Passenger Trains > Thanksgiving surge fleet announcements?

Every year Amtrak will pull cars out of the attic and lease equipment from commuter agencies to haul some of its heaviest one day loads of the year. That's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Does anyone have insight into what they hope to use this year?

Over the years the lists have included MARC electric engines into NY Penn, MBTA diesels as far west as New Haven, NJ Transit MU equipment to DC and new Haven, etc. I don't recall leases of MetroNorth or LIRR equipment. It's often a good opportunity to see equipment outside its usual haunts.

Does Amtrak lease or borrow commuter equipment for service out of Chicago, etc?

That was an interesting time of year for a railfan when I was living in New Jersey. Never saw any SEPTA equipment out to Amtrak during the Thanksgiving timeframe, though.

Mark

They used to use Metra sets on short-hauls across Turkey Day, but haven't done so in years. One year they leased MARC coaches and brought them west to use of CHI, but them days are long gone. Now they just suffer through with whatever can be made to roll on the property.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Does Amtrak lease or borrow commuter equipment for
> service out of Chicago, etc?

okieinexile Wrote:
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> That was an interesting time of year for a railfan
> when I was living in New Jersey. Never saw any
> SEPTA equipment out to Amtrak during the
> Thanksgiving timeframe, though.
>
> Mark


Amtrak used a few sets of Septa MU equipment during the 1990s. I've also seen at least one electric engine with standard commuter coaches. Extra service between Philadelphia and New York. I think they may sample MAC, Septa, NJ Transit etc and see who has the best availability of equipment and favorable prices at any given time

The movement of college students is enormous in the NEC on the day before Thanksgiving. Based on my observations, they are much of what floods Logan airport, South Station, etc on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The NJ Transit MU coaches are enormous capacity trains. Set up with 12 cars, carrying 125 seated passengers, you're carrying 1500 passengers (10 737s). Being able to grab 1500 students at a time in places like Newark DE (University of Delaware), Princeton Jct, New Brunswick, Newark NJ, New Haven, Providence, etc will keep them out of the regularly scheduled equipment. It also allows you to put some of those freed up Amfleet coaches on longer haul Silver service trains, etc.

1500 kids in a commuter train won't be comfortable, but it will get the job done.

The only times I remember seeing MBTA equipment used by Amtrak for Thanksgiving loads was on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, not the Wednesday before. Maybe I just missed the Wednesday moves, but it would make sense that way, since the MBTA wouldn't be running much traffic on Sunday but would need its trains for its own purposes on Wednesday. There were several years when MBTA equipment came as far south as New Haven, and "connected" there with holiday extras made up with MARC equipment. Those were presumably the only occasions those two commuter railroads' equipment have ever mingled in revenue service.

For the past several years, the only lease equipment has been on the NEC on Wed. and Sun. - two MARC sets from Baltimore that make a round trip and two NJT MU sets that make two rtrips on Sun. They have used CDOT former SPV coaches on Sun. to represent the Springield-NHV shuttles to free up some Amfleet I's for extra NEC traffic. Aside from the aforementioned extra equipment, extra cars/sections are run by making tighter equipment turns at each terminal. For instance, in Chicago train #351 from Pontiac, which normally turns for #354, makes a quick turn for #352 on Wed. and Sun.
Before about 2001 MBTA provided equipment for some BOS-NHV extra sections and before about 1990 Metro-North provided a set for a NY-Albany rT on Sunday. When the turbos were running an extra RT was provided on Wed. and Sun. NY-ALB (and NY-Syracuse before about 1990).

Andy

I sure hope they announce things soon! Most of the Amtrak Cascades trains are already sold out between SEA-PDX and PDX-SEA...

okieinexile Wrote:
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> That was an interesting time of year for a railfan
> when I was living in New Jersey. Never saw any
> SEPTA equipment out to Amtrak during the
> Thanksgiving timeframe, though.
>
> Mark

I haven't seen any SEPTA equipment used recently, although Amtrak has had a SEPTA trainset on standby in recent years.
photos: eastbound Amtrak Keystone Service train passing through Overbrook on Thanksgiving Sunday, 2003

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If someone is really on their toes, a nicely printed card would be handed to every rider on the Holiday weekend saying:

Thanks for riding with us this Holiday. In order to provide service to as many passengers as possible on our busiest days of the year, we have borrowed some cars from other rail carriers. These cars are not quite as roomy and comfortable as our regular equipment on this route. We hope you understand. We are doing everything we can to meet your travel needs.

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10% off your next Amtrak ticket


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Amtrak hs in past years borrowed commuter coaches from Caltrain for certain peak periods for use on the Sacramento to Oakland route.

Macster Wrote:
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> I sure hope they announce things soon! Most of the
> Amtrak Cascades trains are already sold out
> between SEA-PDX and PDX-SEA...


What would Amtrak have available in the area that would be available? Last time I checked, all Sounder equipment had been returned from VRE and Metrolink and is needed for Sounder service. Maybe some spare Amfleet cars like when the Talgos went down for a while?

Mark