Auto Train changes: For better or worse?

There was quite a dustup Thursday on Trainorders.com when webmaster Todd Clark published what he believed to be an internal Amtrak memo about changes coming to the Auto Train in about two weeks. I asked Amtrak for comment and thus far gotten no response. The memo appears authentic, so I'll share its contents.

What's afoot is a combination of cost cuts and revenue additions. Gone will be complimentary wine and cheese tasting for sleeping car passengers (saving: $188,000 per year). Removed from the train will be the sleeping car portion's Sightseer Lounge car. With that, obviously, will be eliminated the position of lounge car attendant (saving: $550,000, because it takes at least six people to fill these slots on a train each way a day). Not given is the savings in maintenance of that lounge car, but figure $100,000. Also gone is complimentary wine at dinner for both coach and sleeping car passengers; now they must buy their own, like everyone else riding Amtrak. (Saving: $275,000). Not shown is the estimated revenue from sale of wine at dinner. Oh yes, both diners will use the same menu henceforth, and this permits one of the two cooks in the sleeping car diner to be furloughed (saving: $550,000 per year). All this is said to occur on March 14.

Now to the revenue raisers. The Auto Train is limited to 50 cars, including 16 Superliner cars (although sometimes I see 17). CSX has set the limit of 50 cars, and 16-17 Superliners is the limit of the motor alternators on the P40 diesels supplying hotel power to the cars. With the sleeping car lounge gone, Amtrak will add a bilevel coach to the train (Gained: $1,5 million per year). Finally, people traveling on a pass will be docked $30, plus $75 for a vehicle. (Gained: $586,000).

All told, these moves will affect the profit-and-loss statement of the Auto Train to the tune of $3,650,000. That is, if passengers aren't chased away. As I said, there was a lot of hue and cry. But after reading it all, and reflecting upon my own experiences aboard the train (two or three round trips per year), I decided this is, on balance, a pretty good plan.

I won't miss the wine and cheese tasting, but you need to know that others will, because it is enormously popular. Nor do I mind paying for my own wine and eating the same meals as the hoi polloi riding in coach. I was a bit upset about losing the sleeping car Sightseer Lounge, but a Trainorders member who goes by the handle Reverend Randy points out that soon after the wine tasting at the departure terminal it empties out and remains that way pretty much the rest of the trip. He is absolutely right, so I'll frequent the coach lounge when I feel like being sociable.

Speaking for myself, in sum, this plan is okay. More important, speaking for the future of the Auto Train and Amtrak, anything that improves its bottom line by more than $3.5 million (and Amtrak's bottom line by the same amount) helps insure the continuation of the train. Amtrak reported the Auto Train to have lost $32 million in fiscal 2013, which ended last September.

One change that won't please the sleeping car people is walking as many as six cars to the diner, and as many as nine cars to the remaining lounge car. It is no secret that the passengers on this train tilt toward the elderly, and that mobility can be an issue. The plan is to marshall the Superliners in this order: 5 coaches, lounge, 2 coach diners, sleeping car diner,  6 sleepers, crew sleeper. A lot of complaints would be avoided by keeping the sleeping car diner in the middle of the sleepers and positioning the lounge car between the coach diners and the first sleeper.

So that's the supposed plan. Now let's see how much gets implemented and how much that is implemented stays implemented.-- Fred W. Frailey