Passenger Trains > A Viewliner hint

Ok, so I have decided to share this here. On several other forums credible source have dropped a hint on the Viewliner order, the hint is:
306.

Make of it what you will, it was offered without further comment. Though I will add that on other forums a line of thinking is that you might want to consult your Julian Calenders. However, anything beyond the number 306 is pure speculation.

Cheers,
Nick

Posted from iPhone

On a Julian Calendar, 306 is generally November 2nd.  HOWEVER, since this is a Leap Year, 306 is November 1st.

So if the Julian Date theory is correct, there will probably be either an announcement or a delivery on Tuesday November 1st.

Pure speculation, of course.

Why does CAF and Amtrak keep this as secret as the POTUS's Nuclear Code ?
Who the hell do they think they are.

"Why does CAF and Amtrak keep this as secret as the POTUS's Nuclear Code ?
Who the hell do they think they are." Amen.PennPlat

Moorman has been in long enough to sort things through, I trust his judgement whatever way things go.

If there is a delivery or a positive announcement in early November, there are surely going to be many sour grapes from the Amtrak antagonists on this board.  

Sometimes I think the worst of the anti-Amtrak TO.com peanut gallery actually hopes for its failure.

Art House

I might add that I hope delivery dates and a followup order are announced. However if there is a cancellation, I will believe that Moorman found something which was terribly wrong.

The new consultant on the project, a Dr Nostradamus, predicts that the new cars will come off the line in ----------------------------------

< If there is a delivery or a positive announcement in early November, there are surely going to be many sour grapes from the Amtrak antagonists on this board.  Sometimes I think the worst of the anti-Amtrak TO.com peanut gallery actually hopes for its failure. >

The fact that they are years late and it has been since last spring since CAF pumped out a baggage car means they have already failed. All will not be forgiven, and not to ever do business with that outfit again. 

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Why does CAF and Amtrak keep this as secret as the
> POTUS's Nuclear Code ?
> Who the hell do they think they are.

Well the source that dropped this nugget is I think someone who would know something about this, but I would doubt is authorized to tell anyone, so their secrecy is understanable. 

As for CAF, I've worked for government contractors. nobody, but nobody tells the outside world anything, we didn't tell the client things they didn't need to know. Why? Because we were scared of being sued for any reason. There are so many little things that can screw you over when working for the government, like improper documentation. Little human mistakes can cost you millions of dollars. Furthermore with no imformation being released, we can only speculate about the delays, we can't say any thing definative. They could come out when this is all done and say it was all Amtrak's change orders, and unless Amtrak corrects the record, no one would be the wiser. The point is, CAF's repuation is being tarnished far less than it probably should be, so secrecy is good for CAF. I also think that the delays have annoyed Amtrak, I think (and this is a big knock on wood type thing) CAFs refusal to give up the contract despite big losses on it, actually might be a positive for them and Amtrak. Other companies would walk away, CAF seems determined to deliver a quality product. A lot of the delays also seem to stem from suppliers not being able to deliver things in a timely fashion. Some of these things are things that CAF really might have had only one choice of vendor on, so there isn't really much to be done with slow deliveries of parts. 
Cheers,
Nick

It will be interesting to see how the CAF + Viewliner + Amtrak situation unfolds.

With a new guy in charge at Amtrak, he's undoubtedly put a trusted lieutenant on the case to report back to him with background and recommendations.

Many political situations have a godfather or patrone behind the decision. You don't mess with him or her.   I asked a few weeks ago if there had been significant layoffs at CAF, and received PMs that there have not been.  So, what are these people doing, day by day?  They're not bolting cars together, or welding fixtures.  Nothing new has shown up on the ready track in months.

At some point, Wick will have to sit down with the CAF people and with Chuck Schumer to reach some kind of agreement.



 

Have not seen  anything on this potentially hopefull situation other than  your  post. Got  some info  from inside??

Apparently part of the problem stems from Buy America requirements and American vendors being unable to meet delivery commitments. Another issue was the difficulty in finding adequately trained American Workers at the time they were needed at the location. This was specially true of Stainless Steel welders for some reason. Anyway, we will slowly learn the real reasons after the fact over the years.

Jishnu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Apparently part of the problem stems from Buy
> America requirements and American vendors being
> unable to meet delivery commitments. Another issue
> was the difficulty in finding adequately trained
> American Workers at the time they were needed at
> the location. This was specially true of Stainless
> Steel welders for some reason. Anyway, we will
> slowly learn the real reasons after the fact over
> the years.

Thanks for that.

One of the problems with the Buy America rules is they have a Buy Local corollary.  So, the Septa rail cars have to be built in Philadelphia. Hire local people, train them on specialized tasks, and 18  months later they're on the dole again. While local people are being hired in Hornell or Elmira or Plattsburgh, and trained in some of the same technical skills.  Chuck Schumer doesn't have a benefit in letting Philadelphia workers build cars he funded with taxpayer money

I hoped Amtrak gets out the News before my Cruise on Princess on Nov 14. for 2 weeks I will be away from home.

The square root of 306 is 17.492855...

The whole Viewliner fiasco has got to be one of the biggest thorn in Amtrak's backside. Thus it falls on Mooreman to get this fixed. And since this project is a laughing stock, he's got to be going after it or looking for ways to address it and bring it to resolution. I strongly doubt the freight railroads operate this way with procuring equipment. 

I believe in buying American too, but in some cases it is just absolutely not feasible. Be it the purchase of a train cars or simply buying a desk lamp. Others want American made things, but they aren't willing to pay the price. It's like the whole steel industry. Anyway, point being buy American where it makes sense. If Europe has a better product and the "know how" - especially for train building - they should step in and almost ship final product. 

CAF should have been disqualified for lack of prior FRA-compliant experience from ever bidding. So Amtrak makes a big goof, then acts like a victim.
Typical.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> CAF should have been disqualified for lack of
> prior FRA-compliant experience from ever bidding.
> So Amtrak makes a big goof, then acts like a
> victim.
> Typical.

Were there any other bidders?

If I recall, the order was to be paid for with operating savings by Amtrak. Perhaps part of the problem was Amtrak not having the money when needed. Saying take your time on that would be easy if Amtrak did not have the funds available.