So Amtrak is owned by the Federal Government but Amtrak Cailfornia is owned by the California Department of Transporatation? So the two are separate companies. Something I just learned. Interesting.
Without getting too political on this board, there just has to be a funny punchline about there being TWO Amtraks, one run by my oh-so-slightly dysfunctional state government. Come on, somebody!
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) promotes, in addition to its very active freeway construction and maintenance, considerable intercity passenger rail transportation within the state for over thirty years. It has simply augmented two of the interstate Amtrak routes, the Pacific Surfliner and the San Joaquin. These two routes, along with various motorcoach services, are funded and managed by Caltrans but operated by national Amtrak.
For further information, here is the information page URL:
http://www.amtrakcalifornia.com/index.cfm/about-amtrak-california/
We have quality surface transportation within California, of which the two national Amtrak rail routes are valuable pieces, folded seamlessly into the statewide network.
So Amtrak runs the trains in California but they are paid for and managed by Caltran. So who actually owns the trains themselves? The state of Califronia? That would make Amtrak a contractor of sorts?
Sorry to sound stupid but I have just gotten back into model railroading and have been reading up on a lot of train related stuff and found this intriguing. I used to take trains frequently in the late 70s (carless college boy) when you could actually take Amtrak from 30th St-Philadelphia to New Brunswick, NJ. Of course only when I had the money, otherwise it was local trains that made a dozen stops on trains that were marked everything from PennCentral to SEPTA to Conrail to NJTrainsit! I guess they were still sorting things out back then. Again in the 90s I took NJTransit trains to work, though the trains were kinda old. Now that I am back to driving again they have these double deckers that I should really take some day.
I have been trying to talk my brother into taking the whole clan to Florida (kids and adults) via Amtrak sleepers as an adventure, but it sure is expensive!
Hope that you are able to fulfill your goal of getting your extended family to Florida on Amtrak sleeping cars. It will be truly a joy, and particularly pleasant experience, what with private bath with shower, a sink with lots of towels, lots of storage space, free dining car meals, attendant services, lots of electrical and light outlets, etc.
Your Amtrak sleeping car reservations may not be as expensive as you think. First of all, "kids" are free, as I recall. Secondly, you can book the 1st level family room suite (with most of the beds in one of the rooms, I believe). Finally, an adult can make one or more required bedroom accommodation(s), then other family members have to pay only coach fare to use the same bedroom(s). Finally, each sleeping car bedroom can be reserved at any one of five (5) different prices. Don't book online, but talk to a real person on its toll-free reservation line. Make sure the agent knows that you know there are these five rates for the same bedroom, and that you want the cheapest. I can even tell you (privately) the internal rate code for each of the five rates, if you are interested.
Amtrak runs the trains on all three corridors but Caltrans provides the motive power and cars, North Carolina has a similar arrangement. These operations probably come under Section 403.
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