Europeans are rapidly restoring overnight train routes as a way to combat climate change. Amtrak could implement a similar service in the US and augment its existing overnight trains with a new sleeper product.
Cheaper sleeper product
Amtrak’s current sleeper products, the bedroom and roomette, are in high demand and take up similar amounts of space compared to European sleepers. On most days and for most trains, a bed is an expensive luxury and therefore, overnight passenger trains are not financially feasible for most passengers. Both products include "free" meals and most cars have one attendant to make up beds and serve the passengers throughout the night. Most trains have a dining car too.
Austria's Nightjet service also offers a bedroom product similar to Amtrak. But Nightjet also offers couchettes which take up a similar amount of space to a bedroom but can sleep up to four or even six passengers, spreading the cost of service over more passengers than Amtrak's two passengers per bedroom. Similarly, Nightjet's three-person couchette occupies as much space as a two-person roomette. Nightjet attendants bring a light breakfast to each room and couchette rather than towing a dedicated dining car. In terms of staffing, couchette passengers make up their own beds instead of relying on one attendant per car. Nightjet's handful of staff are contractors and perform multiple roles such as attaching cars and serving breakfast. Like Amtrak, Nightjet routes are partially subsidized by the government.
Routes
Most Nightjet routes take at least six hours to drive and depart in the evening and arrive in the morning. Amtrak's routes would make stops between 6 pm and midnight and run nonstop until 6 am.
California Night Train
A private company recently proposed reconnecting Los Angeles with San Francisco using refurbished rolling stock to offer a luxury product. Amtrak could offer a lower-cost option to more destinations, particularly San Diego, as this intra-state travel market is enormous. For two years in the early 1980's, Amtrak offered the Spirit of California sleeper service between Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento. Amtrak's Night Train could initially serve those markets via a connection to the Capitol Corridor and eventually offer dedicated sleeping cars once demand is built up. While the Coast Starlight connects Los Angeles and San Jose, San Diego and San Francisco require a connecting train. The Coast Line between Los Angeles and San Jose is relatively uncongested in terms of freight trains and no track improvements would be necessary. Proposed timetable
Rocky Mountain Night Train
Like San Diego and Los Angeles, Denver and Salt Lake City are also an eight hours drive apart. The California Zephyr offers a day train between the two cities westbound. But eastbound, it departs at 3 am and takes 15 hours, a perfect travel time for overnight service. Both cities offer buses, light rail and commuter rail services. Due to the decline of coal, the route sees fewer freight trains than even a decade ago so no track improvements would be required although a new connection in Provo would allow the service to use Frontrunner's passenger track and stations such as Ogden.
Northeast Night Train
Amtrak offered this route between Boston and Washington until 2003 and even resumed it for 8 months in 2021. For the 2021 resumption, Amtrak merely coupled a few sleeper cars to an existing overnight coach train. The Night Train service would offer both sleeper and couchette service and could eventually expand to up to 12 cars depending on demand.
Rolling stock
Amtrak recently completed a decade-long order to obtain 25 Viewliner sleeper cars, providing some spare cars for the first time since the late 1990s. Amtrak also ordered similar coaches to the Nightjet of the future rolling stock which will enter service next year. Those seven-car sets offer 2 sleeper cars (up to 20 passengers in 10 rooms), 3 couchette cars (28 minisuites for one passenger and 3 couchettes holding up to 12), a service coach and a 66-seat coach. Amtrak could simply tack on some couchette cars to their existing order. Nightjet's minisuites for single travelers do not force strangers to share a room, a key challenge with couchette service. Amtrak and its predecessor railroads once operated the Slumbercoach which had 24 single rooms and 8 two-person ones which cost significantly less than roomettes and bedrooms.
Mini-suites from Rail Journal
Additional cars could be ordered for Amtrak's shorter one-night long-distance services such as the Capitol Limited and Lake Shore Limited. Initially, spare Viewliners and Amfleets would be used but if the routes are successful, newer models could replace them. While coach seating could be sold at a low price for overnight travelers, it could also be used by local passengers to provide early morning and late evening service in places where it would not be economical to run a dedicated day train.
Expansion
Should these three routes be successful, additional routes could be added such as:
- Washington to Montreal via Vermont (last operated in 1995)
- Chicago to Minneapolis (last operated in 1981)
- Boston to Raleigh and Charlotte
- Boston to Pittsburgh
- Washington to Cleveland and Detroit
- Atlanta to Miami
- Atlanta to Dallas
- Atlanta to New Orleans
- Denver to Dallas
- New Orleans to Dallas
- St. Louis to Detroit and Minneapolis
- New York City to Toronto (last operated in 1995)
- Washington to Brunswick (Maine)
