I remember on the Pascack Valley Line on the Erie (now Metro-North) the conductor going through and flipping the seats preparatory to getting to the end of the line.
This is exactly how the Metroliners, with Amfleet equipment, operated in Wash. DC for many years....
Didn't they do something like that at Penn Station in NY too? I had seen two Metroliners pull in at the same platform one behind the other. A loco hitches onto the west end of the one at the west end of the platform. Its loco at the east end detaches and attaches to the on at the east end of the platform, and the loco that brought in the one at the east end detaches and goers off to the storage track to repeat the process as the next two arrive.
Probably what I've seen them do in Washington when they've had to turn a late train quickly. It comes in, as usual, locomotive first. Then, while they're cleaning out the cars and such, they uncouple the locomotive and roll in new one in at the other end facing out of the station. They hook that up, and then the outbound train is good to go. After it leaves, then the old locomotive can pull out and head for the yard to wait for the next train. Of course, this meant that the consist it reversed from the usual, in the case of Washington it means that Business class and the Quiet car are at the front of the outbound train. But if they do it on a regular basis, they will just keep the business class and Quiet car at the south end of the train running in both directions, so it's at the back of the train when running northbound and at the front of the train when running southbound. This is just what the Acela does, except that the Acela has power cars at both ends, so they don't need to fuss around with locomotives.
I can tell you firsthand that the seats are fixed at 50/50.
Yikes, I didn't think about the business class and quiet cars changing position based on direction of travel. That will take a long time for passengers to get used to. It's pretty consistent across the board these days that station agents announce that they are the last two cars of the train, and passengers still get confused and board wherever.
It wasn't that long ago that Business Class and the Quiet Car were the first two cars on the train. People got used to that change pretty quickly, and I think they'll adapt once again.
Yes, especially with the first arrival of the day from DC. It had a short turn in NYP. They would either run the engine around or use the Station protect. They also had a set of cleaners who would clean the train and turn the seats in the dark. Later arrivals started going around the SSYD loop to simplify some of the work.
I don't think laziness is the issue. I think it is economics: bean counters in middle and upper management looking at their spreadsheets and being penny wise and pound foolish. Upper management and, in the case of Amtrak, Congress, pushing them to spend as little as possible and driving them to false economies, especially when trying to balance spending with mandates like "buy American". So they look at things like seats (both the quality of seats in the new coaches and the labor of flipping the seats when they turn around trains) and meals and maintenance as places to save a few pennies, even though it costs them millions in increased ridership.
That makes a little more sense. It would be nice if they would at least flip the seats in Business Class (First Class Acela).
In addition to making short turns easier, perhaps it would make it easier to open new terminal stations. That would be both in cost and in negotiations with freight railroads to avoid interference, from the freight point of view. The new NPN that is due to open in April or May has both a new wye long enough to turn a full train, just north of the station, and a new siding for service half a mile south. Like Savannah and Mobile, the state and the freight railroad have a joint interest in boosting the seaport, in competition with other ports. There's a lot of revenue and a lot of cost in a seaport, as well as jobs and other economic benefits. It's large enough to be a major interest in state policy. The state rail plans describe relevant grants. In states supporting pax rail, cooperation is the byword, not conflict, at least publicly. Cooperation means investing money.
There will be
This has happened to me in the past for no discernible reason at all. So I just made sure that the reservation was still there and then rolled with the flow.
Even if there was no shortage of equipment it would still allow more trains to be operated with the same set of available equipment if dwell times at terminal stations can be reduced. I am familiar with operations elsewhere where they have dwell times at terminal where the equipment turns, as low as ten minutes. I don't think Amtrak will get there, but it is done. Train that requires full cleaning and restocking of meals for the entire train takes as little as 50 minutes. It can be done if there is will and need.
I doubt Siemens makes any seats. Most transportation seating whether it be bus train or plane are selected by the purchaser from compatible offerings from a group of companies in that business.
