If I understand correctly, the proposal would:
- terminate the Southwest Chief and Pennsylvanian service
- add a train with mixed consist of passenger cars and flat cars that will transport whole 18-wheelers, cab plus trailer, or charter buses
- will aim to do NYC to LA in 72 hours, or an average speed of at least 40 MPH (64 kph)
- introduce renovated or new bilevel passenger cars
- does not propose where or what facilities would be needed to drive vehicles onto the flat cars
- and somehow this can all be done by May 2026
What planet has this company been inhabiting that they think this is a reasonable proposal?
Just from the freight perspective, surely it would be simpler and easier to send intermodal freight by rail and then have short-haul trucking at the bookends, rather than what seems to be a boneheaded plan to put long-haul trucking on rails.
The shrinking interest in working long-haul truck routes will not be alleviated by spending rest time on a train, since the root complaint about the job is how much time is spent away from home and family. And I can't see why the host railroads would be fine with Amtrak -- aka the National Railroad Passenger Corporation -- carrying freight.
I sense something deeply amiss or even quite possibly scammy about this.
