Amtrak Baggage Cars; Hauling Air and What Else??

Amtrak has made a priority of acquiring new baggage cars, but I'm wondering what exactly do they actually carry in them? I know they haul bikes now. (Only took them 25 years after they first came up with the idea...) But checked baggage is minimal and is there even an "Amtrak Express" anymore? It seems that they are currently virtually empty most of the time. But maybe there are future possibilities being planned for?

MikeinNeb wrote: But checked baggage is minimal and is there even an "Amtrak Express" anymore?

All depends on the route, Have seen a bag car very full !

Yeah, depends partly on the route and time of year.

That said, I DO think Amtrak could be doing more to promote their usage.

And I'd love to eventually see one on the Ethan Allen or another medium distance train in New York, especially one that gets to NYP before the Crescent for example leaves town.

Checking baggage in the NEC has too few options north and east of NYP.

In the case of Vermonter, Adirondack and Ethan Allen, baggage service was funded by individual states until 2002-03.

Express service is available at select stations in either REX (regular express), packages up to 50 lb each and HEX (heavy express) at major stations, which is palletized and heavy freight. Each shipment is a maximum of 500 lb. Routes with NPCUs and Superliner coach-baggage cars cannot handle heavy loads.

Checked baggage is a heavily used feature on #79 and 80' The Carolinian and is promoted as an amenity by the state in its promotions. Piedmont's also feature baggage and bike service.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Routes with NPCUs and Superliner coach-baggage cars cannot handle heavy loads.

Makes sense about the Superliners, but I’m surprised about the NPCUs. The frame doesn’t seem like it would present an issue, having supported a 16-645 et cetera - are the installed floors just not strong enough?

The NPCU floor is much higher than a Heritage Bag and a View II bag,some locations might not have a fork lift or a pallet jack.

A few weeks ago during NYP power problems I saw a long haul set (I believe it was the Silver Star) that "stopped" at EWR. I know it was very close to the end of the trip, but a quick glance in the baggage car showed only ~10 bags.

I had a ski bag on a Norwegian train a few weeks ago; they had a baggage room for me to stow it in, and then a conductor passed it out the door to me when I got off.

Couldn't Amtrak have self-service or semi-self-service baggage cars, so that people could check bags to ANY station along the route? Maybe only 1 bag per person to unstaffed stations in order to keep there from being too many? This would be a lot easier at high-platform stations, or from superliners with coach-baggage cars -- door close to platform level either way.

Partial self service baggage, like on some Canadian trains at stops in the wilderness, would remove one excuse for eliminating baggage cars. They came off the Vermonter because the
States wouldn't pay for station agents required by Amtrak to handle baggage.

But... the lawyers!

Actually I believe Maine does something like this with bikes as I recall correctly.

Robust baggage facilities, comically robust for today's checked-baggage business, hold the way open for minimally disruptive institution of airline-style carry-on limits.

It seems to me it would have been a lot more cost effective for Amtrak to stick with their original order for 25 dorm-baggage cars and reduce the number of non revenue producing baggage cars (dorms produce revenue by freeing up space in sleepers). Save the full baggage cars for western trains and the eastern trains without a sleeper. Based on the new diners, it appears all 25 are required to handle the LSL, Crescent, and Silver Meteor, and /or Star/Cardinal.

I have a feeling that beyond baggage, Amtrak Express and any other parcel shipment, these cars also perform a lot of company service (especially parts shipments btwn Beech & Bear and the outlying facilities.) In theory, they’d even be large & robust enough to accommodate axles. They will probably have productive and reasonably full lives, and worst case, Amtrak can order & install crew roomettes, more bike racks, or diner food storage at a later date.

Their LCL package business is growing. I have heard firsthand from managerial types that the big three automakers do use this service when just-in-time deliveries are not where they need to be and some extra parts are needed.