What’s In Store for Train #1?
OK, this could be a scoop … a bit of inside info … a possible sneak peak at some of Amtrak’s future plans that are yet to be announced. Here’s what happened:
This past April, I attended the annual meeting of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) in Washington, DC. To get there, I flew from Maui to the West Coast and took Amtrak trains from there to Washington and back.
An Amtrak supervisor was on one of those trains—I think it may be best not to identify the guy—and I took the opportunity to engage him in conversation. We spoke of several issues and at one point I mentioned the Sunset Limited.
That train runs three days a week in each direction between New Orleans and Los Angeles. The Sunset’s original route extended from New Orleans all the way east to Orlando, Florida. However, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina washed out a lot of track along the coastline in Mississippi and Alabama and that part of the Sunset’s route was suspended.
The track has long since been restored, but the Sunset Limited still terminates in New Orleans. However, there is growing pressure from NARP and a coalition of civic and government leaders to bring passenger rail service back to the Florida panhandle.
The Amtrak supervisor to whom I spoke indicated that a resumption of that service was in fact being studied. And, he emphasized, “It’s a serious study.” That’s potential good news … but there’s more.
He also said that Amtrak was planning to operate the Sunset Limited on a daily basis starting at the end of next year. This, too, is something that NARP has been urging for some time. Certainly, daily service will do wonders for the Sunset’s ridership. As the old railroad axiom says “Double the frequency, triple the ridership.”
There have been half-baked studies and rumors floating around before, but this could be legitimate. Let’s hope so.
The ridership on the Sunset & Texas Eagle west of SAS certainly calls for a daily train and run it like the PRIIA plans as the Eagle CHI – LAX seems the best plan. The long layover in SAS meets the present schedule and enables make up time. One would believe that the few sections of the UP track LAX – SAS not double tracked then should pose no problem for OTP.
East bound SAS to NOL should still be the planned separate train probably Horizon cars that need a southern route to mainly prevent the many freeze ups and not use desperately needed superliner cars on present trains.
Until there are many more coaches and sleepers the NOL to ORL ( maybe MIA ) needs to be on the back burner. Any new trains or new routes without filling the demand for seats on present trains is wasting precious operating dollars. Granted longer trains will have some additional costs but nothing like new trains or longer present trains. Get congress off its duff and get the cars and locos that are desperately needed.
My “informant” described how Amtrak has figured out how to have enough equipment for a daily Sunset, but their plan assumes the route remains NOL-LAX. That’s why a daily all-coach train from ORL-NOL makes so much sense. Anyway … it’s sure tantalizing to think about those possibilities, isn’t it!
Orlando is soon to be connected into a regional mass-transit system – All Aboard Florida – and several Florida cities are really game-on with their intra-city mass transit systems. The resuming of the Sunset Limited would mean there is a western connection to the national system in addition to the north east connections provided by the Silver Meteor and the Palmetto. Wow, that would be great – the whole country should look like that.
I am not a fan of daily trains, but this is certainly a good start.
Maybe then we can fight for better frequency on a short-run between Orlando an New Orleans – where there is intersection with the City Of. Perhaps by the time I retire [in 20-25 years] I may actually be able to travel by train [with reasonable connections]. Good news indeed.
As I’ve mentioned here before (I think), one plan is to operate a daily daytime train between Orlando and New Orleans … connecting with the then-daily Sunset. Obviously, there would have to be some serious schedule adjustments, but it is fun to think about, isn’t it!