all Amtrak Horizon cars were pulled from service last night, recalled and are being sent East for repairs This is catastrophic and will most likely mean most Amtrak routes in the Midwest, PNW and California will not be operating at capacity or at all This is very bad
Wow 😮
Rip cascades. They have one talgo
Oh shit
Do you have any primary sources on this? Very curious
railfan.com/amtrak-pulls...
Shades of the VIA Rail buffer car era.
This is a crisis no doubt, but AFAIK, Amtrak services in California shouldn’t be disrupted by the Horizon shortage — our state-supported services use a mix of California, Surfliner, and Superliner bi-levels, Venture cars, and Comet IBs.
In fact, paging @catransitnerd.bsky.social — I’m with you, Amtrak should take out a short-term lease for the remaining Comet IBs from Caltrans. And, Caltrain has a surplus of Bombardier bi-levels just chilling at CEMOF rn…
I’d say the entire fleet if we can make it work Yep. combined with sounders we could probably make sets for cascade. Also crazy amount of bike space
If we send all 14 Comets, wouldn’t that leave the San Joaquins short on BNSF’s axle count requirements? I suppose we could always press some Viewliner baggage cars into service.
Half are already down in Southern California. The other depends on how many venture sets we’ve got available now
The SJJPA says there are four sets rotating across two roundtrips. So we could break up the x5 “five bilevel + one Comet” trainsets we have now into x4 “six bilevel” sets, use x3 Venture sets in regular service, and keep one Venture set on standby for maintenance?
Ultimately, replacing the CDTX Comets would be easy, for Amtrak — just send us five or six crusty Amtrak Cabbages or smth, slap them on the San Joaquins, and take the Comets to the PNW indefinitely.
I just called Caltrain and they said they sold the whole fleet to Peru. What Bombardier bi-levels are you talking about? @catransitnerd.bsky.social
Caltrain sold 90 Nippon Sharyo “Gallery” cars to Peru; they still retain 41 Bombardier bi-level cars for the “South County Connector” service between San Jose and Giroy. The SCC trains only run three round trips, with three cars each. Caltrain has plenty to spare, if Amtrak asked.
That's plenty for Cascades! I'll follow up with Caltrain. Thank you!
No need to bother them. We know they only need around 20 of the 41 cars
"They" meaning Amtrak Cascades? Or SCC?
To add — the SCC isn’t an agency; it’s just the name of a service provided by Caltrain. Tbh it’s probably best to not contact Caltrain. If Amtrak wants their equipment, those deliberations have already begun, behind closed doors. We, you, me, the public — our input won’t change those discussions.
Caltrain Amtrak should already be calling Sounder, Metrolink and Caltrain and asking what they can spare
I could've sworn a couple Horizons made their way onto the Surfliner and CC recently. But I could be wrong
Nope those are the 14 comet cars. We haven’t even gotten back the horizon fullcafes we had rebuilt
Well, crap.
Well at least they're going on for repairs??
o h.
What running a continent-spanning rail network and being forced to do it with the budget of hopes, prayers, two sticks of gum, an expired Walmart gift card, and the spare change from between the White House’s couch cushions does to a mf
It’s frankly a minor miracle that Amtrak’s been able to do as much as it *has* done, considering that both the government that manages it and the freight railroads that own 90% of the track it uses both seem to treat it with absolute contempt
“East” where? Chicago? Beech Grove? Maine?
saluting our strongest solider, the single remaining cascades trainset 🫡
There should be some Hiawathas. And really there should always be one Hiawatha running. One or two of the trainsets should be using the new Venture cars
Yeah a few are using full Ventures iirc. But I think a couple round trips are out of service now.
I’m surprised that Hiawatha isn’t fully running Ventures yet. Are they still being delivered? It’s been a few years so I’d expect Amtrak Midwest to be nearly fully stocked with the new cars
I think there's some still being built, iirc they're still waiting on the cab cars too.
what??? why?
Corrosion
Horizons are now 35 years old. Nothing about them should be a surprise…or an emergency. This is Trump/Musk f$&&ery in the wake of booting Stephen Gardner.
thanks... seems like something that should have been *planned* and not a surprise
Wait til you learn about concrete!
They probably had a rolling plan, but this corrosion issue must’ve been more serious than they first thought. This has happened before, but unlike the Acelas and HHP-8’s there’s REALLY not enough cars in reserve. Not roadworthy ones anyway
Adden: I meant a mass recall of stock has happened before, with the Acelas and HHP-8’s. However that was due to frequent wheel fractures, not corrosion damage.
