Pacific Parlour Car Temporary Withdrawal

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CHamilton

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Pacific Parlour Car Temporary Withdrawal
A well-informed source has told RailPAC that Pacific Parlour Car service will be missing from the Coast Starlight in the coming weeks because the FRA has some concerns about the glazing. Apparently one car has already been fixed and Amtrak is awaiting delivery of material for the rest of the fleet. Unfortunately we cannot offer a schedule of which dates may be affected but we’ll do our best to keep you informed.

As the Parlour cars are cycled through the shops they will be temporarily replaced by Superliner lounge cars. We are assured there is no intent to end the service.
 
When they pulled the PPCs out of service last winter,supposedly for maintence and "upgrades", they mostly set on a siding and not much or nothing was done to them besides required inspections and maintence.

Hopefully Amtrak will take advantage of this opportunity to actually do some much needed work on these jewels!

As most of us know, substituting a SSL, or even worse a CCC, for a PPC sucks!
 
I was on #11 on Wednesday. The PPC was in the consist.

I enjoyed dinner in the PPC.

It was my third trip this year in the PPC.

I hope Amtrak puts them back in service.
 
FWIW...From the last line of the article: "We are assured there is no intent to end the service."
I can almost hear the evil snickering behind the podium as they say that... :angry: Was the spokesman Joe Isuzu?

It's too bad, have my first CS trip scheduled for March, was hoping they'd limp along at least that long. :(
 
Put me in the minority that prefers a sightseer lounge to the PPC. I like the bigger windows in the sightseer cars, but the PPC was much cleaner after a day than the sightseer lounge (at least on my one trip on #14).
 
Last winter, Amtrak cut down on the Capitol Limited's consist. They said that come summer, they'd restore it back to the typical length. There was much cynicism and predictions that it was the beginning of the end of the CL, and that Amtrak was going to gut it to a CONO-like train, but lo and behold, spring came and the full consist returned as promised.
 
Hopefully it comes back (as it has several times before) before mid February. I've a bedroom reserved from LAX-PDX and I was looking forward to spending some time in the PPC. I've ridden that route with a CCC substituted before (couldn't gripe, it was right after an earthquake and they'd just reopened the tracks and was lucky to have a train at all) and it was OK, just not the Parlour.

Experience the PPC while you still can, and buy an overpriced drink too, they are quite old and one of these days they will be too expensive to keep in the consist.
 
Experience the PPC while you still can, and buy an overpriced drink too, they are quite old and one of these days they will be too expensive to keep in the consist.
basically the same age as the budd cars via rail operates
But I would speculate the Via Budd cars receive vastly superior maintenance work then the PPC's...
 
I can confirm that ppc is in service on the train 14 I am on right now. However, there is no meal service and movie due to short staff. My SCA said amtrak is trying to get a ppc attendant in Sacramento hopefully the service is resumed in Sacramento.
 
I can confirm that ppc is in service on the train 14 I am on right now. However, there is no meal service and movie due to short staff. My SCA said amtrak is trying to get a ppc attendant in Sacramento hopefully the service is resumed in Sacramento.
Which 14 are you on? Departed LAX today or yesterday?
 
I can confirm that ppc is in service on the train 14 I am on right now. However, there is no meal service and movie due to short staff. My SCA said amtrak is trying to get a ppc attendant in Sacramento hopefully the service is resumed in Sacramento.
Which 14 are you on? Departed LAX today or yesterday?
Sounds like today's since they haven't gotten to SAC yet.
 
While I love the PPC, I do believe the Sightseer Lounge could be just as good or even better with its improved visability. All Amtrak needs to do is take the wonderful swivel upholstered seats out of the PPC and put them in a SSL along with improved table seating (please, no plastic seats) and you're good to go. Use the upstairs SSL cafe area for the attendant to serve his wine and other goodies. Food prep can take place downstairs, although I guess its now hauled over from the diner. Not sure that catered first class airline food wouldn't be better and store it downstairs.
 
I can confirm that ppc is in service on the train 14 I am on right now. However, there is no meal service and movie due to short staff. My SCA said amtrak is trying to get a ppc attendant in Sacramento hopefully the service is resumed in Sacramento.
Which 14 are you on? Departed LAX today or yesterday?
I am on 14 that departed today. Are you on 14 that departed yesterday?
 
I can confirm that ppc is in service on the train 14 I am on right now. However, there is no meal service and movie due to short staff. My SCA said amtrak is trying to get a ppc attendant in Sacramento hopefully the service is resumed in Sacramento.
I would think you could order from the Diner (where the PPC Meals are now plated) and just haul it across yourself; hell, I'd even be kind enough to clean up my table and haul the trash and reusables back to the Diner :)
 
Experience the PPC while you still can, and buy an overpriced drink too, they are quite old and one of these days they will be too expensive to keep in the consist.
I tried to buy some drinks in the PPC but they only stocked two minis of JD at the start of the run. I wasn't surprised since I've run into similar stocking problems on other trains. You'd think Amtrak would stock hundreds of minis per trip since the markup can make plenty of money, but apparently you'd be wrong. It's kind of hard for a car like the PPC to break even if there's so little being stocked and so little effort to sell it. Why isn't Amtrak selling train related mementos and trinkets in the PPC and SSL? Why doesn't the PPC attendant come around and offer drinks and snacks at your seat? Heck why don't all train attendants do that? I don't expect Amtrak to break even but it sure seems like they could counteract more of the overhead with a stronger emphasis on stocking and selling goods that make sense on a train. Instead they keep further degrading the service and my desire to make use of it.
 
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