Very interesting; the only roomettes with cut away beds I rode in were cutaway simply so the door did not have to be opened--and the bed still had to raised before using the toilet.
Johnny
Later roomettes did not require raising the bed to use the toilet, and therefore didn't need the zipper curtain outside the door no standing in the doorway was required either. There was a cutaway or small area of the bed which didn't cover the toilet. Superliner rooms I dislike because the ceilings are lower, which really makes a difference both for upper berth users and the sense of space in the whole room. Superliner roomettes for that reason are smaller than even the two-bed Slumbercoach rooms and of course much, much more expensive.
Interesting to read about the different types of accomodations.I've been in many also. With parents it was always coach on a "pass". But UP City of St. Louis did have a legrest that slid out from under the seat and hooked over the footrest, that gave support to legs and almost made it feel like a bed. Only downside to coach was many people roaming around all night, you could still smoke on the train, so there was a steady parade of men going back to the smoking lounge, including my Dad. Never got a good night's sleep like I did in the sleepers cars I rode in later years.
I did ride Pullman with 2 friends on same train, we had the usual bedroom, one upper and lower-two of us slept on that bed and our own bathroom. Coming home we were able to ride UP City of LA all Pullman train from LA to Ogden. Got to sit in bulletnose lounge and eat in dome diner.
Rode CP Canadian with 2 friends and they were the typical Pullman berths with curtains and made up into a sitting area during the day. Coming home we rode CN Super Continental in their Daynighter coach which was a step above regular coach but not a sleeper. Had a legrest that came out from under the seat too and we could recline like parents and I did on UP. Have never rode on VIA.
On Amtrak, I've taken the deluxe bedroom on the Builder, Coast Starlight and SW Chief, nice to have more room and your own bathroom. I've never done the roomette but will on my next long distance trip because it is cheaper than bedroom.
dmikeeAmtrak is incapable of designing for rider demand and holds fast to completely antiquated ideas of what customers want: a berth type sleeping space with reasonable privacy, access and comfort. Time for a new design team.
1. Expense and complication and service of retention toilets and their plumbing. 2. Safety issues with many stairs distributed through the car.
I often wonder why exactly we have the mix of sleeping car room types we have with NRPC. Some writings from the 1970's indicated that fuel economy was essentially how Amtrak car orders were sold in that era, for which there is an advantage for a train relative to an automobile. I cannot see that the current mix actual returns more revenue per carmile. Perhaps some minor amount is saved in not having bedding and more restrooms.
However a healthy advantage in fuel economy could be maintained (not that it matters) without giving up on the middle of the first class market. It pains me that the "standard" accomodation is practically speaking a double slumbercoach room. I recall a article in Trains for a long time ago asking why exactly the old car designs would not work for the new orders with some updating.
Dave Klepper's post on the pre-Amtrak diner thread, wherein he mentioned night accomodations (as well as dining experiences) sparked this thread.
Until after college, my night travel was all by coach, and it was three years after finishing college that I felt able to travel first class. In the time since then, I have sampled every accommodation available at the time in the U.S. except duplex single room, single bedroom. master room, and Amtrak's family room (though the only compartments I have ridden in were on the Canadian). Yes, I have spent three nights in coaches with plush seats--complete with the walk-over backs.
First, anything with a berth is superior to coach (but, there were possibly two seats in a car with plush seats which allowed the passenger to stretch out fully--by the washrooms; I had one of those one night). And, any other coach is superior to the Amfleet 1 coaches (no decent footrest and the seat backs do not go back very far)--the worst night I spent by coach was in one of those (I discount having to spend the night in a single chair in an unheated Frisco washroom because the car was filled with people who were going home after watching the Gator Bowl; the night before, I had two facing seats all to myself as I went down to Jesup from Atlanta--perhaps in the same car). My first experience in a really comfortable coach seat that reclined was on El Capitan and I found that Superliner coaches are about as comfortable--but they are still seats, and not berths.
In the article about slumbercoaches that appeared in Trains in the early days of that accommodation, there is the statement to the effect that travel by slumbercoach is not first class travel. But--in one respect a single slumbercoach room was superior to a roomette--you did not have to put the berth away if you needed to get up in the night (I had to get up one night in a roomette, but was able to get everything taken care of in time). Likewise, the current Viewliner "roomettes" have that edge over the roomier roomettes of old. And, the duplex single rooms of the PRR also had that edge. Also, a single slumbercoach room did not feel as cramped as a Viewliner "roomette" does.
The pre-Amtrak bedrooms, compartments, and drawing rooms were fine--and a few trains had showers available to first class passengers, just as VIA has on the Canadian--though not in every car; and if you travel in an unreworked Park car, you go to the next car to take a shower.
As to Amtrak accomodations, I travel in a bedroom, if possible, and I find little, if any difference between Viewliner and Superliner bedrooms. When it was necessary to travel in an "accessible" bedroom, my wife and I preferred the Viewliner variety, for it is little different from the Viewliner bedroom (a nice wide lower berth, as in a Superliner bedroom--just be sure to close the door lest an unwary traveler thinks that your room is an extension of the entrance aisle); of course, that bedroom in a Superliner is not far removed from the community shower/dressing room; the berths in the Superliner version are no different from the "roomette" berths (just as the drawing room, bedroom and compartment berths in the heavyweight sleepers were essentially the same as those in a section). We did not like the paucity of handholds that would help when moving across the room.
Altogether, travel in a sleeping accommodation is much better than travel by coach--whether on Amtrak or VIA.
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