JohannFarley
Service Attendant
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2016
- Messages
- 130
This is something I've been thinking about and researching for quite some time. I was wondering what the reason was that Amtrak went with superliners in the west. I know the viewliners are in the east because of height restrictions in tunnels, but surely they could have been used system-wide? I know the first superliners were made before the first viewliners, this is more of a hypothetical single vs double level cars. I found some figures which I will post below, please correct me if anything is incorrect:
Superliners
Price Per Car (1978) - 1.2 million
Adjusted for Inflation (2012) - Approx. 4.3 million
Rooms - 14 roomettes, 6 bedrooms, 1 accessible bedroom
Weight - Approx. 80-85 tons
Top Speed - 100 mph
Viewliners
(The price each is from dividing the total cost of the CAF order by the number of cars, its just an approximation)
Price per car (VII's) - 2.3 million
Rooms - 12 roomettes, 2 bedrooms, 1 accessible bedroom
Weight - 65 tons
Top Speed - 110/125 mph (VI/VII)
It would seem to me that it would have been better to get all viewliners (or an equivalent single-level fleet), because they are cheaper, lighter, faster. They are only 1 floor so they are much easier to traverse. They may have 6 less rooms, but 2 viewliners can be bought for approx the same price as a superliner. So you could have one superliner for 4.6 mil with 21 rooms, or you could have two viewliners for the same price with 30 rooms. Just curious as to others opinions on this and to why the west coast has superliners.
Superliners
Price Per Car (1978) - 1.2 million
Adjusted for Inflation (2012) - Approx. 4.3 million
Rooms - 14 roomettes, 6 bedrooms, 1 accessible bedroom
Weight - Approx. 80-85 tons
Top Speed - 100 mph
Viewliners
(The price each is from dividing the total cost of the CAF order by the number of cars, its just an approximation)
Price per car (VII's) - 2.3 million
Rooms - 12 roomettes, 2 bedrooms, 1 accessible bedroom
Weight - 65 tons
Top Speed - 110/125 mph (VI/VII)
It would seem to me that it would have been better to get all viewliners (or an equivalent single-level fleet), because they are cheaper, lighter, faster. They are only 1 floor so they are much easier to traverse. They may have 6 less rooms, but 2 viewliners can be bought for approx the same price as a superliner. So you could have one superliner for 4.6 mil with 21 rooms, or you could have two viewliners for the same price with 30 rooms. Just curious as to others opinions on this and to why the west coast has superliners.