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What is the source for the claim that sleeping car space is generally sold out? I have booked sleeping car space on four trains (Texas Eagle (2) and California Zephyr (2) over the past three months.  I did not have any difficulty getting space.  Moreover, I was able to get an upper level roomette each time. For FY09 the ridership in sleeping cars was down 1.3 per cent from FY08, whilst sleeper revenues were off 1.2 per cent.  For YTD FY10 sleeping car ridership was up 3.4 per cent whilst revenues were off 3.3 per cent from FY09.  For the Texas Eagle, which is the train serving my area; sleeping car ridership was up one per cent whilst sleeping car revenues were down 5.9 per cent.  Accordingly, through the first four months of FY10, sleeping car occupancy on the Eagle was not significantly different from the FY09 occupancy levels. The Eagle normally carries one sleeping car that 21 have rooms for sale.  If it sells out, Amtrak has eight roomettes in the transition sleeping car that it sells.  Thus, Amtrak has 29 rooms in the regular and transition sleepers on each Eagle set.  At noon three sets of the Eagle are on the road, whilst the fourth is one hour and 45 minutes from its departure from Chicago.  The space in all four sets, which totals 116 accommodations, has been sold or is available for sale.  Most sales on the day of departure would be last minute walk-ups or upgrades.  For the year, assuming that the sleeping car space on the Eagle is constant, the train has 42,340 spaces available for sale. In FY09 30,408 passengers occupied at least one sleeping car accommodation on the Eagle.  Assuming that only one passenger occupied each accommodation, which is unrealistic, the average occupancy rate would have been 71.8 per cent.  But I know from experience (four trips this year as well as at least two trips every year for decades) that many of the rooms are occupied by more than one passenger.  Assuming that the average occupancy rate is 1.5 passengers per room, which appears reasonable, the number of required spaces would have been 20,272, and the average occupancy rate would have been 47.8 per cent, which is close to the overall occupancy rate for Amtrak but slightly below the FY10 to date rate for the Eagle. Clearly, there are periods, i.e. holidays, popular vacation periods, etc., when Amtrak's sleeping car accommodations are sold out.  But if the Eagle is reflective of the system, it does not happen frequently.
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