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News Wire: Amtrak rate increases threaten West Virginia's New River Train

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Posted by Brian Schmidt on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 9:22 AM

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s annual New River Train could come to a halt because of Amtrak plans to increase private car rates and tighten policies. The 52-year-old annual excursion through West Virginia’s spectacular New Riv...

http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/11/06-amtrak-rate-increases-threaten-west-virginias-new-river-train

Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 11:02 AM

If you can't kill it one way, kill it another.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CMStPnP on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 8:16 PM

BaltACD
If you can't kill it one way, kill it another.

I am going to take a wild guess here since Amtrak itself remains in the private train excursion business.    The privately supplied cars are cutting Amtrak out of the larger revenue sharing it would otherwise get if it used Amtrak cars and crews.    Just a guess.

Interestingly, Amtrak is still running the Winter Park service, which by it's very operation is a Charter Train.

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Posted by Dakguy201 on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 8:39 PM

It strikes me that there are really three different types of moves here:

     Private car(s) attached to a regularly scheduled train for its entire run or a portion thereof.

     Haulage of a whole train of private cars to a specific destination (the New River Train).

     Haulage of Amtrak provided cars to a specific destination (the Ski Train).

It seems to me that Amtrak costs differ significantly for each type of move and the pricing should reflect the differences.

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 10:29 PM

Dakguy201
It strikes me that there are really three different types of moves here:

     Private car(s) attached to a regularly scheduled train for its entire run or a portion thereof.

     Haulage of a whole train of private cars to a specific destination (the New River Train).

     Haulage of Amtrak provided cars to a specific destination (the Ski Train).

It seems to me that Amtrak costs differ significantly for each type of move and the pricing should reflect the differences.

I have no knowledge of what sort of Tariff Charges Amtrak applies to the handling of private cars.

At one time in the days when Class 1 carriers hauled passengers for 'profit'.  The charge for private cars was 21 First Class fares between origin and destination; charges for switching cars into and out of trains were additional as was any inroute service that had to be performed on the cars.  I may be mistaken as I never had to bill such movements.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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