Riding Coach - Would You Or Wouldn't You?

This is why I don't understand why Amtrak doesn't simply have Viewliner sleepers + couchette cars on overnight long-distance trains. What's the benefit of having open-plan seating? Particularly in the age of social distancing now?

I don't do coach anymore period . Usually I can afford business class or sleeping car. :):)

Long ago, when I was in my 20s, I thought nothing of spending two or even three nights in a row in coach on transcontinental trains in the US and Canada, which I did several times and survived. Ah, the resiliency of youth. Amtrak's spacious Heritage coaches and CP's Budds on the Canadian were good enough. But once I got a little older and started making more money it was sleeper time. Unfortunately, that pretty much ended for me when Amtrak retired the last of the Slumbercoaches and roomette cars and jacked up the price of rooms to what I consider an unreasonable level for a solo traveler. These days I'm no longer up for spending a night in a long distance coach seat with an arbitrarily assigned seatmate, sleepers are too expensive for my liking, and Southwest and Jet Blue get me everywhere I'm inclined to go. So for me these days, Amtrak is a daytime conveyance only, which is fine since most of my trips are in the Northeast Corridor.

Did it once, Boston to Jacksonville for a trade show. Never again. One or two stops south of DC, a party of 8 got on, sat behind me. I think they were the supporting cast from the movie "Deliverance". They fought and argued all night. At least I had a window seat.

I love to "watch the show" too. I'm usually a day tripper, so window seat in a moderately populated coach near cafe car optimal for me. Or just cafe car fine.

gaspeamtrak wrote: ↑Fri Apr 24, 2020 8:20 pm I don't do coach anymore period . Usually I can afford business class or sleeping car. :):)

I'll second that remark.

What I would actually prefer would be for a trip that might take more than six hours to just be converted into a night train. Let me board at NYP an hour or two early, have a drink in the lounge while in the station. No on board dinner necessary. Settle in for the night and wake up at my destination. Detrain at my leisure. Isn't that the way the night owl or something used to work? Why should I waste an entire day on the train or half the day traveling to and from airports and uncomfortable in between? I know this doesn't work for intermediate stations but maybe these trains could just be run end to end with minimal crew and equipment. Run daytime all stops locals for everyone else.

Mr. Gold, that was the business model for any of a number of "Night Trains", such as The Owl NY-Boston, Edison NY-Wash, and even the Amtrak Executive Sleeper NY-Wash.

But that model was in the past; "if it ain't rolling, it ain't earning". Possibly somewhere overseas, but not here.

Australia, I learned, has a small system of intercity trains along their East Coast. The consists are fixed, one Sleeper each, food service is a "Cafe'". One route is Sydney NSW to Brisbane QLD. For whatever reason, the train to Brisbane arrives 3AM - and it's "bail out". Seat 61 "has his words" about that!

Super liner coach isn’t that bad. Now if 3/4 actually had WiFi.

Of course, the furthest we’ve run is Kansas City to Chicago.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:52 pm
Australia, I learned, has a small system of intercity trains along their East Coast. The consists are fixed, one Sleeper each, food service is a "Cafe'". One route is Sydney NSW to Brisbane QLD. For whatever reason, the train to Brisbane arrives 3AM - and it's "bail out". Seat 61 "has his words" about that!

Always coach for me .

The Aussie XPT scheduling is a bit of a historic hangover. It was an (sucessful)attempt to replace 2 trains using one trainset. That 3 a.m arrival turns to go back to Sydney about 9a.m . The 2nd train is actually a bus connection to the Gold Coast , to connect to the old Gold coast service. Its now a bus all the way to Grafton. Thus 2 routes get 2 a day , (even if one is part bus), vs the one slower service they used to get . The old XPT (hst125 downrated) must be 40 years old now , and feeling the pinch of the intensive service. Note these are primarily NSW services, Brisbane is a bit of a tack on.
Its a model Amtrak could look at , Trains for intensive service , with Thruway buses providing extra frequencies/services beyond the rail head.

In the past 10 years, I've done maybe a dozen nights in coach, all but one on #66 or #67.

The one night on the LSL in coach was due to missing my connection from #8 to #30 in Chicago and my roomette left without me.

Going south on #67, I always slept well out of BOS. Going the other way? The last 2 times were with a conductor and A/C that left the lights on full, and both made announcements over the PA never more than 10 minutes apart WAS-NYP. So, in the two most used words regarding Amtrak trains: "NEVER AGAIN" will I ride overnight coach on the NEC!

Just a little bit of a different perspective out of PDX, as I have just two real choices for long distance travel (in other words, other than the Cascades to Seattle)...

Empire Builder: When I lived in Kalispell the EB was a convenient overnight train between Whitefish and Portland/Seattle and I had no issue in coach if I had to, it was cheap and literally just an overnight. But now that I have no business in Montana left there's really no reason for me to go east on the EB.

Coast Starlight: I could go coach to Sacramento or the Bay Area, it's a bit longer trip (by a few hours) than Whitefish. However, if I'm going that way I am usually with family so that means two adults, two kids. Sleeper is downright cost prohibitive for me. Wife doesn't like coach. And air travel between PDX and anywhere in the Bay Area is almost half the price as Amtrak and a door to door travel time of about four hours versus 16 hours plus. Why would I ride Amtrak, especially as how most of the beautiful scenery is during the night hours and not seen anyways?

Why would someone take coach on a LONG trip on Amtrak, instead of flying, if flying is a realistic option?

SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 4:32 pm Why would someone take coach on a LONG trip on Amtrak, instead of flying, if flying is a realistic option?

Fear of flying or medical conditions I suppose? Personally, I'd be hard pressed to do an overnight like New York to Chicago in coach. I would sooner fly. The longest coach trip I've done on Amtrak would probably be the Adirondack trip from New York to Montreal, which was scheduled at 10 or 11 hours but ended up taking 12. I think that's about my limit without sleeper accommodations!

The train does take longer than it should and I gather the food choices are just as bad as most Amtrak trains. I considered taking Amtrak from Penn to Montreal but the timing versus LIRR (and its high lack of reliability) and the lack of decent food led us to driving instead, with stops along the way for museums, a hotel, and some good food. We like scenery, and trains are a good way to get that on some routes. But you need comfort, making a decent speed, not wondering if you'll spend a couple hours crossing the border, good food to make the train worth it. And good connections to get to the train.

My wife and I did take LIRR to Penn, Acela to DC. Timing was much easier, and of course it's a lot less time. Also fairly comfortable except on the worn out tracks just north of DC. Food, though, on the train, is pretty bad, and food car service ranged from fair to surly and lazy. If we'd known how bad it was, we would have bought or brought breakfast with us for the outbound trip south.