Private Passenger Rail in North America

[ontheBNSF]

Rocky Mountaineer. Western Canada "Land Cruise"

http://www.rockymountaineer.com/en_US_CA/

Long Distance sleeper Service between Chicago and  New Orleans. Pullman Journeys

http://www.travelpullman.com/

All Aboard Florida. Passenger Service between eastern Florida

http://www.allaboardflorida.com/

Vegas X Train. Fullerton to Vegas conventional rail

http://www.vegasxtrain.com/

Xpresswest Southwest High speed rail network connecting La, Palmdale, and Victorville to the southwest

http://www.xpresswest.com/

Teas Central High Speed rail Dallas to Houston

http://lshsr.com/

Examples of Services similar to what amtrak provides and many of them will be operation in a year or two. Rocky mountaineer is already in operation. I think Pullman journeys will be operation very soon. The services which are seen as thing which only Amtrak can offer can offered by different parties.

[daveklepper]

Anyone know how Chicago - NO Pullman is doing?

[MR77200]

We have done several trips to New Orleans and back, and we have had decent crowds with plenty of positive feedback. In New Orleans on my last trip, virtually every other Amtrak passenger was asking about us. I will post a couple videos soon.

[Jim200]

How do you move and take care of your railcars at Chicago and New Orleans? I have heard others say that they were unable to charter a train from Amtrak. It seems like you and Amtrak could work out some arrangement.

[vsmith]

3 of these exist only on paper and are several years away, if ever.

1 goes from nowhere to nowhere with only scenery in between

1 relies on Amtrak for its very survival

1 is more a commuter type service without true passenger train service

I am a little confused what the point is? 

[MidlandMike]

The original post makes no mention of the past 40 year history of private US passenger rail:  American Orient Express and all it's iterations; the original Auto Train; the Marlboro Train; the Montana Rocky Mtn tour train; the Denver Ski train.  All these have gone out of business.  I also seem to remember a Florida Fun Train.  The only prior private LD service that still exists (that I can think of) is the Reno (Fun?) Train, and I think that is simply tacked on to the end of ATK's Zephyr.  I hope success to the new private ventures, but it's hard to be optimistic.

[henry6]

You are missing the M&E: Maine and Eastern between Brunswick and Rockland Maine. The service is seasonal, yes, but is not a tourist/museum ride.  Likewise the North Creek line out of Saratoga, NY is also a passenger service rather than a tourist/museum ride.  It even connects with Amtrak services while the M&E is planning to coordinate with the Brunswick Downeast service within the next season..  

[MidlandMike]

The Saratoga-North Creek track is owned by the county, and it is my understanding they contract with Iowa Pacific.  I did not think of it as an essentially private undertaking.  In any case, I rode it this past summer, and I can highly recommend it.

PS: The Rockland branch is owned by the state and contracts with Maine Eastern for service.

[Deggesty]

MidlandMike

The original post makes no mention of the past 40 year history of private US passenger rail:  American Orient Express and all it's iterations; the original Auto Train; the Marlboro Train; the Montana Rocky Mtn tour train; the Denver Ski train.  All these have gone out of business.  I also seem to remember a Florida Fun Train.  The only prior private LD service that still exists (that I can think of) is the Reno (Fun?) Train, and I think that is simply tacked on to the end of ATK's Zephyr.  I hope success to the new private ventures, but it's hard to be optimistic.

The Reno Fun Train has a separate schedule, it leaves both Emeryvlle and Reno after the Zephyr leaves. http://keyholidays.com/ft.html

[henry6]

MidlandMike

The Saratoga-North Creek track is owned by the county, and it is my understanding they contract with Iowa Pacific.  I did not think of it as an essentially private undertaking.  In any case, I rode it this past summer, and I can highly recommend it.

PS: The Rockland branch is owned by the state and contracts with Maine Eastern for service.

So what.  It is the private railroad in each case and not the government owner who is instituting and operating the service.  The service is not mandated by the government agencies.  I would believe, beyond a certain level of freight service, the government agencies really don't care what the railroad does as long as the rent is paid and the customers are happy.  As for the concept of public ownership and private operator, this is how most of the short lines are designed today and as long as it works, it is something which we'll see even more of in the future.

[MidlandMike]

henry6

MidlandMike

The Saratoga-North Creek track is owned by the county, and it is my understanding they contract with Iowa Pacific.  I did not think of it as an essentially private undertaking.  In any case, I rode it this past summer, and I can highly recommend it.

PS: The Rockland branch is owned by the state and contracts with Maine Eastern for service.

So what.  It is the private railroad in each case and not the government owner who is instituting and operating the service.  The service is not mandated by the government agencies.  I would believe, beyond a certain level of freight service, the government agencies really don't care what the railroad does as long as the rent is paid and the customers are happy.  As for the concept of public ownership and private operator, this is how most of the short lines are designed today and as long as it works, it is something which we'll see even more of in the future.

If the government owner is contracting the service, I have to say they are "instituting" the service.  I have to believe that the contract has performance level demands, if that is what you mean by "mandated".  If the operators buy the track, then you can say it's a private operation.  Until then, it's a hybrid (which I don't have a problem with).

[daveklepper]

How is ridership on the Chicago - NewOrleans Pullman operation now?