Extend Palmetto to Jacksonville to save $ on crew base

I heard somewhere that there is a separate crew base in Savannah for the Palmetto while the other Florida trains have a crew base in Jacksonville and do not use the crew base in Savannah. I believe that if Amtrak were to extend the Palmetto to Jacksonville, they could combine the Savannah center with the Jacksonville crew base and save money this way.

What do you think?

I don't think so to be honest. If you do that then they will need to have double the amount of crews used for the Palmetto as they work one way have their rest period and head back. Plus your paying them to work an additional two and half hours one way so five hours per crew. In addition the current savannah base probably only has two or three crews total as one crew makes a turn a day.

Passenger wise adding JAX would be a nice addition but probably not enough to make it worth while. You can't shorten the time card north of SAV so it's terminating in JAX if on time after 1230 am. And has to leave again before six am which would hurt it. So I would say not worth the extension.

I certainly wish it would operate all the way to JAX again (it did for a short time several years ago.) But as Seaboard92 pointed out, it would take additional crews to do so. Presently the Florence-domiciled crew off 89 takes rest in SAV for the next morning's 90.

How about instead of NYP to SAV you make the Palmetto WAS to JAX (or even WAS to ORL)? They have more need for trains down south than they do up north. Then the train can use the Florida bases/crews at the southern end. Maybe you can even use Superliners.

It was suggested in another thread that the Palmetto use the SS route through Raleigh instead of the SM coastal route. How much extra time would that take and would it be worth it?

I've often wondered about where that crew is based. Florence would be a better base as the auto train changes there as well. And it could service the two routes well and close down the AT bases. The palmetto currently performs very well so I say we leave it alone

Seaboard92 said:

I've often wondered about where that crew is based. Florence would be a better base as the auto train changes there as well. And it could service the two routes well and close down the AT bases. The palmetto currently performs very well so I say we leave it alone

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I agree. The Palmetto really does not need to be tinkered with. I agree that trying to extend it to JAX at present is probably not worth it.

As mentioned, Savannah is not a crew base. It is an away station for Florence based crew on 79/80. If 79/80 were to be extended to JAX, it would most likely be handled by a JAX based crew with away station at Florence like 97/98 is handled, and will require an extra set of crew.

Incidentally Auto Train crew are all based out of either Sanford or Lorton with Florence as their away station.