Federal, Night Owl, Twilight Shoreliner (Trains 65, 66, 67)

While waiting for a commuter rail train at Boston's Back Bay station last night (Friday), I witnessed the 9:50pm station stop of Amtrak #67 (still referred to on the Amtrak monitor as "The Federal"!) . Its consist was AEM7, baggage car (labelled "US Mail"), cafe car and only 3 coaches. The last time I saw this train a year or two back, it had 5 or 6 coaches. About 30 or so passengers boarded at Back Bay and it looked like 3/4's of the coach seats were filled. BTW, is the last coach on the train a "lights off" car? Hopefully it wasn't a dark dead head car. Maybe it's opened as needed at Rte 128 or Providence?

Anyway I wonder if yield pricing is reducing 67's patronage somehow. Regional train 179's 6:45pm departure from BOS would appear to be a better evening departure option for NYP bound passengers in terms of NYC arrival times.

Train #67/66 is your overnight, last chance, train on the corridor with just coaches, business class, and cafe car, while lacking the most important car for overnight travel - a sleeper. The Viewliner was removed several years ago when they were having a Viewliner shortage (maintenance issues with the cars freezing up in the winter) and never returned to service unfortunately - even though the Viewliners did get the maintenance and were all returned to service. This is now considered more of a Regional train, than a named train like the "Federal."

I was actually on regional 67 last night to Providence
See my seat check here
The reason why its so short is because not that many passengers want to travel on coach class on a train during the over night hours. When I first saw it at south station, I was surprised myself seeing only 3 amfleet cars, usually it will have 4 of them. And it will have only 2 condcutors on it, did you see a lady at the front and a guy in the back? As for the last car of the train, when i borded the train at South Station, the last car of the train was cut out, my guess is not a lot of people were traveling that night.

That's an interesting coincidence! Yes, I did see both of the train crew. So all of 67's passengers were sitting in 2 coaches except for the biz class passengers travelling in the cafe car? Must have been child's play for AEM #946.

Question: approx how many passengers got on/off at PVD? Thx.

This would be a good train for my proposed first class Amfleet seating, similar to first class on long distance airline flights.

It would be good with restoration of a Viewliner sleeping car - restoration of overnight sleeping car service that should be afforded on the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak can figure out a way to rotate this Viewliner to its Miami era service center, largely via when the Silvers Service trains switch engines at Washington DC. Provide extra sleeping car capacity or it could be the "Washington DC" section sleeper on the Silver Service trains.

hsr_fan wrote:This would be a good train for my proposed first class Amfleet seating, similar to first class on long distance airline flights.

We had them , they were called Slumbercoaches.

Un-named Regional trains 66 and 67 have the distinction of being the only Amtrak trains on which a private car can be moved between BOS and NYP, in either direction, on the northeast corridor. All of the other Regional trains operating between NYP and BOS have a maximum authorized speed greater than 110 MPH on segments of their journey, thereby precluding the movement of private cars.

johnpbarlow wrote:That's an interesting coincidence! Yes, I did see both of the train crew. So all of 67's passengers were sitting in 2 coaches except for the biz class passengers travelling in the cafe car? Must have been child's play for AEM #946.

Question: approx how many passengers got on/off at PVD? Thx.

I think that about 5 people got off the train, and no more then 10 got on.

66/67 also are the only bagagge car equipped trains that service stops north of NYP and south of BOS (which also has LSL).

You may be right, but I have a feeling that train 95 also has a Baggage car on it, because that is the only other regional train to go the FULL length of the route down to Newport News. Same with 94

I've been on 95 numerous times and have never seen a baggage car on that train...

Everyone: I remember when Amtrak named overnight NEC BOS-WAS trains the Night Owls in both directions and later called them the Twilight Shoreliners. I also recall the Executive Sleeper service between NYP-WAS.
I remember Amtrak marketing these trains as an alternative to a hotel between WAS-NYP-BOS for all three(coach,club and sleeper) types of passengers. Night Owl was a easy name to memorize for trains 66 and 67. MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX - as the song goes - "those were the days."

The "executive sleeper" was hooked on at NY Penn Station and people could board around like 8 p.m. or so in NYC I believe (for the northbound or southbound trip). Then there was a sleeper for the whole route. And yes, it would be your hotel on wheels. Course with shorter times on the north and south-end of the corridor (originating from NYC), not sure if the Executive sleeper would necessarily be needed any more.

Warrington wanted to make the Twilight Shoreliner (from Newport News to Boston) equivalent to that of the West Coast Coast Starlight. The only problem was that it served Washington DC and Boston largely at unfriendly passenger times. And in terms of onboard services, it started out with good intentions, but then cost cutting took its role.

Many regular NEC riders were up in arms when Warrington proposed to first take take the Viewliners off the NEC schedule during the remaining tenure of his presidency at Amtrak. But then the deept freeze winter of 2005/2006 hit. This took the Viewliner sleepers off the corridor, to cover other routes where Viewliners were despartely needed and had more revenue to generate. A major "Viewliner freeze up" was at hand. The Cardinal was running without its lone Viewliner as well as the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited. The Viewliner cars had to be rotated down to Miami to get "thawed out." Course many believe the problem could have been averted if the cars were not depleted of HEP during the layover either at Sunnyside or Chicago - to keep them semi-warm etc.

Gunn put the Viewliners through a maintenance program that I think winterized most of them, or at least better than what they had been under Warrington's adminstration.

But with all the Viewliners now back in service, could the NEC put a sleeping car back on Regional #66/67, even though it would probably be the shortest trip a Viewliner would endure? I think the answer is yes and needed. Eventually the car would have to rotate down to Miami, but engine changes at Washington DC for the Silver Service trains could switch Viewliners in/out as needed at their terminus in DC (just run the overnight route on the NEC). Furthermore, could day rooms be had in running the Viewliners from Boston or Washington DC back to Sunnyside etc. for rotation etc. Would be an interesting service, but travelers would finally get compartments that are not offered on the Acela Express - or other high speed trains in the world (even though the Viewliners have their speed restrictions).

I have given up in trying to figure out the current Viewliner utilization. And more Viewliners could be made available if Amtrak tweaked some schedules, or turned some Viewliners in Washington DC (for passengers travelling on the Silver Service south of Washington DC).

Removing the Heritage Crew cars only made capacity worse, and revenue more limiting.

Amtrak just plain didn't order enough Viewliner sleepers. But the budget wouldn't allow for a more comfortable spare/expansion margin.

At one time, it was envisioned that a fleet of close to 300 Viewliners would be ordered, in sleeper, coach, lounge, and diner configurations. The political climate ended that dream.