August 4, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

If you've been trying to get a reservation for a coach seat or a sleeping car compartment on Amtrak's Texas Eagle or Sunset Limited and found that the trains were sold out, there is some better news ahead.... for some days of the week.

Starting September 3rd on the southbound Texas Eagle and September 8th on the northbound train, an extra Superliner coach and sleeping car will be added to the consist three days a week. The train, now only operating with one sleeper, two coaches and a limited food service car has been sold out on many days this summer. 

Those three days a week are when through cars on the Texas Eagle connect with the triweekly Sunset Limited in San Antonio and run through to Los Angeles. This will result in added available seats and sleeping car space which should boost revenue on the Texas Eagle and the Sunset Limited. 

The additional cars will be visible on trains that leave out of Chicago headed south and San Antonio headed north on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. 

According to Amtrak's Service and Consist Planning Director Harris Cohen and quoted in Trains Magazine “We’ve been analyzing operations to increase ridership and revenue opportunities throughout the long-distance network.” Cohen found existing practice at San Antonio is “largely inefficient from an equipment standpoint.” The new plan, he adds, “will improve equipment utilization by eliminating layover cars and reduce San Antonio switching.”

Amtrak had previously announced that the sightseer lounge car would be returned to service on the Texas Eagle later this year, but this apparently has been pushed back again with no timeline given for its return. 

Even before the pandemic, the Texas Eagle was scaled back to minimal service under the direction of then Amtrak President Richard Anderson, the former head of Delta Airlines. Under Anderson's reign a transition sleeping car was removed along with a coach and the iconic sightseer lounge. Food service was downgraded from freshly prepared meals to microwave fare for sleeping car passengers and coach passengers were not allowed access to full meals in the café car. 

On the route of the Sunset Limited, the train from Los Angeles to New Orleans that parallels the I-10 corridor in Texas, will gain a coach-baggage car. The Sunset at present has one coach, one sleeper, a sightseer lounge car, a full dining car and a baggage car. 

Amtrak continues to suffer from a lack of working equipment as the railroad attempts to put its limited resources on trains where the capacity is needed the most. 

Route map credit: TexasEagle.com