Cruise Trains for Amtrak

Amtrak plans to reduce all but one of its overnight trains to three-day-a-week service starting October 1. Doing so, says Amtrak, will save “as much as $150 million” a year. Amtrak doesn’t say so, but three-day-a-week trains offer almost as much political benefit to the agency as daily trains.

I have a better idea. Amtrak should double the routes served by its overnight trains, but run most of them just once a week. Add more lounge space to each train so that passengers have more places to go and the trains become cruise trains, not trains for getting from point A to point B. Amtrak is a slow and expensive way to get from point A to point B, but it is an excellent way to see parts of the country that can’t be seen from an interstate freeway.

Some routes Amtrak could add are the former North Coast Limited route from the Twin Cities to Seattle/Portland; the former City of Portland/Pioneer route from Ogden to Portland; the former City of Los Angeles/Desert Wind route from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles; the Golden State route from Chicago to Los Angeles via El Paso; the Gulf Wind route from New Orleans to Florida, and the Floridian route from Chicago to Florida.

To save money, Amtrak should follow the Megabus example of not opening staffed stations along these new routes and closing many stations along existing routes. Instead, passengers would buy tickets on line and board trains at designated platforms, carrying their own baggage. Only the main stations at terminuses would continue to sell tickets — perhaps just Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Seattle, Portland, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, and two or three Florida cities.

Although most trains would operate just once a week, they wouldn’t all run on the same days. It should be possible to schedule seven trains between Chicago and the West Coast, each leaving Chicago a different day of the week, and seven between Chicago and the East Coast, each leaving a different day of the week, so some trains could share equipment and perhaps even run through from coast-to-coast on routes that allow high-level cars. North-south trains such as the Coast Starlight on the West Coast and Silver Meteor on the East Coast could stay in daily service to connect with the east-west trains.

Amtrak currently operates fifteen overnight trains, one of which — the Auto Train — Amtrak plans to keep in daily service. For the other fourteen trains, Amtrak maintains at least 44 Superliner lounge cars, 45 Superliner diners, and several more lounge and dining cars for routes that don’t have clearances for the taller Superliner equipment.

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Amtrak’s Pacific Parlor Car had dining and lounge space, parlor car swivel seats, and a 20-seat movie theater downstairs.

This is enough to run two lounge cars and two diners on twice as many routes in once-a-week service. A modest amount of redecoration, similar to what Amtrak has done for some Auto Train cars or the late-lamented Coast Starlight Pacific Parlor Cars, could make the lounges into attractive feature cars offering such amenities as evening movies, gaming centers, children’s play rooms, and so forth.

Meals would be part of the ticket price. One diner could be a buffet car allowing economy passengers to select foods and eat them at their seats. Another diner could be a sit-down restaurant allowing first-class passengers the advantages of a full meal served at their table. First-class wouldn’t necessarily mean sleeping-car passengers; just anyone who paid a higher price for full-meal service and perhaps more comfortable coach seats (such as the leather seats in business class on the Coast Starlight) or other amenities.

This proposal will save even more money than Amtrak’s three-day-a-week plan yet will serve more cities, pass more scenery, and reach more national parks and other interesting destinations in what is now considered mere flyover country. Potentially, by reaching cities such as Las Vegas, Louisville, Billings, Boise, and others not currently served by Amtrak, this will provide even more political benefit to Amtrak than the current system (not that I really want to give Amtrak more political clout).

Although critics of Amtrak’s proposal claim that three-day-a-week service isn’t adequate, the reality is that even daily service is pretty meaningless in a civilization where people are used to being able to leave any time of the day or night. Those who need low-cost daily service should take a bus, not a heavily subsidized train — and such buses will appear along many Amtrak routes that don’t have them once the subsidized daily trains are gone.

Those who want the comfort, luxury, scenery, and excitement of train travel aren’t going to care about which day of the week they depart. For them, it is just about the experience, and Amtrak can provide that experience by running trains just once a week.