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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill Aside from all the other problems: 1. Are the schedules between UPS and Amtrak even remotely compatible? 2. Who has priority on connections? Do the pigs wait for an hour while the passenger waits for a connection? 3. Who has priority when one falls down: does UPS miss its sort and its service commitment because a passenger gets sick en route and the train stops to transfer the passenger to EMS? Or does Amtrak hold the train for an hour for a late trailer? 4. Do you move the passenger platform to the pig ramp? Or the pig ramp to the depot? If not, either the pigs or the passengers are going to get a hit on each end. If you're lucky and the tracks line up just right, a straight drop, only 10 minutes. If you're not -- and most places, you are not -- it will be an hour minimum added to someone's schedule. 5. Passengers have to go ahead of the pigs -- HEP, slack, etc. Makes it awfully difficult to drop a coach/cafe-car for a connection. [/quote] As for Mark's points above, this could be solved by the use of distributed power: Lead unit + pigs + second unit + passengers. In fact, this use of distributed power could also solve some of the other logistical problems as mentioned in #'s 1 through 5 above: 1. Run the mixed on the UPS schedule (Didn't most of the Class I's old M & E's run it this way in the pre-Amtrak days?) 2. Run on the UPS schedule. 3. If a passenger gets sick and the passenger consist must stop, just separate the passenger section from the freight section, let the freight roll on while the passengers probably disembark via bus (like they do now when Amtrak has an unexpected delay). If a trailer is an hour late, so will the passenger consist. 4. Doesn't matter with distributed power. The passenger consist loads at the station with the main crew and the second unit, then they all roll up to the ramp to connect with the rear of the freight, the crew is shuttled up to the lead unit and off they go 5. With distributed power, the second unit at the rear of the pigs provides the HEP. This way they can add on or drop off a coach or two without breaking up the freight consist. Of course, this only happens if the freight is already scheduled to stop for a crew change or refueling, etc. As for my comment about passengers losing money so why care if M & E loses money, that was just an observation about Amtrak's seeming charter, ie. It's okay to lose money on passengers since that's an accepted "fact" in the railroading world, but if the freight loses money....! The one way to fix it so the Amtrak M & E makes money is for the Congress to force the Postal Service to use Amtrak for it's ground service (one subsidized government entity helping another). I mean, if we are forced to spend 37 cents for a stamp to subsidize the postal service, why should that money be spent on a private intermodal company when Amtrak will suffice? I for one would be willing to pay twice that much for a good ol' RPO postmark.
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