Passenger Trains > Good Cascades news

Amtrak's Cascades corridor has received a big boost as the Mt. Bachelor Talgo, whose cab car was badly damaged when it hit a tree near Burlington, Washington months ago, returned to service this morning following repairs and test runs.  It left Seattle as train 503 for Eugene and will return to Seattle tonight as train 508.  The question now is whether Amtrak will now decommission the Amfleet set that was replacing the Mt. Bachelor and lengthen two other sets by one coach each.  It could disband two Amfleet sets and thus lengthen four of the five Amfleet sets that would remain under that plan, but that would leave no reserve in case a Talgo had to go out for maintenance.  

NPRocky - thank you for  the good news !

Meanwhile, the Doweaster remains one coach short...

Cascades train 517 was cancelled "Due to equipment unavailability." At least they provided "Alternate bus transportation."

The Cascades, the Amfleet ones, are two coaches short with one exception which is one coach short.  That gives them only half what was the normal coach capacity. My feeling is that it's time to end for now the ninth car on some of the Northeast Regionals and transfer some of those cars to Seattle to at least partially solve the Cascades shortage.  I believe the Northeast Regionals are all-reserved now, so it's not like we'd be creating standees.  Seattle should actually just need as few as three more coaches because with the second Talgo back, we can now break up one of our seven Amfleet sets, getting a third coach for two of the remaining six sets immediately.  The three additional coaches from the NEC would bring our other three sets up to three coaches each, providing consistency.  That's still one coach short per train, but it's a lot better than what we have now and would give us parity with the trimmed-down Downeasters.  It's unconscionable that so many Cascades trains, or trains on any corridor for that matter, should be allowed to run with only two coaches.  

NPRocky Wrote:
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> The Cascades, the Amfleet ones, are two coaches
> short with one exception which is one coach
> short.  That gives them only half what was the
> normal coach capacity. My feeling is that it's
> time to end for now the ninth car on some of the
> Northeast Regionals and transfer some of those
> cars to Seattle to at least partially solve the
> Cascades shortage.  I believe the Northeast
> Regionals are all-reserved now, so it's not like
> we'd be creating standees.  Seattle should
> actually just need as few as three more coaches
> because with the second Talgo back, we can now
> break up one of our seven Amfleet sets, getting a
> third coach for two of the remaining six sets
> immediately.  The three additional coaches from
> the NEC would bring our other three sets up to
> three coaches each, providing consistency. 
> That's still one coach short per train, but it's a
> lot better than what we have now and would give us
> parity with the trimmed-down Downeasters.  It's
> unconscionable that so many Cascades trains, or
> trains on any corridor for that matter, should be
> allowed to run with only two coaches.  

Agreed - there's no reason why Amtrak can't find at LEAST three Amfleet I coaches from the NEC pool and transfer them to the Cascade Corridor. And it should be a straight transfer, not a transfer of what Amfleet I cars can be sent west and then doing a rob Peter to pay Paul with Amfleet II's. Two car consists for the Cascade trains is crazy. The Horizons aren't coming back. Moreover, the Borealis is still operating with at least one Superliner train set (saw it running eastbound on Tuesday of this week), if not two to hold down both frequencies. Another train that should be operating with Amfleet I's from the NEC at this point in time.