From the perspective of offering the best possible service to riders, using more passenger cars to add additional trips each day on different schedules (like, say, to maybe add 3 PM service at LNK as an alternative to 3AM service) might be better than lengthening trains. On the other hand, from the perspective of how much freight can be moved off the highways with a given set of track, fewer passenger trains is a win.
The other interesting question is whether getting rid of mid-east oil dependency that Obama promised during the debates is something that will be addressed in part with massive railroad electrification.
The problem is that adding a new train takes a lot more than adding cars. I believe over UP Amtrak is limited to 30 cars per train. Adding capacity for 2 more sleepers and 3 more coaches on the
California Zephyer requires, i think, 10-12 more sleepers and 15-18 more coaches. Perhaps an 5-6 P42s (1 per train) to haul the extra weight. Oh, and you'd probably have to kill SDS on a train that long.
Adding an additional frequency on the CZ route of the same size, assuming you inter-turned them (you shared equipment between them) to minimize equipment requirements, you could handle the whole thing with, say, 10 sets if we are currently using 6. So you need 8 more P42s (doable, especially if you woke up the P40s for some of the short mid-west trains), 8 more sleepers (difficult but could be done if you cut the CS and EB from 3 sleepers to 2, or yanked some off the A/T), 12-16 more coaches (doable if you yanked Superliners off trains that could live without them, and put some Amfleets back on track). Thats the easy part. You also need 4 more conveyences capable of hauling baggage (difficult), four more Sightseers (Practically impossible), and 4 more dining cars (not happening, period). 8 P42s, 4 Trans/Dorms, 8 Sleepers, 8-12 coaches, 4 Coach/Bags, 4 Diners, 4 Sightseers.
The other option that I think would be pretty nice would be adding three trains. Let's call them the
Denver Zephyr, the
Desert Wind, and the
Pioneer.
Denver Zephyr consists of a sleeping car and a coach, short turning at Denver, you'd need 2 sleepers and 2 coaches for this.
Pioneer consists of a P42, one of those new Lounge/Diners converted from the Sightseer, a sleeper, a coach, and a coach/baggage, requiring 5 P42s, 5 L/Ds, 5 sleepers, 5 coaches, and 5 coach baggages. The
Pioneer runs to Portland, via Ogden, mostly duplicating its post 1994 route.
Desert Wind consists of 1 P42s, a Trans/Dorm, a sleeper, a Cross Country Cafe, a coach/bag, and a coach. For this we need 10 P42s, 5 Trans/Dorms, 5 Sleepers, 5 CCCs, 5 coaches, and 5 coach/baggage cars.
The Consist would probably be, east of denver: 2 P42s, Trans/Dorm (DW), Sleeper (DW), Coach/Bag(DW), Coach (DW), CCC(DW), Coach (DZ), L/D (P), Coach/Bag, Coach (P), Sleeper (P), Sleeper(DZ).
Total required equipment: 10 P42s, 5 T/Ds, 12 Sleepers, 12 Coaches, 10 Coach/Bags, 5 CCCs, and 5 L/Ds.
Vs. Total Rqd. equipment: 8 P42s, 4 T/Ds, 8 Sleepers, 12 Coaches, 4 Coach/ Bags, 4 Diners, and 4 SSLs.
What's the towing capacity of an HHP-8 vs a P42?
The P42 produces 4200 bhp, and I believe 3800 is availible for tractive effort in HEP mode. Which means that 2 P42s produce about 8000 horsepower (since only one need provide HEP).
The HHP-8, as its name implies (High-HorsePower-8000) produces 8000 bhp, and I think all of it is availible for tractive effort. So numerically speaking, 2 P42s approximately equals 1 HHP-8.