Pacific parlor car

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Joined
Feb 2, 2005
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I was just watching some videos on my phone of our Parlour car trips last year. I probably rode on Parlour car trains 50 times,  almost from the beginning. This in its heyday was the best of the best of Amtrak in my opinion. Packed with people buying 2-3 bottles of wine. 

We don’t know who bought the five cars yet. My question for those of you familiar with private rail car charters. How feasible would it be for the new owner to occasionally run one of them on the back of the Coast Starlight or any train for that matter. The Vino trains run regularly Lax to Sba. The Parlour cars are already up to Amtrak specs pending any scheduled checks. One big advantage I see is the high level consist and access to the rest of the train. If it ran the whole route people could go back to their sleepers or seats at night. Or just Lax to SBP on a Surfliner? 

The car would have a built in audience from the get go. Once a week, twice a month? Is it feasible, how much would have to be charged per guest? Lax to SBP? LAX to SEA? 

Ok so I looked at the Vino train website to see what it charges I thought it was around $200. The site says Amtrak won’t carry private cars lax to sba? Those are two endpoints? I thought that was the determining factor? So apparently my Parlour car idea under Anderson isn’t feasible...I still think it could work, if allowed. 

Another side note the Surfliners are paid for by California. Is CA cool with Anderson turning away revenue..

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The two endpoints on the Coast Starlight are LAX and SEA and the only points for PV switching. SBA or SLO do not allow for this. To do LAX to SBA, the train would have to originate in LAX and the PV would have to remain in the consist until the train got to a station with a 30 minute or more stop. The way the train sets are set up, the return LA would be down to SAN and back to LAX (Pacific Surfliner). The dwell at LAX is only 20 minutes. A lot of extra (possibly non-revenue) movement for the PV.

For LAX to SAN, there are only two (inconvenient times I believe) where PV switching is allowed and the train and PV would remain overnight in SAN. Remember, the station stop must now be at least 30 minutes. Perhaps someone will chime in with a better explanation but, that is how I understand it.

Also, the state-supported Pacific Surfliners are governed by "LOSSAN" and I believe I heard that they are on the same page as Amtrak on this. I'll stand corrected if mistaken.
 
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Maybe 1@Seaboard92[/USER] can answer the question of where the Parlour Cars are going?

 
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I'm unaware of who bought them. I haven't even heard any talk about it which means they went to someone who wants to stay anonymous.

You can cut a car in OAK but you can't add one there. So you could send it out over the CZ to Chicago and back to LAX on the SWC.

PDX is also a stop long enough for a cut but Amtrak doesn't allow it. Some of us are still mad about that.

And frankly I'm sure the cars aren't Amtrak certified because of a lot of Amtrak cars wouldn't pass a PV inspection by Amtrak inspectors.
 
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