Fremaux NARP meeting presentation

[Sam Damon]

(cross-posting from On-Track On-Line:)

I attended the Region IV NARP meeting in Baltimore on March 17th.

Owing to work commitments, a full, detailed report will have to wait. Emmett Fremaux gave a presentation, despite having an illness in the family (his mother is in a nursing home, I believe it was said). His presentation gave those in attendance a bit of insight into Amtrak as a company. Even so, the communications professional in me thinks he needs to visit Presentation Zen before speaking to a more general audience. That's my opinion, anyway. Here are some headlines:

NEC: Ridership and revenue numbers are up, which helps. Acela numbers are through the roof. Fremaux attributed this to solid marketing, quality OTP, and better maintenance practices resulting in increased equipment utilization.

DINER-LOUNGES: The sightseer lounge conversions have been put back a year. In other words, this is really your last chance to ride on trains with the "classic" sightseer lounge configuration. He articulated a point which I think has gotten lost in the whole SDS discussion. Namely, what Amtrak is attempting to do in the dining car rebuilding process is gain more flexibility in assigning cars across the system. He said in so many words that on some lines (or in some seasons), full diners don't work well, but owing to car configurations, there is not much at present which can be done about it. The diner-lounge program is an effort to change this.

He also expressed his thanks to NARP for pushing Amtrak to build a prototype, and test it. As a direct result, the first diner-lounge coming out of Beech Grove (in June, I think, don't have notes handy here) will have rectangular booths which should correct a number of issues discovered as part of the test runs. He showed slides depicting the changes.

FIXED CONSISTS: This is something he wants to change. Amtrak has definitely gotten the message that fixed consists don't cut it. Unfortunately, owing to management decisions apparently made during the Thomas Downs era, it is difficult to unravel car scheduling to make flexible consists possible. He went on to explain that unraveling the Capital Limited/SW Chief run-through took six months.

LD TRAINS: Fremaux went through the changes in service since the SWC run-through has stopped. He cited improvements in a number of areas. One item: Upon arrival at the Washington, DC yard, the consist on #30 is detailed. He joked about how the one Amtrak manager liked to see the diamond-plate gleam. Passenger satisfaction is up, despite issues with CSX and NS timekeeping.

LD PROMOTION: He'd like to promote the Capital Limited "tomorrow." But OTP as it stands right now, would only give the wrong impression of Amtrak to people trying trains for the first time. Therefore, no promotion. This would change if OTP was satisfactory.

-- more later --

EDIT: It wasn't "Thomas White" who was the Amtrak CEO, it was "Thomas Downs." My bad.

 

[Rafi]

LD PROMOTION: He'd like to promote the Capital Limited "tomorrow." But OTP as it stands right now, would only give the wrong impression of Amtrak to people trying trains for the first time. Therefore, no promotion. This would change if OTP was satisfactory.

Just to add a slight detail:

Fremaux also mentioned that the CL is now using entirely rebuilt equipment from the EB (which was news to me). As a result of the diner-lounge conversion car test, he's also had the crew on the CL get in the habit of actually showing up for the crew briefing (apparently prior to the car test, the crew briefing was a fabled phenomenon that didn't usually happen—and for a time he had the various CL crews trying to out-do the others in a sort of friendly rivalry scenario, which helped service tremendously apparently), and he's helped streamline a number of crew operations (chefs no longer have to show up 2 hours early to load kitchen stock on from Gate Gourmet, for example).

What raised my eyebrows the most, however, is that the CL crews are now also pushing the train "experience" to passengers with reliable scenery announcements, history briefings (scripted for crew members who aren't necessarily history buffs on the route), and—get this—happy hours and door prizes in the lounge car (!!). My wife an I are on the CL (connecting to SWC to Flagstaff) on March 30, so I'll be sure to let everyone know my impressions, but if the trip lives up to what Fremaux touted, I can't wait.

-Rafi

 

[Guest_Ben_*]

"He went on to explain that unraveling the Capital Limited/SW Chief run-through took six months." So Sam, are there plans to bring the run-through back? Sure cars would be less clean, but it would save a set of equipment.

 

[Rafi]

"He went on to explain that unraveling the Capital Limited/SW Chief run-through took six months." So Sam, are there plans to bring the run-through back? Sure cars would be less clean, but it would save a set of equipment.

No plans to bring it back—in fact, the reason it was removed, according to Fremaux, was precisely because it was locking equipment up in a fixed consist when it needed to be more flexible. I used to be of the mindset that it would be optimal to have a coast-to-coast run-through, but either Fremaux is a marketing wizard and pulled a Jobsian reality distortion field on me, or he legitimately made sense (or both). The case he presented was this (and Sam seems to have taken notes and may be able to clarify somewhat):

In the case of the CL to SWC run-through, what would frequently happen would be that one train would be sold out (or even overbooked) and in peak season, when the other train would be carrying very few passengers by comparison. The run-through also dictated that both trains had to back into Union Station (Chicago), in order to depart a few hours later (avoiding a lengthy Y-move, making the train unavailable for a quick clean-up), and that back-up maneuver added 30 mins to each train's arrival time into CHI. So what Fremaux was dealing with was:

-A train that had too many cars on one route, and too few cars on the other

-Shortage of seats on one route ("cash left on the table," to paraphrase his words) and too many empty seats on the other

-A pretty dirty train that wasn't getting cleaned often enough

So he worked to stop the run-through. Now he's got a train, that, short of OTP fixes, he wants to market very soon:

-All refurbished equipment that runs ONLY on 29/30 of which pieces can be easily added to and removed from for seasons and demand, or pieces swapped out if there is an emergency equipment need somewhere else.

-The Detailing process in WAS that Sam mentioned, ensuring a very clean train

-30 mins recovered run time into CHI

Given what was gained (a train that my wife feels comfortable on), I'm willing to agree with Fremaux that it was worth giving up what he had to give up (a run-through of a pretty dirty train that only *I* would ride).

-Rafi

 

[AKA]

Crews on # 29 & # 30 have been great this winter. I did not partake of happy hour but was very glad to see it happen. I have let Amtrak CS know about it to. A very visable cleaner train. When is the last time you saw a coach attendant sweeping a coach floor in route? Yes its true on # 30 in route to WAS. in December. If this train gets on time it will be a winner.

 

[Railbender]

Just finished a trip from Washington, DC to Cleveland on the Cap Ltd with a very friendly and outgoing lounge-attendant (but no happy hour), and a very well-presented (and received) narration from Washington to Pittsburgh, of the sights along the train route.

The digi-players were available on-board before departure from the lounge chief...

Great and positive changes. Well-done (and advertised) reservations for dinner.

Overall, a great experience. Not too off-the-mark for timeliness arriving into Cleveland. It was the height of the St. Pat's snow/Lake Shore cancellation/airport closing so the train was packed...

 

[Sam Damon]

"He went on to explain that unraveling the Capital Limited/SW Chief run-through took six months." So Sam, are there plans to bring the run-through back? Sure cars would be less clean, but it would save a set of equipment.

Rafi's pretty much answered your question. I'll attempt to amplify a bit.

By inference, consists for #29/30 are now being made up from protect equipment from #7/8. I'm guessing whatever cars were assigned to #29/30 are now going into a pool to make up the SW Chief, for better or worse. I suspect better, because there is no longer the push to ready the same cars to depart in the afternoon.

Untangling the other run-throughs will take more time and effort. Six months alone for this one!

 

[sechs]

My thought is that equipment will often be the hold-up in unraveling these problems.

 

[Guest]

I'm confused. Did amtrak used to run the same consist WAS-LAX? Or are they considering it?

Would a run through mean that sleeper passengers didn't have to leave their rooms at the station?

And by fixed consists, would this mean that they could add more cars if it sold out X months ahead, as has been the topic of occasional discussion here?

 

[D.P. Roberts]

By inference, consists for #29/30 are now being made up from protect equipment from #7/8. I'm guessing whatever cars were assigned to #29/30 are now going into a pool to make up the SW Chief, for better or worse. I suspect better, because there is no longer the push to ready the same cars to depart in the afternoon.

So the cars for 29/30 become 7/8 in Chicago?

 

[AlanB]

I'm confused. Did amtrak used to run the same consist WAS-LAX? Or are they considering it?

From what was said above, it does not appear that Amtrak is considering restoring run through service, WAS-LAX. For many years they did indeed run through the SW Chief as the Capitol, and vice-versa. But do to time keeping issues, and other factors, they finally stopped doing that.

Would a run through mean that sleeper passengers didn't have to leave their rooms at the station?

Many years ago passengers were indeed allowed to remain on the train. Then for a while, while they couldn't remain on the train, they could still book the same room all the way through and were permitted to leave their luggage in the room. However, that also caused problems with the cleaning of the cars, not to mention that Amtrak had some theft issues, so that practice was stopped.

And by fixed consists, would this mean that they could add more cars if it sold out X months ahead, as has been the topic of occasional discussion here?

Well actually "fixed consists" would mean that they can't add cars. But it sounds like Mr. Fremaux is hoping to get Amtrak to a point where if a real demmand was seen, that perhaps Amtrak could add capacity to a train to meet said demmand.

 

[AlanB]

By inference, consists for #29/30 are now being made up from protect equipment from #7/8. I'm guessing whatever cars were assigned to #29/30 are now going into a pool to make up the SW Chief, for better or worse. I suspect better, because there is no longer the push to ready the same cars to depart in the afternoon.

So the cars for 29/30 become 7/8 in Chicago?

No, protect equipment means the extra cars that Amtrak kept on hand just in case a car on the Builder was bad ordered or needed an FRA mandated inspection/overhaul. It does not mean that the cars are necessarily running though from 20/30 to 7/8.

At this point, enough of the Superliner I sleepers have been rebuilt that they don't need all of them to protect the EB. In fact many of the rebuilt sleepers have been showing up on other trains in the system. Now it sounds like the chances of finding one of those rebuilds on anything other than 29/30 and 7/8 just went way down.