Belatedly Learning about Dreamstar Lines
Feb. 4th, 2024 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutToday, R. sent me a link to the Dreamstar Lines page:
https://dreamstarlines.com/
It’s a stub with pictures.
Last April, there was a flurry of news coverage of Dreamstar Lines and the big dreams of Vollebregt and company:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-18/night-train-san-francisco-los-angeles-dreamstar-lines
Other coverage mentioned the Union Pacific lines, and this one also mentions Metrolink and Caltrain. The LA Times reached out to UP and Metrolink who confirmed discussions were happening (so this isn’t completely fakey fakey), but here is a quote:
“Scott Johnson, a spokesperson for Metrolink, said Dreamstar representatives had recently “presented very high-level plans for the proposed service.””
I know what “very high-level plans” for “proposed” something means. It means, come back when you’ve got something to back that up, where the something to back it up is more than rates for rooms, number of cars and schedules. As near as I can tell, someone took seriously that “write the press release first” and then just started having meetings with people, which, honestly, it’s a couple of lawyers. Having meetings and signing contracts seems like the right place to start, and they are always mad when a bunch of nerds and engineers get together and build a thing and when you ask them about contracts and insurance they go, what? Meetings, contracts, nerds and engineers and lawyers are all important. And insurance, probably. You can’t get away with only part of that package.
Once I saw that coverage, I kind of quit trying to find details on a hypothetical contract between Dreamstar Lines and Union Pacific to use their line. The only way UP is going to agree to a contract is with dates, dollars and functioning consists, and while Dreamstar can imagine dates and they might even have dollars, nothing is happening without actual, inspectable equipment. I know very little about railroad equipment, but I do understand there is a lot of it parked in yards that no inspector will ever allow out on busy freight lines without a helluva lot of renovation being doing on it.
If I find more, I’ll come back. Obviously, I _want_ this to exist.
ETA:
The details in this event give some sense of how difficult it is to wrangle any functioning Pullman cars today.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/pullman-cars-return-to-their-birthplace-for-weekend-open-house/
This piece is where I learned that Dreamstar Lines was thinking of buying or leasing restored Pullman cars:
https://www.afar.com/magazine/dreamstar-plans-overnight-train-between-l-a-and-s-f
Somebody at Y-combinator has really dug into the private car stuff:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33460052
“For the less than 100 private cars in operation in America, why does Amtrak even offer this service?”
The answer they come up with is probably true and entirely misses the point; anyone familiar with the rail community knows perfectly well why private cars still get towed around by Amtrak — it is the pinnacle of The Dream and no one in the community wants to make it go away.
I had wondered about how many private cars there were — that’s fewer even than I had imagined.
Having established that any sleeper car operation is going to be buying new, let’s see what’s out there! Obviously, they will be buying it from Siemens Mobility, because that’s what everyone does.
https://www.railjournal.com/fleet/obb-unveils-new-generation-nightjet-cars/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=34980
For people wondering about Nightjet and whether it makes sense economically:
https://mediarail.wordpress.com/nightjet-renaissance-of-night-trains-in-europe/
Other details in that piece: since discontinuation of night train service on that route occurred around 2015, Nightjet was able to acquire those for its initial startup. But they are making enough that they can now buy new.
https://dreamstarlines.com/
It’s a stub with pictures.
Last April, there was a flurry of news coverage of Dreamstar Lines and the big dreams of Vollebregt and company:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-18/night-train-san-francisco-los-angeles-dreamstar-lines
Other coverage mentioned the Union Pacific lines, and this one also mentions Metrolink and Caltrain. The LA Times reached out to UP and Metrolink who confirmed discussions were happening (so this isn’t completely fakey fakey), but here is a quote:
“Scott Johnson, a spokesperson for Metrolink, said Dreamstar representatives had recently “presented very high-level plans for the proposed service.””
I know what “very high-level plans” for “proposed” something means. It means, come back when you’ve got something to back that up, where the something to back it up is more than rates for rooms, number of cars and schedules. As near as I can tell, someone took seriously that “write the press release first” and then just started having meetings with people, which, honestly, it’s a couple of lawyers. Having meetings and signing contracts seems like the right place to start, and they are always mad when a bunch of nerds and engineers get together and build a thing and when you ask them about contracts and insurance they go, what? Meetings, contracts, nerds and engineers and lawyers are all important. And insurance, probably. You can’t get away with only part of that package.
Once I saw that coverage, I kind of quit trying to find details on a hypothetical contract between Dreamstar Lines and Union Pacific to use their line. The only way UP is going to agree to a contract is with dates, dollars and functioning consists, and while Dreamstar can imagine dates and they might even have dollars, nothing is happening without actual, inspectable equipment. I know very little about railroad equipment, but I do understand there is a lot of it parked in yards that no inspector will ever allow out on busy freight lines without a helluva lot of renovation being doing on it.
If I find more, I’ll come back. Obviously, I _want_ this to exist.
ETA:
The details in this event give some sense of how difficult it is to wrangle any functioning Pullman cars today.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/pullman-cars-return-to-their-birthplace-for-weekend-open-house/
This piece is where I learned that Dreamstar Lines was thinking of buying or leasing restored Pullman cars:
https://www.afar.com/magazine/dreamstar-plans-overnight-train-between-l-a-and-s-f
Somebody at Y-combinator has really dug into the private car stuff:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33460052
“For the less than 100 private cars in operation in America, why does Amtrak even offer this service?”
The answer they come up with is probably true and entirely misses the point; anyone familiar with the rail community knows perfectly well why private cars still get towed around by Amtrak — it is the pinnacle of The Dream and no one in the community wants to make it go away.
I had wondered about how many private cars there were — that’s fewer even than I had imagined.
Having established that any sleeper car operation is going to be buying new, let’s see what’s out there! Obviously, they will be buying it from Siemens Mobility, because that’s what everyone does.
https://www.railjournal.com/fleet/obb-unveils-new-generation-nightjet-cars/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=34980
For people wondering about Nightjet and whether it makes sense economically:
https://mediarail.wordpress.com/nightjet-renaissance-of-night-trains-in-europe/
Other details in that piece: since discontinuation of night train service on that route occurred around 2015, Nightjet was able to acquire those for its initial startup. But they are making enough that they can now buy new.