Passenger Trains > Pacific Parlour Cars...you wanted "official?"

For those who doubted that Amtrak is killing the Pacific Parlour Cars...for those
who insist on the prior announcement, that they are coming back in full force in
March...for those who say Amtrak could not be so foolish...

Abandon hope, all ye who read this:



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/18 05:43 by GenePoon.

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Without the PPCs I doubt I would want to ride the Starlight. I ride trains by choice and since sightseer lounges are crap, filled with rude, obnoxious, noisy, smelly people and trash, I would rather fly. It lessens the time exposed to same.

Ed

To my skeptics: Apologies accepted!

p.s. Thank you, Mr. Poon.

If you want to see the PPC or any lounge car service remain, please e-mail the CEO of Amtrak NOW.

Richard.Anderson@amtrak.com

Maybe they found something they didn't like when the last one went trough Beech Grove?
Aren't truck rebuilds an expensive part of a cars overhaul?
I hope they aren't basing this decision solely on the reason of car age.
Look how many of the heritage baggage cars are still turning wheels as axle count cars!

I’m not going to apologize for waiting for proof. In my profession, I’m expected to back up everything I write. A story without sources is just a rumor.

Gene, thank you for posting this. I kinda figured you’d be the one to verify or debunk the story.

I think Amtrak will be making a huge mistake if they don’t come up with a replacement for the PPC. I enjoyed using it on the Starlight, and I think every overnight train should have a sleepers-only lounge. I hope Amtrak is not following SP’s playbook from the 1960s. Time will tell.

Again the loud clear message from Amtrak is: WE DON'T want to maintain equipment (new, old, older). Especially we don't want to maintain cars built before 1965. It is harder to maintain older equipment, BUT Amtrak does not want to be involved.

They have parked the heritage diners, sleepers, coaches, dome coaches, lounges, etc. They have sold most of the cars.

The fact that the public likes the cars does not figure into Amtrak's judgment about maintaining the cars.

The Coast Starlight will just become a part of the uniform mediocrity, like the Zephyr, Chief, and Capitol Ltd with at best 2 sleepers and 3 coaches.

The Parlour Car was the only reason I rode the Starlight... Oh well...

The PCC are going to be replaced modified cross country cafe cars super liners

Posted from iPhone

Instead of signing off with "end of an era"  maybe something
along the idea of how Amtrak regrets the retirement of Pacific Parlours.
 

The Pacific Parlour cars are (soon to be were) neat cars that added a lot of "class" to Amtrak's First Class travel. That said, looking at some harsh realities, I can see why the retirement decision was made. The cars are old and, physically, they didn't exactly match up to the Superliner equipment. For example, even the vestibules presented a bit of a tripping hazard when moving between the Superliner cars and the Pacific Parlour. That might seem to most of us to be a minor thing, but in today's lawsuit-happy world, minor things can turn into a significant lawsuit. That issue is magnified with the aging demographic that is most of Amtrak's First Class customer base. So, the cars have some functional obsolescence along with some level of physical depreciation.

Whether Amtrak can do sophisticated enough financial and marketing analysis (and I have my doubts) to determine if the cost of maintaining and operating the Pacific Parlour cars is recovered by the additional ridership that they might generate is an open question. A lot of times that answer doesn't come until after the fact.

I do hope that Amtrak finds a buyer for the cars--the challenge there is that a new owner will face some of the same financial and marketing questions, unless the buyer is someone who isn't concerned about a bottom line and just wants to preserve those cars for their own sake.

No surprise here. Amtrak has consistently driven service to the lowest common denominator and the PPCs were the exception to the norm,

The hard truth is that ALL long distance trains are in jeopardy with this Administration. Expect to see a steady chipping away of services and schedules.

KansasCityChief Wrote:
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> The PCC are going to be replaced modified cross country cafe cars super liners
>

I hope you are right.

Since the 1970's, the Coast Starlight has been supplanted by many corridor trains along portions of its route, not just a couple of SEA-PDX locals. In the 1980's, it had 6 coaches south of Oakland, at least in the summer. No more. It needs some "value added" to keep it patronized.

WW Wrote:
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> I do hope that Amtrak finds a buyer for the
> cars--the challenge there is that a new owner will
> face some of the same financial and marketing
> questions, unless the buyer is someone who isn't
> concerned about a bottom line and just wants to
> preserve those cars for their own sake.

How many are there? It would be cool if some tourist RR brought them and ran them as a set.

I wonder if Corridor Capital will have the capital to add these hi-level's to the fifty hi-level coaches which it has been trying to peddle for the past few years?

Is there anything in the CBA between Amtrak and their mechanical forces that would prevent Amtrak from having these rebuilt/remanufactured by an outside contractor? Just a hypothetical, I'm not suggesting there is a vendor out there who could, or would want, to do it but I can't help but wonder if it's even an option for them that might get them a better bang for their buck to keep these in service and modernize them. I'm thinking of a place like Alstom, for instance.

Take  backs  are  hard.  A  mosified  Cross Country Cafe  could  fill the  1st class  lounge  function  well.   My  legs  did  not  actually fit  the  1950 era  cars!!

There would seem to be no reason why a ccc couldn't be made into a first class parlour car. Whilst there are no overhead windows, the side windows are adequate. With proper furniture and service they would suffice. I totally agree with auburn_ed. Much of it is about who is in the car, not the actual car itself. As for the age and "safety" of the PPC's, does that mean The Canadian with equipment older than the PPC's is not safe to ride? True it only runs 2 or 3 times per week, but given the distance of the journey, it would be interesting to see how many miles the average Manor sleeper has logged over it's live compared with the PPC's.

I saw every window in a Superliner Diner recently was marked as an emergency exit with the red handles, which I think is the standard.
It maybe was too expensive to upgrade every non-standard windows on the PPC........ among other things.