ExCon90 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 1:36 pm
bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Sun Sep 01, 2019 4:45 pm
You are talking as if this is a new concept that has never been done before! How on earth has passenger railroading survived this long with rotating seats?
But passenger railroading didn't survive--at least, not as we knew it. That's why we have Amtrak.
I usually prefer facing forward, but the rotating mechanism on those seats took a beating when a trainman walked down the aisle yanking two at a time (left and right simultaneously), one after another.
I volunteered on many Amfleet equipped railfan trips and turned those seats around myself. You step on a pedal and then rotate the seats around 180 degrees. It really isn't that big a deal. You did have to make sure you started at the right end though.
I assume that the way Amtrak increased capacity so much on these new trainsets, which are not much longer than the present Acelas, is by reducing seat pitch quite a bit which was accomplished by squeezing in as many fixed seats as possible.
I don't like riding backwards and I don't believe many people do. Sorry but I really have to laugh at the "safer" argument since it is completely reversed if the train gets rear ended. And I don't believe many people take the train and fear it's going to crash so they want to ride backwards to prepare for the inevitable.
I think the fact is Amtrak went with fixed 50/50 seats because they could jam in more seats and that was the only goal.