Hotline #858 - December 30, 1994

Amtrak has finalized some of its service cut plans, changing the Florida scheme considerably from that announced earlier. Under the new plan, effective February 1, the Palmetto will disappear completely and the daily Silver Star will lose its full diner and its first class sleeping cars, but will keep coaches to both Florida coasts and keep the Miami slumbercoach. The daily Meteor will continue as is but with apparently no increase in capacity. This is all part of a plan to retire as many Heritage cars as possible as quickly as possible. The Crescent will gain Amfleet II coaches.

The quad-weekly transcontinental Empire Builder will originate from Chicago and the West Coast on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. By our calculation, this means that the new, short, tri-weekly Chicago-St. Paul train will have to layover in St. Paul for two nights on every trip and will consume two sets of equipment on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the short train must run in both directions. This is as ironic a time as any to quote Transportation Secretary Pena on the McNeill/Lehrer program of December 22 -- "I think the American people will be pleased with the new business orientation we're bringing to Amtrak."

Most Pioneer days of operation will change, with the equipment originating in Chicago and Seattle on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

The Desert Wind will originate in Chicago and Los Angeles on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

The Crescent and Gulf Breeze situation seems to remain a bit uncertain but we have heard that the New Orleans trains will originate from New York on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, and from New Orleans on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This would mean that passengers connecting with the Sunset Limited would lay over in New Orleans just one night in New Orleans, except for two nights for the westbound trip originating in New York on Wednesday.

The first renovated set of Turboliner power cars arrived at Rensselaer, N.Y., last week. They will be part of tests of 125-mph runs next year.

The inventor of the RoadRailer and developer of the United Aircraft turbo train, Alan Cripe, died last week. Last year, he was working to kill the Boston electrification project in favor of his turbo trains.

The Neiman Marcus department store of Dallas has hired Trans Texas Rail Corporation to operate special trains carrying its luxury wares to several U.S. cities. The train, using former American-European Express cars, already has visited Amtrak stations at New Orleans, Memphis, Kansas City, Longview, Austin, and San Antonio. Neiman Marcus wanted to use trailers on flat cars as part of its train to restock its operations en route, but Trans Texas vetoed that idea this year, so restocking is done over the highway. But Neiman Marcus hopes to hire the train again next year. Trans Texas operated specials earlier this year with the equipment between San Antonio and Branson, Mo.