Dreamstar Lines Inc. calls the experience a luxury overnight hotel train passenger train service, saying passengers can board trains in a city center or suburban station, fall asleep in a private room and wake up at their destination.
A short haul flight is anything but when you consider the time lost to check-in, security, and travel to and from remote airports, the airline said on its website. A deluxe sleeper train allows you to spend fewer waking hours traveling than if you were on a plane. You don't arrive feeling like you have already had a full day of work. The trains will leave at about 10 p.m. and arrive at around 8 p.m. Dreamstar told SFGate.
The ticket prices would range from $300 to $1000, with an aim to charge less than Amtrak.
The Newport Beach-based company is currently working on staffing, rail cars, financing and other logistics. The train isn't named, according to SFGate, and will share the same route Amtrak's Coast Starlight uses during the day.
It would be modern, with electronic ticket sales and an app that would help with services.
The founder, Tom Eastmond, told SFGate that Dreamstar is in talks with Metrolink and Union Pacific Railroad. The train will also make stops at existing station locations, necessitating further agreements.
While the website said service would begin as soon as later this year, Eastmond said it is planning to start service in summer 2024, with the possibility of expanding to other U.S. routes.
Were we saying we make a decent profit with six cars in our investment pitch, he said. Our model is based on around 45,000 riders per year, or 62 per train. It would be a 75% load factor.