The real quewstion will be the Viewliners and heritage diner, for which there are literally no alternatives. Four Amfleet I coaches might be scaped up with some sort of lounge to cover departures in the next few days, but Amtrak is just short the sleepers and diner for a while.

Here's a partial photo (from Yahoo) of the wrecked cars (including Viewliners), IF this link works (and that's a big IF):
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/ts/041802floridatrain&a=&tmpl=sl&ns=&l=1&e =1&a=0

Just last week I checked the Meteor's consists for a friend who was traveling and when #97 arrives in Miami at about 9:45pm, the equipment lays over for 33 hours and goes back north on # 98 at 7:00am the second day. This may need to be tightened up for now with #97 turning to #92 and #91 turning to #98. That would save one set but cut down on maintenance time.

First is anecdotal" on my most recent AT ride during Feb 2001, I believe I made the comment over on RRNET that for my morning shower, I had to walk from Massachuetts to New York.

Riddle, what does that mean?

Don't know what the winner gets, as there is no "star" icon available.

However, more to the point. Now that there is a "new hand at the throttle" at 60 Mass effective today, I think near term" priority one" progress can best be measured when Amtrak can report that there are more Superliners available for service than on a comparative previous period.

I believe somewhere I had previously learned that #87's equipment turns for #88 on the second following day, or sits at Hialeah for some 33 hours. This is simply indicative of the "operational self sufficiency" that was forced upon Amtrak (and let's simply say that Warrington had no alternative but to structure operating plans around that dictum)and resulted in committing capital (4 sets of equipment for 87-88 when three could suffice)in a less than efficient manner so that operating expense (a third trick at HIA)could be saved.