Amtrak Venture Cafes

lensovet wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2024 11:01 pm

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 28, 2024 1:01 pm I’m not surprised they’re ditching the non revenue cafe seating on the corridor trains.

News to me. Is there a secret passcode to getting to ride for free in the cafe car?

The conductor may settle you there if the train is overbooked and too many passengers board. (Edit: Oh I see. You were questioning how they were 'non-revenue'. Perhaps because the train is usually not overbooked, and the seats nonetheless rest atop axles that travel all those miles and need maintenance?)

The table area also provided a somewhat graceful queueing area and runway - keeping in mind that the trains knock and sway about - where seated passengers wouldn't be annoyed by a permanent line or at-risk of beverage sloshes from cafe clients taking their first steps away from the counter...

Non revenue of course referring to the fact that the table seating is not sold. Food service and lounge cars that do not contain seats or sleeper accommodations that are sold for fare are generally referred to as non revenue cars. The table seating is shared space for anyone on board - though as pointed out on busy over sold regionals often people will end up sitting there.

I'd love to see proof that Amtrak does not sell these seats. Regionals are reserved seating north of Washington, so i'm not sure how they can be oversold. If you're seeing every seat taken including the tables, then they aren't oversold, they are just sold, period.

There could be a change to the consist after it is sold out - a car could be removed or replaced by one with fewer seats. A guaranteed connection could have been missed and those passengers put in the Cafe of a following sold out train.
Example: About 25 years ago, I arrived in Washington on a very late train from Chicago. I rushed to the Customer Service Office, and blurted breathlessly, "We just arrived on the late Capital Limited and missed our reserved seats to Philadelphia on this ticket. Can you put us on the non-stop Metroliner that's leaving in 5 minutes?" That employee ran with us to the platform and told the Metroliner Conductor, "Take these 2 to Philly". As we boarded, he told us, "I may have to put you in the Cafe if I don't have an empty pair of seats".

It's not so much that they are oversold, but people get on with multi ride tickets and don't check in via Ride Reserve, or people are ticketed for the wrong train and fell through the cracks in Arrow, or there's a service disruption and a train is picking up another train's passengers. Not to mention people think the cafe is where they sit, despite conductor announcements to place their belongings above a coach or business class seat. An eight car regional has 492 seats, 6x72 coach and 1x60 business. It is mentioned prominently in the conductor manifest that the cafe does not tally into the seating total (or the crew consist requirement) because it NOT a revenue car.

MI DoT reported to MI ARP last week that 9 of 17 Venture cafes are in service.
http://marp.org/blog/wp-content/uploads ... -FINAL.pdf

They report 88 total cars in the order (80 delivered) rather than the 97 Ron mentioned. They omit the three cab cars for some reason. I wonder what else is different about their count.

Edit - the Wisconsin ARP site explains. The 3 cabs along with 6 coaches were a supplemental order. Entirely for the Hiawathas, so MI DoT doesn’t bother to count them. They also report though 80 cars are delivered, only 76 are approved for service. No info on which 4 or why. Do newly delivered cafes require some sort of prep or inspection?

Amtrak is urging the Midwest states to pick up more cabs, to add capacity and eliminate wying.

A GOTTALUVIT moment.

I note that within the Michigan Advocacy Group's material immediately linked by Mr. Ryan, is a "swoosh" photo of overseas equipment, as distinct from some taken within Michigan.

I cannot identify which rail system over there it comes from (Mr. Dunville, can you?), but it is non-air conditioned, as windows are open.

But unless something has changed since I last observed #380 (maybe I'll "get lucky" with #380(14) as I walk to the dry cleaners today), I know where the Cafes' ain't

lol that's ancient Russian Railways crap. Pretty rich to be putting that on there.

I'd like to think that's the State of Michigan trolling the Michigan Militia which used to (and probably still does) freak out about foreign invasions everytime a multinational training exercise or foriegn materiel explotation activity was hosted at Camp Grayling.

Nothing has changed; 380(14) the usual: Charger, Venture, AmClub, 2 Ventures.