Lunatrain wants to bring overnight rail travel to major US cities
A new overnight train option could be coming to market soon, adding to the long-distance travel options in the Philly region.
Conshocken-based startup Lunatrain wants to bring overnight rail travel to major cities on the East Coast and Midwest. The goal is to create a convenient, cost-effective alternative travel option for routes that require either short flights or a very long drive, founder Mike Avena told Technical.ly. While still in development, it plans to go to market in the near future.
'Overnight trains are a really great way to bring a very innovative and new service without the expense of building infrastructure for something like high-speed rail,' Avena said. 'We can innovate on top of existing infrastructure at a much lower cost.'
Lunatrain wants to run along existing train tracks, which means it'll have to work with other train lines, including Amtrak, but it's not looking to compete with the rail giant, Avena said. Amtrak operates all over the country, connecting rural and urban areas, whereas Lunatrain would only target major cities, Avena said.
'The service that we're proposing is a value add on top of what Amtrak is already doing,' he said.
Amtrak is the primary passenger rail line between cities in the United States. The for-profit company was created by Congress in 1970, taking over passenger rail service from private freight railroads. Amtrak currently offers overnight trains and long-distance trains, though Lunatrain says its product is different because its service would operate exclusively overnight and be priced more affordably.
Eventually, Lunatrain has plans to connect major cities like Philadelphia, New York City, Charlotte, Atlanta and Chicago — all cities that Amtrak currently operates in. Lunatrain's network would focus on routes that can be done overnight, and replace a short domestic flight or a long drive, Avena said. The train cars would be made up of sleeping quarters, along with Wi-Fi, dining options, lounge spaces and showers.
European night trains inspire a new wave in the US
Before starting Lunatrain, Avena worked in information technology in the biotech sector. Once a super commuter from Philly to New York, Avena said he knows all too well the benefits and challenges of current train systems.
A job in Europe changed his perspective even more. Avena's last job was based in London, and while traveling for work in Europe, he learned about the extensive rail systems, including the trend of night rail companies.
Europe experienced a wave of night train startups popping up over the last couple of years, although these companies faced challenges like a lack of train cars and difficulty gaining operating licenses.
Avena officially pivoted to working on Lunatrain full-time last summer by developing a commercial and financial plan and communicating with rail experts. After publicly announcing the company in February, he's now focused on determining market potential and how much interest Americans have in this type of service.
Now, Avena is planning to raise an equity funding round to build and test a prototype railcar. The timeline will depend on when the company can raise enough money. The plan is to build the railcar and have people on it within a year and a half of closing the funding round, Avena said.
Getting on the private rail system isn't easy
Part of Lunatrain's next step is building relationships with companies that own the existing rail tracks.
Railroads in the United States are privately owned, most of them by freight rail companies. When freight railroads consider working with passenger lines, they consider safety, how it will impact the capacity of their work, and how they will be compensated, according to the Association of American Railroads.
The owners of the tracks coordinate their own dispatching, which means passenger lines like Amtrak and commuter railroads like SEPTA need to have trackage rights agreements with the owners. These contracts set the rules around how they can operate on lines owned by freight railroads, a spokesperson from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) told Technical.ly. Host railroads also have financial agreements with tenant railroads.
For a new company to use the tracks, it would need to enter into those contracts with the host railroads and get all of the legal and regulatory approvals necessary from the FRA and the US Surface Transportation Board, according to the FRA.
So far, Lunatrain has had early conversations with railroad companies to understand the requirements necessary to work with them, Avena said. He declined to share specifics about what partners he's currently talking to.
'It is a very complex process, so it does involve a lot of computer modeling traffic analysis, to understand where we can fit in with the existing freight traffic,' Avena said. 'And how we can make sure that we're not disrupting the host railroads' freight operations.'
Sarah Huffman is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
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