Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="Paul Milenkovic"] With respect to the sleeping car, I think the answer is in what the airlines are doing for premium-fare (First Class and Business Class) passenger on trans-Pacific runs, which are of comparable length to trips taken on LD trains, with the exception of riding the full way from Chicago to the West Coast. Deep recline Business Class seats.  Make them only 3-across on a twin-aisle configuration so that you don't need to sleep next to a stranger.  Use those clamshell headrest arrangements that Northwest (now Delta) was advertising for their business class -- that arrangement appears to provide some measure of quiet privacy -- perhaps that clamshell thing could be equiped with speakers for personal listening if a person doesn't want headphones -- at the very least provide jacks for headphones so a person can tune out snoring or coughing neighbors with music or other entertainment of their choice or maybe seashore sounds or train sounds or whatever passengers find restful or soothing. You are already at 4-across with deep-recline seats, so 3-across is a compromise between current LD coach and sleeper service in terms of passengers per train car.  Seriously, look into that clamshell seat or whatever else the airlines are doing for First and Business Class -- if this is good enough for airline passengers to pay serious coin on trips of the same length as LD train rides, it should be considered for train travel. Keep in mind that in Australia they acquired Hitachi tilt trains for an accelerated schedule but still an overnight trip.  They considered sleeping cars, but instead offer a 3-across seating, somewhat along the lines of what I am proposing. The other thing to preserve the Amtrak network is to look at some of the long-distance routes as a series of corridors.  The Cascades Talgo is such a corridor route overlaid on a traditional LD route. And this needs to start with the advocacy community because it is we who write our Members of Congress and stir things up if Amtrak dares to discontinue the Three Rivers (a "mail" train from the Amtrak era of experimenting with head-end business) or the Sunset Limited (which we are still fighting).  When the infamous Inspector General's report came out calling for elimination of sleeping cars, I had suggested to our brick-and-morter advocacy group that that report could have been a jumping-off point rather than something to fight tooth-and-nail. I asked, "What if in place of sleeping cars on long-distance trains we could have service along the lines of the Cascades Talgo up and down the Mountain West?  Would you consider that a worthwhile exchange?" [/quote] Ideally Amtrak should get out of the long distance train business and concentrate on corridor services. However, the political will does not exist for this sensible outcome, so most of the long distance trains probably will be around for the foreseeable future. I like the notion of deep business class seats for first class in lieu of the traditional sleeping car, which is booked by fewer than 2.5% of Amtrak's passengers. Moreover, even on the trains from Chicago to the west coast, most passengers are on the train just one night.  In fact, depending on the route, less than 10% of the long distance train passengers travel from end point to end point. Sleeping cars are expensive to buy and maintain. Moreover, in the case of the roomettes on the Superliner cars, they are very uncomfortable. This is especially true if a passenger has to get up in the middle of the night to use the toilet, which most of us older folks know about. Replacing them with business class cars makes a lot of sense, which is one of the reasons Amtrak, which is a government bureaucracy, will never do it. I have ridden the Tilt Train between Brisbane and Cairns. It is a nice train.  However, on one of my trips the bloke behind me snored loud enough to keep me as well as other passengers awake most of the night. I suspect that he had had a bit to drink before boarding the train and whilst on borad it. Had I flown I could have avoided the snoring.  And that is what most Australians, as well as most of the people in the world, do for long distance trips.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag