of diesel locomotives at Erie, Pennsylvania, during the period 1993-2001. Amtrak purchased 44 P40's, 207 P42's, and 18 dualmodes (the latter with New York State support for Empire Services).
MISSION STATEMENT
For our new viewers, perhaps who just found this page, here is our mission: To track as well as possible the movements of Amtrak's ancient P42 Genesis locomotive fleet, along with those few even older P40's that are still active at Amtrak.
A TIME TO EXPAND MARKET SHARE?
People are traveling. On Sunday, TSA boarded over 1 million people at airports in the USA. So why is Amtrak going out OF business instead of going out FOR business and increased market share? Southwest Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, is expanding operations into new markets. It's competitors, like Delta and particularly American, are stuck in the Amtrak mode with their heads in the sand. How about some smart management decisions instead of stupid ones?
THE NEW SCHEDULES ARE HERE (UNFORTUNATELY)
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 14
Monday, Wednesday, Saturday: 5, 11
Monday, Thursday, Saturday: 3, 7, 27, 30, 48, 448, 59, 89
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 4, 6, 8, 28
Tuesday, Friday, Sunday: 19, 21, 22
Wednesday, Friday, Sunday: 29, 49, 449, 58, 90
Trains 91/97 and 92/98 were combined earlier in 2020. The Cardinal and Sunset Limited have not yet been affected since they have been tri-weekly for decades (in the case of the Sunset Limited, even before the creation of Amtrak when the old now-defunct SP still ran it).
Locomotives are now be sitting and idling for longer periods of time at terminals. Not particularly good for the environment. At first blush one might think they would or could be getting better maintenance. One can always hope, but in typical Amtrak fashion, it is often the maintenance employees that get laid off first. A downside of longer dwell times, besides the envionment, is that locomotives not used very much can develop storage issues, such as fuel contamination and stack fires. They can also become targets for vandalism and theft. We will see how this goes, and watch as best we can as additional units go into disappearing acts.
We are reminded of the time a few years ago when Amtrak experimented with 4-day a week service on some trains. It did not work then...the financial losses were greater than any amount saved. We don't expect any different result today...is that not the definition of insanity (expecting a different result)? We can understand situations where multiple daily frequencies might need to be cut back temporarily due to a fall off in travel demand, but less than daily service has never made any economic sense.
TUNE IT OUT
Time is ticking...get your vote down now if you have not already done so. We recall the trickery and confusion that was sown in the days before the 2016 election, particularly with what has now been documented as Russian interference, and fake documents salted in with others that had been stolen by KGB hackers. Accordingly, it might be wise to go with your gut and your previous thinking, and not allow it to be tempered by any last minute trash thrown out to you by mysterious robot telephone calls or posts on various questionable media. In short: tune it out!