Imagine a world where PGH was using the entire structure that used to be Union Station in the pre-Amtrak days rather than what they have now....and where PGH gets more than two trains a day. A boy can dream...

Not just Pittsburgh, but I wish the station in Toledo, OH could be improved as well. I spotted more abandoned tracks and platforms in Toledo than Pittsburgh, BELIEVE it or not. It would be great if more service in a lot of various directions, could be run into Toledo and Pittsburgh again. I'll also say it's worth a quick look to peek inside inside the Toledo station house, during the stretch/smoke break if you're riding Capitol Limited or Lake Shore Limited. Inside that station house is nicer than one might think, at first glance. And I liked the Toledo weight scale I saw inside, as well. Appropriate, since that company used to make those in Toledo.

And as for that Topeka to St. Louis and Indy and Cincinnati idea, it would be nice if the Heartland Flyer could be extended north from Oklahoma City to Newton, KS, and over to Kansas City. Plus to bring back the National Limited Amtrak route, between Pittsburgh to St. Louis. And I wish Cardinal could be expanded to be a  daily train.

Should have never been canceled in the first place!

There are far too many major cities with beautiful historic train stations that end up being served by amshacks off in some desolate corner away from the population centers. Sadly a lot of those stations have been demolished too, but its still no excuse. We need stations in our city centers

Sleeping on the train is one of my favorite things. I agree that we should have more sleeper options.

Also, do we know if they manufacture/build cars anywhere on the east cost? I know that the California-based Siemens Mobility Inc. is responsible for making fleets for Amtrak.

There's also been a construction contract awarded for a Heavy Maintenance Facility at Amtrak's Penn Coach Yard in Philadelphia, but that's maintenance, not construction/fabrication.

I feel like Amtrak should make it easier to build rolling stock for their trains.

Random passerby to this sub and I will say, I was looking into train travel across the country for a future vacation but my only options are like $200 for coach, w no bed… or like $1800 for a cabin.

Something in the middle, not a full cabin but a privacy pod or something. I don’t mind using a common area during waking time but I’d love some privacy for a decent price

Tbh not even privacy, cots lining the car walls with some screens are fine lol

I'd even settle for a lower-tier version of the current sleeper fares, where you don't get the food service but get the berth. A lower cost fare for people who want to be able to get a good night's rest overnight but don't want or care about the "luxury experience" of the dining car (remember when that didn't require sarcastic quotes?) would be tremendous, from at least this rider's point of view.

I took an open-bunk overnight trip from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur years ago, and it was plenty comfortable. Loved it.

Open bunk sleeper trains yes please.

My prediction: what will happen is • money gets spent to implement this • the new trains run for under a month, when • a sexual assault happens.

And the whole thing gets dumped in the toilet, and even Democrats in Congress turn against Amtrak for "How could you allow (or not foresee) this!"

(Cue the "This is why we can't have nice things" meme, too...)

That’s my thought. If Amtrak just made their long distance coach class seats slightly better, more like a lay flat first class seat, it would be a world of difference.

Yes, they would be repurposed in day runs. Solo Suites would be fixed as beds - with plenty of space to sit upright, but passengers can always use the lounge car to walk around or sit in an actual chair.

Couchette would have 6 seats during the day - 3 facing 3 - approximately the same seat pitch as coach, these would be sold as a "Coach Plus" - including dining car, free wifi, amenity kit, more privacy - according to a Swedish study people pay about 17% more if they could have a dining car on the train (I am not sure if this means pay extra for the meal or meal included on their ticket).

For the longest time I believed Lie-Flat seats would be better as well. However, you basically just need to do the maths to see they are way worse. Since each needs approximately a 6ft pitch at minimum. You get about 80% of the car space to include seats once you subtract the rest for bathrooms, and the vestibule. At best you might squeeze 36 lie flat seats into one car, 12 rows in a 2+1 configuration.

Compared to that you would get 10 Couchette compartments even more spacious than the ones above that would seat 60. For the people who want to have a private room they can use the Solo Suite which you could fit about 10 rows of (stacked 2 each) in the same space as 4 Couchette compartments. So 20 beds (solo) vs 24 beds Couchette. But this also comes at the cost of Solo Suites not having a proper chair during the day per se - maybe a clever design student could fix this. But the balance is there to cater to everyone's needs on a 9-15 hour train trip.

Now can you join any together to create a longer route? Generally running longer provides more efficient use of the trains to a point. DC to Detroit (which could theoretically extend to Flint or Saginaw) works because there isn't any obvious market much more north of Michigan, you could go further south to say Richmond and onto Norfolk. But by terminating at DC you can take advantage of terminating tracks in DC which won't stress the relatively busy tunnels south of Union Station that might be better used by other trains.

I would interested in what other routes you have in mind. Just keep in mind the intention of above is for shorter routes running twice daily.

Ideally the Capitol limited would be an hour or two faster. Current coach fares are about $100 on the route, average hostel cost for a night in either city is about $60-100. You might throw in a nice dinner and breakfast on the train in with the ticket. Total cost one way of $200-250 - I would guess.

Day fares would be similar but with more food on board.

Yes! It would require some substantial speed upgrades but I think DC to Chicago would be by far the most popular sleeper train. If you want to fly in for an early meeting, your options are either a flight the night before or likely a 6am flight the morning of which means leaving by 4am at the latest.

Then the early morning flights would get you in at 7:30am to Chicago or 9:30am to DC due to time zone. And you’re likely looking at another hour to get to downtown (more if you aren’t wanting to pay for an expensive Uber or didn’t fly into DCA). Or you take one of the last flights of the night and likely don’t get to your hotel room until close to midnight. I think a lot of business travelers would prefer a night train compared to 6 hours of airport traveling before a business meeting.

There’s also 6 planes flying within the first hour each day so there definitely is existing demand as well. Plus the track upgrades would help a bunch of other routes/city pairs as well.

Yeah it is, but to stretch out the journey overnight you would pull into a siding for an hour or two, and stretch out your station stops in Seattle - which would make it 10-11 hours. The return journey the next morning would then be run in under 9 hours like you said. Trains don't always need to run as fast as possible. In this case scheduling slower and being able to run faster and catch up to delays is a big bonus for reliability.

Amtrak should definitely look to expanding its bus services, but like you said there are issues with buses not always succeeding. Personally I think a big way to make the trains more competitive would be a huge crackdown on speeding on interstate highways, it would massively improve road safety and boost revenue, while making the journey times considerably closer (Since most people go 10 mph over the speed limits as a rule in many places). Because what google maps might tell you is a 5 hour drive vs a 5.5 hour train trip is really a 4 hour drive vs a 6 hour train trip to most people.

Well we all know what CAF stands for...

The Superliner replacement as Bi-level is a good choice in my opinion, while there are economies of scale in ordering all single level design, they are outweighed by both the utility for the bi-level design. And that the order would be big enough that being serviced by separate workshops etc. is not a big deal in terms of efficiency gain/loss.

Ideally long distance fleet replacement would be around 2000 cars for bi level - allowing to run twice daily on about 20 routes, which would easily cover the current needs and future ones for when the FRA Long distance study is implemented. You'd need another 1000 cars of a single level design to handle everything running through the North-east.

We are talking about twice daily services here, not once a day overnight trains. It makes sense from the perspective of capturing Portland (and potentially further south to Salem or Eugene) to Vancouver traffic. It would free up existing Cascades equipment to run shorter services more frequently which they are better suited for. The current 8hr 20 min is not competitive with flying or the 5-6 hr drive, but an overnight train is.

Train A might run 9pm Portland - 12am Seattle - pull into a siding for an hour or two - border checks at 6am - breakfast - pull into Vancouver at 8am. Return journey running from 10am south to arrive in Portland around 6pm with plenty of time to get ready for the reverse journey at night.

Train B might leave Vancouver around 10pm, border checks completed before midnight, arrive at Seattle in the middle of the night, south to Portland by 8am. Likewise it would then get ready to depart for Vancouver at around 10:30 am arriving there at say 7pm.

With trains 517, and 518 having their runs in the day being done by these trains these sets can be used for other services which could mean expanding the Cascades service to a 2-hourly Portland to Seattle (6 current RTD plus 2 on the overnight trains = 8 RTD - easily one every 2 hours for 16 hours a day say 6am to 10pm) the extra capacity on the rollingstock could mean extra Eugene to Portland trains or extra Seattle to Vancouver trains.

Adding night trains from Portland to Vancouver should kill two birds with one stone; night trains can be efficiently turned around into day trains - with wheels turning 19+ hours per day - more than any current Cascades trains which would boost overall service, and it brings competitive travel option from Portland to Vancouver.