Volume 4 Number 29
- It’s time for a short, but illustrative history lesson. There once was a strong company, that lasted over a century, that Americans — and, citizens of the world — knew and respected for good service, reliability, and value. It was conversely loved and hated, depending on your class and viewpoint. To most, it was a haven of fleet footed transportation known as The Pullman Company.
George M. Pullman, in the middle of the 19th Century, was the principal inventor of the railroad sleeping car, and refined the railroad dining car to levels of gastronomic delights. The company at one time manufactured and then owned, and operated sleeping, lounge, and dining cars on virtually every train in North America.
At one point in the 20th Century, The Pullman Company was so large, it boasted that every night it made more beds than any hotel chain in the country.
It’s employees were peerless and dependable, and its maintenance shops were the best. The Pullman Company fully understood that even though it had a virtual monopoly on sleeping cars on passenger trains, it still had an obligation to provide unquestionable good and profitable service. To its end in 1969, The Pullman Company accepted nothing less than the best.
Along the way, there were a number of labor issues, typical of its day in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. The Pullman Company could be — and was — ruthless in its business practices and in ways it treated its onboard service employees. You had to be black to be a Pullman car porter, or Pullman lounge attendant, or Pullman diner waiter or cook or chef. All of the Pullman conductors were white, as well as the dining car stewards.
In a day far less understanding of human dignity, every black Pullman onboard services crew member was addressed by the traveling public as “George,” in honor of George Pullman. It didn’t matter what the age or seniority of the employee was, they were always addressed as “George.” (This rather revolting practice even extended to other black service personnel outside of The Pullman Company in hotels, restaurants, private clubs or on steamships in the early 20th Century, the influence of the company was so strong.)
Dining car waiters and cooks and chefs weren’t offered overnight sleeping accommodations; they were expected to sleep on top of the dining car tables overnight, and be happy about it.
Still, beyond the many fallacies of The Pullman Company, the firm was a success, and, after an anti-trust breakup by the federal government, the sleeping, lounge, and diner operations were co-owned by the many railroads over which Pullman cars operated.
There were many advantages to one sleeping car company offering service all over North America. Equipment was pooled, and in the winter, heavy traffic trains from the northeast to Florida had a full pool of equipment from the heavy traffic summer trains of the west to draw on. Often, after The Pullman Company stopped painting everything in Pullman Company olive green, cars were seasonally repainted to reflect the routes being run. An armor yellow Union Pacific Railroad sleeper from the west may go Pennsylvania Railroad Tuscan red for winter traffic in the east.
Service standards were also consistent companywide and nationwide. While dining car menus reflected regional tastes, there was a multi-page manual on exactly how services such as a glass of beer was to be prepared and offered for consumption. There was the way most people made beds at home, then there was The Pullman Company way of making beds (an art in itself). At every originating terminal, The Pullman Company maintained a cadre of inspection employees that gave every car on every train a last look before it was pulled into a station for passenger boarding. If something was seriously amiss, the car was pulled from service and a substitute was quickly added.
The history of The Pullman Company was long and colorful, and anecdotes could go on for pages. The important aspect is The Pullman Company was as a responsible vendor of passenger transportation, that, even though it was a monopoly, it was a private company which took its responsibilities and pride of corporate name and reputation very seriously. Up until the very end, there were only a rare handful of Pullman passengers, who, after a bad trip, said “never again.”
- Fast forward to the fall of 2007. A possible reawakening of The Pullman Company is on the horizon, with the combination of Amtrak and GrandLuxe Rail Journeys. Here is the official joint press release from Amtrak and GrandLuxe.
June 13, 2007
AMTRAK PARTNERS WITH GRANDLUXE TO OFFER LUXURY RAIL SERVICE
GrandLuxe attaches private train to Amtrak trains on three routes
Washington, D.C. and Evergreen, Colo.— Beginning this fall, passengers traveling on select Amtrak routes will have the option of lingering over five-course dinners, sleeping in luxurious suites and enjoying personal butler service. The premium service is being made possible by a new partnership between GrandLuxe Rail Journeys, the country’s premier, private rail tour operator, and Amtrak, the national passenger rail service.
This is the first time in history that luxury accommodations have been offered on multiple Amtrak routes throughout the country.
Called GrandLuxe Limited, the new service uses a separate, private, seven-car luxury train attached to several regularly scheduled Amtrak trains. The GrandLuxe train, which features Dining, Lounge and Sleeping cars appointed with elegant vintage furnishings, will be occupied exclusively by GrandLuxe Limited passengers.
With over 90 departures starting in November and continuing through the holiday season into January 2008, GrandLuxe Limited will be available on three major Amtrak routes:
- Between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area, three days and two nights on the Amtrak California Zephyr;
- Between Los Angeles and Chicago, three days and two nights on the Amtrak Southwest Chief; and
- Between Washington, D.C. and Miami, two days and one night on the Amtrak Silver Meteor.
Eight additional two-day, one-night departures will be offered on four special itineraries: Between Washington, D.C. and Chicago on the Amtrak Capitol Limited; Denver to the San Francisco Bay Area on the Amtrak California Zephyr; Denver to Chicago on the Amtrak California Zephyr; and Chicago to Albuquerque on the Amtrak Southwest Chief.
The unprecedented collaboration between Amtrak and GrandLuxe is an effort to increase ridership and introduce a new market to luxury train travel. GrandLuxe Limited offers two- and three-day itineraries at more affordable prices than traditional GrandLuxe tours, which cover broader itineraries of seven to 10 days.
“This partnership allows us to write a little history by bringing luxury train travel back to routes that have not experienced it in decades,” said GrandLuxe CEO Tom Rader. “It’s a winning situation for everyone. GrandLuxe will be able to introduce its product to a wider market, while Amtrak gains new marketing visibility. Most important, travelers now have many more options for the mode and manner in which they travel.”
“This is precisely the kind of joint venture with the private sector that is a good fit for us,” said Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant. “Amtrak provides facilities and operating expertise while GrandLuxe offers highly specialized train equipment and service, broadening the marketing appeal of both companies.”
The partnership between Amtrak and GrandLuxe is in keeping with Amtrak’s strategic initiative to explore ways to expand its business reach and find creative ways to increase revenues through innovative partnerships with the private sector. The arrangement provides revenue for both companies in the partnership.
Prices for GrandLuxe Limited range from $789 to $2,499 per person. For information, schedules and reservations aboard the GrandLuxe Limited, visit http://www.GrandLuxeRail.com or call 1 (800) 320-4206.
About GrandLuxe Rail Journeys
GrandLuxe Rail Journeys (formerly American Orient Express) specializes in long-distance trips in which travelers sleep in private cabins aboard the country’s premier, private passenger train. With 13 different two- to 10-day itineraries offered year-round throughout the United States, including national parks and other popular destinations, a journey aboard the GrandLuxe Express is much more than a train trip. Passengers experience the Golden Age of Rail on the elegant 21 car train appointed with vintage furnishings. Guests dine on delicious, upscale cuisine in the Dining Car, relax in the inviting Lounge Car, sleep in comfortable cabins, and enjoy personal service from their porters, butlers, wait staff and tour guides. Passengers also view some of the country’s most stunning sights as the train winds through some of the nation’s rarely seen countryside.
For more information, full descriptions and costs of itineraries, and brochures, visit http://www.GrandLuxeRail.com or call 1 (800) 320-4206.
About Amtrak Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail services to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 21,000-mile route system. For schedules, fares and information, passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com.
- Let’s take this new partnership apart and look at the pieces. This partnership has a high chance of success from several perspectives.
The original American Orient Express, which inaugurated service on the back end of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited nearly 20 years ago between Washington, D.C. and Chicago was not a success. The many reasons for failure included the short duration of the trip, from late afternoon in Washington to mid-morning in Chicago. It was essentially an overnight trip, which did not afford passengers much of an opportunity to experience the many delights of traveling on the AOE. The concept was good, but the price was high for a single overnight hotel, even if there was a baby grand piano in the lounge car.
Amtrak was also offering at the time a much higher level of sleeping car service than it is offering today, including full service dining cars which had edible meals prepared to order, and a full staff. None of today’s silly regimentation in the dining car was evident, and an Amtrak meal had a decent chance of being an enjoyable experience.
AOE service was priced much higher than Amtrak sleeping car service, and a clientele of business travelers was expected to abandon the friendly skies for the down-to-earth pleasures of luxury rail travel. That never happened, plus, there wasn’t much of a market for land-based luxury travel. Even though this was the time of the Concorde travel over the Atlantic Ocean, luxury on land was relegated to hotels, not trains.
The standard departures in 2007 range from two days and one night to three days and two nights, plenty of time for GrandLuxe passengers to fully enjoy their luxury train experience. The value is much higher today than it was 20 years ago mostly because of the length of trip and the opportunities to experience the various facets of luxury train travel.
Pricing is an interesting comparison. All sorts of GrandLuxe accommodations are available, including what used to be the standard two-person upper and lower berth bedrooms that were prevalent in Pullman cars, and, indeed, Amtrak today. On the Silver Meteor trips between Washington, D.C. and Miami, Florida, these bedrooms are selling for $979 for a single sleeper (the equivalent of the old two person bedroom with the upper berth removed) on GrandLuxe. In the Amtrak portion of the same train, an equivalent sized bedroom, which can be occupied by one person (but is available for two) costs $685 for one traveler, a difference of $294, for the same departure from Washington on November 15, 2007.
On a northbound trip, the difference is $979 for GrandLuxe, but, with Amtrak’s yield management pricing, at this point, the equivalent bedroom costs $569, a difference of $410.
Who will pay the difference? Plenty of travelers who are not looking for basic transportation, but are looking for a travel experience.
GrandLuxe has made several very smart choices in its equipment. There are very few senior citizen unfriendly upper berths on the train. Many accommodations for two or three have all lower berths, eliminating the hazardous and uncomfortable upper berths. GrandLuxe is not trying to squeeze every inch out of every space, it’s allowing its passengers to have some convenience and breathing room — at a cost, which is fine, for those who choose to pay the extra fare. On Amtrak, if two people traveling both want a lower berth, two rooms must be purchased. Amtrak bedrooms and roomettes are often less than clean, less than well-maintained, and are utilitarian, at best. Too many times the maintenance level of Amtrak sleepers is the same as an aging Holiday Inn which is about to lose its franchise because of lack of maintenance. GrandLuxe won’t allow any deterioration of equipment or degradation of cleaning and maintenance. The wood finishes and other appointments found in the GrandLuxe cars were never found in this equipment when it was new a half a century ago and running as part of The Pullman Company. It has all been refurbished to levels normally found on smaller, exclusive cruise ships or private railroad cars. Exotic woods abound, along with plush fabrics and carpets. On Amtrak, the argument is often made that a bedroom in a sleeping car is the same as a hotel room, so the price must be high. The problem with this argument is the pricing is that of a Hyatt, but the accommodation and service is often that of a Motel 6.
Lounge cars on GrandLuxe will not be the usual haven for loud, drunken coach passengers as found on Amtrak, but a pleasant atmosphere as found in better hotels and resorts. No culture clashes will exist here, and a warm ambiance will rule the day.
In the dining car, there will be real cooking going on, with proper service, good linens and china, and no plastic in sight. The meals will be multi-course events with no rushing to shoo diners out for the new wave of passengers. Food will be freshly prepared, often cooked to order, including meeting the special dietary needs of passengers when requested in advance. There are no “one size fits all” meals on GrandLuxe.
Onboard employees on GrandLuxe tell the strongest story of difference found between Amtrak and the luxury train. Anyone who has ever been around AOE or GrandLuxe knows these employees are crisp and well groomed, well trained, and enthusiastic about their jobs. These employees have been selected, not merely hired as part of some sort of social engineering project as many Amtrak employees were in the past. If you’re wearing a GrandLuxe uniform, you want to be there, and look forward to going to work, not merely counting the number of days until retirement and hiding out in the crew car. GrandLuxe is part of the real travel industry, as opposed to Amtrak, which often has very little focus on hiring appropriate employees for onboard services. GrandLuxe employees are the same as found on the better airlines, upscale cruise ships, and in higher-end hotels and resorts. No compromises in appearance and manner are allowed.
All of these employees have been extensively trained to graciously meet the needs of demanding passengers with a smile and a crisp “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am.” GrandLuxe employees understand the future of their jobs and their company rests solely on high standards of passenger service, and no free federal money at the beginning of the next budget year to bail them out.
Some of the routes for the new GrandLuxe Limited service are notorious for Amtrak train delays. What difference will that make to GrandLuxe passengers? Probably not much, since these passengers are traveling for the experience, not as basic transportation. There won’t be any early shutdowns of dining and lounge cars on late trains, and no running out of food. The ambiance and entertainment on the GrandLuxe will remain, even if the train is multi-hours late. Since the train itself is much of the destination (as with a cruise ship), a late train will merely mean the experience will only last longer, in a congenial atmosphere. At some point some passengers will protest about late trains, but it won’t be anywhere near the unpleasant experience found in the Amtrak portion of the train.
One of the routes, from Washington, D.C. to Miami on the back of the Silver Meteor, begs the question why the trip doesn’t begin in New York City. The answer is an old one; the GrandLuxe consist includes a dome car, which won’t fit under the catenary of the Northeast Corridor north of Washington, nor through the tunnels into New York’s Pennsylvania Station, or at Baltimore. So, GrandLuxe promotes use of Acela train services into Washington, and then transfer to the luxury train for the remainder of the journey from Washington to the south.
Some questions have also been raised about GrandLuxe having an end-point mentality, not allowing passenger to board anywhere along the trip as Amtrak passengers can do. GrandLuxe’s travel agent materials inform potential passengers to query GrandLuxe about intermediate stop boarding, as this part of the program is still be worked out. That will greatly open up the marketplace for GrandLuxe when this is accomplished.
Since GrandLuxe is controlled and run by savvy business people who come from well known successes in the travel industry, such as Tour Alaska, they understand the high value of partnering with travel agencies. Already an enthusiastic campaign has been launched, and travel agents, with high-end clients seeking something different for a domestic travel experience, will not hesitate to sell GrandLuxe Limited trips. Amtrak has become notoriously non-travel agent friendly, and has viewed the more than 20,000 travel agencies in this country as expensive nuisances, not industry partners. Some Golden Spike travel agencies, those which are Amtrak’s largest revenue producers, have already stopped selling Amtrak products because of lack of reliability, poor response to customer complaints on the part of Amtrak, and a general disinterest on Amtrak’s part to mine this crucial area of business versus placing all hope in Internet booking.
- The prediction is, this win-win partnership of GrandLuxe and Amtrak will be a success, from every viewpoint, for all of the reasons outlined above in the joint press release.
Here are some future ramifications, all very positive.
When this part of the venture becomes successful, it likely will be expanded. There is no downside to that concept.
While Amtrak does maintain a better sleeping car service on its Auto Train and Empire Builder, and is planning to do so on the Coast Starlight, Amtrak still places itself in a corporate straight jacket with its ongoing emotional complex that as a child of government, it somehow seems wrong to attempt to provide any type of high end service, even if it makes money. This aversion to success has been long ingrained at Amtrak, and the recent downgrading of dining and lounge car services proves the point. If Amtrak really had wanted to concentrate on eliminating dining car deficits, they were many ways to do so without cutting the service and lower onboard service standards.
If GrandLuxe becomes financially strong enough, what about the concept of completely resurrecting The Pullman Company (less the bad racial and employee practices), and GrandLuxe or a similar company privatizing all of Amtrak’s sleeping car, dining and lounge car, and first class services? As The Pullman Company did in its day, almost two separate trains would be operated in the same consist, with coach passengers handled by Amtrak, and everyone else, willing to pay a higher fare, handled by a resurrected Pullman organization? Unprecedented? Not at all. A smart way to grow passenger business without Amtrak footing the bill? Absolutely.
To make the concept work and be profitable would require two types of first class service. First, maintain the high-end luxury service at high-end prices for those wishing an ultimate experience. Second, take over Amtrak’s sleeping, lounge, dining car, and first class coach services and merely upgrade them to the levels found at The Pullman Company in the past (and, often found today in VIA Rail Canada), and charge a similar, or slightly lower fare as being currently charged by Amtrak.
This would relieve Amtrak of a large number of employees, administration, and maintenance costs. Even though people dealing in the reality of passenger rail know the sleeping car, lounge, dining, and first class coach are ultimately where the greatest revenue passenger mile and profit potentials exist, most likely Amtrak would feel much more comfortable just being a provider of coach services versus full service passenger train travel. The possibilities of this concept are endless.
For those wishing to raise a ruckus about GrandLuxe being an interloper, and threatening the stability of rail labor, retirement systems, and all of the other arguments, it should be noted GrandLuxe employees are part of the Railroad Retirement system, not Social Security. GrandLuxe already contributes to the maintenance of the retirement system.
Having a new Pullman Company promoting first class passenger rail travel would also be a boon to Amtrak in the marketing areas. Any private company would automatically work harder than Amtrak to market and advertise its service, and this would, for many markets, be the first time advertising for passenger rail was ever found. The increased awareness would not only benefit the first class business, but Amtrak’s coach business, too.
- Tom Rader, the Chairman of GrandLuxe, is no stranger to Amtrak. He’s also the head man at Colorado Railcar, manufacturer of the DMU prototype cars in use in South Florida on the Tri-Rail commuter service, and under consideration to be used in Vermont to bolster that state’s passenger train service on a lower budget. Mr. Rader is a savvy businessman, and veteran of the travel industry, particularly both creating and operating luxury train service aimed squarely at the tourism marketplace. Mr. Rader, in partnership with the current Amtrak executive management and board of directors, may be the spark that begins a complete revitalization of first class passenger rail in our country, which has endless miles and hours of countryside to showcase from coast to coast.