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4. Amtrak and Other Railroads
ATs collaborates with Amtrak to use their services, including route development, trains or engines to pull ATs cars, and en-route support services.
Amtrak’s movement of privately owned rail cars is a small but meaningful profit center that is significantly enhanced by ATs’ growing number of Journeys. Favorable revenue yields compared to an average Amtrak car and nominal added expense makes pulling ATs Cars a sound business proposition.
Amtrak’s movement of privately owned rail cars is a small but meaningful profit center that is significantly enhanced by ATs’ growing number of Journeys. Favorable revenue yields compared to an average Amtrak car, nominal added expense, and firm compliance with Amtrak systems makes pulling ATs Cars a favorable business proposition.
Unlike other worldwide luxury train vacation providers that develop and manage all or most of their necessary railroad operating services, including timetables, scheduling and engines (locomotives), ATs collaborates with and uses Amtrak’s existing nationwide services. This includes established routes and timetables, scheduled trains or exclusive engines to pull ATs Cars, operating rights on more than 21,000 miles of track throughout the USA and into Canada including 30 routes to about 500 stations where ATs passengers can board or disembark Cars, and en-route support services. This reduces ATs’ capital costs, lowers route planning and administrative expense, and simplifies Car operations. ATs pays Amtrak a single annual charge of several thousand dollars, plus mileage fees per Car at a cost per person that is less than 2.5% of the related fare, which ATs can easily absorb.
ATs Cars can normally join or leave an Amtrak train at about 40 stations, some with manageable interim or permanent limitations or restrictions regarding days of the week, specific available trains and otherwise.
Some layover facilities are very accessible and nice. Others need more complex switching to and from parking locations and some facilities should be upgraded. If Journeys visit on a regular basis, upgrades may be done and paid for by siding or spur owners or the cost may be shared by ATs. In any event, applicable expense incurred by ATs can be recovered from Journey fares. The cost of using a switching engine is reduced and layover issues simplified if an exclusive Amtrak engine is used.
Layover, Car shunting, switching and parking experiences are designed to provide passengers with an interesting railroading ambiance. Free shuttle services move passengers to and from parking locations and off Car activities.
In addition to Amtrak’s standard Conditions for Movement of Privately Owned Railroad Cars 14, ATs works with Amtrak to ensure that Car movements are scheduled as required, to productively access other Amtrak services and to remain aware of and comply with station limitation and other variable operating situations. Depending on the complexities of a specific Journey itinerary, it may take from a few to seven months for Amtrak to schedule movement arrangements. This process is expected to be streamlined after ATs begins repeated scheduled services.
From one to a few ATs Cars (a train set) can be included as part of an Amtrak train or several Cars can be pulled by an exclusive engine. The number of train set Cars depends on consumer demand and the subsequent number of bedrooms, ATs Car availability, and how many total rail cars the engine(s) on a specific Amtrak can pull. ATs can request and pays more for an additional Amtrak train engine on uphill routes or to pull multiple Cars.
An exclusive engine can be economically used to pull a few or more Cars without adhering to normal Amtrak routes or timetables and costs are reduced at layover locations because switch engines used to move Cars to and from parking areas are eliminated. However, special route timetable and other operating issues must be established.
ATs’ ability to piggyback Amtrak services, including simultaneous operation of multiple small trains sets on different routes compared to a single long train on one route, provides economic and operating benefits that include: the ability to flexibly pick and choose routes based on consumer interests; offering a choice of Journey vacation itineraries; rights to travel on 21,000 miles of tracks; assumption of inter-state and other regulatory permissions; access to Amtrak’s repair facilities; electricity from the engine while traveling; no capital costs for engines; no engine maintenance responsibilities; use of Amtrak’s station facilities and existing security procedures; no major route planning and scheduling requirements; access to existing reasonably priced en-route layover support facilities; better availability of railroad siding and spur parking because there is only up to a few, not many Cars on a long train; and, down time is for only one to a few instead of many cars on a long train if a single car breaks down.
If special needs for extra crew or storage space for equipment or passenger belongings is required during a Journey, accommodations and/or use of space on Amtrak cars in the same train can be used. Extra costs would be included in the Journey fare.
14 See https://amtrak.com/privately-owned-rail-cars