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[quote user="aegrotatio"] I should update the thread, and I did eventually get a thoughtful reply from Amtrak but several days after I had asked. They stated that logistics prevents them from handling assigned seating and as others have noted the conductors will try to accomodate you if you let them know beforehand.  The NEC routes are not practical for assigned seating for logistical reasons but other routes are more easily handled. I didn't want to leave this thread hanging.  The response I got from Amtrak was thoughtful as always, but late. [/quote] Here is a bit of update and perspective on the issue of assigned seats on Amtrak. Following six trips on the NEC between Baltimore and Washington in November and December of this year (2011), I wrote to Mr. Boardman regarding the issue of gate rushing and assigned seats on Amtrak trains. Amongst other things I pointed out to him that a fight had nearly broken out at Washington Union Station because of line jumping, which was caused by the need to line-up 30 minutes before train time to get a good seat. Getting a seat in the quiet car appeared to be a high priority for many of the folks near the head of the line.   I received a nicely worded bureaucratic response from one of his assistants.  She stated that Amtrak had experimented with assigned seats, without providing any details, and found the process did not work.  She said that assigning seats would make it difficult for last minute ticket buyers, families, etc. Bull! The airlines do it.   Computers make assigning seats a snap.  In the case of American Airlines, irrespective of when you buy your ticket, even if you are a last minute walk-up, the reservation system assigns you a seat.  If you don't like it and there are other seats available, you can change them with a click of your mouse button or ask the ticket counter agent for a better seat.   You cannot get on an Amtrak train without showing your ticket or in the case of last minute reservations for unattended stations a printout of your reservation.  Which means you have to make a reservation, although in some instances you can buy a ticket from the conductor, I believe, who can only sell you a seat if one is available.  Not many people try to buy tickets on the train or I should say at the door. In any case, even if you buy your ticket five minutes before train time, irrespective of where the reservation is made, it goes into the reservation system, which would know instantly which seats are available and could assign them. This is another example of the market insensitivity of a government bureaucracy.  It does not have any competition. It is not motivated to do things better, faster, cheaper, with the operative word being better.  It is an example of why competition should be baked into passenger rail as well as anything else that can be performed by a properly regulated, competitive enterprise(s).   One possible way to do it would be to have a third party own the rails in the NEC, as well as any other location where the rails are owned by a government entity, i.e. the proposed California High Speed Rail Project, and allow competing operators to operate trains over them as long as they meet the required operating and safety standards.  This would require some serious out-of-the-box thinking, which is unlikely to happen given the constraints of government operations.
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