I apologize if this has been brought up before but I just came from a trip on 97 and returned home on 92. In speaking with the dining crew I noticed that the menus in the diner despite having identical choices are labeled for either the Star or the Meteor and were being used interchangebly. They smiled and told me that I discovered their "secret." Both trains are sharing trainsets like the trainset for 98 is being turned for 91 the next day as an example. As a result I noticed that 92 had 3 sleepers and 5 coaches which is the fairly standard Metor consist. Previously the Star only had 2 sleepers and 4 coaches. When did this start becomming common practice of sharing the same consist? Also on a side note on Thurday I took 97 south to Orlando. Monday took 91 to Tampa and returned on 92 the same day. All 3 trains had non termoinsa rebuilt diners. Usually I atleast snag one.
The times in recent weeks that I have observed the Star and Meteor on the NEC, they each had the number of sleeper cars I expected to see. For Amtrak to use the consists interchangeably with 3 sleepers each, they would have to drop a consist from the mix. With the current schedules, the Meteor takes 4 consists, the Star 4 consists, or 4 x 3 sleepers plus 4 x 2 sleepers for a total of 20 Viewliner sleepers. If they can cut down to a total of 7 interchangeable consists, then it would take 21 sleepers for 3 each per consist.
The problem is that SM #98 is scheduled arrives at NYP at 11:06 AM, while SS #81 departs NYP at 11:02 AM. SM #97 departs NYP at 3:15 PM, so there is a 4 hour window for turnaround, but that is too short for schedule recovery and cleaning & restocking. On the Miami end, both trains arrive at Miami after 6 PM and depart northbound the next day in the morning. Since Hialeah is the major service facility, they use the overnight layover for servicing. So I don't see how they would be using the train sets interchangeably on a normal basis.
In 2004, SM #97 was scheduled to arrive at NYP at 10:12; SM #98 departed NYP at 7:01 PM and WAS at 10:59 PM. Enough time for a same day turnaround, if #97 was not seriously delayed. If Amtrak were to switch back to something close to the 2004 schedule, then they could support the Meteor with 3 consists. Although a southbound WAS departure of 11 PM may hurt business a little at Amtrak's second busiest station. Then when the new Viewliner sleepers are available, would take 28 sleepers to have 4 each on the Star and Meteor which makes for a more efficient use of equipment.
The benefits to making the Star and Meteor consists interchangeable would be more flexibility to recover if a Meteor or Star were seriously delayed in a grade crossing accident or stuck behind a broken down CSX train. If one or the other was extremely late at NYP or MIA, then turnaround the other trainset for the next Meteor or Star departure giving a few more hours to get the late one turned around.
Maybe there will be a major schedule shift for the Meteor in the next timetable so they can drop a consist. The Silver service timekeeping has been more reliable lately which is critical for same day turnarounds.
