Passenger Trains > A Defense of the Amtrak FLORIDIAN decision
Date: 10/02/24 11:49
A Defense of the Amtrak FLORIDIAN decision
Author: Railvt

The article below offers a balanced view of the real/primary reason for the pending consolidation of the CAPITOL LIMITED and the SILVER STAR as the renamed FLORIDIAN--eg. the need to reassign the CAPs fleet of Superliner cars to relieve the almost desperate shortage of bi-level equipment on the western trains. The East River Tunnel project sighted by Amtrak as a cause is real too, and is impacting multiple services--with particularly bad impacts on the ADIRONDACK and MAPLE LEAF trains. I do not agree with some of its observations, but it gets much right. Missing is a clear idea for a fix of what can be addressed--the inadequate consist on the new service.

But although Amtrak has not acknowledged it, the need to reassign the Superliners is, I firmly believe, the primary cause for the FLORIDIAN decision. And honestly I think it was the right call overall, although flawed by a lack of capacity on the new train north/west of DC to Chicago.

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https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/development/articles/amtraks-new-cleveland-to-orlando-train-overshadows-car-shortages

Amtrak's New Cleveland-to-Orlando Train Overshadows Car Shortages

Amtrak has a shortage of bilevel train cars on its western long-distance trains because it cut maintenance staff during the pandemic. Now, it's spread thin when trying to keep its fleet running. By Ken Prendergast, NEOtrans

5:00 AM EST
October 1, 2024

While Amtrak’s press release about the creation of a direct-but-temporary Chicago-Florida passenger rail service through Cleveland touted it as an achievement, the reality behind it is actually quite different. According to several sources, the direct service is being implemented to rescue Amtrak from its own shortcomings — both internal and external. ... Beginning Nov. 10, Amtrak is temporarily combining two of its train services into one called The Floridian. One is the Chicago – Cleveland – Washington DC Capitol Limited. The other is the New York City – Washington DC – Miami Silver Star. Each service has one train in each direction daily and serves many big and small cities along the way. The Silver Star makes 35 en route station stops; the Capitol Limited 14. ... Amtrak says the reason for the combination is because the national passenger railroad company is making $1.6 billion worth of repairs to its tunnels in New York City under the East River. Those tunnels link Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan with its train storage yards and servicing facilities in Sunnyside, Queens.

Rail traffic capacity through the four-track tunnels will be limited during the three-year reconstruction project so the Silver Star’s trains will instead be sent to Chicago which also has a large Amtrak train servicing facility. There are 70 Amtrak trains on most days, traveling at speeds up to 150 mph between New York and Washington DC where Silver Star passengers can make their Northeast connections. ... But that’s not the only reason why Amtrak was prompted to combine the two services. The other reason is something you don’t put in a press release.


Photo: Amtrak’s new “Floridian” route linking Chicago to Miami via Cleveland and Washington DC.by combining two services. The station stop east of Cleveland, Alliance, OH, was inadvertently omitted from Amtrak’s map. NEOtrans added it (Amtrak).

“There’s two things at work here,” says James Tilley, co-chair of The Aurora Group, a nationwide nonprofit rail advocacy group and president of the Florida Coalition of Rail Passengers. He lives in Jacksonville which is served by the Silver Star. One issue is the New York City tunnel repairs, he agreed. “The other is a pressure point resulting from a shortage of bilevel cars (called Superliners) in the west,” Tilley says. ... He cited internal Amtrak maintenance data that, as recently as last month, Amtrak had only 366 Superliners available for service nationwide. In 2018 Amtrak’s Corporate Planning Department reported that the bare minimum number of Superliners required to support its National System operating plan was 387 cars.

“Right off the bat, there is a 21-car shortage from the minimum,” Tilley says. “There may be cars in this total of 366 which have been cannibalized for parts as the (Office of Amtrak’s) Inspector General pointed out early this year suggesting an even lower serviceable count.” ... Tilley also notes that Amtrak’s Capitol Limited uses three trains of five cars each or 15 Superliner cars total per day, potentially bringing the total number of available Superliners back up to as many as 381 cars. “That’s still lower than the minimum number of Superliners. It’s not going to be enough.” ... Worse, the shortage is largely of Amtrak’s own making. A Sept. 1 Trains News Wire article acknowledged Amtrak was the victim of several derailments of trains that sidetracked 37 Superliner cars in the past four years. But Amtrak reportedly made little effort to restore those cars to service. In fact, Amtrak laid off train maintenance workers after the pandemic at its major repair facility in Beech Grove, IN and hasn’t hired most of them back.

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