645 posted:GenesisFan99 posted:Scotie posted:And what is it going to take to get Amtrak to put a dinner back on the Silver Star? Trips of over a day with only one cafe car with food that would shame your neighborhood fast food outlet.
Amtrak just retired the Pacific Parlour Cars to much public outrage. It seems they won't stop cutting costs, more than likely they're in the hole more than we know.
Well, those Hilevels are not getting any younger and parts availability also comes into play. It is amazing they have lasted this long really!
Do you or anyone you know still use a 1955 Chevy or Ford as a daily driver to this day? What would it take to keep such a car going? Rebuild and/or replace driveline, repair or replace sheet metal, keep interior up to snuff, etc. Yes, it can be restored but also sort of pointless after a while to do a full restoration then drive it year round including winters on salted roads. In Amtrak's case they don't have a choice to keep rebuilding stuff.
Amfleet I stock is still going strong thanks to Budd's use of stainless steel and being built in large numbers - 492 cars to be exact. So you get economies of scale when rebuilding/upgrading them as opposed to the six Pacific Parlour cars just removed from service due to high cost to continue maintaining same.
It's not a new story here - Amtrak does not get the proper funding for needed new equipment. It;'s all they can do to maintain service on the existing network let alone add more frequency on corridors and/or add new routes given constraints of available serviceable equipment.
And lest Eddie G thinks I'm an Amtrak AH EXPERT all I did was do a Google search for information:
Oh I know it made no sense to keep the Parlour Cars around, just an example of cutting costs and that happened to be one that is currently relevant. There are many others of course such as no more newspapers in roomettes. That used to be really nice.
And slight correction-there were actually only 5 Parlour Cars in service. #39971 was in the worst shape of all 6 Hi-Level "Top of the Cap" Lounges, so it was stored at Beech Grove and eventually sold into private ownership, around the time Amtrak was really starting to shed Heritage equipment. I believe this was in late 2000/early 2001. #39970 and #39972-39975 were rebuilt in 1995 for Parlour Car service with the intent of only having 4 on the road at a time and having one car on standby. Essentially makes both of our points even more valid.
