I'm perfectly happy to see this "transfusion" of ridership stats and revenue from an NEC train to the
Palmetto. And why shouldn't the
Palmetto get credit for the riders and their tickets? After all, it's the
Palmetto that continues running. The
Regional was reduced to cut off cars.
Maybe there's "political bookkeeping' going on, a transfusion of ridership figures and ticket revenue from the strong "operating surplus" NEC division to help the weak "money losing" Long Distance division. If so, I'm for it.
If the transfusion puts the
Palmetto into operating surplus, it's good for all of Amtrak. Politically, we all want Boardman to be able to tell Congress, "We now have two LD trains that are positive, the
Auto Train and the
Palmetto. We have two more about break-even, and with the new Viewliners coming they will probably join the
Palmetto in showing an operating surplus."
If we ever hope to see a hundred new single-level cars coming into the fleet every year, Amtrak needs to have a positive story to tell. Yeah, I'm saying the
Regionals are more likely to get new cars sooner if the LDs can tell a more hopeful story than they could have without the
Palmetto success.
So if the same kind of deal can be made for other LDs, or the
Carolinian, by all means let's go for it. Adding drop off cars to the
Silver Star (or others NYC-D.C.) would not make it a regional train. LDs have overnight routes, excepting the
Palmetto. of course.
Srsly, combining a Regional with a true LD train would be harder. The LDs carry a sleeper or two, a diner, and a baggage car. They are already long trains before picking up a few cut out cars. But if it can be done, lets go for it.
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On current operations, I'll assume Amtrak and the commuter lines benefit from having one less train on the tracks to contend with during the morning rush hours.
Now help me here: How many engines were they using for the two trains? How many are they using for a combined train?