Passenger Trains > Did I Miss Something

Amtrak 5 was scheduled to depart Denver at 8:05 a.m.Friday but left early. What was the deal?

5(23) is exclusively occupied by a group (286 passengers) who boarded in Chicago, IL traveling to Emeryville, CA. The train is making no regular passenger stops (other than service stops).  Therefore train has been running early for most of its journey.

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Good thing I didn't want to get on at Denver today.

Wow. Chicago to Omaha in 8:09. Running like a Zephyr!

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With that many people on board. 

One would think they would add extra cars. To handle the extra load.

What does Amtrak do with the people who had made Reserations for the train?
 

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

Sounds like another Silver Meteor Safety Patrol situation. I do not think groups should be able to charter an entire train. They can scrounge up extra cars this time of year.
Imagine if they did that on the NEC, even with a train every hour. 
 

In all my years, I have never heard of Amtrak doing this stupid thing. What about the folks that depend on Amtrak in those snowbound "fly-over" states, need it to get home, etc. Surely there should have been extra cars added or a stub train operated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/17 11:14 by railwaybaron.

Several times back in the 80's, the Shriners would buy out a whole train...its not unheard of. 

Called Train Jam a number of developers going to SF for a conferene and as they travel develop programs in the timeline between the two points ( Chicago and San Francisco). A previous co-worker mdentioned it to me, since he knows I'm a railfan, that was a surprise didn't think Amtrak would allow the Charter of a whole train.

I wondered about that since it has listed that train as sold out for several weeks when looking at potential booking dates.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/17 09:18 by Cupolau.

In my younger, pre-Amtrak, days I saw trains several times with extra cars. In fact if you regularly check the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum, the Rio Grande even ran extra trains on the San Juan schedule. Haven't seen anything like that in the Amtrak world lately, at least not in my area.

Even with the express running, today's #5 doesn't quite match the running times of the pre-Amtrak Denver and California Zephyr trains over the Q.
Back in the day, the 79 MPH speed limit was often exceeded when necessary to gain time.  Not today with the event recorders and engineer liscensing.
Andy

Wasn't the pre-Amtrak Zephyr a 90-mph train in places?

railwaybaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In all my years, I have never heard of Amtrak
> doing this stupid thing. What about the folks that
> depend on Amtrak in those snowbound "fly-over"
> states that need it to get home, etc. Surely there
> should have been extra cars added or a stub train
> operated.

Completely sold train for the entire route length? That does not seem so stupid to me.

How many regular paid up passengers were booted off and had to completely restructure their plans ?

On their website, it says "We now have three coach class cars, two sleeper cars, one restaurant car, and two observation cars all to ourselves. This has given us a lot more freedom with the planning, options for attendees, and is generally amazing!"

Seems good. But I don't see why that isn't an extra charter train, rather than wiping on the existing scheduled train. Presumbly Amtrak doesn't lose money on running it, so why not make it an extra. People will probably mention equipment, crews, etc. But something in this is just about whether Amtrak cares if daily services is consistent.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/17 11:00 by inCHI.

Goes to show you what Amtrak thinks of its commitment to LD service. It's a novelty and its passengers are expendable. Perhaps this behavior needs to be legislatively stopped.

I doubt any "regular" passengers were "harmed" by this. Sources indicate planning for this date back to last July.
Likely Amtrak never made this date available to the general public to book.  No one was "booted off."
You wil note they have a second sightseer lounge car on the train.

Congratulations to Amtrak's group sales department for pulling this one off. I hope other groups can do the same.

if this train trip was never on the public schedule, and never available for outsider purchase, nobody was kicked off. And Amtrak sold it out

It seems to me that a sold out train is a sold out train, regardless of who is riding it.