But that involves so few fun hypotheticals.
Reduce or cancel Auto Train to relieve shortages
- Thread starter Swadian Hardcore
- Start date
Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:
- Status
Ryan
Court Jester
Caesar La Rock
OBS Chief
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2011
- Messages
- 701
This idea is so bad that it took me until today just to respond to this. All I can say is even thinking of this idea you will be ticking off a lot of people.
I totally agree with you. The idea is so bad that it left me speechless (which is a difficult thing to do).
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Argh, stop besieging me! Peace treaty? Didn't mean to transgress!
Caesar La Rock
OBS Chief
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2011
- Messages
- 701
Sorry if my post sounded rude, but why would you think of an idea like this? Suggest this to Amtrak and they would laugh at you.
johnny.menhennet
Conductor
Is it possible that this user is the actual member of Guest_USrail21_* after we criticized him for posting crap as a guest? This is not the only thread that has made me think so. If I actually take this seriously for a minute, the answer to everything is still NO!
Since the OP doesn't suggest using the Auto Train cars to run a high-speed transcontinental maglev through the PATH subway to Grand Central, I'm going to say no on that one.
johnny.menhennet
Conductor
I suppose it's on already scale, since we didn't here anything like "let's go over the Sierras at 150 before going down to Vegas and then Phoenix on a bridge over the Grand Canyon. I still find the resemblances uncanny in many ways though.
I've brought up the Santa Fe Hi-Levels before, and I'll give you credit for something that isn't a bad idea. What basically happened with those is that IL bought them (I believe from Amtrak) but never managed to round up the money to refurbish them. Amtrak bought back 5 of the 6 lounges as PPCs, but they've never sought to use the coaches for fleet maintenance reasons. They're currently sitting in a yard outside St. Louis, IIRC.
The problem with the Hi-Levels is that they're non-matching equipment that happens to be fast approaching 60 years old. Now, as North Carolina has shown, old equipment can be put to good use for a very long time, particularly if it hasn't been moving around for a large amount of that time and has been maintained...but there are drawbacks as well. It might be worth Amtrak's time and energy to try and work with IL to pitch the cars to one state or another for starting up corridor service somewhere on the cheap (Florida, I'm looking at you), but Amtrak would have to throw in some SSL/coach-cafe cars to supplement them. The one upside, though, is that the Hi-Level fleet did include some step-down coaches IIRC, so they could run them as part of a split-level train (i.e. a train with a couple of bilevels on one end and some single level cars on the other end).
VentureForth
Engineer
Swadian Hardcore actually apologized, USRail21 never has...
Back to the sectionals for a minute. The current Superliner carries 64 up stairs. You can put 10 berths end to end with 15 feet of the coach left for restroom and vestibule. Across each pair would be four bunks in "club" form. This would carry 60 sleepers. The only draw back would be relatively uncomfortable daytime seating which would be minimal.
Take a look at that article again. People want to lay down to sleep but can't afford to or can't get a room due to availability. Autotrain, by definition of its purpose, should be an all sleeper train.
Our esteemed guest, besides having no clue as to how railroads work and no clue as to the cost of his silly proposals, also had no clue as to the proper use of English. Swadian has a grasp on grammar and spelling.
Just to be clear, the State of Illinois did not buy the Hi-Levels. They were bought by a private company called the Illinois Transit Assembly Corporation, who acquired them under the speculation that someone would come back later and want to fix them up and restore them to service.
That hasn't happened yet, and at this point probably never will, so they sit dead in a yard in Madison, IL, having not moved in probably a decade or more.
Also, I don't think (but couldn't be sure) Amtrak ever sold and bought back the Pacific Parlour Cars. I want to say that the five PPCs were always Amtrak's (well, since 1971 anyway).
Last edited by a moderator:
cirdan
Engineer
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2011
- Messages
- 3,681
NCDot are also doing fine with older equipment.
But I do appreciate that there are arguments against using such equipment. But if it were retained purely for peak use and spares that would already be an improvement.
I agree, AFAIK Amtrak has always owned the PPC's. And there used to be 6 of them, 39970-39975. Around 2001, which I believe is also when Amtrak sold off most of the other high level cars to ITAC, 39971 was sold to Northwest Sky Rail Charters. The latest information says that the car is now sitting in storage in Iowa.
VentureForth
Engineer
Did the choices change after I voted? I swear I voted to increase Auto Train, but I have no desire to reduce capacity elsewhere...
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
I can swear that I am not whoever USrail21 is! Stop getting crazy harsh about me, or speculating if I could have been someone else!
This is just a forum, not a war! Please, chill off and play some Mount & Blade!
Last edited by a moderator:
Huh?
:blink:
::Googles::
Oh, I see. It's like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but different.
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Haha! You cracked me up! :lol: I just said that to confuse people and make people less hostile to me! But other than jokes, that's also where my namesake comes from!
Last edited by a moderator:
Devil's Advocate
⠀⠀⠀
Seems to me that this entire thread is a good example of how confusing people can make them more hostile toward you. To be perfectly frank this topic seems to be wrapped up in logic that only you seem to fully understand. It's a fantasy question apparently, about what we each perceive to be a "cool" resource management decision, but with the restriction that any changes must involve reducing or canceling the Auto-train. Unfortunately it's never fully explained why anyone would want to do that or what exactly would be gained and how. If you want less hostility in the future, my suggestion is to do your best to avoid confusing people as much as possible. Just my dos centavos and nothing more.
Last edited by a moderator:
- Status
