Amtrak of course has accumulated an array of Trade and Service marks over the past forty years (including train names from the railroads on A-Day), however in order to keep a trademark active, it must be displayed.
Metroliner is one such trademark; rather than simply having one lone Amfleet out there with a Metroliner logo affixed, Amtrak has chosen to honor that trademerk that ushered in the era of higher speed rail during 1969. The pictured Conference Car 9800 was a Metroliner MU:
The Conference Car is available for charter, but only to the "A-List"; Major League sports teams being one example and likely others that Amtrak "doesn't talk about". Somehow, I think a group of railfans, no matter how deep pocketed, would have difficulty arranging a charter of this car.
However, I highly doubt if Amtrak is considering naming a fleet of trains, such as rebranding the existing Northeast Regional, as Metroliner. Here they are simply fulfilling a legal requirement, but they sure are doing so in style!!
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
I heard a radio interview with former Philadelphia 76er Todd MacCulloch last week and he described the procedure of traveling from Philly to New York by chartered Amtrak train to play games at Madison Square Garden. The train is 3 cars long: one for the players, one for team officials and one for the press. MacCulloch said it was a pretty cool way to travel, particularly the part about pulling into Penn Station and just walking up to the Garden.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
I would presume that Amtrak can rustle up an A-II for the players when they have an NBA charter movement.
Posted by smitty195 (Member # 5102) on :
What is an A-II?
Posted by MDRR (Member # 2992) on :
Smitty he means an Amfleet II LD coach. However that is not what they use. They generally use the 9800 plus an Amfleet Business class car and a dinette, or some similar configuration.
Posted by mr williams (Member # 1928) on :
For many years vans and trucks belonging to "Amtrak" (with the same red, white and blue style and lettering) were a familiar site in the UK, where it was a highly successful parcels delivery business.
I was called for jury service some six or seven years ago and one of my fellow jurors was the manager of the local depot. He explained that the Amtrak name and logo had not been registered or copyrighted in the UK and the founder of the firm had been only too ready to take advantage of the US firm's lapse. This quote from Wikipedia about the UK firm made me chuckle:
Unusually for a parcel carrier, Amtrak also transported small livestock such as valuable reptiles and birds. After finding that delivering snakes and pigeons in the same vehicle had its drawbacks, the service was withdrawn for reptiles and focused on pigeon deliveries.
The original owners sold the business for a very large sum of money but their successors decided to diversify into home shopping, with disasterous results and not long after they went under.
Posted by chrisg (Member # 2488) on :
I know that the Philadelphia Flyers, a hockey team, always travels by train to games in New York and Washington, DC.