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  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1507404  by Backshophoss
 
Believe that Cafe car goes to Chicago,but only serves the Boston section passengers when on the combined train from Albany.
 #1507405  by RRspatch
 
Saw a video of the LSL on Facebook the other day. The train was west of Albany and had only two food cars. One was the "1st class sleeper lounge" and the other was the Boston to Chicago cafe car. Several people in the FB group confirmed there's no food service for coach passengers between New York and Albany. I wonder how often they run out of food westbound in Chicago and eastbound in Boston.
 #1507410  by J.D. Lang
 
This reminds me of what the New York Central did with their passenger trains during the 60's up till the end. In the early 60's they still had nice lounge cars and full diners on trains like the Ohio State Limited which I rode a few times. By the end the train that replaced it was called the Cayuga and it was mostly head end flexi-vans, a couple of coaches and a "meal a mat" car. That car was an old coach with all of the seats taken out with a couple of vending machines on one end. Looks like Amtrak could be heading in the same direction. :( What a shame. Death by a thousand cuts. Part of the plan to kill off long distance passenger service.
 #1507414  by scoostraw
 
bostontrainguy wrote:
mtuandrew wrote:
bostontrainguy wrote:Still seems ridiculous to me. Doesn't look like a very comfortable environment to enjoy your meal or drink. And also why didn't they remove the seats at the end of the car instead of towards the center?
When you lose money on food service and can’t feasibly make it up through volume, removing cafe/lounge functionality and using it for another profit center (? Do they charge for bikes?) is a feature for Amtrak, not a bug.
It's a "CAFE/LOUNGE" car, not a baggage car. Keep taking away the niceties of train travel and people will just drive themselves to where they have to go.
It's probably going to happen anyway with self-driving cars.
 #1507436  by bostontrainguy
 
I was thinking the same thing and then got a brainstorm. Imagine a fleet of self-driving RVs! You put your family onboard and eat and sleep and do whatever you want as your moving hotel drives you to the next tourist attraction. And maybe also little one-person RVs that get you to your business meeting overnight with no hassles. That would be the end of Amtrak LD trains.
 #1507450  by scoostraw
 
bostontrainguy wrote:I was thinking the same thing and then got a brainstorm. Imagine a fleet of self-driving RVs! You put your family onboard and eat and sleep and do whatever you want as your moving hotel drives you to the next tourist attraction. And maybe also little one-person RVs that get you to your business meeting overnight with no hassles. That would be the end of Amtrak LD trains.
There are going to be all kinds of things like that I think. Like just using an uber app - picking what type of vehicle you want (ie. an RV etc.) and off you go.

As much as I like train travel once this sort of thing comes to pass, it will appeal to me as well.
 #1507452  by scoostraw
 
mtuandrew wrote:BTG: and then you can hook the RVs together and have a big RV pull them all, and to make them more efficient you can have them run on steel rails :P
And to make them even more efficient, you can stock them with cold food served in a box.
 #1507453  by WashingtonPark
 
scoostraw wrote:
mtuandrew wrote:BTG: and then you can hook the RVs together and have a big RV pull them all, and to make them more efficient you can have them run on steel rails :P
And to make them even more efficient, you can stock them with cold food served in a box.
It will take you forever, though, as the selfdriving trucks break down and block your route.
 #1507454  by ExCon90
 
Will there be 500-mile inspections? Or just annually, as now (in some states)? Another thought just occurred: if one of them has a flat, who gets out to fix it? And does the whole procession have to wait for AAA, or can the rest of them proceed without the bad-order RV?
 #1507501  by BandA
 
Have to standardize the couplers - knuckles, balls or receivers. For long distances, they could drive on board one of several auto trains that replace the Amtrak LD. Auto Trains might have fees lower than competing toll roads + fuel cost + congestion fees.

If a self-driving car on a highway gets "bad ordered", AAA comes with a wrecker & hauls it to the nearest Apple Store for repair.
 #1507683  by arthur d.
 
David Benton wrote:Looks like a lot of effort went into the design of those Bike racks. The agent may have meant the bike racks were reserved out .

They agent gave no indication that she was even aware of bike racks in cafe cars, stating simply that, since there was no longer a baggage car, bicycles were not allowed on the LSL, and would be routed through WAS period. That's not going to happen. Further, given the ticket prices I was quoted at BOS -which for some reason were in conflict (read significantly higher than) with prices given by the Amtrak web site, someone explain this please - I can hire a car for the week and cover the cost of the hotels I will be using for less money.
 #1507712  by scoostraw
 
arthur d. wrote:
David Benton wrote:Looks like a lot of effort went into the design of those Bike racks. The agent may have meant the bike racks were reserved out .

They agent gave no indication that she was even aware of bike racks in cafe cars, stating simply that, since there was no longer a baggage car, bicycles were not allowed on the LSL, and would be routed through WAS period. That's not going to happen. Further, given the ticket prices I was quoted at BOS -which for some reason were in conflict (read significantly higher than) with prices given by the Amtrak web site, someone explain this please - I can hire a car for the week and cover the cost of the hotels I will be using for less money.
Did you happen to notice if the agent's last name was Anderson?
 #1507782  by Backshophoss
 
IF there were any protests about "killing" the Checked Baggage service on 448/449,they fell on DEAF ears at 1 Mass. :P :P
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