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Dinner served on eastbound Sunset into New Orleans?
This is probably a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure. Who knows what Amtrak tries to pull these days. I remember back in 2005 on the eastbound Lake Shore (when it still had a diner), the dining car served a "brunch" from 10:30-11:30, and promptly closed the diner for the remainder of the trip. Mind you, the train wasn't scheduled into New York until 3:30, and we were running 2 hours late on top of that!
 
Dinner served on eastbound Sunset into New Orleans?
This is probably a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure. Who knows what Amtrak tries to pull these days. I remember back in 2005 on the eastbound Lake Shore (when it still had a diner), the dining car served a "brunch" from 10:30-11:30, and promptly closed the diner for the remainder of the trip. Mind you, the train wasn't scheduled into New York until 3:30, and we were running 2 hours late on top of that!
Yes, Dinner is served in the Diner since the Sunset runs on its Regular Schedule between San Antonio and New Orleans even with the revised Schedule between LAX and San Antonio due to Trackwork.( the Sunset is notorious for being Late into New Orleans, usually several Hours even when leaving Houston on Time!)
 
I've been looking through recent data on asm.transitdocs.com for the Sunset Limited, and it seems to stop at Palm Springs only sporadically - most days, it looks like it rolls through without stopping, maybe on one of the non-platform tracks. Is Palm Springs treated as a de-facto flag stop, where they only stop if they know a passenger is booked for it ahead of time?
 
What do you mean it only stop sometimes? Last few dates #2 has arrival and departure information.
 
What do you mean it only stop sometimes? Last few dates #2 has arrival and departure information.
Yeah, it usually gives an arrival & departure time, but sometimes it arrives & departs in the same minute, or doesn't record a departure time, and the location data doesn't show it slowing down or stopping. Maybe just an artifact of the recording apparatus, but it got me suspicious. Here's an example from train 2 of June 4th, whose records say it arrived and departed at 12:53am.Screenshot 2023-06-09 at 5.46.05 PM.png
 
Not sure. I think it's very possible that they are coming to a complete stop, but I wouldn't rule out rolling stops.

Not many people are going to choose to take a train that stops in the dead of night three times a wake, and has an inconvenient stop location in a fairly small city. It can board and deboard people pretty fast. I believe that the P42's can get going fairly fast, and the Sunset doesn't have a super long train either.

Transit docs isn't Amtrak and doesn't always have the most accurate date (sometimes Amtrak doesn't either). I don't think the lack of a departure time is a very good indicator.
 
I've been looking through recent data on asm.transitdocs.com for the Sunset Limited, and it seems to stop at Palm Springs only sporadically - most days, it looks like it rolls through without stopping, maybe on one of the non-platform tracks. Is Palm Springs treated as a de-facto flag stop, where they only stop if they know a passenger is booked for it ahead of time?
Maybe it's this:
1686370674450.png
 
Not sure. I think it's very possible that they are coming to a complete stop, but I wouldn't rule out rolling stops.

Not many people are going to choose to take a train that stops in the dead of night three times a wake, and has an inconvenient stop location in a fairly small city. It can board and deboard people pretty fast. I believe that the P42's can get going fairly fast, and the Sunset doesn't have a super long train either.

Transit docs isn't Amtrak and doesn't always have the most accurate date (sometimes Amtrak doesn't either). I don't think the lack of a departure time is a very good indicator.
Here's a more convincing example: Train 2 of June 11th passed by (or possibly departed) Palm Springs 12 minutes early last night. That'd never happen under ordinary circumstances.
 

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When I was on the SL last month they made an announcement that they wouldn't stop at PSN. I don't think we even slowed down.
 
Does anyone know when the cafe in lounge car on west bound Sunset Limited closes? Getting on in Maricopa AZ if on time at 8:51pm.TIA
 
When the attendant feels like it is the general answer.

The service standards manual ("Blue Book") says:
"b) Hours of Service – Long Distance Trains
• Cafe/Lounge Cars operating on long distance trains (500 miles or more) will have normal hours of service from 6:00 am until midnight, unless otherwise indicated on the train manifest."

What actually happens onboard is different, like most things specified in the standards. I have seldom (never?) seen them open until midnight. Mostly they close down by 11, often by 10. The earliest I have ever seen it close is 5 pm when the attendant took his dinner break and never came back.

In short, if the train is on time, chances are good the cafe will be serving when you board at Maricopa, but you cannot absolutely count in it.

Like most everything Amtrak, Your Mileage May Vary.
 
Does anyone know when the cafe in lounge car on west bound Sunset Limited closes? Getting on in Maricopa AZ if on time at 8:51pm.TIA
I asked "Julie" when the cafe closed, and "she" connected me to a real agent, who, after considerable delay, said the cafe closes at 10 pm.

But as @zephyr17 said, it's generally just up to the whims of the attendant.
 
I asked "Julie" when the cafe closed, and "she" connected me to a real agent, who, after considerable delay, said the cafe closes at 10 pm.

But as @zephyr17 said, it's generally just up to the whims of the attendant.
Maybe, maybe not. The customer service agents really do not know much of anything about ground truth onboard, especially on LDs. Interesting the agent didn't just quote what was in the Blue Book, though.
 
Apparently there is no spare equipment for the Sunset Limited ... such as a sleeper car.

Yesterday I received a phone call from Amtrak stating that they had to take our sleeper car out of service. They were having to relocate everyone currently ticketed to this sleeper car to alternative accommodations. They were moving us from Roomette 4 to the Accessible Bedroom. I was appreciative, at first, that we had a room. Then, after the call, I had questions:
  1. There is no spare sleeper car to replace the car taken out of service? That means Amtrak is running very thin on equipment (to me).
  2. If they are running this thin ... How good a shape are the cars in that they are running?
  3. What happened to the car that it had to be taken out of service?
  4. Our trip isn't for another few weeks ... How long does it take to repair a train car?
  5. Were they able to relocate everyone to an alternative room (of some type)? or, did some get moved to coach?
Just questions that ran through my head after the call. Maybe rhetorical, but if anyone has any answers ... I'm curious.

This is our first ever Amtrak trip. I wanted to try out the potential worst accommodations for a ~30hr one night trip. We had originally purchased a roomette to Houston and riding coach coming back. Basically, can we handle a tiny roomette; size and sleeping conditions. And, can we handle sleeping in coach. It is only one night each way, but, basically a test run. Now we won't be testing the roomette.
 
Is that due to lack of passengers or lack of equipment?
I would like to know. The train used to carry a minium of two or three coaches depending on the season. Then again, I remember when a sleeper and two coaches from the Eagle was attached to the SL in the 80s.

So to answer your question who knows? Can't see how this help costs. Don't know why they just run the train to CHI and setoff three cars at SAT to go to NOL. But that would require more than three consists.
 
Well .. I'm guessing it is lack of equipment.

Just got a call yesterday and they had to reassign me from a roomette to an accessible bedroom (for a trip 2.5 weeks out). They had to take the car I was in out of service. That signals to me that they have a very limited availability (or basically none) of replacement cars.
 
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Well .. I'm guessing it is lack of equipment.

Just got a call yesterday and they had to reassign me from a roomette to an accessible bedroom (for a trip 2.5 weeks out). They had to take the car I was in out of service. That signals to me that they have a very limited availability (or basically none) of replacement cars.
Or they do not wish to assign whatever they have available to that run of Sunset Limited. That determination could be based on projected bookings for that day, among various other things. They definitely do not have any idea which specific car you were going to get in the consist three weeks out. It is more of a fleet allocation decision based on many factors.
 
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