Amtrak Long Distance Fleet Replacement - Superliner Replacement - Bilevel or Single Level

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Tue Sep 05, 2023 5:48 am Yes it does, Mr. Scratchy. All five of Brightline's present stations are on straightaways, but there are still "mind the gap" plates as part of each car's vestibule (just as there are on any Siemens equipment I've ridden overseas).

Are they able to retract, for low level platforms?, Or are all the platforms overseas high?

Mr. Scratchy, the Continental platforms are, shall we say, "half high". There is a definite step.

The "Subways" are full high level as are those, "Subway" and Intercity in the UK (and IIRC Ireland).

I think from one of Roaming Railfan's videos, the Brightline cars can only use high level platforms; they can close the gap, but do not have steps.

Regarding "saving" $5 billion, that would just get used to subsidize some other form of transportation (there is lobbying to extend the "essential air service" subsidies), so, yeah, no savings.

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:17 am I think the idea is that only the “core” trainset is fixed. Additional coach and sleeping cars would be able to be attached to the endpoints of the core trainset via standard couplers like for the Auto Train.

I would hope so. I remember when the semi-fixed nature of the Turboliners was a point of criticism (the Rohr versions actually had conventional couplers, but I believe were still limited to 6 cars max, sometimes stealing a coach from another set to expand beyond the normal 5 cars). Now everyone seems to love fixed consists!

It's good to see that dining and lounge space are part of the design. Not so good to see that they're allocating like half a car to lounge space, when the existing Sightseer Lounge cars often fill up, especially on the more scenic routes.

Railway Age

Amtrak LD Service: Why Integrated Trainsets Won’t Work

Since at least 2010, Amtrak’s fleet plans have stressed the need to address replacing its increasingly aged railcar fleet. A 2018 statement of “fleet planning principles” included a guiding principle relating to the need to order “off-the-shelf designs.” Upon passage of the IIJA, it became increasingly apparent that not only had Amtrak failed to perform scheduled maintenance on its long-distance fleet but that no advance design work had been completed to expedite an order for replacement cars. The integrated trainset preview was notable in that, first, no railcar builder (not even Siemens and Alstom, both currently building new equipment) was there to elaborate upon Amtrak’s design ideas; second, Amtrak did not attribute any of the concepts presented to supplier feedback solicited early this year. It is unclear, at best, if any carbuilder is prepared to execute the concept outlined.

Right now, three designs meet all FRA and ADA requirements: the Siemens Venture car and Airo integrated trainset, and the Viewliner, an Amtrak design that has been adopted for dining cars, baggage cars and sleepers. Were Amtrak motivated to re-equip the LD service, one might surmise that these designs would be central to an initial order. But that appears not to be the case.

Amtrak has the capability to modify existing equipment to immediately offer increased accessibility that would be available sooner than awaiting a ten-year delivery window, which has characterized recent Amtrak car orders. Rocky Mountaineer recently gutted railcars built in the 1950s and remanufactured them at a reported cost that is 60% of that for a new car and extended the 60-plus-year-old cars’ life by 10 years. These cars are presently in service between Denver and Moab, Utah, operating over the Union Pacific and yielding premium pricing for a premium travel experience. Similarly, VIA Rail Canada has remanufactured Budd Company railcars originally built in the 1950s to support the Toronto-Vancouver Canadian.
...

Amtrak posted the slides and results of the feedback here: https://accessibilityfeedback-amtrak.com

Slide PDF: https://accessibilityfeedback-amtrak.co ... be83b7.pdf

I had a few meetings but finally got to go through the slides. There's more info here than what was reported.

First, there's a "minimal ADA compliant double-level trainset": Then a bigger ideal single level: And bigger bi-level: There's a few ideas that I'm thinking now given previous posts:

• Ether Amtrak took the proposed consists that the builders' catalog and did a mash-up...
• Or the procurement department didn't talk to a design department and they haven't figured out that they should talk to each other.

Still, makes me wonder about the various designs.

Departments not talking to each other is pretty common in pretty much every large organization, so my bets are on that.

lensovet wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:38 pm Departments not talking to each other is pretty common in pretty much every large organization, so my bets are on that.

Yeah, I had to consider that because it kept happening at MTA Maryland when I worked there.

I did take the time yesterday to tweak the base of my designs. I still have to go in and work out the "non-fictional" version, but I did get to move stuff around and keep some capacity. I'll have to dig in a bit more to "match" Amtrak's designs.