I'm not advocating that Amtrak return to the Phoenix-Yuma line before that all takes place. Obviously an abandoned line is hardly conducive to operation of freight traffic, let alone faster passenger trains.
 

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