I saw it at Trenton last night and indeed it did have an Amfleet I cafe, and had an identical consist to the Pennsylvanian aside from the baggage car. I'm wondering if this is a recent thing, as I recall the Palmetto having an all Amfleet II consist in years past.
Matt Johnson wrote:I saw it at Trenton last night and indeed it did have an Amfleet I cafe, and had an identical consist to the Pennsylvanian aside from the baggage car. I'm wondering if this is a recent thing, as I recall the Palmetto having an all Amfleet II consist in years past.The Palmetto and Pennsylvanian started to get a mix of Amfleet I and Amfleet II cars, which sort of made sense. Put the passengers travelling longer distances in the Amfleet II cars and the passengers travelling shorter distances in the Amfleet I cars. Both trains lost the half cafe/half business class car to a full business class car and a regular Amfleet I cafe/lounge. I don't ever remember seeing the Palmetto running with an Amfleet II cafe/lounge (as per the previous sentence). Moreover, most of the Amfleet II cafe/lounge cars are being converted to the Amfleet Diner-Lite configuration and only found on the overnight single level long distance trains.
The Adiondack also ran with a similiar consist of a mix of Amfleet I and Amfleet II cars of this same nature described above - just no business class. I actually got stuck sitting in an Amfleet I car between NYC and Plattsburgh, NY on my last trip. Typically they've seated passengers travelling that far, or north of Albany in the Amfleet II cars. But the Adirondack seemed to have lost some of its Amfleet II cars last time I was onboard.
So hopefully the long distance day trains that had this mix of Amfleet II and Amfleet I cars - Maple Leaf, Adirondack, Pennsylvanian, Palmetto - still maintain this balance. Ideally I would think these trains should run with a 1/2 cafe and 1/2 business class seating (with the 2-1 leather seats etc.), but Amtrak is somehow able to sell the train with a full business class car. A full business class car would almost be less attractive than an Amfleet II coach (for coach class passengers). The Amfleet II coach would have larger windows for one thing. And frankly, Amfleet business class cars have more to be desired. These cars all should be more like an Amfleet II and feature leather seating and perhaps even 2-1 seating etc. One can still sometimes search out an Amfleet business class car, operating for coach passengers in a regular NEC train set. This is why I'd love to see Amtrak truly distinguish its business class cars - different from an Amfleet I and different from an Amfleet II.
