Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="blue streak 1"] SAM1 many of our newer posters may not understand our reasons for making the Eagle the train thru San Antionia. (  SAS )  I will list some reasons and would you list any others and disagree with any I post ?  1. The # of passeners thru SAS is 2 - 3 /1 in favor of the Eagle over the Sunset. 2. Attaching Sunset cars to end of Eagle might disturb Thru Eagle passenger less ? 3. Dinning car service could continue in case Eagle is late 4. If Sunset cars do not go thru then an easy cross platform change is available. 5. Preminum coach  ( mabe business class ) service may have many passengers due to it being a day trip NOL - - SAS much like the Palmetto and Carolinian. 6. Passengers now on the Eagle some days cannot get sleeper space until SAS west.  [/quote] According to Amtrak's Texas Fact Sheet for FY11, 67,168 passengers boarded or alighted from its trains in San Antonio.  It does not give the number of passengers boarding or alighting for the Texas Eagle and the Sunset Limited.   In FY11 I rode the Texas Eagle to San Antonio from Temple or Taylor twice.  And I rode it from Temple to El Paso and back once.  Overall I have gone through San Antonio at least 25 times since I moved to Texas many years ago. Based on my experience, it appears that most of the passengers on the Eagle get on or off the train at San Antonio, although there are some through passengers.   The fare structure encourages westbound San Antonio passengers to book on the Sunset as opposed to the Texas Eagle, although it is one train west of San Antonio.  For a Monday three weeks hence the coach fare from San Antonio to El Paso on the Sunset is $79 vs. $155 on the Eagle.  If my chance space on the Sunset is sold out, a rare occurrence according the load factors, passengers booking on the Sunset will be seated in the Eagle cars. The west bound Sunset Limited usually arrives in San Antonio with two locomotives, a baggage car, transition sleeper, two coaches, lounge car, diner, and sleeping car.  The transition sleeper and revenue sleeper have been at the head end of the train behind the baggage car.  Sometimes, if bookings dictate, it will have three coaches.  Whilst the train lays over in San Antonio, the through coach and sleepeer from the Eagle are attached to the back of the train, thus resulting in the through sleeper being at the back of the train whilst the NO - LA sleeper(s) are at the front of the train.  I have never seen more than one coach and one sleeper go through from the Eagle.  East and northbound, the process is reversed.   As I remember from my read of the FY10 Performance Improvement Plan for the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle, the plan was to drop the Sunset Limited and replace it with two daily trains.  The Eagle would run through daily from Chicago to LAX.  From New Orleans to San Antonio the Sunset Limited would be replaced by an un-named daily coach train with at least a diner and possibly a lounge car. There was no mention of a premium coach or business class car. Most of the passengers riding Amtrak's trains in Texas are coach passengers. It does not appear that they could afford or would be interested in buying first class space. Through passengers along the Sunset route for points west of San Antonio or east of the Alamo City would make an across the platform change in San Antonio.   From my relatively uninformed position, I asked Boardman why Amtrak could not implement the FY10 Performance Improvement Plan for the Sunset/Eagle on a three day a week schedule, since presumably the UP would have no objection to fielding a coach only train from New Orleans to San Antonio and a three day a week schedule west of San Antonio. The operating burden on the UP would be the same as it is today. Amongst other things this would eliminate the car switching in San Antonio, which would save Amtrak some money, and would not disturb the passengers in the sleeping cars who have paid a premium for a good night sleep. Based on my experience, once they start shifting the cars, it is wake up time in the sleeper. I am keenly awaiting his reply. As an interesting aside, the average annual wage for the 207 Texas based Amtrak employees is $72,384.92 plus benefits, which usually tacks on another 25 to 35 per cent of the base wage. This puts them well above the median household income in Texas of approximately $47,00 per year and family income of nearly $57,000 per year.  Most of the employees work on the trains or in the stations. There are several management employees in Fort Worth and there may be one or two in San Antonio.  In addition, service crews work the trains in Fort Worth and San Antonio. I don't know whether they are Amtrak employees or whether they are contract employees.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag