Passenger Trains > Cars Stored on CUS Mail Platform Tracks

I noticed last night and confirmed this morning that the 7 or so Amtrak Horizon cars and 1 Amtrak Viewliner car that were parked on the Mail Platform tracks at Chicago Union Station have been moved. The tracks are clear except for a ballast tamper and two ballast regulators parked on the west track of the mail platforms.

No idea where the cars went.

Posted from iPhone

They will need another 6 Amfleet cars to extend the Adirondack to Montreal in April. So maybe these Horizons will displace a like number of Amlfeet in the midwest to go back east. 

kevink Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I noticed last night and confirmed this morning
> that the 7 or so Amtrak Horizon cars and 1 Amtrak
> Viewliner car that were parked on the Mail
> Platform tracks at Chicago Union Station have been
> moved. The tracks are clear except for a ballast
> tamper and two ballast regulators parked on the
> west track of the mail platforms.
>
> No idea where the cars went.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Thankfully they've been moved, and hopefully to a place where they can become operable once again. They had been there for quite a long time, overall. 

Seattle is supposed to be getting at least 5 more Horizons for the expanded Vancouver-Eugune service. The state wants the extra Cascades roundtrips added.

kevink Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I noticed last night and confirmed this morning
> that the 7 or so Amtrak Horizon cars and 1 Amtrak
> Viewliner car that were parked on the Mail
> Platform tracks at Chicago Union Station have been
> moved. The tracks are clear except for a ballast
> tamper and two ballast regulators parked on the
> west track of the mail platforms.
>
> No idea where the cars went.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Those cars have been there for many many months. 

Seattle just received, if I'm counting correctly, seven additional Horizon coaches, plus a food service car that apparently left for Chicago some time ago and is now back.  Unless they've sent some of our original Horizon coaches back to Chicago, we should have enough for five four-car Horizon sets, plus spares, which should enable us to send out a full Horizon replacement if a Talgo has to go out.  We may need a couple more Horizon coaches and possibly another club dinette this fall, since a fifth Cascades round trip, one of the two promised for the end of 2017, starts as planned.

sethamtrak Wrote:
----------------------------------------------------
> Those cars have been there for many many months. 

I can’t recall if Amtrak was storing cars before 3/2020 but they were for sure when I started working downtown again in 7/2021.

The St. Louis trains are running with some new Venture coaches.  From what I can tell the majority of coaches on these trains are Venture cars. Don't know about the Wolverine corridor.  So if some trains are running with Venture cars and Amtrak has a lot of Venture cars stored in Chicago, what is preventing more MW corridor trains from using these cars?

Are more cars being "fixed" for service?

How can some cars be operational but not others?

Is Amtrak/Siemens ACTIVELY working on getting these cars in service?

Bottom line is, if you have a number of cars available for service, what is preventing similar cars from being released for service?  Where is the holdup...Amtrak/Siemans...it doesn't make sense.  Also I am not even addressing the cafe/business class Venture cars...just the coaches.  

And maybe I am way off base. Maybe Amtrak is using all the Venture coaches in the Amtak yard on the MW trains...I just don't know.

Also I did send an email basically asking this question to NARP/ARP over 2 weeks ago.  No response.  But, they are looking at ways, through a focus group, to determine the ideal dining situation for Amtrak customers.  Have to have that information to write a report... which Amtrak will trash.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/23 17:08 by fulham.

Fulham asked the proper question.  Why can Amtrak screw up every situation (Venture cars)?  And then they fall back into their usual litany of excuses: COVID, not enough employees, weather, etc.  

Every Venture car should be operating NOW.  Corrections and modifications to the cars should be made as needed; storage of any equipment is NOT an answer.  

Venture cars seem to be a regular fixture of the Illionis Zepher over the past 2 weeks.  They use to have Amfeet 2's or Horizon cars.  The Amcafe is still part of the consist with the Venture cars.  A while back it was mentioned by Amtrak that the Venture Cafes would start to be in operation by the 1st quarter of this year.  So far I haven't seen any Venture Cafes.

Since after Xmas, most NEC Regionals have gone form 9 to 8 cars. Between that and some Amfleet-1 or maybe -2 have migrated east on the Capitol Ltd, there should be enough to scrape up another consist for a real Adirondack on April 3. 

Now they need to to get the Lake Shore Ltd back to 6 coaches and the Cardinal to 3. Each has lost their 15 seat Business class seats as well. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/23 12:35 by joemvcnj.

amtrakbill Wrote:
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> Venture cars seem to be a regular fixture of the
> Illionis Zepher over the past 2 weeks.  They use
> to have Amfeet 2's or Horizon cars.  The Amcafe
> is still part of the consist with the Venture
> cars.  A while back it was mentioned by Amtrak
> that the Venture Cafes would start to be in
> operation by the 1st quarter of this year.  So
> far I haven't seen any Venture Cafes.


I don't know that any actually exist yet.

Amtrak is quick to reduce number of cars in service and very slow if at all to add.