WASHINGTON — Amtrak has officially retired its last dome car, ex-Great Northern “Great Dome” Ocean View, losing a valuable promotional tool in the process.
It is the latest example of the passenger railroad choosing to retire rather than continuing to maintain cars every previous management had used to attract passengers, following retirement earlier in 2018 and sale earlier this year of its four Pacific Parlour Cars. Those ex-Santa Fe cars had been featured on the Coast Starlight after being refurbished in the mid-1990s to provide an exclusive, upscale travel experience for that train’s passngers.
Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams told the Albany Times Union last week, that, “due to the age and expense of maintaining this vintage car, the Great Dome Car will no longer operate as part of Amtrak’s fleet.” It has been at the Beech Grove Heavy Maintenance Facility for several months, but the company did not offer it in any of the recent car sales.
Amtrak dispensed with most of the dome cars it inherited from the streamliner era in 1993 when the arrival of Superliner II equipment permitted the conversion of Auto Train to a bilevel consist. In any case, tight clearances precluded their use on any trains between Baltimore and Boston.
However, Amtrak kept the Ocean View around to attract customers, such as regular fall color assignments on the Montreal-Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y., segment of the Adirondack and stints on the Chicago-Washington, D.C., portion of the Cardinal’s route. It also was periodically deployed to augment capacity on Midwest and California corridors during holiday periods.
State-supported services such as Maine’s Downeaster also found the Ocean View useful to energize new service introductions or fare promotions as a “reason to ride”. Amtrak itself used it for that purpose in March 2017 during the Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State’s transition back to Amtrak equipment from Iowa Pacific’s full length dome car.
The car has been most valuable, though, on inspection trains where decision makers are hosted. The dome has easily accommodated many prospective stakeholders, giving all guests an opportunity to see operations firsthand.
Railroads such as BNSF and Union Pacific have long seen the value of maintaining domes, sleeping cars, coaches, and lounges from their legacy flagship passenger fleets to host shippers and politicians. Current Amtrak management’s current intense focus on cost cutting, however, dictates retiring the type of equipment its host carriers continue to value.
