Amtrak Cascades Service Severely Reduced

36 Replies to “Amtrak Cascades Service Severely Reduced”

1. Supposedly, as of December, there are now 14 of 28 Avelia Liberty trains in the northeast. This should push some of the Acela trains out of service.

   So, maybe disconnect the electric locomotives at each end of some of the old Acela sets, put a Siemens Charger on each end, and bring them out here?

   1. That likely would require FRA certification.

      The damaged Talgo trainset is sitting in the railyard just south of King Street Station. It might be functional if the damaged cab car were removed and replaced with another cab or locomotive. But that might also require FRA certification.

      1. It’s not physically possible. The Talgo inter-car structure is very different, and these two trains are not designed to have a separate non-Talgo cab car.

         The Acela is already certified and has a known performance curve up to 160 mph. They’d be limited to track speed here, just like they are when operating on standard mainlines in The locomotives are not integral to the structure of the train the way the Talgo cab cars are on the current generation. Semi-permanently coupled? Sure. But that’s not a difficult thing to overcome.

         The only equipment that requires special certification is that which doesn’t meet FRA standards, such as operating European equipment here.. Acela and Sounder are both fully FRA compliant already.

         The Acelas have standard couplers at each end, under all the sheet metal, so it could be towed as an entire consist like the X2000 or other European demonstrator trains, but it’s a lot of extra weight to have two otherwise unnecessary electric locomotives.

   2. Acela sets were only designed for high platforms of 4 ft (they have to carry emergency evacuation ladders and can’t use low platforms in regular service). Platforms along the Cascades route would need modifications with ramps/stairs which may need to be easily movable to accommodate Sounder’s ~2 ft boarding height.

      Acela sets are also semipermanently coupled. Connecting the power car to the coaches is a drawbar, not a regular coupling. https://proxy.imagearchive.com/a03/a031ab2be5809113eca1dd91075b9e2b.jpg

      It would require extensive modification of existing rolling stock to mechanically couple Siemens Chargers with the existing train sets, and then more work to electrically interface the very unique coaches, and then it still need FRA certification.

      1. There are some platforms in the northeast corridor where they don’t have 4 foot platforms. What do they do if they need to detrain at those?

      2. *There are some platforms in the northeast corridor where they don’t have 4 foot platforms. What do they do if they need to detrain at those*

         The Acela Express, as a limited stop service, only calls at around a dozen stations, all of which are high floor, which is the norm for the NEC. South of DC, VRE (Northern Virginia’s commuter rail) does operate in freight right of ways and in doing so necessitates low platforms similar to most the US. However, between DC and Boston where the state governments and Amtrak own the right of way, where having high platforms, and level boarding is the norm.

         In exceptional cases, each Acela trainset has two sets of folding stairs for evacuation. Setup and tear down requires two crew members as described by Amtrak’s employee service standards manual.
         https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/corporate/foia/amtrak-service-standards-manual-011524-redacted.pdf#page=33

         A more practical use of surplus Acela sets might be to reallocate them to Northeast Regional runs between DC and New York to free up Amfleet cars. Acela sets wouldn’t be operating in any new territory or require significant reconfiguration and the Amfleets would be able to cover for the Horizons elsewhere. This would have logistically challenges given Acela’s lower passenger capacity per train, but it would be more realistic than significant re-engineering.

      3. Well Albert that sounds like a very good approach of cascading the Acela trains to replace some Amfleet cars currently used on the NE corridor! I wonder if it has even been considered by Amtrak and WSDOT?

      4. Why, if I were Amtrak, I’d be starting off with Albert’s suggestion of bringing Amfleet cars to resume the Vancouver BC run (516/619) run first.

         Then run a raiding party to acquire more!

      5. According to the foamer community, something is coming our way.

      6. “Acela sets are also semipermanently coupled. Connecting the power car to the coaches is a drawbar, not a regular coupling. https://proxy.imagearchive.com/a03/a031ab2be5809113eca1dd91075b9e2b.jpg

         Albert;
         That looks like a mostly standard Sharfenberg coupler to me. It’s not a drawbar like what you’d see in a multi-unit container car or similar. The red and yellow electrical connectors connecting the HEP system to ground power are standard at the end of each Amtrak coach, so it looks like the power connections are standard HEP ( maybe 1/2 standard HEP because there are only 2?)

         It looks like there’s a hole on each side of the coupler for a bolt connection, so they are using bolted Sharfenberg couplers?

         It doesn’t look like they have an anti-climber plate on the end? Does the bolted Sharfenberg allow them to not have one?

         I can see why such unconventional (for the USA anyway) construction would probably trigger an FRA review if you put a conventional locomotive in front.

      7. Jim, it looks like that post is private. can you share the details?

      8. Trains magazine
         article.
         Saturday’s w/b Empire Builder had 5 Amfleet cars on the head end leaving Chicago.

      9. A new timeline for restoration of Cascades service.

         Starting with [drumroll please] 516/519, starting April 1st.

2. Terrible news, at a terrible time.

   Vancouver and Seattle are FIFA host cities in summer 2026. Would we not even have the paltry two trains a day?

   Can we redirect some of Dow’s salaries and benefits towards regional rail instead of….well….you know what he’s up to.

3. How about getting some Caltrain equipment retired for the electrics?

   1. How good is their seating?

      The reason I like the Sounder bilevels is they’re really not that bad. The seats are more comfortable than the Horizons, as far as I’m concerned. The table sections are really popular with groups on the Cascades, and Sounder equipment has more of those.

      Plus, of course, the equipment is already here and since 2020 there’s been a few surplus cars. The 2023 data indicates they’ve got about 21 spare cars, or 42% spares over what is required for service.

      1. If Sounder cars are available, then of course use them. I figured that is so obvious a solution that if WashDOT hasn’t already started the transition, they must not be available.

         The State paid for both the Amtrak and Sounder equipment — yes, I know that “other agencies” actually own them — but Washingtonians paid for all of them.

      2. It’s been a while so I don’t remember specifics, but I recall the Caltrain seats being quite cozy.

         For Intercity service baggage space might be a problem, but given the severity of the situation caryon baggage restrictions seem like a minor issue.

   2. Aren’t those in Peru?

      1. Wow, it looks like that is the case. What a weitd thing for California to do! I can’t imagine they got more than a pittance for them, and now they’re probably unrecoverable.

         How disappointing.

         I hope that the State forces ST to cough up 80% of those surplus cars.

         BiLevels wouldn’t be very fast, butvthey would maintain the service.

      2. Checked baggage isn’t a problem. That’s handled in the F40 “cabbage” cars on the Cascades trains. Horizon cars only came as coaches and food service cars.

4. Kinda bummed about it. Taking a bus to Portland isn’t as nearly as fun as the train. Amtrak sent me an automated notice at 3:02am this morning about my Friday trip.

   Each time I’ve reviewed, I’ve complained about the condition of the Horizon cars. They’re clunky, dirty and on my last trip, the restroom was kaput. I miss the Talgos.

   1. The air conditioning systems also fail regularly, but I think the problem there is the Carlyle compressors tend to get annoyed if the power is cut off often. We solved the problem on the railroad Carlyle compressors we use to do an automatic HCAC system pumpdown under certain circumstances.

   2. It’s waaay less fun northbound on a bus to Vancouver.

   3. I will never understand why they got rid of the old Talgos when they seemed perfectly fine other than needing refurbishment. And apparently are as they’re heading to Buenos Aires, so now we’re stuck with less train service because of that shortsightedness.

   4. A minor consolation here is that those shitty Horizon cars are gone. If Cascades does settle in to just operating with the two Talgo trains for the year, at least we’ll what we’re getting at time of booking rather than the old Talgo-or-Horizon guessing game.

   5. Didn’t the Talgos go away because the feds got overly paranoid about them after the derailment on the new track?

      1. They had a choice between making modifications to them or switching to something else.

         They chose to go with something else.

         That something else was a car design built in the 1980s, based on a 1970s commuter car, which Amtrak really only bought because that’s what fit the budget (Bombardier offered a private financing package so Amtrak didn’t have to screw around with congressional approval).

5. This is bad. It took them years to get their staffing back after Covid.

6. There should be a surplus of coaches at Rocky Mountaineer in Vancouver. I don’t think they have to use their entire fleet until mid-June. Their Colorado-Utah train does not start until June.

   Of course, that means leasing equipment from outside Amtrak, and having the equipment pass an Amtrak inspection. Most of their stuff is legal in the USA, but the 4 cars rebuilt by Avalon Railcar in Wisconsin would require some minor changes to be legal here.

7. privatize Amtrak already. It has failed.

   1. You have it backwards. We should nationalize the railroads. The other alternative is to go back to regulating the various railroad companies — like we did before the 1970s. That allowed this country to surpass Great Britain as an industrial power. But we might as well skip the middle-man and nationalize the railroads.

   2. How would you go about privatizing Amtrak?

      Sell the preferred shares (the voting shares) to the general public?

      Keep in mind Amtrak is currently the only entity the freight railroads allow on their lines, for the most part. It is also the only entity that has authority for incremental operating expenses, so if Amtrak goes away whatever is left over will be required to pay market rate for track access. In other words, a non-Amtrak operator might have to pay some $1 million for track access, because that’s how much revenue the freight train it displaces makes.

      Then there’s liability insurance. Not even commuter railroads or Amtrak can get liability insurance very easily (as noted here
      https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/commuterregional/commuter-rail-excess-liability-insurance-a-train-wreck/
      many have to go overseas to obtain insurance policies), and private groups haven’t been able to do so for many years. Museum and tourist groups used to be able to operate trains on mainline railroads, but most of that went away once the requirement for $100 million insurance went into effect some decades ago. Some such groups do still operate on mainline railroads, but only if they operate as an Amtrak train, pass Amtrak inspection, and operate with Amtrak crews.

      Brightline is the only possible exception I know of, and they are a special case because the Florida East Coast wanted something to use excess track capacity they had. So, Brightline only exists as an entity because when it started it it shared a parent corporation with its host freight railroad. It is unlikely these unique circumstances will occur with any other freight railroad. If the mainline railroads wanted to be back in the passenger business, they’d do so.

      So, there’s no real magic wand anyone can wave that would eliminate Amtrak and replace it with private companies.

      1. Anyone wanting to privatize Amtrak should be calling to privatize the freeways, too.

8. The bus bridge experience from Olympia to Portland was absolute nails. Got into Portland two hours late. It really highlighted the time savings with the actual train. The experience was such that I rescheduled my return on the Coast Starlight rather than on another bus. The perk for some Seattle to Portland riders is that they got a non-stop trip. However, if you were getting on or off the intermediate stops, you were on a long milk run ride.

9. Let me try this – Trains magazine article
   Basically, Saturday’s w/b Empire Builder had 5 Amfleet cars on the head end.
   Shades of when Alki Tours was running the Leavenworth Snow Train years ago.

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