Riding Coach - Would You Or Wouldn't You?

[Literalman]

I took quite a few overnight coach trips when I was younger. I would still do it because it's cheaper, except for one thing: noise. Until everyone had a phone along, coaches tended to be quiet at night. Nowadays there seems to always be somebody who won't shut up all night. The past few years I have enough money or points to take a sleeper, so if I ride an overnight train, that's what I'll choose if it's available. How I wish there were a sleeper on 66 and 67 between Alexandria and Boston!

[Arborwayfan]

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

On the trip I mentioned earlier, it cost $170 apiece SLC - Mattoon compared to something like $300 apiece SLC - Indianapolis, buying maybe ten days in advance. Even with the cost of some meals added in we paid less than flying. We were only travelling one-way, too, which can often be rather pricey on airlines (though they seem to be getting more reasonable about that).

[David Benton]

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

To see the countryside , or cityside , as the case may be.
Most sucessful LD trains , outside Europe and most of Asia , are reliant on tourism. Its a market Amtrak hasn't perused particularly strongly, in fact , I haven't seen Amtrak marketing here or elsewhere overseas. In contrast to Via , Rocky Mountaineer , and even Eurail Pass , which is all over any marketing to those regions.

[Tadman]

... 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.

This is how the sleepers over in UK/EU work. I think it has to do more with even the long routes being a bit short. That said, they are supposed to let you stay aboard in Euston if they arrive early, but they kind of forget that part. Same with the Sunset arriving at 5a in LA, I think they are supposed to let you sleep to 6. No way... Never seen that happen. Crew wants to go home and people want off and there's enough noise and PA announcements to raise the dead. Time to find some chow!

[CarterB]

I remember riding the Silver Comet Birmingham to Richmond in the late 40s early 50s. Nice reclining seats with leg rests. Really reclined enough to sleep OK. Any such reclining seats on Amtrak??

[bdawe]

I think this thread is a great opportunity for us to all reflect on how a-typical our train travel tastes are, given so many 'wouldn't ride coach' when most Amtrak passengers are riding in coach

[Matt Johnson]

I think this thread is a great opportunity for us to all reflect on how a-typical our train travel tastes are, given so many 'wouldn't ride coach' when most Amtrak passengers are riding in coach

Intermediate endpoints might be easier than end to end - for example, maybe I'd get up at 2 am to hop on coach in Ohio go get to Chicago at 9 am - that sort of thing. New York to Chicago is iffy. Chicago to the west coast I don't think I'd attempt unless I did it in pieces with hotel stays interspersed.

[Tadman]

I think this thread is a great opportunity for us to all reflect on how a-typical our train travel tastes are, given so many 'wouldn't ride coach' when most Amtrak passengers are riding in coach

Absolutely. We are not a representative sample of train passengers. This should be written in bold at the top of the forum. When we have guys complaining about how the new Acela looks or what kind of food is being served, we have to remember the average passenger wants a can of bud light and a train on time. He/she does not care about replicating the Coast Daylight or 20th Century Limited.

[Arborwayfan]

Of course, along most LD routes, the typical potential passenger drives or flies, depending on the distance and their income bracket.

I wonder how many LD coach pax are there because it's the cheapest way to travel without a car, or with substantial luggage, or to or from a town that's far from an airport? I don't remember the numbers but I know most of the CZ, for example, is not filled with CHI-Emeryville pax, and most of the stations, even small ones, seem to have a decent number of people on and off. So how many of the people in coach on LD trains are actually taking LD trips? It's substantial, especially at night, but I don't know exactly.

But I agree about the typical passenger wanting decent comfort and/or decent price and/or decent reliability, not some imagined experience. And a smooth ride and clean bathrooms. And in scenic places I assume a lot of people want a decent window, too. Lots of pax outside the corridors are at least a little bit taking the train as a special thing to do or a way to see the country, even if that's a by-product of visiting grandma or going to college or going from one auditorium chair installing job to another (one of hte more interesting reasons for travel I ever heard in a sightseer lounge) or a scout trip or whatever.

[urr304]

I have rode coach quite a few times, longest was Western Pennsylvania to Omaha via E-L and CB&Q, 22 hours total elapsed time. But I was 11 then.

Longest other time was Davis CA to Seattle in 1980 on the Coast Starlight. I have travelled roomette [once a DB] four times between Chicago and West Coast, and once across Canada. There were a few other trips to Chicago in coach.

I could take an overnight coach, frankly sleeper accommodations now are way too much more expensive than coach. A trip longer than overnight will just have to fly.

What is with 66-67 on Boston-Newport News without a sleeper? That kind of consist was run by one or two railroads before Amtrak and they were roundly criticized, now it is a different tune.

[Jeff Smith]

Versus? Choices? I've done it overnight. Once. Never again. Sleeper all the way. On the NEC? I much prefer BC if available and not outrageously priced. Although not an overnight trip, I did ride BC on the Palmetto (with a connection from Stamford in DC on the Night Owl). And the Owl definitely needs sleepers...

[Tadman]

... I don't remember the numbers but I know most of the CZ, for example, is not filled with CHI-Emeryville pax, and most of the stations, even small ones, seem to have a decent number of people on and off. ...

I think you're really on to something here. When I go direct Detroit-Chicago downtowns, I usually fly. But to New Buffalo or Niles? Train all the time. No way am I backtracking to Midway, let alone O'Hare, or chancing it with South Bend's Airport/Haircare/Tire Center.

The Detroit corridor is an example of a system that provides just enough frequency for a business traveler (3-4x/day) and hits some suburbs and exurbs that really don't aren't stet up for an airport access.

[Midlands Steve]

If I travel to New Orleans (CEN-NOL), I would want a sleeper on #59, but not so much on #58 (because of the early morning arrival). Coming north, I would have to wake up and get ready to leave the train after leaving Carbondale, 60 miles south. BTW, the last time I rode sleeper was on May 1, 2011, from FLG to KCY. I got on before daylight, rode all day, and then overnight. Was glad that I didn't have to endure coach.

[BAR]

If postings were not anonymous I might think twice about this but since they are here goes. My longest coach trip was in 2005 and stretched over eleven days as follows: Williamsburg, New York, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Churchill, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Seattle, and finally my destination, Portland, Oregon. I kept moving and spent eight nights sleeping in coach and had the entire double seat to myself on each of the segments. My only breaks were twelve daylight hours in Churchill and thirty-two hours in Winnipeg where I booked a hotel room for the night. I slept pretty well each night even in the hotel.

The trip home was more direct and involved a mere five days and nights, again all in coach as follows: Portland, Chicago, Boston, and back to Williamsburg.

From previous posts above I suspect some may consider me to be a masochist, although I most definitely do not, but I will admit to being something of an ascetic (and retired economist).

My most recent Amtrak trip was last September to commemorate the end of the full service dining cars east of the Mississippi and it may comfort some readers to learn that all overnight segments were in sleepers which included dining car meals: Williamsburg, New York, New Orleans, Chicago, New York, and home to Williamsburg.

BAR

[TCurtin]

I haven't taken an LD trip in years, except for one trip from PRovidence RI to Washington & return on 66-67 back around 1998 or so when it had sleepers. It was a business trip by myself from our then-vacation home on Cape
Cod to DC. I haven't taken any other LD trips because my wife isn't for that; however, my philosophy is "if I can't afford a bed to sleep in I'll stay home." Ansolutely no overnights on coach!