Passenger Trains > Ride Lunatrain soon

Be sure to bring $$$.
Lunatrain

Sure....

Great.  Here we go again.  

https://montco.today/2025/03/conshohocken-mike-avena-lunatrain/

What is with these people?  

 

Maybe they are hoping that there are enough suckers to invest...and then they produce nothing and pocket the proceeds.

How many have watched the Mel Brooks movie, "The Producers," or seen the play?  Of course if it turns out to be a success, there is not enough profit to go around.

The Lunatrain promoter may be the guy at 3:23.
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/25 08:21 by GenePoon.

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Lunacy?

I'll believe it when I can buy a ticket.

Must be a way to harvest email addresses, then later, personal and finacial data.  Buyer Beware.

-John

I have always thought that this concept could work.  Amtrak should try it with a premium sleeper on some overnight trains where timing works (Capitol Limited, NY section of the LSL, the Star, the Crescent to Atlanta--yes, I separated the Floridian into its component parts--the Zephyr, Maybe even the City of NOL).  As an example, one could board the LSL late afternoon at NYP, arrive in Chicago the next morning, pampered along the way.  There would be takers.  But would there be enough?  There are a lot of rich folks in America today, and the rich are getting richer.  The rest of us, well...I am not poor, but I am defintely not rich!  There may well be a market.

As an example, last week I shared with some colleagues that I travel to Savannah often on overnight trains, and there was genuine interest in trying it from some of them.  So you never know.

Conceptually it can work, but financially, I am not so sure.

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have always thought that this concept could
> work.  Amtrak should try it with a premium
> sleeper on some overnight trains where timing
> works ...

NOPE! That is NOT something for Amtrak, a quasi US Federal Government corporation, to be involved in. 

> Conceptually it can work, but financially, I am
> not so sure.

If the private/public NON-GOVERNMENTAL sector could make it work financially, it would have already been done. However, in fact, it has been tried and failed many times.
 

Private jet aircraft firms already offer private bedrooms with en suite shower, etc. There is a demand for these services from mere decamillionaires who don't have their own luxury jets.Yet.

Posted from Android

Great movie.

Regards

Posted from iPhone

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have always thought that this concept could
> work.  Amtrak should try it with a premium
> sleeper on some overnight trains where timing
> works (Capitol Limited, NY section of the LSL, the
> Star, the Crescent to Atlanta--yes, I separated
> the Floridian into its component parts--the
> Zephyr, Maybe even the City of NOL).  As an
> example, one could board the LSL late afternoon at
> NYP, arrive in Chicago the next morning, pampered
> along the way.  There would be takers.  But
> would there be enough?  There are a lot of rich
> folks in America today, and the rich are getting
> richer.  The rest of us, well...I am not poor,
> but I am defintely not rich!  There may well be a
> market.
>
> As an example, last week I shared with some
> colleagues that I travel to Savannah often on
> overnight trains, and there was genuine interest
> in trying it from some of them.  So you never
> know.
>
> Conceptually it can work, but financially, I am
> not so sure.

Amtrak actually tried that on the CONO. Ed Ellis of Iowa Pacific tacked on premium sleepers and diners CHI-NOL. Didn’t last more than a year or two. Labor and equipment costs are just too high per hour if it’s only going at best 50mph terminal to terminal.

Posted from iPhone

amtrak and IP had a rocky relationship thou

After the DesertXpress people sold out to the Brightline they have been wanting to get into the vaporware train business again and I suppose Lunatrain is it.

Speaking of Brightline West, you know they broke ground in April 2024? They must be making impressive progress since last week the Las Vegas ABC affiliate produced a story how the train will be up and running in 2028.  Except for some sewer relocation work where the Vegas station will be situated nothing has been done.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

---

I'd say there is a very high probability that this is an investor scam, especially given that the website has very little actual materials, has poor quality digital renderings, yet has a very dated section explaining how Trumps victory is a great thing, but offers little reason why, and how exciting it will be "when he takes office". The thing is, now that Trump is pardoning almost every scam artist ever convicted of investment fraud (if they give him a big enough "contribution"), the con artists of the land are newly emboldened to start committing all NEW scams on naive investors.

Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE

Of course this could work, but u need Elan Musk kind of money to get it going, and you gotta be prepared to lose a lot of it before it has a chance of catching on.   And then theres the emphastructure problem.  Frt RR's dont want passenger trains.  Amtk brass doesnt want anything that might upset their cush jobs and bouses.   Where arer u going to run it and not be at the mercy of the track owner/operator.   Pad your sked arrival by  2 hours, so that ur early or OT most of the time? 

Ad this whole "lets float the idea and see if we can get investors" idea has failed so many times, and yet here we are with another guy who hasnt read the room....
Of as tom says above...maybe its just a scam...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/25 19:47 by pdt.

You know, the Auto Train is not that different from this idea.  Nonstop end to end, and an upgraded service.  Sure, there is the car thing, but honestly, It is an afternoon departure, morning arrival, pretty much what this train would do.  I do not know, but I am guessing top speed for the Auto Train is 60-70 mph due to the auto racks.  Losing the stations along the way saves a lot of time.  I am somewhat skeptical that this can be pulled off, but again, I am certainly open to the possibility.

The big question mark for me is the freight railroads.  There will have to be incentive for them to take these trains.  UP allows the Rocky Mountaineer to operate on its lines, but traffic is not at all heavy on the old Moffat route, so it works.  And UP gets priority over the RM.

 

Auto-Train usually maintains a road speed of about 68 mph, based on my GPS / speed indicator.  There are many slower zones, of course.

Chessie1963 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The big question mark for me is the freight
> railroads.  There will have to be incentive for
> them to take these trains.  UP allows the Rocky
> Mountaineer to operate on its lines, but traffic
> is not at all heavy on the old Moffat route, so it
> works.  And UP gets priority over the RM.

I bet that Rocky Mountaineer pays more per mile to UP and Amtrak does.

Though Amtrak would not want a private business to upstage it in competition, I think the real fear is that the host railroads would argue for a better fee for hosting Amtrak.