Amtrak's BRAND NEW Venture Coaches! The Future of Amtrak on the Missouri River Runner! | CHI-JOL
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- Hello and welcome to Union Station in the heart of downtown Chicago!
Today we are going to be taking a look at Amtrak’s brand new Siemens Venture Coaches onboard the newly rerouted Missouri River Runner!
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Check out the previous video where we rode on Amtrak's Acela Express in Business Class: • Business Class on the ...
- Train Information -
Train Number: Amtrak Lincoln Service/Missouri River Runner #319
Train Consist: 4 Venture coaches, 1 Amfleet Business/Cafe car, 2 baggage cars.
Locomotive: Siemens SC-44 Charger #4632
Departure Time: 9:30am
Scheduled Arrival Time: 10:20am
Journey Time: 0hr 50min
Top Speed: 80 mph
Ticket Price: $21.50
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Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed!
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- Chapters -
0:00 Introduction and Route Overview
0:37 Chicago Union Station
1:24 Love at First Sight (of Siemens Venture Coaches)
2:35 Boarding Business Class
2:48 Departure from Chicago
3:12 More Venture Coaches plus Business Class
4:06 Amtrak's Brand New Venture Coaches!
4:30 Seating in Venture Coaches
6:29 Venture Coach Interiors
8:25 The Incredible Bathrooms!
10:25 Wifi and Top Speed
11:21 Cafe Car
11:58 Arrival in Joliet
12:11 Venture Coaches' Stunning Exteriors
12:30 Livery Misalignment with SC-44s?
12:54 Doors Close
13:05 Amtrak 319 Departs
13:32 Walking to the Exit and Next Week's Video
13:46 Outro
Equipment:
Camera: iPhone 12 Pro Max
Gimbal: DJI OM5
Camera: GoPro Hero 9 Black
Camera: Sony AX-43
Mic: Rode Videomic Pro+
Tripod: Coman DF06 + Manfrotto 502 Head
The paint doesn’t match because the Chargers were painted to match a series of bilevel cars. Those cars failed a safety test so Siemens was chosen to build the coaches too. The Chargers and Ventures weren’t ordered by Amtrak though, the Midwest states own them.
Doesn't' sound like Budd or Pullman quality to me.
@@1940limited What does the failure of Nippon Sharyo to deliver safe coaches even have to do with the quality of Siemens Venture cars?
The Ventures are based on the Viaggio Comfort cars that achieved high acclaim for both their comfort and reliability on Railjet and many other services. The Ventures themselves have already received rave reviews on Brightline and the Amtrak services that already got them.
You’re just biased against Amtrak. Your criticism has nothing to do with reality here. Amtrak is perpetually cash strapped due to Congres’s ridiculous demands. But they do a stellar job even with the crappy hand they’ve been dealt. This Venture order is just another one in a string of Amtrak’s latest victories. These coaches are finally world class. For the first time in Amtrak’s entire history they are running proper equipment yet all you can do is complain.
@@1940limited Budd and Pullman went out of business, Pullman because their build quality dropped.
@@1940limited Siemens and Alstom are far better than what Budd every was
@@1940limited sorry but American rail technology lags tremendously behind European and Asian ones. it's not 1880 anymore. Budd is (of even still around) a shell of it's former self, and Pullman... well do you see any new Pullman Coaches anywhere? There's a reason Metra has had to turn to Nippon Sharyo (who themselves failed to innovate and have lost market share) and Bombardier (now part of Alstom).
America is fantastic at making profits and freight trains to do that with. Just admit that.
Siemens is dominating the American passenger rail market for a reason. It's sad, but it's our own fault. We chose car addiction, we chose suburbia, we chose single family zoning, planes, privatizing rail, and perpetually disfunding Amtrak.
Yeah.
The paint scheme was supposed on the chargers where supposed to match with the cancelled order of bi-level coaches. I heard eventually the chargers will get repainted to match the venture coaches.
Ah, that makes sense. I had read something to that effect somewhere, but I wasn’t sure if that was the case.
7:40 Another great feature about those doors separating the bathroom and seating area: keeps the smells separated! I took the Wolverine a lot when I was in grad school, and sometimes people would not close the bathroom door after they were done. It would stink up the entire cabin, and even once the door was closed the smell would linger. When I took the Wolverine recently on a trip back to Michigan and experienced the new Venture cars, the separation was a welcomed addition.
I didn't even think of that, but it's certainly a welcome addition! In my travels around the northeast and midwest last month, I never had any issues with smell permeating through a car, but all it takes is one bad experience to change that.
@@LonestarTrips Thankfully it only happened on 2-3 of the trips I have done out of many, but even 1 time is too many!
Will Amtrak ever modernize their platforms to allow walk in boarding instead of requiring you to go up steps into the train? Amtrak stations are probably 40-50 years behind the times. You have to look at the Brightline stations to see what a proper modern station looks like. Night and day difference.
I like greeting a conductor.
Brightline takes in a looot of subsidies for those stations. If Amtrak were anywhere near that subsidized they'd have level boarding everywhere too! Since we choose to subsidize a private company instead of our publicly-owned operator, we get what we get.
That would require dedicated passenger tracks at every station as raised platforms would interfere with the loading gauge of the freight railroads that built, own and pay taxes on the right of way. These routes owned by the freight railroads have far greater value to the country with their Plate K and Plate H loads then they would with hi level platforms for the 1 or 2 passenger trains on these routes each day. The current low platforms allow Doublestack Intermodal trains, each of which removes an average of 300 trucks from our highways while using just 10% of the fuel! And even in areas where only passenger trains operate, high platforms for Amtrak means that any higher efficiency bilevel or long distance Superliner equipment wouldn’t be able to stop at the platforms. Sacrificing Superliners, bilevel commuters, high capacity auto carriers, and intermodal service for just a single level passenger train isn’t worth the trade.
Brightline is the only passenger service that operates at the all of the stations it stops at, which means they can standardize the platform height. Outside of the Northeast Corridor, where just about every rail service uses high level platforms, there are different cars with different heights.
A lot of the commuter railroads outside of the NEC use cars with low level doors and Amtrak’s superliners also have low level doors. It makes it a lot harder to standardize platform height when you have cars with different height doors
@@TohaBgood2 what subsidies?
I remember my first reaction seeing the new Venture cars in the Amtrak yard in Chicago. It was, “OMG they bought cars from Deutsche Bahn!” While the Venture cars have their own specs, I was not too far off. The design is basically that of the ÖBB RailJet coaches.
Right?! The coaches are so wildly different from anything we have in the US that you have to assume they're from abroad.
Nothing made in the USA any more, I assume.
@@1940limited These are made in Florin, California in the Sacramento area. They are fully American made, with American Cummins engines and most of the parts are domestic. In fact, Siemens makes an immense amount of all kinds of passenger rail equipment including all the US Chargers and a few different types of light rail vehicles.
Given our exotic rail standards, almost all passenger rail equipment we use in this country is actually domestically manufactured.
Siemens is also hoping to manufacture US-spec high speed rail ICE trains at the same factory for Brightline West and California High Speed Rail. They already have the Brightline order and it looks like they’re in the lead for the CAHSR one too.
@@TohaBgood2 there is actually alot of stuff that still comes from Germany, alot of the switchgear and such is very much European in Origin. However, Seeing European technology in the US is a welcome change. Having been on Amtrak from Seattle or Vancouver, CA - Was in very much need of updating. You can still see alot of the US influence on the redesign of Siemens rolling stock, such as the way the seats are styled, the locomotive themselves. The toilet/Restroom/WaterCloset, very much European in design.
I really wish the U.S would follow the public/private business model of Deutche Bahn to expand and improve train travel in the US. A new automobile is increasingly out of reach for many Americans. More areas of the country need access to quality rail travel and quickly.
I could imagine a completed set already when the (emerging) higher speed line debuts on the Lincoln Service line. Its going to be exciting when the speed gets raised next year.
Agreed! I can't wait to see these reach over 100mph through Illinois.
Beautiful new coaches! Amtrak scored a winner here. With the new Charger locomotives and these new coaches Amtrak is turning in to a world class railway! Great to see!
Agreed! These new coaches look amazing, and with more of them going out, Amtrak is making more and more progress towards an entirely new fleet.
Nice. We're getting Ventures for the Northeast Corridor, too...eventually....maybe... The dual-powered locomotives would have been a great time-saver before the conversion to electric north of Stamford. No more half-hour stops while they swapped to diesel (although I do miss going outside to watch). Then again the utility....if there's some interruption of the electric supply for more than a minimum length of time, they can drop the pantograph crank up the diesel and keep going.
Great review of these coaches. My company is a contractor for Siemens so I've seen both these and the Brightline coaches as they are being built. The business class cars are coming and they will definitely be an upgrade to the current.
Can't wait to see the cafe cars.
Union Station is beyond amazing, awesome, beautiful and HUGE!
Thanks for a very detailed report. Others have just skimmed over the features and quickly moved on. One thing I haven't seen addressed is the number of toilets per coach. I've seen several videos of these new coaches, and it looks like there's just one toilet per car. All the older cars have at least two per car, and with families and sold out trains, believe me, it comes in handy!
I'm glad you enjoyed! Unfortunately, there is only one toilet per coach, and from what I can find in Siemens's publications, it doesn't look like that will change with the inclusion of the Business class and Cafe cars. I agree that having multiple bathrooms per car is extremely helpful, and I wouldn't be surprised if lines start forming in the vestibules to wait for the toilet.
I have seen these new Venture Coaches in another video, and they look absolutely amazing. I hope I get to ride in one of them one day.
I bet you will! As Amtrak rolls out more and more coaches, it’ll become even easier to take a ride on them.
i want to ride them.
Thank you for the detailed review, I needed this for making this equipment in a train simulator.
Glad to hear I could be of assistance. Let me know when you finish that project, I'd love to see it!
These coaches look really good and solve a lot of the problems with older Amtrak cars from a business traveler's perspective (outlets being inaccessible to aisle seats, inadequate table space for laptops, having to worry about some ahole slamming their seat back into your computer screen). As long as we still have adequate legroom and adequate luggage space I'm here for it.
This was another awesome video and seeing these new cars made it even more exciting. And I can see the difference with the faucets in the bathrooms of Amtrak’s version and Brightline’s version. I think these coaches are a home run in comfort and modernity. I pray that the rest of the Amtrak fleet gets new sleeper cars, etc.
Agreed. These coaches are certainly a step in the right direction, but we're still miles away from getting the full fleet replaced. As much as I like superliners and amfleets, it's time for something new.
I can see those folding exterior steps really working well in the winter slush and ice.
I actually took this train northbound on the full St Louis-Chicago route in early July, and was pleasantly surprised at the brand new car coach I was in! I mean, I wasn't aware of any fleet upgrades going on at Amtrak Midwest because I mostly ride the Zephyr from my base in Omaha to/from Chicago or Denver.
- Red
Glad to hear you got to experience one of these awesome coaches! I have yet to ride on the Cali Zephyr, but it's on my list of things to do in the future!
Great review. I took my first train ride last month and truly enjoyed it. It will be apart of my traveling options for shorter trips.
Great video. Thank you!
Venture coaches are really handsome. Looking forward to seeing the Northeast variants in a few years. Although I do have a soft spot in my heart for the Amfleet coaches, those tin cans have seen years of excellent service
Thanks, I’ll be using Amtrak in many of my videos. Safe travels
Hello America I Love ❤️ your adventures.
Glad to hear it! And safe travels to you too!
used to board trains coming and going from the east and west coast. lovely wagons .
I think you are more than generous in your praise of this product.
I am a bit surprised that you were able to buy an Amtrak ticket from Chicago to Joliet. Normally, Amtrak won't sell tickets between destinations that are also served by Metra.
Spectacular Railroad operations. Greeting from my Railroad rails to your Railroad rails CHEERS from New Jersey USA ♐️👍
I can't wait for service to be restored in the I-41 corridor between Chicago, Milwaukee and Green Bay here in wisconsin, with this equipment!
Mike, Appleton, WI
Thank you for sharing. Such a huge improvement which has been needed for years.
FWIW, the Talgo cars in the Northwest have had passenger information screens since they were put in service.
Thanks for a good tour. One tip we like those metal push and pull thingies you can get for your keyring. There's a lot of push buttons and door pulls in public areas and we like not having to touch them with hands.
nice to see the new venture cars
I like the slider doors to exit the train. It makes for bit more room to exit. Any Idea how many of the new coaches are in service right now? Also status of business class coaches?
This tells me Siemens equipment would take over Amtrak's existing equipment eventually
Just looking to book Chicago thru Boston trip and can't imagine trying to sleep overnight in these beautiful new seats😂 The old outdated Amtrak coaches have the most comfortable coach seats.
These coaches won't be used on routes through to the east, as the new coaches are for use in the midwest only. I agree, though, that if they do start using them on longer distance trains, they'll be incredibly unwelcome.
There is not yet a replacement order for Amfleet IIs (the 2-door ones typically used on long distance trains). So let's hope they don't mess this one up.
All the reviews I've seen have said the seats are awful, to the point that some people will no longer be using Amtrak if they have to use these seats.
I am a fan of everything on the venture cars!
Me too! And now they're gonna be all over Amtrak's network with the new Airo sets!
@@LonestarTrips I know and I’m so excited!
Very nice! Greetings from Port Saint Lucie, Florida! I also watch train videos from Wisconsin by Roman's Milwaukee Roads , he films the Wisconsin and Southern railroad and the scenery is great. You gave a very good report !
Nice video 📹
LOVE the look of the new cars, inward and outward, but they look a bit shorter. I know original Amfleets are 85 feet long (89 ft. for the auto-train carriers, I digress). Wonder if I'll see any on the East Coast. Anyways, overall good video & info!
Even all the trucks they will be running into at the crossing have been redesigned, its a whole new look.
Very nice video
I'm glad you enjoyed!
Sorry..I just got home from my train ride ..I found the rest room s very .very bad... They need a extra cleaning please....
Dude, some people have said the venture coaches are "terrible". Nice Video! The critics are so wrong
Beware! The same reviewers usually have a review of the identical Ventures on Brightline. And they always love those! This is finally a clear as day proof that most of these people are just biased against Amtrak for no real reason. At least no objective reason.
Unfortunately, this is just a weird quirk of train culture in the US. You absolutely _must_ hate Amtrak or you’re not allowed to be part of the tribe! Very odd.
The venture coach was great when I rode in it! I found the seats more comfortable than the ones on horizon cars. The horizon seats are too squishy for my liking and I have to keep moving around in my seat the whole ride. The first time I even rode in an Amtrak train was in a venture car on the Wolverine route. The windows are really big on the venture, which I prefer.
Amtrak's Business/Cafe cars usually ride rough as hell. Amfleet is running way past expiration date.
That was one thing that didn't make the final cut was a note about how much nicer and quieter the ride is in the new coaches. Sitting back in business class was pretty rough compared to the smooth ride in the Venture coaches.
well they’ve lasted as long as their predecessors if not longer, they’re 45 years old!
Can't tell if the new coaches are more or less aerodynamic.
I would like information about the trucks. It looks like air bags which the original superliners and amfleet used but were eliminated due to high maintenance.
designed in the 2010s/2020s so of course they’re going to have better lighting, bathrooms, and wifi…they’re not retrofitted, which the Amfleets are.
the wifi might be “abysmal” but they’re using tech that’s at least 15 years old and not built for streaming. the Acelas have to be top speed, these benefit from better and faster routers and switches and it’s running no different than cellular connections so of course it’s going to be slower! it’s extremely hard to keep a signal going while traveling along at 50-125 MPH…
one thing I’m surprised that you didn’t mention are the lights along the storage racks allowing it to be brighter
With the exception of the Acela train sets, Amtrak trains are usually a hodgepodge of mismatched coaches and stripes and there has never been an effort to align oversized diesels (or electric motors on NEC) with trailing cars to present a unified streamlined look like the classic streamliners of yesteryear.
Once the Business class and cafe cars come into play, we'll finally get that unified trainset back. Then all Amtrak has to do is fix that damn SC-44 livery...
Ironic that some of Amtrak's most attractive trains are in the NEC, made up of 50 year old Amfleet cars. Except when they tack a 61000-series baggage car on the end. Those boxy things destroy the aesthetics of any train they are attached to.
I am curious. Are those sanding bins in the compartments by the wheels? I know some trains have them for foul weather in order to increase traction between steel on steel. I am just wondering if that is what those are?
Thanks for sharing .Very cool video..I,like trains.
Glad you enjoyed! I too, like trains :)
Missing the blue seats from the past. they felt like comfy couches.
Thank you, great video I love this kind of content(Amtrak & nyc-area)
Those coaches look really nice I’d love to ride them:)=)
I'm glad you enjoyed! I'm especially glad to hear you like the northeast and Amtrak content, because I have a lot more coming!
Yeah I love Amtrak & would love to learn more about the train interiors and I like northeast content as well
@@broyofroyo1207 What more about the train interiors would you like to see? I can't guarantee anything, but if you let me know what you enjoy seeing, I can do my best to include it in future videos.
To look around the whole train, like full tour
Keep up the good work:)=)
Yes, BUT... the BUT is in caps because the Venture Coaches seating cause swelling since they are a huge pain in the BUTT! Seriously uncomfortable, and I've been loving train travel since 1961.
Bro you have the same exact shoes as me
Could we perhaps see the Metroliner/Amfleet coaches disappear completely in favor of these new ones? Could we also see new high-speed lines, especially if the old Acela Express fleet is slated for retirement?
Is the Missouri River Runner upgraded to all Venture cars at this point, or is there a date when it's expected to be?
I think it's supposed to be all Venture coaches except business class and the cafe car from here on out. That being said consists are still fluctuating as cars go in and out of service, so no guarantees.
After riding the new Venture cars myself, I was disappointed to learn that they are much more difficult to board if you have any physical disabilities. The handles do not extend out or down as far as Amfleet or Horizon cars. People with physical disabilities beware; you may need assistance boarding Venture cars.
Also, what is up with the combining of Lincoln Service with River Runner into a single consist? They now have to carry two empty baggage cars the entire distance, due to track crossing sensor conditions on the Missouri side, requiring extra axles, a requirement that does not exist in Illinois. The combined consist also now means Illinois-only passenger heading to Chicago inherit the frequent delays incurred on the Missouri side. My train was almost 3 hours late entirely due to delays incurred on the notorious Missouri tracks. It's like the almost half-billion dollar taxpayer funded track upgrades between Chicago and St. Louis were for nothing, now that the Lincoln Service no longer originates in St. Louis.
Agreed! As I've have had to deal with the late trains as a volunteer on the Missouri side. Also, part of the problem is that Union Pacific owns the Missouri tracks which Amtrak leases to use. The freights have the priority over Amtrak in this area. Also, the majority of the time that Amtrak might be late is due to a broken down freight train on the tracks. It happened again last Friday when volunteered at my local station.
Apparently they took care of you in the bathrooms, but dropped the ball elsewhere. Enjoy the new bathrooms after you figure out how to get on board.
@@1940limited The cafe cars will have lifts. It’s already been addressed.
This is probably due to the fact that they were designed for level/higher level boarding and the stairs are a hard retrofit
@@1940limited consider that these coaches were originally designed for level boarding.
According to the comments, the Chargers were supposed to match a cancelled order of bilevel cars.
I didn't know bilevel cars were in the plans at all for the Midwest. 😆 I've only heard of this for California.
Well the Midwest apparently was going with the bilevels too, so if the order wasn't as stressed out as it was, and the cars were actually delivered to the Midwest along with California, that'd definitely been something to see
4:47 I am baffled that no one in the design department thought this was a bad idea.
Right?! I think Brightline's coaches have the same problem!
@@LonestarTrips I don't think they are for storing personal items. They may there for storing safety information pamphlets which is what airlines do.
@@silent_jeb I think that you're right, as Brightline did the same thing with just the safety info card in the "pocket." That being said, I think that there will be a vast majority that "misuse" the pockets, assuming that they're the same as the ones seen on the rest of Amtrak's fleet, only to have their belongings fall straight through.
@@LonestarTrips Brightline has added clips at the bottom of the netting. Siemens has been asked to do the same for the Venture cars.
@@jenniferbastian8151 Finally! Glad to hear they’re making a change.
Pardon me if I sound obsessive, but what's a rail car without a number? I think I spotted a number in one of your exterior shots, but the digits are about one inch high. Who made that decision?
I'm not quite sure what you mean. Are you saying that the numbers help with recognizability and distinguish different versions of similar coaches?
@@LonestarTrips they don’t do anything for anyone except the crew and maintenance shops, the only ones obsessing over the numbers are people obsessed with tracking the numbers on equipment
12:50 I know Siemens has a thing regarding paintwork on the Chargers, specifically they can't do overly complex designs over the large vents on the side. That's why NCTD Coaster's Chargers, for example, feature a highly simplified paint job compared to the older Coaster livery, and it was for this same reason why the original three livery ideas had to be scrapped before the Chargers made their debut last year. As for why the cheatlines don't match up, I'm not exactly sure... Perhaps they prefer having a more symmetrical swoop at the front of the locomotive as opposed to one line straight and the other line swooping down?
Well with the current design, the livery doesn't go over those vents, as the dots start beyond them. It's really that the livery is too high, and needs to be lowered 6 or so inches to align with the new coaches.
It would appear that the locomotives were painted with the intent for the lines to match up to bi-level cars, though I haven't heard anything new on when Amtrak plans on getting those.
@@HNMusic13 From what I now understand, they were painted to match the in-development Nippon Shayro bi-level coaches, which ended up failing FRA crashworthiness standards, and thus were scrapped. Siemens took the contract from there, which leads us to the venture coaches. I would hope Amtrak plans to repaint the SC-44s when the rest of the Venture coaches enter service.
@@LonestarTrips yeah, after I posted this, I read up on that, blown away I managed to miss that news by so many years. I'd imagine the paint jobs will be adjusted, though I'm not sure how long it'll be before that happens, as the owning states likely have to okay it as well.
@@HNMusic13 I wouldn't be surprised if the states decide not to repaint them, even if they look awful in their current liveries.
Another mystery is how the new Acela power car contour doesn’t match the passenger cars.
I had the same thought. I think it has something to do with the tilting of the cars, although I’m not certain.
So you were the one in the loo, and all you were doing was filming it! I about shat my britches waiting on you to exit!!🇩🇰
Haha, sorry that happened! Although I don't think that was me, as I don't remember seeing anyone waiting for the toilet.
coming from Springfield Il. i would never consider Jolet anything but part of Chicago not southern Illinois
Did I refer to Joliet as southern Illinois? I don’t remember doing so, but it’s been a while since I wrote the script for this one.
New coaches are great, but they need to get on the sleeper car attendants to be attentive, courteous and keep the cars and bathrooms clean the whole trip. Fantastic experience otherwise. It’s all about the customer service to make repeat customers.
Clean..clean clean.please..next time I'll take pinsole for sanitizing
Hand built in Sacramento, California !
The livery for the chargers was designed long before the coach cars
and the livery for the venture cars went through four revisions before approval. easier to change the liver on the locomotives in the future. and. yes I work at Amtrak - soon to be 15 years, halfway there. Thanks for the video.
Do you have to ride backwards on the new cars?
Nope! The cars are half and half, so there's always a section facing forward. That unfortunately means there's also a section that's always facing backwards.
I volunteer along the River Runner part of the route. I noticed at 6:20 the passenger was seated backwards from the direction that the train was traveling. Unfortunately this and other changes that were made are not popular with some of the passengers and crew alike that I've spoken with.
It is annoying that half of each car faces the wrong direction, but without the ability to turn full trainsets around at the end of the line, it's either this or no one faces the right way.
@@LonestarTrips What if each set of seats could swivel, with a pedal release to lock them in either direction? :)
Can't say I'm too crazy about the push buttons for the restroom.
They're basically the same as the door buttons on the CP class 2300/2400 but newer and with LEDs and they're pretty reliable so I don't see the issue
😊
☺
“One thing that I cannot for the life of me understand” is probably the most common statement in American rail
Lmao 😂
If I understand correctly you paid for business class but were given seats in the old coaches? It seems to me many of the amenities need closer attention, such as soap, hot water and tissues. Interesting the upholstery in the new cars isn't as thick as the older coaches. And what's with the mesh containers in each seat but the stuff falls out the bottom?
Seeing as Amtrak hasn't rolled out the Business Class venture coaches yet, the only option for business class is in the older Amfleets. That'll change once the business and cafe cars are added, but until then, it'll be like what's seen in the video.
I wonder if I’m in the minority saying I prefer the Amfleets over the new coaches rode a Venture between Chichago and ST Louis in late November 2022
In all honesty, I don’t think you are. My first impressions with the Venture coaches was with Brightline, and that was an overwhelmingly positive experience, so I of course looked at these with rose tinted glasses. In reality, the coaches are nice, but the comfy seats of amfleets will never be beat by these.
@@LonestarTrips good to see that I’m not alone I’m binge watching your channel right now are specifically I have the Texas eagle video on
And a tomorrow I’m traveling on the northeast regional out of Roanoke Virginia
@@shsav2012 Haha thanks for the support! I’m glad to hear the channel is considered “binge-worthy.” And safe travels on the Northeast regional!
Public sector vs private sector! Brightline managed to get their liveries to match up between coach and loco. Do these Chargers run around at Kansas City for the journey back as theirs no engine on the rear of that train?
I think so, but I know that the full Siemens Intercity trainsets will replace these trains in the future, or at least those on the Lincoln Service to remove the need for dual engines.
Private sector wasn't able or willing to run passenger trains for 50 years. Public sector vs private sector!
No, we rarely cut the engine off a trainset as it's very time comsuming. The entire train is wyed after discharging passengers and parked for the night and put on ground power.
Brightline hits a car every other week at it's crossings and lies about taking more subsidies than Amtrak! At the moment, Amtrak is more "private sector" than Brightline! And it's not close either!
I hope they tested those retractable steps in winter. It looks like they’d be pretty vulnerable to ice and other debris buildup.
Agreed. I'm not sure what preventative measures there are against icing, but I would certainly hope Amtrak has thought of something.
37 miles in 50 minutes ? creeping along
Why do the trains in Europe look so much more advanced than in the US. Our trains still seem boxy and not streamlined.
It's all related to the FRA's crashworthiness standards. Because trains in the US operate on freight tracks, they need to be able to withstand crashes with said freight trains. This often means increasing the mass and safety structures within a coach, leading to the boxier cars we see today.
My only problem with the venture coaches are the seats. Everything else is absolutely perfect. Those damn seats are so stiff.
No footrest?
Unfortunately not. My guess is that each row is too close together for one to fit and actually be of any use.
no regional trains have them, unnecessary
Great commentary, shaky camera.
South shore line uses millennium station
I am aware, hence why I said that the other three downtown stations are served by Metra and the South Shore Line.
I'm not sure how I feel about a train ride that covers 37 miles in 50 minutes - especially with, if I heard the narrator correctly, only one stop.
Too bad you didnt show a wheelchair boarding and ride with restroom and cafe care movements.
The one thing that disappoints me about the new venture coaches is the seating. It really should be more comfortable and offer more lean back. Perhaps the non Midwest versions will be better, but considering the longer routes Amtrak has compared to European routes, comfort is important. Seating can be changed of course, but I guess we'll have to see when they start appearing elsewhere such as on the northeast corridor.
Everybody seems to adore these exact same seats on Brightline! I think we'll be fine.
Brand new and still not bullet status. Highspeed bullet trains and maglev super train technology, the new american dream...
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, bullet trains and high speed rail in general requires dedicated right-of-way, which costs money. LOTS of money. And with the main railways owned by freight operators, it means a whole new set of tracks are required to operate at high speeds. Brightline and their Orlando expansion is a perfect example of the base construction required to run at speeds upwards of 110 mph: dedicated high speed tracks.
I’ve ridden these a few times. They are a clear downgrade from the old cars. Comfort level went way down.
Totally unrealistic Chicago Union Station walk- through. The waiting area in Chicago is an over crowded, petri dish dump of filth and cobid transmission, and no one is allowed to walk directly through the gates without first walking through the mad-mouse rope-offs which replaced the seats that used to be there. The new cars are very, very nice but are not used. They have been sitting on a siding near the Ogilvie Station for the last year. Also Amtrak trains are limited to 80 mph coming out of Chicago except for a short section of track in downstate IL because of poor track conditions.
Clean up is all you need to do...
I just rode the missouri river runner hoping to experience the new equipment. My train had nothing but amfleets (budd?)and viewliner baggage cars that apparently were not available to the train? After asking the attendant about the new equipment he was quick to remind me that the older cars were more comfortable. Sadly, one of the bathrooms on my car did not flush and it was just disgusting seeing someones $&@& in the toilet. Between this and Amtrak taking the observation car from the Texas Eagle and Capitol Limited for my trip back in August, I’m disappointed with Amtrak right now. I may wait for them to finish upgrading their equipment before I ride Amtrak again. I love trains but Amtrak is really encouraging me to fly or drive just about anywhere I want to go. What sucks is I have seen Amtrak running nothing but the new equipment a few months ago on this line! What happened?!?!?!??
When you see how good similar cars look with Railjet in Austria and how outdated the Amtrak already looks, this is quite sad.
This is standard in Europe it's so sad that America hasn't invested earlier in good quality trains.
Those coach seats are incredibly uncomfortable. Worse on any train in us. Did the trip from Chicago to St. Louis last summer. Much brighter for sure Vs trains on east coast or long distance.
*bRuH*
Yes?
@@LonestarTrips*mBtA? ViDs*
@@StudioSA15 Patience is a virtue. They're coming, but I've got some way cooler content to get through first before those go out.
@@LonestarTrips ok what u got coming also u need to go to the UK
@@StudioSA15 Ha I know I do, just not sure when I'll be able to. Here's a few things coming in the next few weeks: DB ICE First Class, Amtrak Acela First Class, Amtrak Downeaster, Amtrak Sunset Limited, SEPTA, and a ride on the Capitol Limited overnight.
Amtrak is ghetto compared to trains in Japan.
New Acela's don't align with their coaches either!
I thought the livery aligns? Does it not?
@@LonestarTrips it does, people are just being idiots with their claims
The paint doesn't match because Amtrak is government run. Government gets very little right
They look nice like all new equipment. Nothing outstanding. Seats do not look that comfortable.
Ok…. so two comments: why are so many US platforms at track level necessitating steps ? Then big thumbs up for Siemens technology, however, theses trains look bulky and decidedly dated. Nothing new and contemporary about them. Couldn’t Siemens have provided one of their much more modern and sleek European models?
Track level platforms are significantly cheaper and easier to build, hence why most in the US are built as such. The cars, however, are a slightly different story. The Federal Railway Administration, or FRA, has strict crashworthiness standards that all trains must pass. Most passenger trains in the US share right of way with freight trains, and thus must be able to withstand such an impact, so the extra bulk is to help meet those requirements. CalTrain even had a tough time getting permission to use Stadler's KISS EMUs on their corridor, which sees almost exclusively CalTrain traffic. All of us in the US would love to have nicer, sleeker trains, but until passenger and freight are separated, that is unlikely to happen.
Amtrak is no way to run a railroad
This whole "safety" thing is a crock of jing jong. Imagine if the same philosophy was applied to planes, cars, bikes. Everything would look like a Judge Dredd set of armor accented with steel plates and brick motifs. Plenty of countries in the world have safe rail transit which also is aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps invest in proper train tracks and stop shoveling passenger service on subpar tracks. It's bureaucratic madness meets commercial insanity in the states.
USA have to learn from Japan railroad system !
NOT an improvement. First of all NOBODY likes going backwards. They should be flip over seats. Second, the one thing Amtrak had going for it was that the coach seats reclined much more than airplane seats. I always said it was a more civilized means of transportation. Now, not so much. I have ridden Amtrak from Chicago Union Station to NY Penn Station in coach. These new cars will be very uncomfortable!!! Yes the bathrooms are a nice improvement. But you don't travel in the bathroom. Poor redesign! It should never be just about looks. It needs to be about comfort!
The seats look horrible. Good for commuter lines only or trips less than two hours. I’m not big but I feel bad for big people trying to get comfortable in these.
Just rode from St Louis to KC. Seats are not comfortable at all. The little storage net is useless. Step backwards!
why do amtrak trains look like something that they bought used from north korea