Passenger Trains > 3 sleepers on #5 today

As seen from the Galesburg railcam there are 3 sleepers heading west on #5.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/22 16:46 by OnTime.

3 regular sleeprs or 2 sleepers and a dorm car!

ProAmtrak Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 3 regular sleeprs or 2 sleepers and a dorm car!

It’s 2 sleepers and a dorm car. Chief is also running with that.

Very strange especially since Chester didn't bring it up last week at the RPA webcast. This would have been something to tout, in fact he pretty much said the opposite expect consists to stay reduced for a while. The conspiracy part of me can see a scenario where the election didn't go as planned for Gardner and he knows Maria Cantwell is still a Senate Chair and will call him out on dragging his feet. Two weeks after the the election improvements are implemented. Hmmm

I know it's also Thanksgiving week but adding cars 7 days before Thanksgiving  when people already have made travel plans makes no sense either. Just glad they made the change regardless of why.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/22 06:35 by Flyer92122.

Flyer92122 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Very strange especially since Chester didn't bring
> it up last week at the RPA webcast. This would
> have been something to tout, in fact he pretty
> much said the opposite expect consists to stay
> reduced for a while. The conspiracy part of me can
> see a scenario where the election didn't go as
> planned for Gardner and he knows Maria Cantwell is
> still a Senate Chair and will call him out on
> dragging his feet. Two weeks after the the
> election improvements are implemented. Hmmm
>
> I know it's also Thanksgiving week but adding cars
> 7 days before Thanksgiving  when people already
> have made travel plans makes no sense either. Just
> glad they made the change regardless of why.


He said that capacity would be 11% below pre pandemic capacity for FY23 if they are able to meet the planned consists which may actually be higher than what they did for FY22 - that doesn’t mean that we are stuck with the current consists on every train all year just that it will be 11% less than pre pandemic. Even if these consist changes are just for Thanksgiving it’s still somewhat encouraging to see them do this. Hopefully this summer will be better than last.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/22 08:39 by lordsigma.

They could run the southbound Meteor (97) 4 hours later, run the northbound 98 an hour earlier, and save a train set, with a same day turn in Sunnyside (9 hours). That's no worse than turn-around times of most east coast - Chicago trains in Chicago.
 
If not, they can cut the 3rd sleeper north of Washington, turn it back same day in Ivy City, and save 1 car.  

The thing is he (Chester) is the HEAD of long distance services. You think he would have mentioned this relatively huge development if he was aware of it.  This subject was the gist and premise of the entire hour with RPA. It doesn't add up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/22 10:05 by Flyer92122.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They could run the southbound Meteor (97) 4 hours
> later, run the northbound 98 an hour earlier, and
> save a train set, with a same day turn in
> Sunnyside (9 hours). That's no worse than
> turn-around times of most east coast - Chicago
> trains in Chicago.
>  
> If not, they can cut the 3rd sleeper north of
> Washington, turn it back same day in Ivy City, and
> save 1 car.  

It wasn't till the Three Rivers was cancelled/discontinued that Amtrak changed the Silver Meteor's schedule to a 3:15 pm departure out of NYC. The Three Rivers' Viewliners and Amfleet II coaches allowed for a fourth consist to be created so the Silver Meteor train sets didn't have to do a same day turn at Sunnyside (arrival by 10 am, departure at 7 pm - per schedule). And if the inbound Meteor was late, Amtrak would borrow equipment from the inbound Crescent or any inbound single level LD consist that had an extra car for whatever the outbound Silver Meteor consist needed. It was better equipment utilization of the single level LD fleet. Turning a sleeper in DC would also help. Amtrak has been horrendous on equipment utilization of the Viewliners - almost from the start. Warrington was the only one that operated the most Viewliner sleepers in service on a regular basis - cause he was trying to achieve his "self-sufficiency" mandate for Amtrak......... It would be nice now if Amtrak cold just get all the Viewliner Sleepers in an operable state to fill capacity needs - VIewliner I and Viewliner II's. 

lordsigma Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ProAmtrak Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 3 regular sleeprs or 2 sleepers and a dorm car!
>
> It’s 2 sleepers and a dorm car. Chief is also
> running with that.

But no baggage car, yeah somewhat of an improvement but not how it used to be, they used to have 4 coaches on the Chief during Thanksgiving Week, that's not even there!