WASHINGTON — Amtrak has officially retired its last dome car, ex-Great Northern “Great Dome” Ocean View, losing a valuable promotional tool in the process.
It is the latest example of the passenger railroad choosing to retire rather than continuing to maintain cars every previous management had used to attract passengers, following retirement earlier in 2018 and sale earlier this year of its four Pacific Parlour Cars. Those ex-Santa Fe cars had been featured on the Coast Starlight after being refurbished in the mid-1990s to provide an exclusive, upscale travel experience for that train’s passngers.
Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams told the Albany Times Union last week, that, “due to the age and expense of maintaining this vintage car, the Great Dome Car will no longer operate as part of Amtrak’s fleet.” It has been at the Beech Grove Heavy Maintenance Facility for several months, but the company did not offer it in any of the recent car sales.
Amtrak dispensed with most of the dome cars it inherited from the streamliner era in 1993 when the arrival of Superliner II equipment permitted the conversion of Auto Train to a bilevel consist. In any case, tight clearances precluded their use on any trains between Baltimore and Boston.
However, Amtrak kept the Ocean View around to attract customers, such as regular fall color assignments on the Montreal-Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y., segment of the Adirondack and stints on the Chicago-Washington, D.C., portion of the Cardinal’s route. It also was periodically deployed to augment capacity on Midwest and California corridors during holiday periods.
State-supported services such as Maine’s Downeaster also found the Ocean View useful to energize new service introductions or fare promotions as a “reason to ride”. Amtrak itself used it for that purpose in March 2017 during the Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State’s transition back to Amtrak equipment from Iowa Pacific’s full length dome car.
The car has been most valuable, though, on inspection trains where decision makers are hosted. The dome has easily accommodated many prospective stakeholders, giving all guests an opportunity to see operations firsthand.
Railroads such as BNSF and Union Pacific have long seen the value of maintaining domes, sleeping cars, coaches, and lounges from their legacy flagship passenger fleets to host shippers and politicians. Current Amtrak management’s current intense focus on cost cutting, however, dictates retiring the type of equipment its host carriers continue to value.
Amtrk was supposed to be in the black over 40 years ago, with being said, since I live in Jacksonville, FL I as well as people in this area are unable to enjoy any of the trains, other than the Auto Train (North and South), that’s it, If I want to travel to Chicago, I have to catch two trains, If I want to travel to the Western states, I basically have to pay for three trains (very expensive) can’t travel to LA anymore, (I used to enjoy the Amerapass Amtrak had) now that the Sunset Limited ends in New Orleans, I would like to have my taxes back, since I’m paying for service I can barely use.
Pretty soon, Amtrak is going to change its name to Anthrax. )-:
Robert: Do you go to antique auto shows? What about antique airplane shows? Should we tear down old buildings? There are several railroads that know the value of restoring steam engines. When my wife and I rode the Canadian we spent most of the time in the domes. The Super Liner Sightseers are not the same. I’m not surprised that the Donald Trump of Amtrak is continuing to turn passengers away.
Amtrak needs to lease a couple of Skyline cars from VIA for the fall Adirondack runs.
Does anyone out there remember what Richard Anderson did when he was at Northwest in Minneapolis?
I hope this full length dome car finds a new home
Seatless cafes, backward facing seats, crappy food, off-limits dining cars, windowless seats, no baggage service, end of “experiential” travel on this unique dome car . . .
Don’t like the way things are going here. Train travel just may not be as enjoyable anymore.
Hey if you want domes then head to Canada. They have plenty of them up there. Of course you can’t mind being a couple of days late at your destination.
On a personal note I miss dome cars. I’ve spent many an enjoyable hour riding various ones. But things change and now I watch as younger passengers seat themselves in Amfleet cars at a location that has no windows purposely because there will be less glare on their screens. They don’t care about the scenery. They’ve taken the train because it either is the cheapest or most convenient option. “Just get me there!” Sometimes the first thing that passengers do when they get seated is to pull the curtains to block the light.
I think Anderson is doing the right thing. This is an old car and parts probably have to be manufactured and that is expensive. Few people care about dome cars anymore. Just old anachronisms.
Back in the early 80’s I rode the CZ from Omaha to Denver and got up in one of the older dome cars. Passing freights at speed and watching those signals fly by (green to red) thru the nite was an experience I and no young boys will get to repeat again. I didn’t sleep at all that nite.
Thank you John Rice you get it!
While we quibble about what Amtrak was and is losing (dome cars, diners, sleepers, etc), we should be thinking about what the next generation of passenger rail should look like.
Maybe the coach/economy class on the first floor just be body moving seats with an entertainment console in front of them with a USB port for charging. Drinks with be comped, but food will cost extra. Basically an airline on wheels.
Upstairs in the Dome/Larger windowed cars is First Class seating, with more recline, more padded seats and more food options with a bar. Basically Virgin Atlantic on wheels. If they think they can sell them, the business class cubes that Singapore Airlines offers where your seat folds down into a bed and you can pull the screen around your cube.
There hasn’t been any innovation in the passenger space when it comes to rail in over 50 years (Auto Train) We are still working, thinking like its 1929 with Pullman cars with low density and space to roam and walk around.
Make roaming optional or more difficult as required (like using the heads).
Place airline style slots in the floors of all passenger cars so seats can be swapped out easily or pitch changed to optimize revenue.
If Amtrak wants parcel revenue, have cars with the seats removed and designed to take airline style cargo containers. Then you have flex cars that can do either passenger or parcels. More flexibility in the fleet.
Everyone wants Amtrak to be what railroading was once upon a time, maybe it needs to duplicate some of the lessons learned by its more popular cousin to stay relevant and garner more revenue.
Its pretty clear it isn’t sustainable in its current format, so why do we desire to repeat the current format over and over and over. (Isn’t that called insanity?)
Perhaps its time to move on.
I remember a delightful trip on the Cardinal in 1989 returning from Chicago after a business trip. I had flown out and opted for AMTRAK for the return. It was so neat sitting in the dome car approaching a tunnel and thinking that opening in the mountain sure looks small for this large car to pass through. As I remember, the dome car had been hooked on in Beech Grove and was being ferried east. The conductor opened it up for the most scenic portion of the trip.
Right Mr. Pins, THAT George Henry Daniels, Mr. “20th Century Limited” himself, possibly the greatest promoter of rail travel (And by way of that his employer, the New York Central) the country’s ever had, or will have.
Certainly we live in a different time, but I can’t help but wonder how Mr. Daniels would have handled Amtrak if it was dropped in his lap.
G.H. versus “Delta Dick?” There’s the difference between a born salesman and just another corporate bureaucrat.
I am literally crying my eyes out right now. I have ridden this car on a number of occasions when it has visited Maine in the fall months attached to our beloved Downeaster service. The reaction of my wife and myself and all of those around us on those trips was “Wow”. I am glad that I have had the chances to ride this car and others like it. Why Amtrak should throw away such a great promotional tool is beyond me. My wife and I travel via Amtrak every time we can because the alternatives – air or highway – are so ugly, demeaning, impersonal, scary, and tasteless. There is *NOTHING* to recommend an airline travel experience except speed, and if Mr. Anderson thinks that the average Amtrak passenger wants an airline type experience, he is sorely mistaken. As for us, we are going to ride the trains as much as we can while we can, even if we have to eat those crappy boxed meals.
I guess I should consider myself lucky for having two opportunities to ride the lone Amtrak dome car — fun trips, indeed! Once the ride was on the Surfliner: once from San Diego to Ventura mostly along the Pacific Ocean and once from
This is awful! How did this Anderson get to be head of Amtrak? He is destroying it from the inside, after all the work of supporters have done over the 48 years of Amtrak’s existence to keep it going. Very sad.
How sad to see these dome cars go away. My wife and I just rode the Coast Starlight a few weeks ago. Though we enjoyed the comfort and privacy of our bedroom, we spent most of our daylight hours in the dome car enjoying the spectacular scenery, the great company of fellow passengers, and frequent trips to the Cafe below decks. (They had plenty of Jack Daniels!) The cruise on the train was well worth the much greater cost compared to the indignity and misery of flying. (My son’s a pilot with United, so much of the time we can actually fly on non-revenue standby passes.) It’s been a long downhill slide since my fond memories of the Super Chief as a proud operating manager for the Santa Fe back in the mid 60’s. Sigh!
Every time I see Bob Johnston’s byline I think “Uh oh, now what?” I appreciate Bob’s dogged coverage of Amtrak’s decline (at least as a travel option for me) and I agree with his analysis, but it is so sad – no, not sad – ignorant of the values of passenger railroading. Let’s see who grabs this car, if it is offered for sale. Andrew Dickey – You are one of the great apologists. Wayne Antoniazzi – You mean red caps, roll out the red carpet, The Empire State Express, that GHD?
The one Amtrak car I wanted to ride…..RIP Amtrak
For an opposing viewpoint – it’s possible they objectively analyzed the cost of maintaining and using the dome compared to the value received and realized the use did not generate sufficient revenue and/or good will to make it worth it. It’s easy to have an opinion (like the article’s author seems to have), but facts are better.
Hey, as far as “Delta Dick” is concerned Amtrak’s in the warm-body moving business, nothing more, nothing less. Entertainment of the same doesn’t fit into the big picture.
Where’s George Henry Daniels when you need him?
I could merge the two recent posts, WAYNE’s and ARTHUR’s, into one post. When I read Fred’s column over dinner today, the letters SP, SP, SP, SP echoed across my cranium.
On this news site and other sources, the numbers are coming in. Amtrak is losing passengers on many routes. I’m one of them.
Just got the October issue of “Trains.” Fred Frailey’s got a good column this month concerning Amtrak and Anderson.
If Amtrak is supposed to be in the business of attracting increasing numbers of passengers to ride its trains, how does eliminating something that attracts passengers make any sense? But maybe that’s the whole idea, like SP in the 1960s.
Just more sad news at Amtrak, it’s just becoming more and more impossible to love Amtrak these days, pretty soon the only enjoyable thing on Amtrak will just be the scenery that Amtrak trains pass through.
I got to ride this car only once and that was back when it ran on the Pacific Surfliner, (Although I don’t remember how long ago it was) I rode it between Fullerton and LA Union Station and it was a great ride, Although it was before the car received Phase 3 paint once again I still enjoyed riding in it.