CHICAGO — A text and email alert received overnight by passengers ticketed on Amtrak’s eastbound California Zephyr departing Denver Monday, July 28, warned, “Train 6 will have reduced seating capacity due to unplanned equipment maintenance needs. Passengers may have difficulty finding seats. Passengers are encouraged to rebook travel if possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
What happened? An earlier walk through the coaches looking at seat checks to ascertain where everyone on the train was going revealed that air conditioning had failed in rear Superliner coach-baggage 31044. A Zephyr coach attendant was busy offering travelers in that car — virtually all destined for Chicago — a seat in one of the train’s other two coaches. Some passengers chose to endure the stifling conditions because it meant they would have the double seat to themselves on what was a nearly sold-out train.
The incident triggers several observations:
Maintenance of aging equipment continues to be a challenge. Mechanics were spotted working on the innards of a sleeping car at Denver; there were no other air-conditioning problems for the rest of the trip. But many locomotive failures and other mechanical issues on Amtrak’s network too serious to be corrected in the field have resulted in hours of delay or discomfort, exacerbated by the fact that the company isn’t in a position to strategically deploy spare rolling stock around the system.
The operating crew and on-duty national inventory managers were proactive. With temperatures in Denver and across the Midwest exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the decision to shut down the coach was forwarded to Amtrak’s Consolidated National Operations Center in Wilmington, Del., where the alert was pushed out.
Amtrak’s communication to passengers has markedly improved. Though meant for the many patrons boarding across Nebraska and Iowa — not that they had any last-minute alternative — the technology helped “manage expectations,” a key component of customer service in any business. Sleeping-car and coach passengers already aboard the train needlessly received the message, but they were also apprised of delays incurred the following afternoon across western Illinois when the 79 mph Zephyr went into emergency braking — twice. Radio chatter from the engineer indicated that the train apparently “hit something” on the right-of-way that most likely damaged a between-car air hose. Head-end power was shut down while conductors walked the train and found one problem, though it took another emergency stop seven minutes later to discover and fix a second air leak.
Text messages apprised passengers of revised arrival times on their smartphones. The p.a. system wasn’t working in one of the sleeping cars — another maintenance issue — but its attendant visited both levels to relay what conductors explained.
Passengers can “escape” from their seats. Unlike the lounge-space situation on many regional trains — Midwest Venture equipment doesn’t have a cafe car with seating that could provide overflow capacity — the Zephyr has both a Sightseer Lounge and a full-service dining car. Their presence not only enabled CZ passengers to reposition themselves throughout the trip, but also alleviate unexpected overcrowding. The two cars play to the Zephyr’s uniqueness among transportation alternatives, not just crossing the Sierra Nevada and Colorado Rockies but across the deserts of Utah and the cornfields of Iowa.
Former Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson, an ex-airline executive, simply couldn’t grasp the value of onboard non-revenue space when he ordered vintage Pacific Parlour Cars retired from the Coast Starlight, which has been limping through the summer with two coaches. The Sunset Limited has been running with only one coach east of San Antonio, but at least both trains have Superliner lounges and diners.
Room for improvement? Note to BNSF Railway: track between Denver and Lincoln, Neb. — along with certain questionably maintained low spots at bridges and interlockings all the way to Chicago — is possibly the worst ride on Amtrak’s long-distance network. It ranks down there with Canadian National’s Yazoo Sub south of Memphis on the City of New Orleans. Maybe those emergency stops were a wake-up call.
The California Zephyr’s summer consist of three Superliner sleeping cars, a transition sleeper, and three coaches—along with the Empire Builder, has the highest revenue earning potential of any current long-distance train except Auto Train. That train is the source of the third sleeper temporarily added to the Zephyr for the summer. Six cars are required for the addition, with three coming from each of the Virginia-Florida train’s two trainsets. The sleepers are returned to the southeast in September [see “Texas Eagle lounge car set to return …,” Trains.com, Feb 25, 2025].
To accommodate the crowds, the Sightseer’s upper-level service bar is staffed with an attendant on portions of the journey. In the dining car, however, only a lead service attendant and one server handle all meals, while a chef and food specialist prepare cooked-to-order breakfasts, lunches, and dinners in the kitchen below. Smile, take order, deliver drinks, bring food, clean up, reset the table, repeat. It’s a non-stop slog upstairs. Without at least one extra person to speed up the service, there is no way coach customers can always pay extra to dine on a “space available” basis — because there can’t be any space on a full train when meals take well more than an hour to serve. Similar staffing shortfalls and coach-passenger disappointment occurs on other long-distance trains.
The lack of servers translates not only to lost revenue but a missed experience capable of bringing passengers back, or maybe enticing them to upgrade next trip to a pricey roomette or bedroom with all meals included.
Because demand and train size fluctuates and Amtrak employees are fortunate to earn a living wage, permanent increased staffing may not be warranted. On the other hand, if Amtrak under the command of then-president W. Graham Claytor, Jr., was able to carve out a cross-task labor protocol when it launched Auto Train in 1983, perhaps it is finally time some serious discussions take place between management and the onboard crafts involved to develop a service solution to benefit passengers, crews, and Amtrak’s bottom line.
Permit me to be petty, mean, and out of line in my hope that Richard Anderson does not fare well if the UP – NS merger is approved, and he flies off into the sunset crammed into a six-across coach seat with a bag of peanuts for sustenance.