This month's Amtrak Ink newsletter discusses the refurbishment program for the Acela trainsets. It's interesting:
-Leather seating on all coaches. The First Class has already been refurbished this way.
-Updating curtains and other upholstery.
-Door seals, mechanicals, toilet trim painting, galley floors, etc.
**AND**
-Add 26 revenue seats to the Cafe Car.
This last item was something I was hoping for. They will be designed to not obstruct cafe patrons and there *will* still be non-revenue cafe seating.
Anyone who has patronized the Acela's Cafe Car has probably noticed the absurdly wide-open, unused space and unuseable seating in the Cafe Car, supposedly designed to promote use of the Cafe Car for eating and not seating. However, since the dramatic menu reductions made in the mid-1990s, the Cafe Car has been a huge waste. This refurbishment, I think, corrects an unforseen design flaw and adds 26 extra fares to each trip.
Yep, my contact in the Acela Program has great pride in the results of the "rebuild".
Yes, the Cafe Car was never very impressive. Some of the lost space, the "Cafe Car" also has the "Conductor's Station" that contains the sound and video systems for the train as well as a duplicate of the locomotive engineer's CRT screen. Also, a rescue "Bridge/Platform" designed to reach an adjacent track is stored behind the counter on the floor. They think of everything.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
I peered into the "Conductor's station" and was not really sure why it was there. I think there used to be a "railfone" vestibule, too. It's still there but there's no "railfone" in it.
The Cafe Car redesign is so exciting, I was positing on this forum and some others that at least 10 revenue seats would be realized with the bizarre layout of the Cafe Car, and Amtrak now says their new total redesign will realize 26 revenue seats!! This is awesome and a great step forward.
Now I'm going to start lobbying for checked baggage on Acela. NOT!! Hahah.
aegrotatio I peered into the "Conductor's station" and was not really sure why it was there. I think there used to be a "railfone" vestibule, too. It's still there but there's no "railfone" in it. The Cafe Car redesign is so exciting, I was positing on this forum and some others that at least 10 revenue seats would be realized with the bizarre layout of the Cafe Car, and Amtrak now says their new total redesign will realize 26 revenue seats!! This is awesome and a great step forward. Now I'm going to start lobbying for checked baggage on Acela. NOT!! Hahah.
"Railphone" ???
Amtrak has created a firestorm, in Connecticut, with the towns along the Shoreline Route. T-Mobile is building Cell Phone Towers along, or near, the Northest Corridor to provide Amtrak with continuous WiFi and Cell Phones onboard the trains. Tower ? "Not in My Backyard", here we go again.
The conductor's CRT (the engineer has two, the fireman seat and conductor's station have one) lets you check, among other things, train location, speed, signals, each wheel bearing temperature, pressure in each suspension air bag, door status (closed and locked). Did you checkout the locked door in the Vesibules, behind it you have 2 Rescue Ladders (no trap and steps on the Acela).
Hahah no but I am trying to remember if I saw one of those huge manual brake wheels. I totally accept that the galley is 3 times larger than it needs to be since nobody has cooked anything in there anymore since, what, 1993.
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