Silver Sleepers Sold out

[Train2104]

Obviously Amtrak doesn’t have 2 identical trains on the same long distance route and they don’t want to destroy a large customer base...

Do we have any idea how many of Amtrak's customers are repeat customers? VIA has touted their extremely high retention rate before.

 

[Seaboard92]

What makes no sense to me is the star generally can sell it's sleepers out. And with new sleeping cars coming in service soon. It's not an equipment issue

 

[acelafan]

I don't know what percentage of Amtrak's customers are repeats and how it splits by coach vs sleepers. My few trips on overnight trains has shown me a mix of new and repeats.

It's not an equipment issue to remove sleepers from the Star. I think this is plan, if that's what it is, is purely a financial demonstration given the incessant attacks on LD trains by a good portion of Congress.

 

[KmH]

As far as LD trains - Amtrak says sleeping car passengers account for 15 percent of long distance riders.

I would bet a majority of sleeper berth riders are repeats.

 

[Guest]

I asked the conductor about no sleeper accomodations available for all those months. He said maybe the rumor he has been hearing is true, that trains 91 & 92 will no longer offer sleeping accomodations. I hope this is not ture.

The sleepers will be on 97 and 98 only? Even with the new sleepers?

With no sleepers, would 91 and 92 still have any need for its new dinner?

 

[Ryan]

That isn't going to happen.

This happened before, and then the sleepers became bookable again. Something screwy with the computer, is all.

 

[niemi24s]

Why did a vision of the children's book "Chicken Little" suddenly pop into my head?

 

[chakk]

Vending machines for all meals? Shades of the Automat cars that Southern Pacific employed on their LD trains in the final years before Amtrak!

 

[Palmetto]

That isn't going to happen.

This happened before, and then the sleepers became bookable again. Something screwy with the computer, is all.

It seems to be taking quite a while to fix, though, don't you think?

 

[Guest]

That isn't going to happen.

This happened before, and then the sleepers became bookable again. Something screwy with the computer, is all.

It seems to be taking quite a while to fix, though, don't you think?

+1

Especially since we're talking about some rather major revenue here. IMHO, someone or some agency some how booked them all, and they will only reappear when they fail to pay for them, or eventually cancel them.

 

[JoeBas]

That isn't going to happen.

This happened before, and then the sleepers became bookable again. Something screwy with the computer, is all.

It seems to be taking quite a while to fix, though, don't you think?

Given how long it took to fix the "One room left" Bucket Bug, you're surprised?...

 

[niemi24s]

Don't want to rain on anybody parade, but I just found a roomette on both Silvers for the 21st of every month from July through December, 2015.from MIA to NYP. The sky appears to have quit falling.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Don't want to rain on anybody parade, but I just found a roomette on both Silvers for the 21st of every month from July through December, 2015.from MIA to NYP. The sky appears to have quit falling.

Screenshot please. I just looked at Oct 21 and there are not rooms listed for 92.

11:50am - 6:42pm (Oct 22)
30 hr, 52 min
92 Silver Star

---

1 Reserved Coach Seat

1 Reserved Coach Seat

None Left

 

[prech786]

Don't want to rain on anybody parade, but I just found a roomette on both Silvers for the 21st of every month from July through December, 2015.from MIA to NYP. The sky appears to have quit falling.

Just checked 1 minute ago. No sleeper space shows available on the Silver Star 91-92 in either direction on any day I looked at after July 1, 2015. Here's what I see. The sleeper spaces goes away on exactly July 1, 2015, June 30 you can book a room; July 1, No. I looked out as far as it would let me, Feb. 25, 2016. Still no space

Interestingly Amtrak reservation doesn't say "Sold Out" in Red, it says "None Left" in Gray. In the past I've seen Red "Sold Out" announcements for sleeper space when it was truly "Sold Out" on one particular day. Is there any importance to the semantic or color message change?

In a any case as of 9:22 AM CDT 3/27/15 no sleeper space shows available on the Silver Star 91-92 in either direction on any day I looked at after July 1, 2015

 

[niemi24s]

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! 92's rooms disappeared for 21 Oct!! Rooms are, however, available on 98. So I guess the sky is still falling a little bit. Methinks the Amtrak computer needs a good hard poke with the custodian's mop handle.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Curious if anyone has called to try booking a room on the Silver past June. I believe a few AUers may have already booked rooms on the Silver for October and I don't think they've been notified of any changes.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Curious if anyone has called to try booking a room on the Silver past June. I believe a few AUers may have already booked rooms on the Silver for October and I don't think they've been notified of any changes.

Yes, I checked TRE to WPK for the first week of December and the Star says "None left" under the roomette/bedroom category. And that is usually a slow travel week. The Meteor seems to be fine.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Curious if anyone has called to try booking a room on the Silver past June. I believe a few AUers may have already booked rooms on the Silver for October and I don't think they've been notified of any changes.

Yes, I checked TRE to WPK for the first week of December and the Star says "None left" under the roomette/bedroom category. And that is usually a slow travel week. The Meteor seems to be fine.

Did you call? That is what I'm asking. I know the website shows none left.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Curious if anyone has called to try booking a room on the Silver past June. I believe a few AUers may have already booked rooms on the Silver for October and I don't think they've been notified of any changes.

Yes, I checked TRE to WPK for the first week of December and the Star says "None left" under the roomette/bedroom category. And that is usually a slow travel week. The Meteor seems to be fine.

Did you call? That is what I'm asking. I know the website shows none left.

Oh, I'm sorry--I misunderstood. No, I've never booked by calling, so will leave it to someone who is better on the phone to find out.

 

[Paulus]

From @Amtrak

It appears that our corporate office is currently holding the sale of sleepers due to some upcoming adjustments.

So it isn't a bug in the system at least.

 

[NE933]

I'm on the Northbound Meteor in May, and of three of us (who have two separate reservations since I paid for mine using Guest Reward Points), I got an email showing the schedule changed to approx. 15 minutes earlier.

 

[Palmland]

I suspect this has much to do about reducing expenses, not about improving service. The Star becomes a long distance coach / cafe (perhaps with BC) train eliminating personnel and saving the expense of a diner and crew -more like the Palmetto than the Meteor.

But the Meteor gets bulked up to look more like an A-T with 4-5 sleepers and a fully staffed dining car along with a new bag-dorm. Maybe this is one of the reasons Amtrak reduced their Viewliner bag-dorm order.

 

[Rail Freak]

This could be another reason for Time Table delays! (Just A Thought)

 

[afigg]

I suspect this has much to do about reducing expenses, not about improving service. The Star becomes a long distance coach / cafe (perhaps with BC) train eliminating personnel and saving the expense of a diner and crew -more like the Palmetto than the Meteor.

But the Meteor gets bulked up to look more like an A-T with 4-5 sleepers and a fully staffed dining car along with a new bag-dorm. Maybe this is one of the reasons Amtrak reduced their Viewliner bag-dorm order.

But the Silver Star is an overnight train which serves Raleigh, Columbia SC, and Tampa. which the Meter does not do. The Star also has a longer route than the Meteor.

Finally, the House just passed a multi-year re-authorization bill which maintains the entire LD network with acceptable annual funding levels to keep it running, so long as Congress appropriates in each FY amounts close to the levels authorized in the bill. The re-authorization bill still has to be passed by the Senate with its own version and then presumably back through the House, but the Amtrak LD network has survived the acid test for support on Capitol Hill.

So a wholesale cut of service for the Silver Star does not make sense. There is a simpler explanation. The sky is not falling (not yet anyway).

 

[jebr]

Yeah, I doubt the sky is falling. (Though I've been wrong before.)

It's probably some sort of re-tooling that went wrong. Maybe for the new Viewliner IIs, maybe some upgrade to the server, or something else. (Maybe they'll be dropping a sleeper, though removing it entirely seems stupid.)