On my recent trip from WV to LA Ca I had a roomette from Chicago to LA. The trip out was great....everything worked well, food was great...just a good trip. On the return trip my Superliner car was one that had been wrecked and rebuilt. The A/C worked at the very minimum, (good thing it was still cool outside) the PA system was out, not a huge thing but made everything difficult, and the toilets failed for about 6 hours. Amtrak needs funding to repair, replace and upgrade its fleet. I still loved my trip, police, delays and all.
6000 miles on Amtrak in words and pictures www.currtail.com
Amtrak broke in the Superliners in 1979 between Chicago and Quincy Illinois ( Illinois Zephyr) and placed them on the Empire Builder in 1980. They were sorely needed. By 1979 the Heritage Fleet needed replacing or refurbishing. I recall the air conditioning on the North Coast Hiawatha broke down on a trip I took. The food was excellent; but it was over 90 in the diner. Amtrak did place long distance Amfleet coaches on some trains such as the Desert Wind but they lacked a diner. They were comfortable but the Desert Wind was a much better train with Superliners. The Desert Wind used an ex- Santa Fe Hi-level coach as a crew dormitory. The Superliners may have saved Amtrak.
blue streak 1 5. So to carry same number of passengers A 8 car bilevel ( ~ 640 ft) will not need as long a platform. In other reports the AMTRAK standard is a 600 ft platform so an 8 car train will be able to board revenue passengers without multiple stops since the rear car steps are usually closer to the engine. Would take a 10 car single level train to carry same number of passengers. Since many western LD trains are now running 10 -12 cars a second stop is still needed at some shorter platform stations .
5. So to carry same number of passengers A 8 car bilevel ( ~ 640 ft) will not need as long a platform. In other reports the AMTRAK standard is a 600 ft platform so an 8 car train will be able to board revenue passengers without multiple stops since the rear car steps are usually closer to the engine. Would take a 10 car single level train to carry same number of passengers. Since many western LD trains are now running 10 -12 cars a second stop is still needed at some shorter platform stations .
Some trains (in the Midwest, at least) seem to only board and exit from one coach, even if the train is 4-5 cars and the platform is long enough to handle an 8 car train. I fail to understand such a method since it means the dwell time at any stop is much longer than needed.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Sam1 I find the seats in the Superliner coaches to be more comfortable than the seats in the roomettes, although I am long past the stage where I am going to sleep sitting up on an over night train. The risk of traveling coach class, especially on a long distance train, is that you find yourself next to a passenger like the woman who was thrown off the train for excessive use of a cell phone. It can make for a very unpleasant trip.
I find the seats in the Superliner coaches to be more comfortable than the seats in the roomettes, although I am long past the stage where I am going to sleep sitting up on an over night train. The risk of traveling coach class, especially on a long distance train, is that you find yourself next to a passenger like the woman who was thrown off the train for excessive use of a cell phone. It can make for a very unpleasant trip.
Or Don Oltmann's proverbial fat person.
Seriously, now, there are a couple minor operational changes Amtrak could make so that overnight coach travel (Sam1, I am not saying you can't reserve your sleeper) more pleasant.
One is bathrooms. I don't know if this is a matter of bathroom technology or of staffing or of educating passengers to be less slovenly, but clean, dry restrooms for the entire journey, in my opinion, would make Amtrak more enticing to people who are trying it for the first time. I have heard all manners of accounts of how bathrooms on Amtrak become wet sloppy messes by the end of the journey -- maybe someone can correct me that these are isolated incidents -- but good restrooms are a cornerstone of a good rail experience.
The second is how conductors manage seats. I have heard accounts that a long-distance consist may have 4 coaches, but 3 coaches are "closed" and the remaining coach is used with every seat occupied.
Yes, during peak travel times one should expect to ride the distance with a seat mate, but during the off-peak times, why not spread the passengers around, especially since consists tend to be fixed and it costs more to switch the coaches in and out than the minor savings in fuel -- again, a much more comfortable travel experience.
I don't know who makes the operational decision, whether it is the conductors or Amtrak HQ, and to trail a bunch of coaches that are "closed" and cram the overnight passengers into one coach may save on cleaning and other operational costs, but again, at the expense of making it harder to sleep on the overnight train. On the other hand, this business of a crowded overnight coach and coaches closed off is something people have reported -- if people know differently they can speak up.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
As noted in other posts, the primary reason Superliner equipment is not used on many of the eastern trains is because of the clearance problem getting into and out of New York. If it were not for the clearance problem, Amtrak would probably use Superliner equipment on all of its long distance trains or at least the ones that are on the road overnight.
Superliner equipment is more efficient than the single level equipment. It generates more bang for the buck. For example, a Superliner sleeper, as shown on Amtrak's webpage, has five bedrooms and ten roomettes up stairs. It also has four roomettes, one family bedroom, and one accessible bedroom down stairs. Assuming two people to a room, it can carry 42 passengers comfortably; it can carry 44 passengers if one assumes four people in the family bedroom. By comparison, a Viewliner sleeper has one accessible bedroom, two bedrooms, and 12 roomettes. It can carry 30 passengers comfortably.
The Superliner coaches are also more efficient than the single level coaches, although I don't have the numbers before me. I am sure someone else probably has them or can dig them out.
The Superliner roomettes are not very comfortable, especially if they are occupied by two people. In addition, if one has to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, he or she has to dress, at least partially, and paddle down the hallway to the toilet on the upper level or use one of the toilets on the lower level..
Visibility is certainly greater from the upper level and lower level gets right down to almost track level. However ther may be several advantages of bi-level equipment.
1. Single level corridor -/ 68 - 70 Bi-level 90 -- 96.
2. SL long dist 60 ; bi-level 74.
3. so corridor trains 4 bi-levels = ~ 5 single levels
4. LD trains 4 bi-levels = ~ 5 single level cars.
6. I have never seen a report of each station's platform length -- just what posters in this forum have observed???
Clearances is a major reason...don't fit the bridges and tunnels of the east...but also marketing as it it thought the scenery is more worth the views plus the concept of long(er) distance train rides in the west. But I don't think a viewliner on the Hudson would increase the splendor!
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Superliners are use on the Capitol Limited and the Auto Train on the Eastern Route. The Superlines can't fit into the Tunnels into New York City to D.C. Superliners hold more people than the single level trains.
While most of the long distance trains west of Chicago are Superliners mostly because they are roomier and more comfortable, some of the shorter routes are Amfleet, such as the Hiawathas Chi - Milwaukee and the Illini through Illinois and some California Coast Services.
Is there any reason why only superliner equipment is used on AMTRAK routes west of Chicago?
greetings Kon
Kon
Modelling the BN 1970-1995
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