Passenger Trains > "Big" Silver Meteor still running On Time

#98, which left Miami yesterday with 12 cars (5 coaches, cafe, "diner", 4 sleepers and baggage) was two minutes ahead leaving Philadelphia.
Between Labor Day and now the normal off-season consist has 3 coaches and 3 sleepers - 9 cars.  This 12-car consist should continue throughout the Thanksgiving holiday.
That being said, CSX has been doing a fairly good job of running this train in recent weeks.  Extra cars = additional dwell time in the stations so kudos to CSX for keeping #98 moving on mostly clear signals.
Andy
Note: Historically, this is not a big Florida train.  Prior to the "Downsizing" circa 1994 the SILVER METEOR and SILVER STAR routinely ran with 16-18 cars - most to Miami and some to Tampa.
Prior to Amtrak the SAL and SCL generally limited the METEOR to 19 cars.  The ACL used to run 20+ cars on the East and West Coast Champions during peak periods.

The 16 - 18 cars also included several food service cars that don't exist today, like "table cars". I believe it also had a west coast section. That business has been for all practical purposes written off.

This size consist for the Thanksgiving Holiday has been typical for the past few years. The Crescent has often carried a third sleeper - not sure if that will happen or not. Cardinal ran with a second sleeper. And even the Coast Starlight and SWC ran with extra sleepers (4 total and 3 total respectively). 

19’s Thursday-Friday train only had 3 coaches and they looked packed when they went through Greenville SC this morning.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> The 16 - 18 cars also included several food
> service cars that don't exist today, like "table
> cars". I believe it also had a west coast section.
> That business has been for all practical purposes
> written off.

The 16-18 car trains also included 44 seat coaches (Amfleet 2 have 59) and 22 person sleepers (Viewliners carry 30) as well as 2 diners, 2 lounges and 2 baggage cars.  They also didn't have extraordinarily higher ridership than today.

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The 16 - 18 cars also included several food
> > service cars that don't exist today, like
> "table
> > cars". I believe it also had a west coast
> section.
> > That business has been for all practical
> purposes
> > written off.
>
> The 16-18 car trains also included 44 seat coaches
> (Amfleet 2 have 59) and 22 person sleepers
> (Viewliners carry 30) as well as 2 diners, 2
> lounges and 2 baggage cars.  They also didn't
> have extraordinarily higher ridership than today.

So let me get this straight, the consists of the Florida trains are equal to that of the 80’s and 70’s, its just that the cars of today have more capacity. So Amtrak has done NOTHING to try and GROW their ridership from the 70s and 80s? Can someone reconcile that one for me? Number, I like numbers. I hear the argument of Heritage Coaches being less capacity than Amfleet II’s but any good business is going to try and expand its business not just “sustain it.” Auto Train has increased its ridership........Hmmmmm.....

Miami sections also had the Slumbercoach. The Star carried it to Tampa for a little while, but mostly to Miami. From the mid 80's until 1994, the trains ran with a diner, and a buffet car(always together), the food was prepared in the diner and served in the buffet car cafeteria style. A waiter carried your tray to the table and then took your drink order. I thought it worked well, but not everyone liked the practice. A thousand times better than boxed meals...