Passenger Trains > Boardman: Amtrak Full Service for Thanksgiving

Amtrak Back to Full Service for Thanksgiving, CEO Says

> Amtrak will be ready to handle the surge of passengers expected
> during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday after completing repairs on
> equipment damaged by last month’s superstorm, the passenger rail
> system’s chief said.
>
> A New Jersey power substation damaged by Hurricane Sandy, which
> struck the east coast on Oct. 29, will be fully functional tomorrow,
> and the railroad is borrowing equipment from Canada so it will have
> enough cars for holiday travelers, Joseph Boardman, Amtrak’s chief
> executive officer, said today in an interview.
>
> “We expect to be able to cover our full service load for
> Thanksgiving,” Boardman said of the holiday that falls on Nov. 22
> this year. “There are a lot of people that want to move.”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-15/amtrak-back-to-full-service-for-thanksgiving-ceo-says

I know that Amtrak always borrows equipment from the MARC Trains here in Maryland and from SEPTA in Philadelphia for the Thanksgiving travel days. I've often wondered why some of the private car owners (those who have Amtrak approved coaches) don't try to rent their cars to earn some extra money?

Amtrak is often looking for high volume coaches to help with short hauls. I haven't seen the current schedule, but "additional sections" of some Richmond, etc trains will take local traffic along the NEC, etc.

In some years, the company has borrowed 10-12 car sets of NJ Transit Arrow MU equipment. They beat just about everything other than Acela for acceleration, and you can stuff 1500 seated people on them, probably 2200 counting standees. That's enough to vacuum platforms of passengers.

In the past several years, Amtrak has leased two eight-car sets of Arrow III emus (as well as two MARC trains) for Thanksgiving Sunday New York-Washington round trips.

Nov 27, 2011: train 1057 and train 1099 passing through the Bridesburg section of Philadelphia on their way to Washington

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And how will they be working the VIA Rail equipment. Presumably it will operate on the Empire Corridor, more specifically on the Maple Leaf, Adirondack, and perhaps some short runs from NYP to Albany or NYP to Niagara Falls/Buffalo. But there is a HEP issue to overcome, et alone the dual mode issue into Penn Station NY. Is Amtrak leasing cars and locomotive from VIA Rail Canada, and then somehow hooking on a dual mode at Albany for the run to NYP?

Perhaps this will be the beginning of some relations with VIA Rail Canada to get equipment where demand is needed in the Amtrak system - more specifically with the high end sleeper revenue. Before the whole HEP was changed, VIA even interchanged a sleeper with the Montrealer and Silver Service trains to offer Canadians a ride to and from Florida.