MIAMI — With track damage caused by Hurricane Ian flooding in the Kissimmee, Fla., area repaired by CSX maintenance forces, Amtrak is restoring service beyond Jacksonville, Fla., to two New York-Florida trains this weekend.
However, the addition of the second “Silver Service” train will result in a net loss of sleeping-car capacity.
The Silver Meteor, which returns today, will carry two Viewliner sleeping cars, down from the three it carried before the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to its suspension in January. The Silver Star, operating on a more circuitous route through the Carolinas and Florida, will also operate with two sleepers. It had been expanded to five sleepers and four or five coaches during the Meteor’s hiatus. Both trains are assigned three coaches, Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods tells Trains News Wire.
The Silver Star’s first trip to Orlando and Miami via Raleigh, N.C., and Tampa, Fla. got off to a rocky start today (Friday, Oct. 14) from New York’s Moynihan Train Hall and Penn Station, departing 1 hour, 32 minutes late; it was more than two hours late out of Washington, D.C. The first northbound Star is set to leave South Florida on Saturday, Oct. 15.
Before Hurricane Ian intervened, Amtrak had planned to restore the Silver Meteor Oct. 3; reservations were later accepted for a return on Oct. 14 for the southbound train and Oct. 15 for the northbound Meteor, but departures were pushed back a day from both New York and Miami to Oct. 15 and 16, respectively.
Sleeper reduction leads to ticket cancellations
In a press release today, the company noted that the faster and more direct New York-Miami Meteor was, “suspended [in January] due to the impact of the COVID-19 Omicron variant that disrupted a number of Amtrak services because of limited available resources across the company.”
The train had consistently outperformed the Silver Star in revenue before and during the pandemic, in part because its scheduled later departures and earlier arrivals in the Northeast allowed connections with Amtrak trains serving western and northern destinations that were not possible with the Silver Star.
Another reason was that the Meteor’s three sleeping cars contributed to more revenue than the Star’s two. Three sleepers had been slated to operate when the Meteor returned, but now some travelers are being notified that space they had reserved is no longer available.
A passenger who booked a roomette in April 2022 on the southbound Meteor leaving New York for Palatka, Fla., on Dec. 21, 2022, told Trains News Wire that an automated voicemail recently told him to call Amtrak about a “service disruption.”
The trip had been cancelled, he was told by an agent, “because they have taken a sleeping car off the Meteor, and since that was our car, we lose, and no other space was available on any train on Dec. 20 or 22 either.”
Chicago trains continue to see capacity shortage
Outside of the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak has been plagued by insufficient resources to grow its workforce and return equipment to service throughout 2022, to the detriment of travelers attempting to purchase tickets.
A Trains News Wire online check discovered that beginning Oct. 8, no sleeping car space was available overnight for more than a week on Texas Eagle, Southwest Chief, California Zephyr and Empire Builder Chicago departures, or their arriving eastbound counterparts. The westbound Zephyr had no available coach seats out of Chicago for eight of the next 16 days because it had been assigned only two Superliner coaches. On three of the sold-out dates, some seats opened up west of Galesburg, Ill., to Denver, only to sell out again the next day between Denver and Glenwood Springs, Colo.
News Wire asked Amtrak to recap specific coach and sleeping car assignments for each of its long-distance trains, but the company only would say, “Capacity varies by departure, demand, and other market conditions.”
Amtrak’s Woods did say that beginning Nov. 1, Auto Train would run with nine Superliner sleeping cars. Though almost always sold out at departure from its Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla., terminals, and fattening the bottom line with passengers’ cars and motorcycles, that service generated more than $10 million of ticket revenue per month June through August in 2022, even with a reduced consist.
Elsewhere, however, the capacity decisions for the Meteor and the Chicago-based trains suggest management will continue to operate with reduced capacity and revenue on long-distance trains throughout fiscal 2023.
What about the “insignificant” number of flyers who benefit from the Federal Essential Air Svc (EOS) paid for by taxpayers? Why don’t flyers pay for the Air Traffic Control system in their fares? Highways?? You mean the ones that are receiving the bulk of the Infrastructure funding because American drivers are freeloaders/deadbeats & didn’t want to pay the costs of building & maintaining them? Now we’re adding billions to the deficit which wouldn’t have been necessary if drivers had paid at the pump to reflect costs of inflation for construction & maintenance so they could joy ride & road trip. “Subsidies” to Amtrak & transit are a pittance compared to Hwys subsidies but they like to call those “investments”. LMAO!
“Outside of the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak has been plagued by insufficient resources to grow its workforce and return equipment to service throughout 2022″anyone who has ridden the NEC knows this isn’t true, equipment shortages are impacting service there as well.
Let’s not forget that President Reagan with his then budget director David Stockman wanted to totally elimnate all passenger train service in the country including the Northeast Corridor as well as many a transit system in the big cities by simply cutting off all funding for rail and transit. Trump also had the same plan to eliminate Amtrak and all rail service. And for any of the folks who lived in New York City in the 50s and 60s they might remember an urban planner and developer by the name of Robert Moses who had a master plan to transform all of New York City into a maze of highways and streets and to do away with all urban and mass transit in favor of the private automobile. For lack of space, I could go on and on with a list of all these geniuses who always wanted to eliminate any form of rail travel and urban transit but thankfully most of these ideas never came to pass. While the airplane and the automobile are the kings of the transportation world for now, there will always be a need tor rail travel and transport
Joseph C. Markfelder
I’d like to believe its true the US will always need Long Distance rail travel but other than the heavily populated NE corridor and maybe several others, I’m not sure it is.
If simply moving an insignificant amount of people over longer distances who refuse to take a bus or fly for whatever reason is the responsibility of government, that can be handled by the Federal or any state government subsidizing bus service. A “take it or you’re on your own approach” probably would work in almost all areas. The percentage of voters who have the issue as a top priority is too low to be politically significant in the US.
Quit complaining about Butthead Buttigieg. He’s a yes man who pretends to know about transportation issues. The present problem isn’t because of him though. I rest my case at the Obama administration.
When he came into office in 2009 the Newest non corridor equipment (cars & locomotives) were already 14 years old, already past the halfway life of typical equipment. Most, about 2/3’s of the cars, were already 30 years old, having been built between 1977 and 1982. The remaining 1/3 were built from 1984 to 1994.
In Obama’s 8 years, only 130 Viewliner cars were ordered (most of which were 2 to 3 years behind expected delivery dates. Eleven or twelve hundred cars needed to be acquired just to replace aging/damaged/worn out equipment. Another 400 to 600 should have been ordered to expand existing service and to grow new routes.
Now you have equipment that is in short supply, even older, more prone to breakdowns, costlier to fix, causing some of the delays in transit, leading to increased operating expenses.
South Bend, Indiana has a total transportation system of about 50 transit buses. Buttigieg was not qualified from the get-go. But when Buttigieg said that this administration would make America the leader in high-speed rail, I knew he was a complete fraud.
On a completely different subject, I like the look of uniformity from the use of Phase III in the picture. Amtrak needs to just pick this scheme and apply it system wide.
Buttigieg? There’s very few Democrats I like. I was hoping he’d be one of the few. Seemed to be intelligent and thoughtful, when he ran for president in the primaries against Biden and others. Turns out, he’s neither. He’s an empty suit that looks very good in a suit.
Buttigieg isn’t the first SecTrans to get the position as a consolation prize when he wanted something bigger. John Anthony Volpe could have been Veep instead of Spiro Agnew (and therefore president because Nixon didn’t finish his term). Instead Volpe had to settle for DOT. Difference is, Volpe was a great SecTrans, the guy who convinced a skeptical Dirty Dick Nixon to okay Amtrak’s creation, which was hanging by a thread. All this was reported by one of our familiar TRAINS bylines. Forgive me if I don’t correctly remember, was it Fred Frailey?
How ironic. Volpe got Amtrak created under Nixon, the most anti-Amtrak president. Buttigieg does nothing as Amtrak fall to ruins under Biden, the most pro-Amtrak president.
This is the end result of how Amtrak is run like a “candy store.” What’s happened to the “Silver Meteor” is just an after shock from how incompetently corporate management made their pathetic decisions ramping down for COVID. And none of these decision-makers have “walked the gangplank” and paid the price for the end result, including consists shortened to provide equipment to other trains; lack of seasoned/experienced/trained OBS and T&E crews and maintenance staff: all impacting customer experience and revenues.
Although we know Amtrak is simply all about “politics,” it’s obvious neither Pelosi nor Schumer have any concerns over how Amtrak commits hari-kari in front of their eyes. The only hope is when both houses change leadership after November. The new Congress must act immediately (not produce another report in 2 years) to put Amtrak’s Board and corporate management on a short lease by relying on external accountants to explain:
1) Investigate who, when, how the bonus structure was created, and the approval process? (Why was the long running corporate counsel bonuses? With a pass thru, inadequate Board incapable of demanding accountability as run by Board Chair Coscia, I’ll bet Congress was blind-sided. If too late to claw-back those funds, place restrictions re any future bonuses.
2) Require a timely weekly report to Congress (need to bypass the sleepy Secretary of Transportation and his FRA Administrator) to identify what equipment and power is not in service, reason, length of time out of service, revenue impact.
3) Identify any variation in standard consists for reasons stated in #2. Ideally, it will be possible to go backwards to identify lost revenue due to shortened consists and non-operational days.
4) Place an immediate hold on the $66 Million and all other funds in excess of initial budget to enable (“encourage”) Amtrak to clean-up its act–operationally and financially. Certainly, no expansion of routes should be anticipated.
When we evaluate corporate management composed of a Capitol Hill staff and ex-airline managers, it’s easy to understand when people surmise Amtrak’s issues pertain to a corporate management that wasn’t sharp enough to go into Wall Street.
Right on . Been saying that for over a year.
The actions or lack of actions by any administration’s Federal DOT are a valid point to comment on. The same goes for any state’s DOT which has Amtrak operations that it supports. Just because its your political party does not mean there can’t be criticism.
I believed from the creation of AMTRAK that it was a mistake to have the NE corridor and the rest of the national network under the same operating corporation. I really wish the Federal government would try a major international Passenger rail operation as the management of the NE corridor to see if it can do a better job than Amtrak. The rest of the USA will always be a problem no matter who operates it unless its made financially worthwhile for the host freight RR to prioritize passenger trains over its freights .
Political? That CAN be a comment type to avoid, BUT when coupled w/facts that are espoused by different parties it is worthwhile. More be it, to bring facts (substantuated/quoted material), not opinions or observations. The discussion can be enlightening to those of us not aware. However, opinions, (like a face = everyone has one) should not added to the thread in that it is not a discussion rather an argument and does not add constructively to the thread IMHO endmrw1115221128
Mr. Landry’s comments (Dems vs Repubs) overlook the fact that about 90% of Amtrak runs on corporate class 1s (Republican led and generally hostile). Most of the horror stories and focus is on these routes. On the NEC (Amtrak owned and run), service is plentiful and it is the number one carrier in most markets with full trains and consistent time keeping. Without tough regulations to control the class 1s, the only solution is for Amtrak to acquire more of its own right of way. Just look at how impossible it has been for Amtrak to restore minimal service in the south (post Katrina), the insistence on silly rules like Superliners on the IC or lots of deadhead coaches on the UP in MO, and the abysmal time keeping for one a day long distance trains across the system.
Steven, regarding your post. The freight railroads (allegedly Republican) did NOT, repeat did NOT, cause or contrubute to the incident in Michigan. It was Amtrak’s own doing, one hundred percent. Amtrak is answerable to the Democrat administration.
I read (on line) the Detroit Free Press every day. The Freep is a Democrat newspaper and has said as much in its editorials over the past days. The Freep did not take Amtrak to task. The Freep isn’t bothered by Democrat-run Amtrak. I am.
Amtrak is more “screwed up” and illogical by the day!!
Just a question. For the section about superliner availability, I have seen a lot of videos of Superliners working on the Illini run. From what I’ve heard, CN has constantly moaned to Amtrak that they have to use superliners on all of it’s trains. Why is CN still telling Amtrak to use Superliners on it’s lines? (mainly the ex-IC line) And is the superliner availability why Amtrak wants to take over (the Chicago-Carbondale portion of CN’s mainline? (Or at least the dispatching?) Because I believe that the superliners now being used on the Illini could aid the California Zephyr coach capacity issues.
So how did we go from 5 sleepers on 1 train to 2 sleepers each on 2 trains again? With both trains having similar turnaround times at each end? Unless the issue is “not enough staff for 3 cars on the Meteor”, but even then couldn’t you just put it back on the Star for a while?
There seems to be no problem handing out millions in bonuses.
If Amtraks management is not providing the cars needed for all these long distance trains, then they should not complain that long distance trains loose too much money. Obviously there is demand for both more sleeping car and coach cars on these trains. I know in the past Amtrak would always expand the number of cars on the Florida trains for the winter. They also would also run longer trains on the western trains in the summer to capture the summer vacation travelers. I know the western trains have been limited due to the number of Superliner cars out of service, However with the new single level sleeping cars coming on line there is no reason there should be a shortage of east coast long distance sleeping cars. The same for coach service as the newer cars are replacing the old Amfleet or Horizon equipment there is no reason they should not be able to be rehabbed into long distance coaches at minimal cost compared to new cars.
I’d love to know exactly what Amtrak is doing with all the money Amtrak Joe is shoveling at it. Amtrak has never had more money and it’s never been a worse railroad.
As usual Mr Landey, your comment shows political hack nonsense. What kind of railroading could possibly have been accomplished in the time since the bill was passed.
Political? I’ll make a political comment. After the incident in Michigan, my former home state, I have to wonder where is the outrage from Michigan’s governor? And its two senators. Where is the outrage from Amtrak Joe and from Mayor Pete? All Democrats, all five of them.
Democrats run this country, they run USDOT, and in turn Amtrak is their beast. Democrats, fix this. It’s your show, not mine. I’m a Republican.
Charles we know for the most part the GOP has been trying to dissolve Amtrak for 50 years and until they finally come on board for their constituents Amtrak will always be in this predicament.