CHICAGO — Amtrak has begun a two-year project to refurbish interiors of its Superliner fleet, showing off the first car to be completed at an event earlier this week at Chicago Union Station. Along with the coach completely refitted with new seats, carpeting, and curtains, the company provided previews of the look for Sightseer Lounge and sleeping cars.
Superliner dining cars will also receive the new look, which carries the color scheme, fabric selections, and design elements across all car types, as will Viewliner I sleeping cars. Overall, the project will cost close to $30 million.
The new seats reflect but do not duplicate those used in the Acela fleet, making use of the same materials. “So we know it’s wearing really well,” says Roger Harris, Amtrak executive vice president, chief marketing and revenue officer. “The Acelas … were done about 2½ years ago, and they look new, still. So we think it’s going to be a big step forward in terms of maintainability.”
The Superliners are not being stripped to the walls and rebuilt inside; many elements remain as they were. “In order to get them all done, we made sure we did the things that could be done quickly,” Harris says. “Because we wanted to get the benefits out to the customer right away. We didn’t change the lighting or anything, because that really needs to be done on heavy maintenance.”
While the overall project is expected to take about 24 months, coaches will be completed in about 18 months, says Larry Chestler, vice president, Long Distance Service Line. The work will be done at three sites — the Beech Grove (Ind.) Heavy Maintenance Facility, along with Seattle and New Orleans. “Those are places where we do overnight maintenance and have the facilities to do this kind of stuff,” Chestler says. Three cars will be out of service at any one time to receive the refresh.
The preview included a completed upstairs of a Sightseer Lounge; the downstairs café had not yet been refurbished. “I think this car came out so well,” Harris said. “We used to have these low-backed seats. They weren’t very durable.” Booths in the lounge car reflect the planned design for refurbishment of the dining car, with a distinctive arched seatback easily distinguished from the current design.
In the sleeping car, Chestler showed off examples of a refurbished bedroom and roomette, along with the new bedding and
towels coming systemwide. That bedding — tested last year on Auto Train — will be placed into service as it arrives, likely in August. Even unrefurbished cars will see that portion of the new look.
A notable change in the bedrooms: In the showers, single-use containers will give way to large pump dispensers for soap, shampoo and conditioner. This change, reflecting a similar move by major hotel chains, aims to do away with the significant trash generated by the single-use containers.
As has been true with plans for many businesses, the Amtrak project was delayed by supply-chain issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic or other issues, Harris says. As an example, he cited the new carpeting. “The backing was made by a factory that was hit by the Texas freeze,” he says, referring to the February cold snap and power outages that shut down much of the state. “So we have a carpet shortage. That wasn’t even COVID; It’s just the little things like that you don’t think about.”
I hope the refurbishment includes better mattresses in the Superliner sleepers. They “bottom out” easily, so they are uncomfortable for people who sleep on their side. I haven’t ridden the Viewliner sleepers enough to know whether or not they have the same problem.
Carpet shortage ? Laughable since they could have checked with any number
of carpet mills in Dalton. GA which is known as the Carpet Capital of the world.
BTW, is there any site that shows the DAILY availability blity of all passenger & related cars [lounges, diners, et al] for the long distant trains ?
PLUS—-when will the new sleepers be added to the fleet ?
Bill Grant
Columbus, OHIO
The Viewliner II sleeper are running on the Florida trains. Even if some are being refurbished, should be plenty say for the Lake Shore
That’s all well and good but a new effort to replace the bilevel fleet needs to be started.
This is indeed a positive development. I just hope this so-called “refresh” I will be done to the on the mechanical side too. This equipment, the Superliners and the Viewliner 1 sleepers have a lot of years on them and they must be return to a state of good repair on the mech side too. I have read at sources whose veracity I cannot vouch for that the LDs, now that they are returned to daily service, are operating with greatly reduced consists just as the Summer travel season is, pardon the pun, heating up. Example: the NY/Boston-Chicago supposedly running with an unprecedented for this time of the year only 2 coaches CHI-NYP and 1 coach CHI-BOS. The NY-FL trains only 2 coaches. Anyone know or want to guess what’s going on here with this restricted inventory? Is it because not enough furloughed OBS crews have returned and requalified? Is it because Amtrak is holding cars are out of service for this “refresh”? Or is it something sinister like Flynn/Gardner, while pretending to support the LDs to keep the politicians (politicians who never ride, btw), off their backs while they torpedo the service by turning away passengers account “sold out” trains?
Looks great. I can hardly wait to see and try the refurbished cars.
Love the new look. All of the Superliners badly needed TLC. Clean, modern looking equipment is always appreciated be it plane or train.
I’m sure folks will gripe about certain aspects of the look or materials, but I am glad the Superliners are getting some basic TLC. Neat clean cars are better than raggedy worn down ones no matter what “look” they may have.