One recurring issue that I have heard many riders complain about on numerous Amtrak trains during the winter is that of the plumbing becoming frozen. Ther have been anecdotes and stories from all the way back to Amtrak's inception of cars having their pipes frozen, toilets and septic tanks that couldn't be emptied becuase the pipes were frozen, etc. It seems to me that these issues should have been compensated for when the cars were first designed. The designers should have anticipated the harsh winters that these cars and the plumbing would be exposed to, and designed appropriately. Why is this?
Posted by coachclass (Member # 2382) on :
The single level coaches, the Amfleets in particular were designed to make short, under four hour runs on the NE corridor only, with frequent servicing daily. Thus their plumbing wasn't designed for day long trips across the frozen tundra of the upper midwest, such as on the Lake Shore Limited, where the freeze ups have been causing terrible dealys this winter. Amtak had probably hoped that by the time the single level Heritage coaches that had previously been used for long distance trains were due for replacement, they would have enough funding to purchase new cars designed specifically to withstand the hazzards of long distance service in freezing conditions.