Passenger Trains > First of four new passenger car types now in field test

Amtrak news release about testing program for new Viewliner II baggage
car, and about the Viewliner II program in general.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/14 21:03 by GenePoon.

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Now that speaks volumes. Old news, and the wording is great "...Americans want a national system of intercity passenger rail...".

Whoever wrote it either flunked PR 101, or..Amtrak does NOT want a national system, nor does the overseers in Congress. The way this is written, one could make a valid case that the only ones who want it are "Americans" - which is a rather nebulous term to begin with.

"Intercity" vs "Long Distance" is clearly indicated. Boardman states "inter-city". I think not only quite clearly, but also quite literally and intentionally so.

And note - as has been said before - all 4 types are single level, 3 are for Eastern "Long Distance" only (which somewhat belies the words of the Chairman) and the 4th can be used on those routes.

Nothing says ANYTHING about western LD trains. Nor is there any support for any. Nor, does the Chairman even call it such.

Nitpicking? Semantics (hey - I am NOT anti-semantic) - perhaps. But, the first thing they teach you in PR is you either are not ambiguous, or you are intentionally so. Never, ever, be unintentionally ambiguous. So when reading PR statements, what is NOT said is often more important than what IS said. This is a classic case.

Recap:
NO support (or even acknowledgement) of Long Distance trains by CEO.
No support, or new cars (aside from baggage) for Western Long Distance.
These are INTER CITY cars - aka, corridor, not Long Distance cars - per the CEO.
Americans - a term never defined (and YES - you have to use definitions here as "Americans" can and does mean many things to many people - just ask a Canadian or a Mexican - or a Congressman who uses "Americans" and "They" as synonyms).
Does CONGRESS want intercity trains? THAT is the real question. Are they not Americans? Depends on how you define it, and since it is never defined...

Note that the term "intercity" is one rarely used in terms of Long Distance trains - but typically used in relation to corridor trains - and regional, state supported trains.

I see "Long Distance" in there eight times if I can count correctly. And I wouldn;t put much stake in trying to read between the lines on the Boardman words - I have ghost written more thana few words with the PR guys at work that come from our vice presidents in the press releases. I really wouldn;t paanic over this press release - it is pretty banal and the only real news is where the baggace car will go. What bugs me more is there is nothing mentioned about the rest of the order and the delivery and test schedlue for them other than the "four types of cars" stuff.

Amtrak is testing them now? After the specs are set and they are in production? What do they do if something unexpected shows up? Change the spec to make the problem not be a problem anymore?

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA