Just in case you dont know, as a part of the illinois HSR project, as of a few months ago trains can go a top speed of 90mph on this route now, with speeds being raised to 110mph within the next ~12 months. Their end goal is to get speeds up to 125 mph. Theyve been adding extra tracks and improving signaling to increase speeds
125mph is not a goal of the project, that would require closing all the grade crossings on the route. A better investment would be full double track and improving the speeds from Chicago to Joliet and Alton to St Louis. Adding more round trips alone will massively increase ridership.
@@rowanjones5401 New York was supposed to do just that in the early 2000s, and got as far as rebuilding 3 of the 7 Rohr Turboliners before David Gunn derailed the whole program.
The reason why the aisles on the Venture's are wider than the Amfleet's is because of ADA regulations. The aisles have to be wide enough for wheel chairs and walkers to go through. Amfleet was made before the ADA was passed.
@@mariegarside8830 sadly it seems the regulation is not retroactive, meaning as long as those pre-ADA regulation cars are still in service they wont be retrofitted with wider aisles
@@Toast0808 Those uppity wheelchair users and people with limited mobility, who do they think they are? /s Seriously, you think wider aisles and ramps are a big inconvenience? Poor, poor you.
I literally walked right past you on my way to work as you were filming in the great hall. I said to myself, "I wounder if that guy as a channel like Simply Railway?" and kept walking. Discovered your channel a month ago and watched every episode. Keep up the great work!
At 11:20 you were wondering why they included some empty coaches in the trainset. It's due to the "positive train control" sensors that require a minimum length to function properly. Older shorter trainsets will often include an empty baggage car between the engine and passenger cars, for the same reason.
I have heard about that, but keep on wonderinmg why they don't adapt PTC to the lower axle number of passenger trains. Whatv is more if Amtrak has to haul empty baggage cars they should offer the capacity for high-speed freight transport, maybe to Amazon, for starters
@@OldSchool-px1xk They tried that and the host railroads shut it down, since they became a competitor. Sad that it happened, but if they could do it, it would be lucrative.
It's very nice, but the boarding room was not. There are some areas that aren't finished. The Los Angeles Union Station is pretty bad including about a 100 homeless people wearing garbage bags with no shoes in the seats and severely outdated everything (in a decent old station).
The one thing I did love about Amtrak was their coach seats, so much room to recline, so cushiony I could sleep comfortably, these seats remind me of taking a flight, with just a tiny bit more room than a plane. I'm tall with broad shoulders (and a bad back), so space is a big deal to me, so yeah they're more aesthetically appealing but looks like at the cost of comfort.
There is still considerably more room than there would be on a plane, especially if you compare these to airline economy seats like you should be, since these are economy seats for Amtrak. According to IDOT the seats are 21.5” wide and have 37” of pitch, which is almost identical to domestic first class. Typical US legacy airline economy seats now are only 17-18” wide and have 30-32” of pitch, and you get even less flying with low-cost carriers. For reference, the Amfleet I and Horizon seats were 23” wide and had 39” of pitch. The long-distance Superliner and Amfleet II seats were also 23” wide but increased pitch to 50”, and I would expect Amtrak will do the same for national network Ventures too - remember the coaches shown here were bought by the state of Illinois, for use on their services only.
The new Siemens business/cafe coaches will have wider and more padded seats. Like their present Amfleet I business/cafe coaches, they will have 3 seats per row instead of 4 seats and be ADA compliant... You are going to have to spend more for a more comfortable and wider seat in the future after all of the Amfleet I fleet are gone...
@@ronclark9724 They’re already soaking for a coach seat 💺. This is going to piss off many people in the northeast, and drive passengers to luxury bus lines
Okay, for clarification there are unfortunately some errors in this video. First, Amtrak did not buy these coaches. These coaches were purchased (and thus things like seat choice determined by) by the States of Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin for the state sponsored "Amtrak Midwest" services. Second, while Amtrak does have Siemens coaches on order (order placed last year for delivery starting in 2024 and ending 2031) they won't entirely replace all of the Amfleet/Horizon coaches. While people will need to wait and see Amtrak will have had the opportunity to specify what Amtrak wanted in terms of seats, etc. As noted below, the aisle width (and hence reduced seat width) is because wheelchair passengers need to be able to move through the train so that they can (if it is offered) get to the food service once food service is offered in Siemens coaches. Keeping 2 coaches locked out of service - at a guess 2 possibilities. First is safety, most people find it safer to be in a coach with multiple other passengers and as the video showed lots of empty seats there would be no need for the other 2 coaches to be opened. Second, if the seats aren't needed and you lock them out of service then you don't need to needlessly clean those coaches.
That is typical of *state-sponsored* services - the state sponsor - not AMTRAK - does the purchasing (AMTRAK is the contract operator). (The same arrangement applies to the Cascades services on the West Coast - also sourced from Siemens.)
Amtrak needs the extra coaches or baggage cars for extra axels to engage the freight railroads road crossing gates... The freight railroads have one or two mile long trains and don't have any issues, but short Amtrak passenger trains do have issues...
Hopefully it's not a question of the crew not wanting to walk any further than they have too. There have been times where there were empty car(s) where the crew hung out in while the other cars were packed.
@@s.j.5850 A combination of railroad safety and union labor rules also specify a maximum number of occupied cars per crew member. Amtrak won't sell seats in the extra cars because the crew budget is pretty fixed, only expanded at certain peak travel dates.
Overall impressions are good, but the seats really look quite lackluster. Here in Germany many "enthusiasts" were moaning over the apparently "terrible" seats on the ICE 4, which I have never had a problem with, but these Venture seats really don't look too comfortable. The back of the seat is very upright and the rather small legroom confirms that reclining will be difficult without jamming your legs in. The firm padding will probably become softer as people use them more, but the width also looked a little on the slim side. Maybe that is due to the overall bigger width of American rolling stock though, compared to what I'm used to. I'd say remove a row of seats and add a little legroom, and maybe consider a better seat for upcoming Venture deliveries.
There are already short- and long-distance variations of the Amfleet series, with the Amfleet I having a more dense seating arrangement (72 seats per car versus 59) and fewer restrooms per car than the long-distance Amfleet II. Since these Ventures were ordered by the states and not Amtrak, there’s still a good chance Amtrak will choose a different interior layout for their national network Ventures.
@@GintaPPE1000 The Amfleet I fleet are regional short distance trains, none operate overnight, whereas the Amfleet II fleet will remain on the long distance overnight Viewliner trains. The Amfleet II fleet will get another refurbishment as will all of the long distance Superliner fleet...
@@lukethompson5558 I just looked online and a if you book 2 weeks in advance, a three hour ride from New Brunswick to Washington is half that price, and booking a month in advance is only 26 dollars 1 way.
They definitely will be. Amtrak long-distance coach already has 11” of extra seat pitch compared to corridor coach, the latter of which these cars are replacing.
@@yeahman70 They will eventually. Amtrak has already ordered their own version of the Venture to replace the Amfleet I and Horizon inventory, and some Amfleet Is are already in long-distance configuration (62 seats, same 50” pitch as Amfleet II) for use on trains like the Palmetto and Carolinian, as well as backup/surge capacity on East Coast long distance trains. There is also no other alternative for Amtrak to replace the Amfleet II with besides the Venture. CAF is not getting any more money after they were nearly 10 years late filling the Viewliner II order, Talgo has left the US market, and nobody who’s left has a proven intercity passenger coach design. Maybe CRRC will copy someone else again and get in a last-minute bid, but the American national passenger carrier buying from a Chinese company is not happening for political reasons.
@@GintaPPE1000 Not for another two decades as the Amfleet I fleet have already been refurbished and will be refurbished again... Amtrak has NO plans in the works to replace the Amfleet II fleet presently... Or for that matter the Superliner fleet...
The empty cars are required by the host railroad (Union Pacific) for signal activation. You noticed the Missouri River Runner had extra cars as well. Also the KCS freight train you passed is actually a Union Pacific train with KCS power. In North America it’s common for railroads to use “foreign” power. They trade horsepower hours instead of actually paying the other railroad to use their engines. This system allows railroads to be more efficient when trains are moving from one railroad to another.
The railroads are doing the extra car thing to fuck with Amtrak who can't fill a train. CN did it first! Seriously they know how to adjust crossing signal activation sensitivity properly.
@@danielbliss1988 The rule puts a speed restriction on short consists. The reduced speed would really only affect passenger trains if they are normally authorized faster than the freights.
That was a KCS Train. KCS trackage splits with Union Pacific North of Alton and heads North and then West across the Mississippi River to Louisiana Mo then onward to Kansas City, Mo
This is the future of Amtrak’s fleet, but considering the seats disadvantages- they could really use some work in the future coach class and business class as well. Seats aside, I’m also impressed of the Lincoln Service’s new top speed of 90 MPH between Joliet and St. Louis. I would also be further impressed later next year for 110!
Business class/first class will be 3 seats wide using wider seats, and most likely softer more padded seats which will comply with ADA requirements... Siemens will be building them too later in the program to replace the old Amfleet I business/cafe coach... There is a reason why that Amfleet I business/cafe coach remains on this train's consists presently...
@Lew Rodd unfortunately the vast majority of US passenger railroads (along with FRA designated corridors w/ Lincoln Service) operate in conjunction with freight railroads. In a nutshell, they cannot interoperate with other at high speeds (up to 90 MPH) especially the Naperville accident which made a huge impact to speeds. And when you're talking about speeds to 125 MPH on the route, that's way much in the future and not within planning as of now. You would have to close down all rail crossings on the route from Chicago to St. Louis and place bridges/underpasses/grade separations to make it a big cause. Along with PTC technology as being the requirement to not further cause another accident alike to Naperville in 1946. I absolutely fear this will take a long time for that to happen and we're nowhere close to having such speeds on designated corridors around the country anytime soon. Or unless Brightline decides to take control of this corridor out of Amtrak's hands.
@Lew Rodd The US will remain a "behind-schedule" country with the lack of political support and craze for money especially most going to the military. It'll go nowhere for a while. Who knows in these next few years since the Infrastructure deal is passed.
@@commodoresbank That's not entirely true. In addition to PTC, the FRA requires quad gates for 110mph and "impenetrable barrier" gates for 125mph. The latter is just a fancier gate with better intrusion protection. This isn't anything new or even exotic. Lots of rail crossings all around the world use those types of hardier gates. Most importantly those types of 125mph compliant gates are an order of magnitude cheaper than grade separations which can run into the hundreds of millions. So yes, 125mph service will take longer and there aren't any firm plans to do it. But technically 125mph safety equipment is not nearly as expensive as grade separation, so it will eventually be on the menu for Amtrak if it gets the funding. Mind you 125+mph is considered sort of "high speed rail" for upgraded legacy railroads, so this would be a significant and worthwhile improvement.
Thank you for this! Next time you are in Sacramento get a tour of the Siemens plant. It’s quite impressive! I am sure they would give YOU a VIP tour! 👍
Fun fact (sort of) related to the wide corridor: North American passenger trains are about 10.2 feet wide, Western and Central European (France, Germany, Austria etc.) trains are about 9.6 feet wide, in the UK with its small loading gauge they are about 9 feet wide and in the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) they are a whopping 11.2 feet wide.
That would be 3.10 m (N. America), 2.91 m (Central Europe), 2.74 m (UK) and 3.41 m (Scandinavia) for people who use metric units, i.e. 99% of the countries in the world.
Good to see modern upgrades on Amtrak! Hope they continue, perhaps there would greater ridership, I hope. Thanks for the excellent review. Watch your channel frequently because of your thoughtful and clearly explained reviews. Please continue this good service.
I have a recommendation: Snälltåget has a train from Stockholm, Sweden all the way down to Zell am See in Austria that only runs once a year. They're doing it this Friday (February 25th) and full compartments are still available if you want to do it. At 2230 km it's currently the longest scheduled international passenger rail service in Europe
@@Neville60001 No. The long-distance ones are keeping their Amfleets for the time being. That’s because they have the newer Amfleet IIs; the Ventures were only intended to replace the Amfleet Is
The one benefit of the older amfleet was the comfortable and spacious seats. I took the NE Corridor train from NYC to Boston on a 3 am train. Once on I got comfortable and knocked out straight away. Didn't wake up until we got to Providence as the morning rush hour was boarding our train for Boston. These new seats do look a bit spartan but I'll wait to see how they fare. Otherwise these new coaches seem to be a good upgrade.
Fantastic! This really brings Amtrak to parity with world class regional rail operators. They pioneered the use of 125mph Siemens Chargers in North America. Now they are adopting the Brighline-style Venture coaches. Basically, the entire country is getting Brightline-like Amtrak service. Amazing for the future of passenger rail in America, especially if they upgrade more routes to 90-110-125mph like they are doing with this route! Great job!
@@MilwaukeeF40C I dunno, bud. You do know that Brightline has made zero profit ever, and has taken literally hundreds of millions in subsidies, right? At least Amtrak is at breakeven. And that’s with their Congress-mandated uncancellable long-distance routes. Without those they’d be a pretty profitable company. Brightline is 95% marketing and 5% action. I don’t think I’d want them running anything even if they were paying for it.
@@TohaBgood2 Brightline's profit is land. The trains would be profitable with a shorter capitalization time too if highways and airports were defunded and privatized, which they should be. Privatize that shit. Also Amtrak has never been audited or released detailed accounting as a non publicly traded "private" company. There's funny business with claims of the northeast corridor covering operating expenses (nevermind the infrastructure) and some of the long distance routes might actually be profitable.
@@MilwaukeeF40C Umm, what’s Brightline’s profit again? All I can see so far is pretty much pure losses, and massive ones with no end in sight. Like, they only make back a small fraction of their operating expenses, let alone any debt servicing on their actual assets. I’d really like a citation for where you’re getting your info on that :) Also, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but Amtrak is a state owned enterprise. It is most certainly not private in any way. It releases all of its financials like any publicly traded company and there are regular and ongoing audits. In fact you can look up all of their financial data right now online. It is also widely circulated and discussed in the press. Concerning the NEC, that is literally the poster child for a profitable corridor. It is essentially a dozen corridors that overlap and they are all short enough that makes Amtrak extremely competitive with the airlines. In essence, this is the type of rail corridor that is profitable all around the world - multiple major destinations all under 500 miles apart from each other. This is exactly what Brightline is trying to build. This is their entire investment thesis as a company -“Hey, we’ll be a mini, Florida NEC. Invest in us.” If you don’t understand why the NEC is so profitable then why do think that Brightline can ever be profitable? This is exactly what they are shooting for, isn’t it?
@@TohaBgood2 Wow, you really aren't aware. Amtrak is a closed book company. It is set up as a privately held corporation with the largest shareholder happening to be the government. This is a problem because the government is obviously not private. It has been an ongoing criticism for its entire existence that Amtrak does not use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles which are advisable for all for profit and non profit entities and especially held to stock traded ones by the SEC. Amtrak's accounting is trash- how they decide to allocate losses to certain parts of the system only that really apply to the whole thing, especially the Northeast Corridor. YOU can look all this up. Brightline is in the capitalization stage of business. Losses are normal and no company in the U.S. has invested in this sector for a very long time. In fact losses now are good as they will save on taxes in any profitable years. The real test of whether Brightline is successful is whether or not it is in bankruptcy. There is also more at play with Brightline than the core passenger train operation. Don't worry about it. Amtrak has tons of legacy issues like labor and politics that Brightline does not have. The Northeast Corridor gets about 6% of travel between the same destinations. Real competitive. Now a lean operation can actually work with numbers like that but Amtrak is anything but lean.
Ahhh! The seats look like the terrible 'ironing boards' with uncomfortable upright headrests we have on modern UK trains, which makes sleep impossible. Whatever has been said of Amtrak - they always had big, beautiful seats.
Having the high and low (stairs) platform option is a must as many stations would need to spend a lot of money to put in high platforms, and places like Penn Station in NYC wouldn’t be able to board trains that only had stairs and not that little flip down deck.
I love watching your videos for nostalgia reasons. I’ve taken many long-distance trains in North America that you have including Montreal-Halifax, the Silver Service NY-Miami and the Sunset Limited New Orleans-San Antonio and your videos bring back happy memories of the excitement of the train travel and seeing a new place and different scenery. This Lincoln service review is no exception; interesting to see the coach upgrade since I took the Lincoln service last (2016) from Springfield to Chicago. Like you, I also really enjoy the approach by Amtrak into St. Louis, although I’ve only experienced that on the Texas Eagle. Best wishes, Daniel (from Montréal)
Great video! My Amtrak usage is usually Montreal/New York (pre pandemic) and NYC/ Newark airport to Philadelphia. I think these new seats look less comfortable than the old ones although the wider aisle is a plus for anyone who has had to drag a suitcase from the wrong end of the carriage to wherever the door will actually open! But I love those steps! As an older traveller I have found it challenging to drag even a medium sized bag on and off a train where there is no conductor service (and where would that be?) There is often a gap both down to the platform and across a gap between the car and the platform. It’s an issue at the Newark International airport station where, obviously, passengers are shlepping luggage and there is no assistance from conductors. I have chosen other alternatives to get to/from the airport because of that.
As a former Amtrak employee you have to realize that Amtrak has a low rate of pay if you live in any of the big cities. It may be a fair rate if you live where the cost of living is less, but due to funding issues (restraints?) Amtrak is forced to limit salaries. As long as Amtrak has to rely on federal funding they will be stuck with an average work force that tends to do as little as possible thanks to the low wages. There will always be a dedicated few wherever you go, but you tend to get what you pay for. A sad reality that needs to be rectified.
That’s a good point about few staff. And I realize it’s unrealistic to expect full service on basically a commuter train such as on the northeast corridor. So I’m looking forward to those new carriages with steps!
Thanks for your nice movie. I have made a round trip between Chicago and St. Louis just by this Lincoln Service around 20 years ago. Compared with the coach at that time, accomodations looks to be highly modernized, cleaner and more comfortable. I miss Amtrak and look forward to making trips again by Amtrak.
Not so fast, they have a long ways to go. It's all about the funding. If the federal government & states don't kick in a fair amount of cash then it will be the same old story. Luckily Biden is a avid train rider who believes in supporting Amtrak.
Great report of the new Siemens coaches. I believe these coaches are exactly like Brightline coaches. Amtrak closed several cars because the passengers would all fit in only 2 of the cars. Also fewer attendants would be needed. Many Philadelphia commuter runs have closed cars even though there are maybe 6 cars in the consist. Thank you Thibault for your excellent teview!! And yes Chicago Union Station is beautiful!!😀😀♥️♥️
Loving the new trains....I think the seats are probably like this since its more of a commuter train. Hopefully the trains that Siemens make for the Northeast Corridor and long distance routes are a lot comfortable
@@lukethompson5558 bud, book ahead and its 30 dollars, and the seats for the Northeast Corridor are already confirmed to have better legroom and seating
Still not up to TGV speeds, BUT…. 110 mph down the road is nothing to sneer at! Siemens trains definitely a major game-changer. Admirable upgrade, Amtrak- keep reaching for that brass ring- it’ll be well worth it! John- Valley Forge Pa🍏
The truth is: They cannot afford to replace rails from Chicago to St Louis. If they did, then we will be there in about 2 hours instead 5 hours...... S.M.H.🤦♂️
Thank you for this video, I took a ride on #91 Amtrak back in January for the first time and it was the the worst train ride. Went From Newark NJ to West Palm Beach. The car i was riding in was 40 years old. Newark Station Was very crowded with panhandlers. The train was one hour late and had to switch engines in DC. The train Had to back into the station in Tampa and the cars wheel had a flat spot. The car would Slam left or right on every road crossing.
Pretty cool to see some of the new rolling stock coming in!! My guess is maybe some of these will end up in New England soon as well for the Downeaster. Great review!
They've improved this line SO much in the last few years. I used to take it a lot 10 years ago and it was really slow and so many delays. I took it again not long ago and it was perfect! Excited to try the new coaches
Well, this is what happens when Amtrak is allowed to make the upgrades that they want to make. Now with brand new world class Siemens trains and 110 mph service, this line will finally come into its own! So we have "highER speed rail" service on a popular route now! Amazing that they managed to pull this off! Kudos to IDOT and Amtrak for pushing for these upgrades. Hopefully, this becomes a pattern for Amtrak upgrades to their intercity services nation-wide.
Nice video Simply....Fortunately got to roll out of CHI last week on the City of New Orleans...Coach seating on an empty (40-50%) train was like a king. Union Station Chi is the BOMB! Thanks!
Very nice video review. We travel on 49/48 frequently from Syracuse to Chicago, but usually in a sleeper. It would be interesting to see in a few years if the long distance Venture Coaches get better seats. I agree that most people traveling overnight in coach class want a comfortable seat. Amtrak just updated seats a couple of years ago in the Amfleet coaches so there was a lot of money spent for that update. The trouble with Amtrak Management is they don’t want to listen to suggestions from crew and passengers as to what is important to them for the comfort of the passenger. Case in point. The new viewliner 2 sleepers have no storage locker for extra pillows or linens , and in the bedroom, when the lower bed is out, you can hardly get to the sink! So here would be a novel idea. Have Siemens build a few sample coaches with different seats and amenities, allows passengers and crew to evaluate them, and then really take the comments seriously to build the best of the best. I also hope, the new long distance coaches will have forward facing seats, ones that can be rotated around . Are you going to check out the Venture Coaches on the Via Canada train service? Thanks for the review. Happy traveling.
Ha, ha, you must be a railroad employee. If so, you know management does NOT take suggestions from the working employee (with knowledge & experience) who does the job every working day. Remember that management is appointed/selected by someone higher up. They typically (at least in the railroad industry) do not select qualified people. Those selected do not want you to appear smarter than them so they will usually trash your idea unless they can claim it for themselves.
Nice review! I ride this very train to and from Chicago when I don’t want to drive. It’s the way to go from St. Louis to Chicago when you need to be downtown (rather than fly). I sometimes like to ride in Business Class and am looking forward to what this will look like/be like with the new Venture coaches.
I was on that route I think feb or march of 2005 maybe april. It was very interesting. My experience was very good. I was taking amtrak from Kirkwood MO to Fostoria, OH (closed one month after my ride) It was like 2-3 hours late, If it was on time, layover would have been one hour and I would have browsed in the station but the problem was that it stopped only for crew and passanger change for about 5-10 minutes. When I changed trains in Chicago, these wonderful workers put me on business class instead of what was on my ticket. I told them I am deaf and would need assistance bec I could not hear the announcement and I was put on cart and after putting these passangers onto the regluar coach, they told me to stay on the cart, and took me to business class. they were exteremly friendly! I was on the old coach and p42 engine. Since my train was supposed to leave at least 330 pm, I got on at like around 5 so it went dark between 6 and 7 so this video - I have the chance to see what its like on that route during the daytime bec most of my ride was dark and couldn't see them till I get to chicago.
I see many comments about the new seats. Reducing seat width allows for the aisles to accommodate wheel chairs and walkers. Restrooms were also reconfigured for use by disabled. Thus trains now comply with ADA regulations.
Yes but you're throwing out the baby with the bath water. Seats May comply with Ada regulations but they're obviously much narrower with much with much less legroom and inferior cushion than the previous Amtrak seats. I would be absolutely furious if I got on a train with these kind of seats for anything more than a commuter run I would not use the service.
Yes but that doesn't explain why you have less legroom and poor padding on the seats. You don't have to do those two things to meet ADA requirements and I think realistically this is going to be a big impediment to get people to ride these trains long distances especially if they're familiar with the old superb Amtrak seats. This is simply reality. My guess is what happened here is that Siemens sold Amtrak on the seats but what they did is they did the usual European thing which is that they interpreted the European experience to the US. But in the US people are far more fussy and have more options. The Germans and Amtrak forgot that train trips in the US can be very long so poor seating becomes a big issue. You see what you're going to be competing with in the US is not only plane flights but very shortly self-driving electric cars which are very comfortable and faster if you take total trip time into consideration. How is Amtrak with uncomfortable narrow seating going to compete with my own car with stereo and air conditioning and comfortable seats taking the same time as the Amtrak train or less. The answer is it's not.
@@MostHigh777 Two inches of width was removed. If the seats had maintained the same space from the seats front and back it wouldn't have been bad. So while I feel two inches width removed in order for disabled space to navigate the aisle is acceptable, I wish there was more space between the seats front and back. Now put yourself in the shoes of people who need walkers, canes, wheel chairs or crutches to move about.
Hello from Sacramento County, California! Those Siemens Venture cars, the Siemens SC-44 Charger that pulls them, as well as more rolling stock that's coming out soon is manufactured in the Florin area of the county which is about a half-hour drive down Watt Avenue and Florin Road from where I am. We will be getting them on the San Joaquins that runs between Oakland or Sacramento and Bakersfield. I can't wait to check them out!
As much as I love the Amfleet coaches I'm glad to see them replaced with modern equipment. Although I will miss the kick plate doors on Amfleet. I will say too, Amtrak had different seats for different services. Short haul like the Lincoln have narrower pitches and restrictive seats. Long haul has more space. I wouldn't be surprised if that is carries over to the new Siemens
Yeah exactly - Amfleet coaches on the northeast regional have so much less leg room than those on the Cardinal (and presumably other long distance routes that's just the only one I've ridden). This looks comparable to the seats on the regional.
Amazing I’m traveling from Mexico and this is going to be my very first time in the U.S.A. I’m going to a summer camp in St. Louis and I’m going to fly to Chicago. Thanks to u now I know how to travel from Chicago to St. Louis!! 😍
Thanks for the review! I love the way it looks but I will miss the old wide, comfortable seats. Especially if they will be used for longer trips. I often work in DC and Boston, and the 8 hour train between is where I get a lot of work done, so those bigger, softer seats were better. BTW if it's anything like some of the other trains I've been on in the US, they close down a few rail cars if they have fewer riders so they don't o have the staff clean/service them en route. And perhaps have fewer staff on board if the return trip is also with fewer riders.
Nice video, as always. New coaches look great overall. However it seems they can not match how comfy aging Amfleet coaches are. I always think that "Coach class" in Amtrak is the equivalent to first class accommodations in Europe (if not better) If only they could mix them together it would be paradise: 21th-century amenities and design with "good old" spacious seats. Anyway, that's how it goes and maybe it's related to ADA regulations. It looks like a positive change for Amtrak, though.
I love seeing a new car on the tracks. They bring with them much different sounds which are novel and unusual as they go over the familiar tracks and joints.
@@kermitinmountain6371 When it comes to Siemens-built vehicles I've not yet noticed old equipment having such issues. Their 20 year old ICE 3s still sound, look and ride like when they were new. Here in Germany the only train carriages I've been in that squeak and rattle were 40+ year old commuter carriages which never underwent a major refurbishment. Even the 40 year old S-Bahn commuter EMUs still feel solid.
So nice to see the shot of crossing the Rock Island at Joliet, thanks Thibault! I dream of a day when we could have rail service like this between Des Moines and Chicago, but with the current ruling political class in Iowa sadly all it may ever be is just a dream...
@@ronclark9724 that completely misses the point, which is direct higher-speed connection between the 2 cities... besides, the Zephyr is rarely on time!
looks like a very interesting train trip, I didn't know it was possible to get a train from Chicago to st louis, the carriages look very nice, nice vid 👍
Thanks for the review. I guess this is what we have to look forward to on the Northeast Corridor. And just so you know, Amtrak train crews are notorious for their lack of customer service.
@@TheRailwayDrone This coming from someone who isn’t an actual railroad employee. I didn’t say most or give an actual number, but there are some who do encounter this and have no interest in it. Fact.
@@Railoffroader2 I don't need to be a railroad employee to know about customer service and if you work for amtrak and this offends you, too fuckin bad. Maybe work on your guys' customer service instead of running your mouth on youtube.
@@TheRailwayDrone Very mature language, impressive and I’m running my mouth on TH-cam? LMFAO This is just one example that proves my point about some of you. Doesn’t matter what railroad, it’s the same all over and I’m not in customer service so you can go pout in your foam.
I noticed a missed opportunity at the end of the video. As you were arriving at St Louis the River Runner had already left. Joined up thinking would have the two trains connecting, ideally on opposite sides of the same platform to make the transfer more straightforward. I suppose that it may be done intentionally to make it less of a problem when the freight railroad has delayed the incoming train, the outgoing one can still leave on time. Even so, regular and convenient connections between trains potentially increases passenger numbers.
FINALLY new coaches for the absolutely ageing fleet of amfleets and horizens *EDIT* This is coming from a person who has never step foot outside of asia.
@@randomclass4653 Amtrak's order for Siemens coaches (actually specified as train sets) was placed last year and won't replace all of the Amfleets. If Amtrak can get the funding to exercise the options in the contract they could replace them all, but funding not yet available.
The truely are, but is it safe to say as of 2022 Siemens essentially is the only railroad stock supplier in the US. Back in the days, at the heyday of passenger travel, there were multiple railcar makers in the US, competing heavily for orders and forced to offer quailty. In fact, US railcars were the finest in the world. Pullman, Budd, St. Lous Railcar, you name it. So to my point of view the US urgently need another big and able producer of rolling stock. Both locomotives and cars. Doesn't matter if another subsidiary of an European or Asian company or homegrown US.
@@OldSchool-px1xk The sad reality is that the US just doesn't have enough demand to support a fully home-grown passenger rolling stock manufacturer. Several companies have tried and failed, and whilst freight stock manufacturers like ACF would have enough funds to get production going, they lack the expertise when it comes to designing good passenger rolling stock.
I was JUST looking for pictures of these new Amtrak cars last night, after reading all about them! Thanks for reading my mind! You are GREAT! I will miss the Amfleet cars though, very much, and to make up for that I have a set of HO-scale Walthers Proto Amfleet I, phase 3, coach and AmCafe cars on my model RR.
I also was disappointed with Brightline's seats. Felt like the cheap seats on Spirit Airlines. The reclining seats weren't really reclining. They just slide the seat forward a bit and the back rest barely reclined backward.
It's great to see modernization finally occurring on Amtrak. First the viewliner 2 diners and sleepers, then the ALC-42's, and now the new coaches. Can't wait to see it all on Florida bound trains!
Great review, through and informative (as always on Simply Railway). I cannot imagine those seats for a route greater than 5 hours. Sad to hear about the crew but I've found, having lived in DC, Chicago and now California, the midwest crews can be hit or miss more often than else where. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this channel.
It's unfortunate that they've decreased the leg space, recline, and padding of the seats. Hopefully the cross country trains will have better legroom and more comfortable seating like the old cars. There is no way I would make another cross country trip on Amtrak if the seats are like this. Amtrak is my preferred mode of travel btw.
Informative video. As one or two others have noted, route 66 follows the railroad, not the other way round. The one aspect of the new equipment that I like over the amfleet cars are the larger (taller) windows. The amfleet (and metroliner) cars always give the impression of riding in an armored car, which is intentional going back to the mid 1960's when throwing rocks at trains was a fashionable past time...
Great review of these worthy amfleet replacements. But once again, Brightline come out on top in terms of starting date and seat comfort for the Ventures... Can't wait for more of these coaches to enter service on Amtrak.
How so? Aren't these the exact same Venture coaches with slightly different trim and no blue mood lighting? I can't spot any differences except the seat colors and those blue ceiling lights. I have ridden Brightline, but not yet the Amtrak Ventures.
@@TohaBgood2 Other than the seats, there are also a few internal components such as the stairs and sink water that I believe have been contracted by different companies for the Amtrak and Brightline coaches, although the Amtrak coaches seem to be facing more mechanical issues based on these different components.
@@Pensyfan19 But the seats are identical in terms of padding and comfort. They are literally the same type of seat with a different color trim! I hate the fact that people are willing to give Brightline endless benefits of the doubt, but are happy to trash Amtrak even when they fo and objectively awesome things. This is just political bias imo. People buy the Brightline marketing about it being HSR (79mph top speed) and not being government subsidized (took both state and federal subsidies). But I just don’t understand why. It’s almost like people like to lied to.
I loved your review! I was lucky enough to ride in one of the Siemens Venture coaches on Lincoln Service 301 a few weeks ago. The Amtrak employees on the train told me that the Illinois Services will see the cars first and they will be coming to the Michigan Services and the Hiawatha Service within two years. I think the Missouri River Runner will get them too.The Siemens Venture cafe car+business cars are coming in a bit as well, according to the employee.
Let's just hope that what has worked well over the decades with Amfleet coaches remains working well. There is never a reason to argue with success or willing formulas--even under the guise of "budgetary restraints" or "needs to look modern."
@@Robert-yp9zs Exactly Robert! Those Amfleet coaches have lasted this long because they were made well. They could theoretically be modified to last another 45 years. Give them a new coat of paint, some new A/C units (if needed), better lighting, more USB outlets, & away we go. Since the cars are not self-propelled they can easily be retrofitted to bring them up to speed amenities-wise.
@@Robert-yp9zs Running all of this legacy equipment turns away customers. People want to ride a modern train not some museum piece that pleases the foamers and nobody else. I'm all for historic excursion trains. I think we need more of those. But for actual travel, we need modern equipment that delivers a quality world-class travel experience. Legacy equipment just can't do that. Padded seats and all, you still feel like you're traveling in a tin can full of asbestos and lead paint.
I was taking pictures of the local Lincoln Service just last Sunday, and it was a surprise to see that the old cars were replaced by the Venture cars. I had not heard that the replacement was happening, but I loved the design of the exterior and how it matched the dotted scheme of the Charger. They look so neat and modern!
I was waiting for someone to do a video of these new cars for Amtrak. For me personally they should bring back the old seats. For me personally they were super comfortable perfect for a service like this. These new seats look too uncomfortable and they don't look wide enough. It feels like Amtrak is trying to use a airline model for seats which is why people who doesn't like to fly like Amtrak because of the wide seats. I'll have to try the new seats in the future but I have a negative first impression of them. Besides the seats the new cars look nice and modern. I really like that they have a LCD Screen showing the next stop that's really useful especially for those who can't use smartphones or are deaf. If they brought back the old seats the new cars would rate 10 out of 10 for me. For me personally I value general comfort over the looks and amenities of train cars and those seats don't look comfortable especially for those who would ride on couch on the long distance routes like Empire Builder and Southwest Chief. Bring back the original seats while keeping the new amenities of the new cars and I can guarantee that they will bring in more customers. People do like the old seats they just don't like the cars that are old. For me personally I don't care. I just care about riding the train and enjoying the scenery outside. I guess being I've mostly ridden on trains that have cars that came out before I was born I'm used to being on old cars that I grown to not care about the general appearance of them.
I think they're only being used for the shorter routes and not the long ranged routes. Similar to how the NEC trains have different seats than say the silver meteor.
It's great that Amtrak designed these cars with the Handicapped in mind. I'm curious about how they can get Handicapped passengers on & off. They used lifts & an accessible entry door on Amfleet cars.
I don't understand why seats in cars and trains have gone from soft, plush, and comfortable, to stiff and sleak. I'll take the new Venture window, with an updated Amfleet style seat. Nice overview!
Proper sprung seats sadly are expensive to maintain and easily damaged, and too much foam padding can cause issues with fire proofing as well as quicker degradation. Thinner seats also mean less weight and more legroom for passengers.
Great toilets! I’m so sick of small toilets that get messed up and make you feel like you need a hot shower from just going into it. Thanks for the carbon load figures.
Imagine this experience on an improved electrified rail line. Nice to see the modern coaches instead of the extremely dated concepts Amtrak is famous for.
I use to work on the Amfleet passenger cars when I was first hired in the 1970's! That's how old those cars are. It's truly amazing that they lasted so long. Goes to show you that you can modify the cars as long as the basic structure is sound. It would seem that the interior & the A/C system would be the priority systems to concentrate on. Maybe add a new paint scheme or a rap covering on the exterior & they may last another 40-50 years!
@@Adumzzinthehouse Yes, but regular non-foamer people don't care and don't want to ride in a relic. We have to let these legacy pieces of equipment go. It's time for Amtrak to become a state of the art carrier.
At 11:00 i recognize that station! this is my hometown amtrak station in Bloomington IL! man i haven't seen it in a long time! but i can recognize it from the massive clock and the big glass windows and of course the low level boarding for the superliners. My grandma hated that platform as she had trouble trying to get inside the Amfleets cars. I bet she whould like the Venture Coach's because they have the stairs!
@@squelchedotter well the 20min is more for on time departure... As for the safety manual... Well... Do you wanna get stuck in a metal coffin in an emergency? Then better read it... Even if it's the same stuff... (Also it's more for covering their arse)
@@PrograError Nowhere in the world, except the US, do you need to wait for a train anywhere but the platform, or read a safety manual. Even on the fastest trains in the world. Trains are not airplanes, they don't have explosive fuel in them, they can't plummet out of the air, they can't depressurize. There is no situation where you need to flee quickly out of a train.
@@squelchedotter well... I'm pretty sure that ICE 1 incident and that Taiwanese overspeed incident are a few metal coffin ish incident IMO Also I'm pretty sure there's footage of people waiting for train ...
as for the seats, what people have to realise is that the Venture coach is NOT a long distance coach, designed for shorter trips of a couple of hours rather than a 2 day run from NYC to Seattle.
In the UK we have very similar coaches for the pass few years running on our main lines and the seats on these coaches are extremely smart but so Uncomfortable, even on a London to Swansea 3 hour Journey its like sitting on a plank off wood in standard class, the first class are not much better but you do get free snacks and coffee throughout your journey. to show you type in on Y/T GWR Class 802 for a review.
Kool video man,sucks about the Crew...I'd like to take this trip for sure... just for the hell of it...went with my parents to st.louis back when I was 11...I'm 46 now remember when we arrived by automobile it was raining but we made it,we went in the Arch it was windy I remember and it was swaying,I remember the elevator's we're barrels if I remember correctly...I like that you wrote everything instead of talking pretty Koo man... take care........ thanks 👍😊....
Amfleets are the most Amtrak thing left in Amtrak. A unique and long lived American design that's been here almost since the beginning and has seen locomotives, stations, tracks, bridges and executives come and go. I highly doubt anything purchased today will last half as long or still look contemporary 5 decades from inception.
Stephen Gardner, the CEO of Amtrak from January 2022, seems to be responsible for the many improvements that Amtrak has made and with future improvements on the way. Maybe he will finally bring America's railroads into the 21st century. If so we should all give this man a round of applause. With the huge size of the US it is diffcult, if not impossible, to match the railroads of Europe or Asia that have so much smaller areas to work with. My country could truly use high speed rail to compete with airlines and automobiles and to provide a comfortable safe way to travel.
Though I do like you carbon footprint comment, the amount of CO2 is also determined by the train useage. Many Amtrak routes away from the eastern seaboard are under used. Doesn't that factor into the equation?
Very well done, Thank you! At one time I did a rail travel blog on my cross country trips on Amtrak. I have not made a trip since 2018 due to you know what. I hope to travel agin this year....maybe I will do a video too. Thanks
I worked for Amtrak for 30 years, having retired about a year and a half ago. These seats will generate complaints. Yes, it looks clean and crisp. But not all passengers follow the "South Beach Diet."
These are perfectly normal seats. Everyone loves them on Brightline and they'll love them here too. We have a lot of weird legacy stuff happening with Amtrak equipment. It's time we get with the program. These are state of the art, world-class coaches. Amtrak needs to join the rest of the world and start using rail technology from this century.
looks nice and looking forward to riding them. A friend works for Siemens in the construction dept , nothing to do with this, but he was interested to hear about this division. as he knows how much I enjoy train rides. Should be going to Chi in June to meet up with another friend for a trip to CA. Thanks for sharing
I don't get why Amtrak keeps embracing "European" aspects of trains like worse seats and no food service (soon to be ending on the San Joaquin when their Ventures go in service). The one part they won't fight for is actually running more trains outside the NEC.
That's not Amtrak. The San Joaquins is a California funded and operated train that Amtrak merely operates on behalf of the State. As the State of California funds the service and owns the equipment, California specifies the type of service. Thus it was California that decided to go with vending machines for the new equipment when California placed the order.
@@mattjones366 it was the SJJPA that made the call. Cal trans takes a back seat to the operations of the Amtrak “California” services. The other routes will still have Cafe Cars. We have a long tradition here in California of kicking things off to some random local agency so the legislature can bury its collective head in the sand. And that boneheaded decisions, along with the fiasco over implementing a dedicated tax to fund Caltrain are one of the examples of why JPAs and not thinking through how local government works are stupid ideas.
Three "unwelcoming" government employees..Imagine that!! Had it been me, I would have made sure to include them in the video, as they are every bit a part of the Service as the Seats, with the Seats being of better service, it sounds Tks for sharing. 1st time viewer. Take Care And Stay SAFE!
@@matthewhall1062 In Europe the infrastructure is government owned and run, and the service is provided by private companies. For me it is a bit weird that the US never nationalized their rail network, and now have many different freight companies renting out time slots on their private tracks to passenger services, and not the other way around.
Just in case you dont know, as a part of the illinois HSR project, as of a few months ago trains can go a top speed of 90mph on this route now, with speeds being raised to 110mph within the next ~12 months. Their end goal is to get speeds up to 125 mph. Theyve been adding extra tracks and improving signaling to increase speeds
The fact the NY isn't doing this between Albany and NYC, as far as I know, gives me physical pain.
This is great news. Reducing 5h20m to even 4h would be a huge improvement and would replace many car journeys.
125mph is not a goal of the project, that would require closing all the grade crossings on the route. A better investment would be full double track and improving the speeds from Chicago to Joliet and Alton to St Louis. Adding more round trips alone will massively increase ridership.
@@rowanjones5401 New York was supposed to do just that in the early 2000s, and got as far as rebuilding 3 of the 7 Rohr Turboliners before David Gunn derailed the whole program.
@@mj1234321 I hate this state.
The reason why the aisles on the Venture's are wider than the Amfleet's is because of ADA regulations. The aisles have to be wide enough for wheel chairs and walkers to go through. Amfleet was made before the ADA was passed.
Accessibility by people who use walkers, wheel chairs, canes or crutches is important to those with mobility challenges
@@mariegarside8830 sadly it seems the regulation is not retroactive, meaning as long as those pre-ADA regulation cars are still in service they wont be retrofitted with wider aisles
@@hiroshibieren4257 Yeah but those cars are between 30 and 50 years old and are being replaced.
@@hiroshibieren4257 GOOD. ADA kills a lot of things at the expense of many for the few.
@@Toast0808 Those uppity wheelchair users and people with limited mobility, who do they think they are? /s
Seriously, you think wider aisles and ramps are a big inconvenience? Poor, poor you.
I literally walked right past you on my way to work as you were filming in the great hall. I said to myself, "I wounder if that guy as a channel like Simply Railway?" and kept walking. Discovered your channel a month ago and watched every episode. Keep up the great work!
At 11:20 you were wondering why they included some empty coaches in the trainset. It's due to the "positive train control" sensors that require a minimum length to function properly. Older shorter trainsets will often include an empty baggage car between the engine and passenger cars, for the same reason.
I think it was partially because they didn't have enough people to fill all of the coaches.
Never knew that, thanks for the cool info!
I have heard about that, but keep on wonderinmg why they don't adapt PTC to the lower axle number of passenger trains. Whatv is more if Amtrak has to haul empty baggage cars they should offer the capacity for high-speed freight transport, maybe to Amazon, for starters
Amtrak management is too stupid to think of using those empty baggage cars for revenue.
@@OldSchool-px1xk They tried that and the host railroads shut it down, since they became a competitor. Sad that it happened, but if they could do it, it would be lucrative.
Love that the Chicago station does not cover its walls with advertisements. Thank you for the introduction to the new coaches.
It's very nice, but the boarding room was not. There are some areas that aren't finished. The Los Angeles Union Station is pretty bad including about a 100 homeless people wearing garbage bags with no shoes in the seats and severely outdated everything (in a decent old station).
Advertisements aren't the worst... Here in spain stations have their walls covered with loads of disgusting graffiti and filth
The one thing I did love about Amtrak was their coach seats, so much room to recline, so cushiony I could sleep comfortably, these seats remind me of taking a flight, with just a tiny bit more room than a plane. I'm tall with broad shoulders (and a bad back), so space is a big deal to me, so yeah they're more aesthetically appealing but looks like at the cost of comfort.
These are the coaches for short distances and I think the upcoming first class seats will be way more comfortable
There is still considerably more room than there would be on a plane, especially if you compare these to airline economy seats like you should be, since these are economy seats for Amtrak. According to IDOT the seats are 21.5” wide and have 37” of pitch, which is almost identical to domestic first class. Typical US legacy airline economy seats now are only 17-18” wide and have 30-32” of pitch, and you get even less flying with low-cost carriers.
For reference, the Amfleet I and Horizon seats were 23” wide and had 39” of pitch. The long-distance Superliner and Amfleet II seats were also 23” wide but increased pitch to 50”, and I would expect Amtrak will do the same for national network Ventures too - remember the coaches shown here were bought by the state of Illinois, for use on their services only.
The new Siemens business/cafe coaches will have wider and more padded seats. Like their present Amfleet I business/cafe coaches, they will have 3 seats per row instead of 4 seats and be ADA compliant... You are going to have to spend more for a more comfortable and wider seat in the future after all of the Amfleet I fleet are gone...
@@ronclark9724 They’re already soaking for a coach seat 💺. This is going to piss off many people in the northeast, and drive passengers to luxury bus lines
The Amfleets look better and are more comfortable.
Okay, for clarification there are unfortunately some errors in this video.
First, Amtrak did not buy these coaches. These coaches were purchased (and thus things like seat choice determined by) by the States of Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin for the state sponsored "Amtrak Midwest" services.
Second, while Amtrak does have Siemens coaches on order (order placed last year for delivery starting in 2024 and ending 2031) they won't entirely replace all of the Amfleet/Horizon coaches. While people will need to wait and see Amtrak will have had the opportunity to specify what Amtrak wanted in terms of seats, etc.
As noted below, the aisle width (and hence reduced seat width) is because wheelchair passengers need to be able to move through the train so that they can (if it is offered) get to the food service once food service is offered in Siemens coaches.
Keeping 2 coaches locked out of service - at a guess 2 possibilities. First is safety, most people find it safer to be in a coach with multiple other passengers and as the video showed lots of empty seats there would be no need for the other 2 coaches to be opened. Second, if the seats aren't needed and you lock them out of service then you don't need to needlessly clean those coaches.
That is typical of *state-sponsored* services - the state sponsor - not AMTRAK - does the purchasing (AMTRAK is the contract operator). (The same arrangement applies to the Cascades services on the West Coast - also sourced from Siemens.)
Amtrak needs the extra coaches or baggage cars for extra axels to engage the freight railroads road crossing gates... The freight railroads have one or two mile long trains and don't have any issues, but short Amtrak passenger trains do have issues...
Hopefully it's not a question of the crew not wanting to walk any further than they have too. There have been times where there were empty car(s) where the crew hung out in while the other cars were packed.
@@s.j.5850 A combination of railroad safety and union labor rules also specify a maximum number of occupied cars per crew member. Amtrak won't sell seats in the extra cars because the crew budget is pretty fixed, only expanded at certain peak travel dates.
@@PGHammer21A well the cascades is also way better at listening to amtraks ideas
Overall impressions are good, but the seats really look quite lackluster. Here in Germany many "enthusiasts" were moaning over the apparently "terrible" seats on the ICE 4, which I have never had a problem with, but these Venture seats really don't look too comfortable. The back of the seat is very upright and the rather small legroom confirms that reclining will be difficult without jamming your legs in. The firm padding will probably become softer as people use them more, but the width also looked a little on the slim side. Maybe that is due to the overall bigger width of American rolling stock though, compared to what I'm used to.
I'd say remove a row of seats and add a little legroom, and maybe consider a better seat for upcoming Venture deliveries.
There are already short- and long-distance variations of the Amfleet series, with the Amfleet I having a more dense seating arrangement (72 seats per car versus 59) and fewer restrooms per car than the long-distance Amfleet II. Since these Ventures were ordered by the states and not Amtrak, there’s still a good chance Amtrak will choose a different interior layout for their national network Ventures.
@@GintaPPE1000 The Amfleet I fleet are regional short distance trains, none operate overnight, whereas the Amfleet II fleet will remain on the long distance overnight Viewliner trains. The Amfleet II fleet will get another refurbishment as will all of the long distance Superliner fleet...
This! The seats are completely unacceptable for the Northeast Corridor, where a 3 hour ride in coach costs $200 one-way
@@lukethompson5558 I just looked online and a if you book 2 weeks in advance, a three hour ride from New Brunswick to Washington is half that price, and booking a month in advance is only 26 dollars 1 way.
I hope for the long distance trains, the seats are more comfortable… other than that, looks pretty good.
They definitely will be. Amtrak long-distance coach already has 11” of extra seat pitch compared to corridor coach, the latter of which these cars are replacing.
@@GintaPPE1000 Ventures wont be going on long distance
@@yeahman70 They will eventually. Amtrak has already ordered their own version of the Venture to replace the Amfleet I and Horizon inventory, and some Amfleet Is are already in long-distance configuration (62 seats, same 50” pitch as Amfleet II) for use on trains like the Palmetto and Carolinian, as well as backup/surge capacity on East Coast long distance trains.
There is also no other alternative for Amtrak to replace the Amfleet II with besides the Venture. CAF is not getting any more money after they were nearly 10 years late filling the Viewliner II order, Talgo has left the US market, and nobody who’s left has a proven intercity passenger coach design. Maybe CRRC will copy someone else again and get in a last-minute bid, but the American national passenger carrier buying from a Chinese company is not happening for political reasons.
@@GintaPPE1000 Not for another two decades as the Amfleet I fleet have already been refurbished and will be refurbished again... Amtrak has NO plans in the works to replace the Amfleet II fleet presently... Or for that matter the Superliner fleet...
@@ronclark9724 There has been "plans" but they better get it funded and locked in before November... HAHA!
The empty cars are required by the host railroad (Union Pacific) for signal activation. You noticed the Missouri River Runner had extra cars as well. Also the KCS freight train you passed is actually a Union Pacific train with KCS power. In North America it’s common for railroads to use “foreign” power. They trade horsepower hours instead of actually paying the other railroad to use their engines. This system allows railroads to be more efficient when trains are moving from one railroad to another.
The railroads are doing the extra car thing to fuck with Amtrak who can't fill a train. CN did it first! Seriously they know how to adjust crossing signal activation sensitivity properly.
@@MilwaukeeF40C
Not issue with BNSF or CP either , just UP.
So UP effectively can't run engines light and stuff like that because the consist wouldn't be long enough? That really seems weird.
@@danielbliss1988 The rule puts a speed restriction on short consists. The reduced speed would really only affect passenger trains if they are normally authorized faster than the freights.
That was a KCS Train. KCS trackage splits with Union Pacific North of Alton and heads North and then West across the Mississippi River to Louisiana Mo then onward to Kansas City, Mo
This is the future of Amtrak’s fleet, but considering the seats disadvantages- they could really use some work in the future coach class and business class as well. Seats aside, I’m also impressed of the Lincoln Service’s new top speed of 90 MPH between Joliet and St. Louis. I would also be further impressed later next year for 110!
Business class/first class will be 3 seats wide using wider seats, and most likely softer more padded seats which will comply with ADA requirements... Siemens will be building them too later in the program to replace the old Amfleet I business/cafe coach... There is a reason why that Amfleet I business/cafe coach remains on this train's consists presently...
@Lew Rodd point being?
@Lew Rodd unfortunately the vast majority of US passenger railroads (along with FRA designated corridors w/ Lincoln Service) operate in conjunction with freight railroads. In a nutshell, they cannot interoperate with other at high speeds (up to 90 MPH) especially the Naperville accident which made a huge impact to speeds.
And when you're talking about speeds to 125 MPH on the route, that's way much in the future and not within planning as of now. You would have to close down all rail crossings on the route from Chicago to St. Louis and place bridges/underpasses/grade separations to make it a big cause. Along with PTC technology as being the requirement to not further cause another accident alike to Naperville in 1946. I absolutely fear this will take a long time for that to happen and we're nowhere close to having such speeds on designated corridors around the country anytime soon. Or unless Brightline decides to take control of this corridor out of Amtrak's hands.
@Lew Rodd The US will remain a "behind-schedule" country with the lack of political support and craze for money especially most going to the military. It'll go nowhere for a while. Who knows in these next few years since the Infrastructure deal is passed.
@@commodoresbank That's not entirely true. In addition to PTC, the FRA requires quad gates for 110mph and "impenetrable barrier" gates for 125mph. The latter is just a fancier gate with better intrusion protection. This isn't anything new or even exotic. Lots of rail crossings all around the world use those types of hardier gates. Most importantly those types of 125mph compliant gates are an order of magnitude cheaper than grade separations which can run into the hundreds of millions.
So yes, 125mph service will take longer and there aren't any firm plans to do it. But technically 125mph safety equipment is not nearly as expensive as grade separation, so it will eventually be on the menu for Amtrak if it gets the funding.
Mind you 125+mph is considered sort of "high speed rail" for upgraded legacy railroads, so this would be a significant and worthwhile improvement.
Thank you for this! Next time you are in Sacramento get a tour of the Siemens plant. It’s quite impressive! I am sure they would give YOU a VIP tour! 👍
When in Sacramento visit the rail road museum.
Fun fact (sort of) related to the wide corridor: North American passenger trains are about 10.2 feet wide, Western and Central European (France, Germany, Austria etc.) trains are about 9.6 feet wide, in the UK with its small loading gauge they are about 9 feet wide and in the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) they are a whopping 11.2 feet wide.
They get stuck with whatever they started out with to fit platforms and fit into tunnels.
And in Germany and even Britain there are also four seats in a row (three in 1st class).
@@emjayay yes exactly... it is very expensive to change that.
That would be 3.10 m (N. America), 2.91 m (Central Europe), 2.74 m (UK) and 3.41 m (Scandinavia) for people who use metric units, i.e. 99% of the countries in the world.
@@fritz46 Meanwhile some of Japan's older _Shinkansen_ rolling stock were ~3.38m wide & had 6 seats in a row
Good to see modern upgrades on Amtrak! Hope they continue, perhaps there would greater ridership, I hope. Thanks for the excellent review. Watch your channel frequently because of your thoughtful and clearly explained reviews. Please continue this good service.
I have a recommendation: Snälltåget has a train from Stockholm, Sweden all the way down to Zell am See in Austria that only runs once a year. They're doing it this Friday (February 25th) and full compartments are still available if you want to do it. At 2230 km it's currently the longest scheduled international passenger rail service in Europe
Great job. You do such a fine job, your viewers feel as though they are taking the trip as well. Thanks 👍
Great video, it’s good to see Amtrak finally catching up to the rest of the world in getting new modern rolling stock.
We need them all across the country, they are LONG overdue
The Northeast Corridor is getting them to replace the Amfleet Is.
And we’re getting them. They won’t be on any long-distance services though, just the state-supported services
@@nathanielcoleman5694, they'll be on the longer distance ones too, albeit with more comfy seats.
@@Neville60001 No. The long-distance ones are keeping their Amfleets for the time being. That’s because they have the newer Amfleet IIs; the Ventures were only intended to replace the Amfleet Is
@@nathanielcoleman5694oh, okay, thanks for the info.
The one benefit of the older amfleet was the comfortable and spacious seats. I took the NE Corridor train from NYC to Boston on a 3 am train. Once on I got comfortable and knocked out straight away. Didn't wake up until we got to Providence as the morning rush hour was boarding our train for Boston. These new seats do look a bit spartan but I'll wait to see how they fare. Otherwise these new coaches seem to be a good upgrade.
Fantastic! This really brings Amtrak to parity with world class regional rail operators. They pioneered the use of 125mph Siemens Chargers in North America. Now they are adopting the Brighline-style Venture coaches. Basically, the entire country is getting Brightline-like Amtrak service. Amazing for the future of passenger rail in America, especially if they upgrade more routes to 90-110-125mph like they are doing with this route!
Great job!
I hope Brightline takes over it all.
@@MilwaukeeF40C I dunno, bud. You do know that Brightline has made zero profit ever, and has taken literally hundreds of millions in subsidies, right? At least Amtrak is at breakeven. And that’s with their Congress-mandated uncancellable long-distance routes. Without those they’d be a pretty profitable company. Brightline is 95% marketing and 5% action. I don’t think I’d want them running anything even if they were paying for it.
@@TohaBgood2 Brightline's profit is land. The trains would be profitable with a shorter capitalization time too if highways and airports were defunded and privatized, which they should be. Privatize that shit.
Also Amtrak has never been audited or released detailed accounting as a non publicly traded "private" company. There's funny business with claims of the northeast corridor covering operating expenses (nevermind the infrastructure) and some of the long distance routes might actually be profitable.
@@MilwaukeeF40C Umm, what’s Brightline’s profit again? All I can see so far is pretty much pure losses, and massive ones with no end in sight. Like, they only make back a small fraction of their operating expenses, let alone any debt servicing on their actual assets. I’d really like a citation for where you’re getting your info on that :)
Also, I don’t want to sound like a jerk, but Amtrak is a state owned enterprise. It is most certainly not private in any way. It releases all of its financials like any publicly traded company and there are regular and ongoing audits. In fact you can look up all of their financial data right now online. It is also widely circulated and discussed in the press.
Concerning the NEC, that is literally the poster child for a profitable corridor. It is essentially a dozen corridors that overlap and they are all short enough that makes Amtrak extremely competitive with the airlines. In essence, this is the type of rail corridor that is profitable all around the world - multiple major destinations all under 500 miles apart from each other. This is exactly what Brightline is trying to build. This is their entire investment thesis as a company -“Hey, we’ll be a mini, Florida NEC. Invest in us.” If you don’t understand why the NEC is so profitable then why do think that Brightline can ever be profitable? This is exactly what they are shooting for, isn’t it?
@@TohaBgood2 Wow, you really aren't aware. Amtrak is a closed book company. It is set up as a privately held corporation with the largest shareholder happening to be the government. This is a problem because the government is obviously not private. It has been an ongoing criticism for its entire existence that Amtrak does not use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles which are advisable for all for profit and non profit entities and especially held to stock traded ones by the SEC. Amtrak's accounting is trash- how they decide to allocate losses to certain parts of the system only that really apply to the whole thing, especially the Northeast Corridor. YOU can look all this up.
Brightline is in the capitalization stage of business. Losses are normal and no company in the U.S. has invested in this sector for a very long time. In fact losses now are good as they will save on taxes in any profitable years. The real test of whether Brightline is successful is whether or not it is in bankruptcy. There is also more at play with Brightline than the core passenger train operation. Don't worry about it.
Amtrak has tons of legacy issues like labor and politics that Brightline does not have. The Northeast Corridor gets about 6% of travel between the same destinations. Real competitive. Now a lean operation can actually work with numbers like that but Amtrak is anything but lean.
Ahhh! The seats look like the terrible 'ironing boards' with uncomfortable upright headrests we have on modern UK trains, which makes sleep impossible. Whatever has been said of Amtrak - they always had big, beautiful seats.
Having the high and low (stairs) platform option is a must as many stations would need to spend a lot of money to put in high platforms, and places like Penn Station in NYC wouldn’t be able to board trains that only had stairs and not that little flip down deck.
I am a retired conductor and assure you that many conductors close off cars for their own comfort and privacy although company rules forbid it.
Thank you Mr. Jennings for telling it like it is. The crew is simply to lazy to walk more cars & they have more cars to themselves to enjoy.
@@s.j.5850 ..and smoke.
I love watching your videos for nostalgia reasons. I’ve taken many long-distance trains in North America that you have including Montreal-Halifax, the Silver Service NY-Miami and the Sunset Limited New Orleans-San Antonio and your videos bring back happy memories of the excitement of the train travel and seeing a new place and different scenery. This Lincoln service review is no exception; interesting to see the coach upgrade since I took the Lincoln service last (2016) from Springfield to Chicago. Like you, I also really enjoy the approach by Amtrak into St. Louis, although I’ve only experienced that on the Texas Eagle. Best wishes, Daniel (from Montréal)
Great video! My Amtrak usage is usually Montreal/New York (pre pandemic) and NYC/ Newark airport to Philadelphia. I think these new seats look less comfortable than the old ones although the wider aisle is a plus for anyone who has had to drag a suitcase from the wrong end of the carriage to wherever the door will actually open!
But I love those steps! As an older traveller I have found it challenging to drag even a medium sized bag on and off a train where there is no conductor service (and where would that be?) There is often a gap both down to the platform and across a gap between the car and the platform. It’s an issue at the Newark International airport station where, obviously, passengers are shlepping luggage and there is no assistance from conductors. I have chosen other alternatives to get to/from the airport because of that.
As a former Amtrak employee you have to realize that Amtrak has a low rate of pay if you live in any of the big cities. It may be a fair rate if you live where the cost of living is less, but due to funding issues (restraints?) Amtrak is forced to limit salaries. As long as Amtrak has to rely on federal funding they will be stuck with an average work force that tends to do as little as possible thanks to the low wages. There will always be a dedicated few wherever you go, but you tend to get what you pay for. A sad reality that needs to be rectified.
That’s a good point about few staff. And I realize it’s unrealistic to expect full service on basically a commuter train such as on the northeast corridor. So I’m looking forward to those new carriages with steps!
Montreal to New York is the way to go. VIA Rail to Montreal then down
the Hudson River Valley to the Big Apple. Much more comfortable than flying.
Thanks for your nice movie. I have made a round trip between Chicago and St. Louis just by this Lincoln Service around 20 years ago. Compared with the coach at that time, accomodations looks to be highly modernized, cleaner and more comfortable. I miss Amtrak and look forward to making trips again by Amtrak.
These coaches are impressive. Finally, USA moving to the modern world of railways
Great video!
Not so fast, they have a long ways to go. It's all about the funding. If the federal government & states don't kick in a fair amount of cash then it will be the same old story. Luckily Biden is a avid train rider who believes in supporting Amtrak.
Not really...Most of their trains still run on diesel 🤡
@@paul_ko, and your point is? _Stop_ being such a troll.
The Siemens trains are beautifully painted!!!
yeah, they are beautiful, I have two of those cars in HO Scale.
A commuter car with Airline Seats- comfort and luxury were what made it worth while to spend the extra travel time on a train
I really like the subtitles, so readable, and I can listen to my radio while I enjoy your video.
Great report of the new Siemens coaches. I believe these coaches are exactly like Brightline coaches.
Amtrak closed several cars because the passengers would all fit in only 2 of the cars. Also fewer attendants would be needed. Many Philadelphia commuter runs have closed cars even though there are maybe 6 cars in the consist.
Thank you Thibault for your excellent teview!! And yes Chicago Union Station is beautiful!!😀😀♥️♥️
... gives you the fasade the train is in demand tho ... Can't tell a good book by the cover ... right? ...
@@willgaukler8979 Absolutely. Thanks for your input
@@willgaukler8979 They also need a certain amount of axles for PTC and signals to work properly.
These new coaches look really nice I have to say. And the station... whow.
Loving the new trains....I think the seats are probably like this since its more of a commuter train. Hopefully the trains that Siemens make for the Northeast Corridor and long distance routes are a lot comfortable
This! The seats are completely unacceptable for the Northeast Corridor, where a 3 hour ride in coach costa $200 one-way
@@lukethompson5558 bud, book ahead and its 30 dollars, and the seats for the Northeast Corridor are already confirmed to have better legroom and seating
Very nice video, makes want to take a trip on it. Not at all surprised at review of crew members.
Still not up to TGV speeds, BUT…. 110 mph down the road is nothing to sneer at! Siemens trains definitely
a major game-changer. Admirable upgrade, Amtrak- keep reaching for that brass ring- it’ll be well worth it!
John- Valley Forge Pa🍏
The truth is: They cannot afford to replace rails from Chicago to St Louis. If they did, then we will be there in about 2 hours instead 5 hours...... S.M.H.🤦♂️
Thank you for this video, I took a ride on #91 Amtrak back in January for the first time and it was the the worst train ride. Went From Newark NJ to West Palm Beach. The car i was riding in was 40 years old. Newark Station Was very crowded with panhandlers. The train was one hour late and had to switch engines in DC. The train Had to back into the station in Tampa and the cars wheel had a flat spot. The car would Slam left or right on every road crossing.
Yet another honest and well balanced trip review. Nice job 👍
Pretty cool to see some of the new rolling stock coming in!! My guess is maybe some of these will end up in New England soon as well for the Downeaster. Great review!
They've improved this line SO much in the last few years. I used to take it a lot 10 years ago and it was really slow and so many delays. I took it again not long ago and it was perfect! Excited to try the new coaches
Well, this is what happens when Amtrak is allowed to make the upgrades that they want to make. Now with brand new world class Siemens trains and 110 mph service, this line will finally come into its own! So we have "highER speed rail" service on a popular route now! Amazing that they managed to pull this off!
Kudos to IDOT and Amtrak for pushing for these upgrades. Hopefully, this becomes a pattern for Amtrak upgrades to their intercity services nation-wide.
Nice video Simply....Fortunately got to roll out of CHI last week on the City of New Orleans...Coach seating on an empty (40-50%) train was like a king. Union Station Chi is the BOMB! Thanks!
Very nice video review. We travel on 49/48 frequently from Syracuse to Chicago, but usually in a sleeper. It would be interesting to see in a few years if the long distance Venture Coaches get better seats. I agree that most people traveling overnight in coach class want a comfortable seat. Amtrak just updated seats a couple of years ago in the Amfleet coaches so there was a lot of money spent for that update. The trouble with Amtrak Management is they don’t want to listen to suggestions from crew and passengers as to what is important to them for the comfort of the passenger.
Case in point. The new viewliner 2 sleepers have no storage locker for extra pillows or linens , and in the bedroom, when the lower bed is out, you can hardly get to the sink!
So here would be a novel idea. Have Siemens build a few sample coaches with different seats and amenities, allows passengers and crew to evaluate them, and then really take the comments seriously to build the best of the best.
I also hope, the new long distance coaches will have forward facing seats, ones that can be rotated around .
Are you going to check out the Venture Coaches on the Via Canada train service? Thanks for the review. Happy traveling.
Ha, ha, you must be a railroad employee. If so, you know management does NOT take suggestions from the working employee (with knowledge & experience) who does the job every working day. Remember that management is appointed/selected by someone higher up. They typically (at least in the railroad industry) do not select qualified people. Those selected do not want you to appear smarter than them so they will usually trash your idea unless they can claim it for themselves.
The ambient sound of vague music and harmonies in large, grand open spaces during quiet times is an atmosphere that will never go stale
Siemens Venture! I love this coaches. I was so happy to see this in the video. I hope I can see the Venture Coaches on the NEC around the mid-2020s
Later 2020s for the ventures on the NEC
So well-done, detail-oriented and tips-loaded! Thank you so much. I’ll soon get on that train, cannot wait! Greetings from Poland. 😊
Nice review! I ride this very train to and from Chicago when I don’t want to drive. It’s the way to go from St. Louis to Chicago when you need to be downtown (rather than fly). I sometimes like to ride in Business Class and am looking forward to what this will look like/be like with the new Venture coaches.
I was on that route I think feb or march of 2005 maybe april. It was very interesting. My experience was very good. I was taking amtrak from Kirkwood MO to Fostoria, OH (closed one month after my ride) It was like 2-3 hours late, If it was on time, layover would have been one hour and I would have browsed in the station but the problem was that it stopped only for crew and passanger change for about 5-10 minutes. When I changed trains in Chicago, these wonderful workers put me on business class instead of what was on my ticket. I told them I am deaf and would need assistance bec I could not hear the announcement and I was put on cart and after putting these passangers onto the regluar coach, they told me to stay on the cart, and took me to business class. they were exteremly friendly! I was on the old coach and p42 engine. Since my train was supposed to leave at least 330 pm, I got on at like around 5 so it went dark between 6 and 7 so this video - I have the chance to see what its like on that route during the daytime bec most of my ride was dark and couldn't see them till I get to chicago.
I see many comments about the new seats. Reducing seat width allows for the aisles to accommodate wheel chairs and walkers. Restrooms were also reconfigured for use by disabled.
Thus trains now comply with ADA regulations.
Yes but you're throwing out the baby with the bath water. Seats May comply with Ada regulations but they're obviously much narrower with much with much less legroom and inferior cushion than the previous Amtrak seats. I would be absolutely furious if I got on a train with these kind of seats for anything more than a commuter run I would not use the service.
The ADA crap will kill the train service because no one will want to ride it with such uncomfortable seats.
Yes but that doesn't explain why you have less legroom and poor padding on the seats. You don't have to do those two things to meet ADA requirements and I think realistically this is going to be a big impediment to get people to ride these trains long distances especially if they're familiar with the old superb Amtrak seats. This is simply reality.
My guess is what happened here is that Siemens sold Amtrak on the seats but what they did is they did the usual European thing which is that they interpreted the European experience to the US. But in the US people are far more fussy and have more options. The Germans and Amtrak forgot that train trips in the US can be very long so poor seating becomes a big issue.
You see what you're going to be competing with in the US is not only plane flights but very shortly self-driving electric cars which are very comfortable and faster if you take total trip time into consideration. How is Amtrak with uncomfortable narrow seating going to compete with my own car with stereo and air conditioning and comfortable seats taking the same time as the Amtrak train or less. The answer is it's not.
@@MostHigh777 Two inches of width was removed. If the seats had maintained the same space from the seats front and back it wouldn't have been bad. So while I feel two inches width removed in order for disabled space to navigate the aisle is acceptable, I wish there was more space between the seats front and back.
Now put yourself in the shoes of people who need walkers, canes, wheel chairs or crutches to move about.
so buses dont have to Comply with ADA
Hello from Sacramento County, California!
Those Siemens Venture cars, the Siemens SC-44 Charger that pulls them, as well as more rolling stock that's coming out soon is manufactured in the Florin area of the county which is about a half-hour drive down Watt Avenue and Florin Road from where I am.
We will be getting them on the San Joaquins that runs between Oakland or Sacramento and Bakersfield. I can't wait to check them out!
As much as I love the Amfleet coaches I'm glad to see them replaced with modern equipment. Although I will miss the kick plate doors on Amfleet. I will say too, Amtrak had different seats for different services. Short haul like the Lincoln have narrower pitches and restrictive seats. Long haul has more space. I wouldn't be surprised if that is carries over to the new Siemens
Yeah exactly - Amfleet coaches on the northeast regional have so much less leg room than those on the Cardinal (and presumably other long distance routes that's just the only one I've ridden). This looks comparable to the seats on the regional.
Amazing I’m traveling from Mexico and this is going to be my very first time in the U.S.A. I’m going to a summer camp in St. Louis and I’m going to fly to Chicago. Thanks to u now I know how to travel from Chicago to St. Louis!! 😍
GREAT Review. I love the new coaches. AMTRAK is really bringing back the magic of rail transportation!!!!!
Greetings from Illinois. Helpful narrative and good photography. Daylight photography too. Thank you.
Thanks for the review! I love the way it looks but I will miss the old wide, comfortable seats. Especially if they will be used for longer trips. I often work in DC and Boston, and the 8 hour train between is where I get a lot of work done, so those bigger, softer seats were better. BTW if it's anything like some of the other trains I've been on in the US, they close down a few rail cars if they have fewer riders so they don't o have the staff clean/service them en route. And perhaps have fewer staff on board if the return trip is also with fewer riders.
A Pullman heavyweight with a full dining car and observation car at the end suit me just fine.
Nice video, as always. New coaches look great overall. However it seems they can not match how comfy aging Amfleet coaches are. I always think that "Coach class" in Amtrak is the equivalent to first class accommodations in Europe (if not better) If only they could mix them together it would be paradise: 21th-century amenities and design with "good old" spacious seats. Anyway, that's how it goes and maybe it's related to ADA regulations. It looks like a positive change for Amtrak, though.
I love seeing a new car on the tracks. They bring with them much different sounds which are novel and unusual as they go over the familiar tracks and joints.
I noticed one thing about these new coach cars, much quieter. No loose rattling and rickety, rickety sounds.
Uhmm, just a couple of few more years and you will be hearing things as they ages.
@@kermitinmountain6371 wow you're as smart as Sherlock aren't ya??
@@Des_Zee Des Zee, yup, I am afraid so.😁😂
@@kermitinmountain6371
When it comes to Siemens-built vehicles I've not yet noticed old equipment having such issues. Their 20 year old ICE 3s still sound, look and ride like when they were new.
Here in Germany the only train carriages I've been in that squeak and rattle were 40+ year old commuter carriages which never underwent a major refurbishment. Even the 40 year old S-Bahn commuter EMUs still feel solid.
Great video! Saw Amtrak's River Runner with one of the new (at the time) venture coaches in early january of 2022
So nice to see the shot of crossing the Rock Island at Joliet, thanks Thibault!
I dream of a day when we could have rail service like this between Des Moines and Chicago, but with the current ruling political class in Iowa sadly all it may ever be is just a dream...
Ride a bus to catch a California Zephyr train from a station located south of Des Moines...
@@ronclark9724 that completely misses the point, which is direct higher-speed connection between the 2 cities... besides, the Zephyr is rarely on time!
looks like a very interesting train trip, I didn't know it was possible to get a train from Chicago to st louis, the carriages look very nice, nice vid 👍
Thanks for the review. I guess this is what we have to look forward to on the Northeast Corridor. And just so you know, Amtrak train crews are notorious for their lack of customer service.
Lack of “customer service” and not wanting to be quizzed at length about rail fan interests are two different things.
@@Railoffroader2 Most amtrak workers aren't "quizzed at length" about rail fan interests. Be realistic.
@@TheRailwayDrone This coming from someone who isn’t an actual railroad employee.
I didn’t say most or give an actual number, but there are some who do encounter this and have no interest in it.
Fact.
@@Railoffroader2 I don't need to be a railroad employee to know about customer service and if you work for amtrak and this offends you, too fuckin bad. Maybe work on your guys' customer service instead of running your mouth on youtube.
@@TheRailwayDrone Very mature language, impressive and I’m running my mouth on TH-cam? LMFAO
This is just one example that proves my point about some of you.
Doesn’t matter what railroad, it’s the same all over and I’m not in customer service so you can go pout in your foam.
I noticed a missed opportunity at the end of the video. As you were arriving at St Louis the River Runner had already left. Joined up thinking would have the two trains connecting, ideally on opposite sides of the same platform to make the transfer more straightforward.
I suppose that it may be done intentionally to make it less of a problem when the freight railroad has delayed the incoming train, the outgoing one can still leave on time. Even so, regular and convenient connections between trains potentially increases passenger numbers.
FINALLY new coaches for the absolutely ageing fleet of amfleets and horizens
*EDIT* This is coming from a person who has never step foot outside of asia.
Amfleet hater
I’ll miss the amfleet though.
I think they won't be fully withdrawn until 2027. They might Co-Exist with the new ones for awhile.
I don’t think they are replacing the Horizons just yet only Amfleets
@@randomclass4653 Amtrak's order for Siemens coaches (actually specified as train sets) was placed last year and won't replace all of the Amfleets.
If Amtrak can get the funding to exercise the options in the contract they could replace them all, but funding not yet available.
Great review! Thanks for what you do akways enjoy these videos. Wish we hsd more passenger rail available in the US.
Siemens products are always a solid choice in my opinion.
The truely are, but is it safe to say as of 2022 Siemens essentially is the only railroad stock supplier in the US. Back in the days, at the heyday of passenger travel, there were multiple railcar makers in the US, competing heavily for orders and forced to offer quailty. In fact, US railcars were the finest in the world. Pullman, Budd, St. Lous Railcar, you name it. So to my point of view the US urgently need another big and able producer of rolling stock. Both locomotives and cars. Doesn't matter if another subsidiary of an European or Asian company or homegrown US.
@@OldSchool-px1xk Don't forget about Alstom in NY. They're busy building the Avelias aka Acela II. There's also Talgo in Wisconsin.
@@OldSchool-px1xk
The sad reality is that the US just doesn't have enough demand to support a fully home-grown passenger rolling stock manufacturer. Several companies have tried and failed, and whilst freight stock manufacturers like ACF would have enough funds to get production going, they lack the expertise when it comes to designing good passenger rolling stock.
I was JUST looking for pictures of these new Amtrak cars last night, after reading all about them! Thanks for reading my mind! You are GREAT! I will miss the Amfleet cars though, very much, and to make up for that I have a set of HO-scale Walthers Proto Amfleet I, phase 3, coach and AmCafe cars on my model RR.
I also was disappointed with Brightline's seats. Felt like the cheap seats on Spirit Airlines.
The reclining seats weren't really reclining. They just slide the seat forward a bit and the back rest barely reclined backward.
I didn't know Amtrak was also getting these! Definitely good to see
It's great to see modernization finally occurring on Amtrak. First the viewliner 2 diners and sleepers, then the ALC-42's, and now the new coaches. Can't wait to see it all on Florida bound trains!
Great review, through and informative (as always on Simply Railway). I cannot imagine those seats for a route greater than 5 hours. Sad to hear about the crew but I've found, having lived in DC, Chicago and now California, the midwest crews can be hit or miss more often than else where. Thanks for the time and effort you put into this channel.
It's unfortunate that they've decreased the leg space, recline, and padding of the seats. Hopefully the cross country trains will have better legroom and more comfortable seating like the old cars. There is no way I would make another cross country trip on Amtrak if the seats are like this. Amtrak is my preferred mode of travel btw.
There is no reason why the seats can't be more cushy.
This isn’t Amtrak Venture coaches because it is state sponsored. Amtrak Venture coaches will likely be different
Informative video. As one or two others have noted, route 66 follows the railroad, not the other way round. The one aspect of the new equipment that I like over the amfleet cars are the larger (taller) windows. The amfleet (and metroliner) cars always give the impression of riding in an armored car, which is intentional going back to the mid 1960's when throwing rocks at trains was a fashionable past time...
Great review of these worthy amfleet replacements. But once again, Brightline come out on top in terms of starting date and seat comfort for the Ventures... Can't wait for more of these coaches to enter service on Amtrak.
How so? Aren't these the exact same Venture coaches with slightly different trim and no blue mood lighting? I can't spot any differences except the seat colors and those blue ceiling lights. I have ridden Brightline, but not yet the Amtrak Ventures.
@@TohaBgood2 Other than the seats, there are also a few internal components such as the stairs and sink water that I believe have been contracted by different companies for the Amtrak and Brightline coaches, although the Amtrak coaches seem to be facing more mechanical issues based on these different components.
@@Pensyfan19 But the seats are identical in terms of padding and comfort. They are literally the same type of seat with a different color trim!
I hate the fact that people are willing to give Brightline endless benefits of the doubt, but are happy to trash Amtrak even when they fo and objectively awesome things.
This is just political bias imo. People buy the Brightline marketing about it being HSR (79mph top speed) and not being government subsidized (took both state and federal subsidies). But I just don’t understand why. It’s almost like people like to lied to.
I loved your review! I was lucky enough to ride in one of the Siemens Venture coaches on Lincoln Service 301 a few weeks ago. The Amtrak employees on the train told me that the Illinois Services will see the cars first and they will be coming to the Michigan Services and the Hiawatha Service within two years. I think the Missouri River Runner will get them too.The Siemens Venture cafe car+business cars are coming in a bit as well, according to the employee.
The current Amfleet coaches, both short and long distance, are more than 45 years old and have been refurbished many times and still ride well.
Let's just hope that what has worked well over the decades with Amfleet coaches remains working well. There is never a reason to argue with success or willing formulas--even under the guise of "budgetary restraints" or "needs to look modern."
@@Robert-yp9zs Exactly Robert! Those Amfleet coaches have lasted this long because they were made well. They could theoretically be modified to last another 45 years. Give them a new coat of paint, some new A/C units (if needed), better lighting, more USB outlets, & away we go. Since the cars are not self-propelled they can easily be retrofitted to bring them up to speed amenities-wise.
@@Robert-yp9zs Running all of this legacy equipment turns away customers. People want to ride a modern train not some museum piece that pleases the foamers and nobody else. I'm all for historic excursion trains. I think we need more of those. But for actual travel, we need modern equipment that delivers a quality world-class travel experience. Legacy equipment just can't do that. Padded seats and all, you still feel like you're traveling in a tin can full of asbestos and lead paint.
I was taking pictures of the local Lincoln Service just last Sunday, and it was a surprise to see that the old cars were replaced by the Venture cars. I had not heard that the replacement was happening, but I loved the design of the exterior and how it matched the dotted scheme of the Charger. They look so neat and modern!
I was waiting for someone to do a video of these new cars for Amtrak. For me personally they should bring back the old seats. For me personally they were super comfortable perfect for a service like this. These new seats look too uncomfortable and they don't look wide enough. It feels like Amtrak is trying to use a airline model for seats which is why people who doesn't like to fly like Amtrak because of the wide seats. I'll have to try the new seats in the future but I have a negative first impression of them. Besides the seats the new cars look nice and modern. I really like that they have a LCD Screen showing the next stop that's really useful especially for those who can't use smartphones or are deaf. If they brought back the old seats the new cars would rate 10 out of 10 for me. For me personally I value general comfort over the looks and amenities of train cars and those seats don't look comfortable especially for those who would ride on couch on the long distance routes like Empire Builder and Southwest Chief. Bring back the original seats while keeping the new amenities of the new cars and I can guarantee that they will bring in more customers. People do like the old seats they just don't like the cars that are old. For me personally I don't care. I just care about riding the train and enjoying the scenery outside. I guess being I've mostly ridden on trains that have cars that came out before I was born I'm used to being on old cars that I grown to not care about the general appearance of them.
I think they're only being used for the shorter routes and not the long ranged routes. Similar to how the NEC trains have different seats than say the silver meteor.
It's great that Amtrak designed these cars with the Handicapped in mind. I'm curious about how they can get Handicapped passengers on & off. They used lifts & an accessible entry door on Amfleet cars.
The cafe cars will have a lift built into them so the train won't be dependent on station lift equipment
I don't understand why seats in cars and trains have gone from soft, plush, and comfortable, to stiff and sleak. I'll take the new Venture window, with an updated Amfleet style seat. Nice overview!
Fireproofing regulations.
Proper sprung seats sadly are expensive to maintain and easily damaged, and too much foam padding can cause issues with fire proofing as well as quicker degradation. Thinner seats also mean less weight and more legroom for passengers.
I hope we really miss the old amfleet cars, but they are my favorites because this is nostalgic memories.
Great toilets! I’m so sick of small toilets that get messed up and make you feel like you need a hot shower from just going into it. Thanks for the carbon load figures.
The new toilets are accessible to those with mobility challenges. Room for walkers or wheel chairs.
Wonderful! Thank you for filming. I think I also had Kim as the LSA when I was on #303 last. She's the best.
Imagine this experience on an improved electrified rail line. Nice to see the modern coaches instead of the extremely dated concepts Amtrak is famous for.
I use to work on the Amfleet passenger cars when I was first hired in the 1970's! That's how old those cars are. It's truly amazing that they lasted so long. Goes to show you that you can modify the cars as long as the basic structure is sound. It would seem that the interior & the A/C system would be the priority systems to concentrate on. Maybe add a new paint scheme or a rap covering on the exterior & they may last another 40-50 years!
@@s.j.5850 Why would you want to preserve a rolling stock that looks like a metallic log for so long
@@trijetz3562 Some train cars don’t last too long but Amfleets last long and they look decent on the inside
@@Adumzzinthehouse Yes, but regular non-foamer people don't care and don't want to ride in a relic. We have to let these legacy pieces of equipment go. It's time for Amtrak to become a state of the art carrier.
@@TohaBgood2 Yeah I don’t want to either. But some should be preserved for their reliability and usefulness
At 11:00 i recognize that station! this is my hometown amtrak station in Bloomington IL! man i haven't seen it in a long time! but i can recognize it from the massive clock and the big glass windows and of course the low level boarding for the superliners. My grandma hated that platform as she had trouble trying to get inside the Amfleets cars. I bet she whould like the Venture Coach's because they have the stairs!
Amtrak has to stop trying to operate the way airports and airlines do.
tho operating like one seem to have almost put them back in profit pre-pandamic, at least from what i heard
@@PrograError I doubt making people read safety pamphlets and making them arrive 20 minutes before departure is what made them profitable?
@@squelchedotter well the 20min is more for on time departure...
As for the safety manual... Well... Do you wanna get stuck in a metal coffin in an emergency? Then better read it... Even if it's the same stuff... (Also it's more for covering their arse)
@@PrograError Nowhere in the world, except the US, do you need to wait for a train anywhere but the platform, or read a safety manual. Even on the fastest trains in the world.
Trains are not airplanes, they don't have explosive fuel in them, they can't plummet out of the air, they can't depressurize. There is no situation where you need to flee quickly out of a train.
@@squelchedotter well... I'm pretty sure that ICE 1 incident and that Taiwanese overspeed incident are a few metal coffin ish incident IMO
Also I'm pretty sure there's footage of people waiting for train ...
as for the seats, what people have to realise is that the Venture coach is NOT a long distance coach, designed for shorter trips of a couple of hours rather than a 2 day run from NYC to Seattle.
In the UK we have very similar coaches for the pass few years running on our main lines and the seats on these coaches are extremely smart but so Uncomfortable, even on a London to Swansea 3 hour Journey its like sitting on a plank off wood in standard class, the first class are not much better but you do get free snacks and coffee throughout your journey. to show you type in on Y/T GWR Class 802 for a review.
Didn't he already review the 80x family?
Kool video man,sucks about the Crew...I'd like to take this trip for sure... just for the hell of it...went with my parents to st.louis back when I was 11...I'm 46 now remember when we arrived by automobile it was raining but we made it,we went in the Arch it was windy I remember and it was swaying,I remember the elevator's we're barrels if I remember correctly...I like that you wrote everything instead of talking pretty Koo man... take care........ thanks 👍😊....
Amfleets are the most Amtrak thing left in Amtrak. A unique and long lived American design that's been here almost since the beginning and has seen locomotives, stations, tracks, bridges and executives come and go. I highly doubt anything purchased today will last half as long or still look contemporary 5 decades from inception.
Stephen Gardner, the CEO of Amtrak from January 2022, seems to be responsible for the many improvements that Amtrak has made and with future improvements on the way. Maybe he will finally bring America's railroads into the 21st century. If so we should all give this man a round of applause. With the huge size of the US it is diffcult, if not impossible, to match the railroads of Europe or Asia that have so much smaller areas to work with. My country could truly use high speed rail to compete with airlines and automobiles and to provide a comfortable safe way to travel.
Though I do like you carbon footprint comment, the amount of CO2 is also determined by the train useage. Many Amtrak routes away from the eastern seaboard are under used. Doesn't that factor into the equation?
In non pandemic conditions, going to and from Chicago, they normally run pretty full.
Very well done, Thank you! At one time I did a rail travel blog on my cross country trips on Amtrak. I have not made a trip since 2018 due to you know what. I hope to travel agin this year....maybe I will do a video too. Thanks
I worked for Amtrak for 30 years, having retired about a year and a half ago. These seats will generate complaints. Yes, it looks clean and crisp. But not all passengers follow the "South Beach Diet."
These are perfectly normal seats. Everyone loves them on Brightline and they'll love them here too.
We have a lot of weird legacy stuff happening with Amtrak equipment. It's time we get with the program. These are state of the art, world-class coaches. Amtrak needs to join the rest of the world and start using rail technology from this century.
looks nice and looking forward to riding them. A friend works for Siemens in the construction dept , nothing to do with this, but he was interested to hear about this division. as he knows how much I enjoy train rides. Should be going to Chi in June to meet up with another friend for a trip to CA. Thanks for sharing
I don't get why Amtrak keeps embracing "European" aspects of trains like worse seats and no food service (soon to be ending on the San Joaquin when their Ventures go in service). The one part they won't fight for is actually running more trains outside the NEC.
That's not Amtrak.
The San Joaquins is a California funded and operated train that Amtrak merely operates on behalf of the State. As the State of California funds the service and owns the equipment, California specifies the type of service. Thus it was California that decided to go with vending machines for the new equipment when California placed the order.
@@mattjones366 Yeah, and everyone knows the California Department of Transportation are bunch of incompetent idiots.
@@mattjones366 it was the SJJPA that made the call. Cal trans takes a back seat to the operations of the Amtrak “California” services. The other routes will still have Cafe Cars. We have a long tradition here in California of kicking things off to some random local agency so the legislature can bury its collective head in the sand. And that boneheaded decisions, along with the fiasco over implementing a dedicated tax to fund Caltrain are one of the examples of why JPAs and not thinking through how local government works are stupid ideas.
@@Toast0808 the Amtrak lines are now planned by local agencies. Caltrans is at most a back seat driver now. If they even care at all.
Amtrak reports are my favorite
These are cool, but I'm going to miss Amfleet. They're iconic and have a certain charm to them.
Three "unwelcoming" government employees..Imagine that!!
Had it been me, I would have made sure to include them in the video, as they are every bit a part of the Service as the Seats, with the Seats being of better service, it sounds
Tks for sharing. 1st time viewer.
Take Care
And
Stay SAFE!
amtrak staff are getting worse every trip I take. You have to be very firm and direct with them.
Yeah, they're lazy government employees soooo.....They're pretty much like the post office on rails.
@@deusvult7559 They are. Privatization of passenger rail has to be part of expanding passenger rail in the U.S. It has been in Europe.
@@matthewhall1062 In Europe the infrastructure is government owned and run, and the service is provided by private companies. For me it is a bit weird that the US never nationalized their rail network, and now have many different freight companies renting out time slots on their private tracks to passenger services, and not the other way around.
@@sjokomelk The U.S. did nationalize some rail freight, mostly in the Northeast. It was called "Conrail." It's all since been sold off again.
i Looove Amtrak, I'm a Model Railroader and I have two HO Scale Amtrak coaches, there beautiful