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130 bi-level cars ordered for AMTRAK useage

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[quote user="CMStPnP"] [quote user="Sam1"] Are the cars being bought because Amtrak is short of equipment for its midwest trains or because its existing equipment is outdated and needs to be replaced? [/quote] I have to take their word for it.    Amtrak has stated to me officially that it is very short of reserve equipment and that charters that require a seperate trainset are probably off the table right now.     I asked about a Chicago-Green Bay charter tentitively for next fall's Packers vs Bears game and I was told to consider another option.     So perhaps it is part of some larger conspiracy not to use your untested accounting approach...............or maybe they are telling me what they percieve to be the operational truth? [/quote] And my untested accounting approach would be what?  My numbers come from Amtrak's operating reports, which are available to anyone who wants to read them. I was in Seattle last week. I rode the Cascades to Portland and back. Amtrak had six horizon cars parked at King Street Station as augmentation equipment in anticipation of the heavy travel over Thanksgiving.  The conductor on my Talgo train said that the equipment had come from Chicago.   Amtrak has a Superliner coach and sleeper parked in San Antonio in case the Sunset Limited (Texas Eagle) cannot make its connection with the Texas Eagle out of San Antonio. It also has had two Superliner cars in reserve at Fort Worth. This makes me wonder how equipment constrained Amtrak really is. Clearly, Amtrak probably does not have all the equipment it would like for the peak travel days, i.e. holidays and a portion of the summer vacation season. But there is little in its operating reports to suggest that the equipment constraints are as severe as some claim.   When a train sells out, is it sold out for one segment or multiple segments?  What is the overflow?  And would it justify adding equipment?  If the typical overflow is five per cent, adding additional equipment probably could not be cost justified. These are the questions that management must ask before adding additional equipment. I don't know the answers. As far as I know Amtrak does not make this information available in its public reports. If Amtrak could earn a return on the incremental equipment, it could could borrow the money to buy or lease it in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, Amtrak does not have the kind of numbers that would make a lender feel warm and fuzzy about getting its money back.
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