Sam1 but that is dramatically different from sharing a seat with someone who is a stranger to showers or who insists are shouting into a cell phone.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I had not lived in New York City very long before I figured out how to go down the back stairs at Pennsylvania Station to best position myself for a seat on a train. It worked practically every time.
Southwest Airlines does not assign seats. Passengers vie for a boarding group, with "A" boarding first, then B, then C. The trick is to go online 24 hours in advance of your departure time and get an "A" boarding pass. This means that you will be amongst the first to board, although you will not be in the first group. The first group is reserved for Business Select passengers. Moreover, starting today, Southwest will charge $10 for passengers who want to be in a second preferred boarding group. I am not sure whether it will be the "A" group or some other group. Southwest's boarding procedure is cumbersome. Most people line up ½ hour before boarding is scheduled to begin, partially out of habit, to ensure that they get as close to the front of the group as possible. Most veteran travelers will do anything within reason to avoid the middle seat. I fly Southwest if the fare is significantly better than the other carriers, but I always select another carrier if the price is competitive, and I can get an assigned seat. Moreover, I never have a problem with the overhead bins because I always check my luggage. Yep, it cost me $15 to check a bag, but when all is said and done, flying is cheaper than driving and in most instances taking the train, especially if traveling by sleeper.
I am not advocating assigned seats for commuter trains or extremely short haul trains. But I am advocating them for most intercity trains. With computers and on-line reservations, it could be done for minimal cost. It would take away the hassle of jostling for the best seats. However, I don't look for Amtrak to adopt assigned seating. Its management simply lacks the imagination for this sort of customer friendly option. Too bad! They should take a lesson from the airline playbook.
"In the automobile, you have your own cabin and personal or family space, but you still have to share the road space with others." This is the major reason why most people prefer to commute or travel over short to intermediate distances by car. It is true that you must share the road with other motorists, but that is dramatically different from sharing a seat with someone who is a stranger to showers or who insists are shouting into a cell phone. Maybe I have missed something along the way to my 70th birthday, but it strikes me that a lot of people today don't care how their behavior impacts their fellow travelers.
On the trains I usually ride seats for groups of two or more are assigned by the car attendant as you board. Then the singles are allowed to board.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
What is interesting is what the public doesn't understand. Usually a train ticket only guarantees you a ride, not neccessarily a seat. Thus "reserved" seating which only guarantees you an available seat (100 available seats, 100 tickets sold) and not a specific seat or seating arrangment. So next step would be assigned reserved seats. But at what cost? Is that extra cost neccessary? Why?
Riding commuter trains in peak hours can be most fun. Especially if you don't normally ride that given train. Over time commuters fall into routines and seating is by rote based on seniority; same train, same seat, same commuter, everyday. A new comer or casual rider can upset that routine by sitting in a seat usually claimed by a regular commuter. At least that's the way it used to be. I understand today that most are lucky if they can get a seat in the same car each day much less the same seat. Do trainmen still "rent" card boards...certain seats would be arranged to face each other and a 'board" and a deck of cards would be "rented" to them by the trainman,the board on their laps and a relaxing, friendly game of Old Maid (wink) would ensue on the homebound journey.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
While riding the Lakeshore two weeks ago, we found sections of coach seats reserved for "couples" and another set reserved for "groups." It was nice that my wife and I didn't have to be split up. We were given assigned seats on the Empire Builder and Capitol Limited as well.
Terry
I guess part of the problem is that getting there is not half the fun and most any mode of transportation requires some manner of social cooperation among strangers that may result in some crowd stress. Whether it is a plane, train, or bus, it is still a common carrier mode of transportation where you have to sit in close quarters with strangers of varying personal habits for long periods of time. In the automobile, you have your own cabin and personal or family space, but you still have to share the road space with others.
A train has slightly wider seats and generally more legroom than a bus or plane, and people go on about the joyful socializing taking place among strangers in Amtrak lounge cars, making it sound like the cliches about comraderie in old war movies, but a some level, a train, like a plane, is just another kind of bus.
I remember one of the students in our lab, who explained how in Japan if you bump into someone on a crowded train or train platform, you don't say "sorry" or "excuse me." It is sort of assumed that some crowd contact is unavoidable, and to say "excuse me" is considered rude because it is calling attention to oneself rather than accepting the circumstances of the crowd, and when it is explained that way, and given the urban crowds in major cities in Japan, and the cultural adjustments made for that way of life, it all makes sense.
Even the reserved seat system that is common across airline travel (is Southwest different?) is not perfect. There is a kind of "gate rush on the Internet" these days to get seat assignments, and one can reserve weeks in advance and find it is hard to find two seats together. That airlines have caught wise to passenger preferences in seats, and the "good seats" required paying extra fees. Especially exit row seats -- it is kind of scary that exit rows, which most regard as a boost in legroom rather than any extra responsibility in paying attention to crew instructions, go to the highest bidder, and not dying in a runway accident is something that costs extra money.
Even with reserved seating, airlines have the "gate rush" of people boarding so as to get the carry-on baggage space, especially to put their bowling ball bags in the overhead. You carefully listen to the boarding row calls and only get up when your row is called, and if you get in line a second early, you always manage to get scolded by the gate agent and told to get back in line, but as soon as you get on the plane, someone with a smug smile is always occupying the aisle seat of the row you are in, the overhead bin is always packed jammed full already, and there is the inevitable look of "who me?" when you ask to enter your row to take your assigned seat and carefully jam your bag "underneath the seat in front of you" so you get to spend the flight with your feet tucked under your knees.
If airline travel is so bad, what about trains? Yes, what about them. They have their own set of social conventions and inconveniences. Travel is just plain work.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
I didn't say at first but I also sent that letter to Amtrak.
Just like I have nightmares of idiots cutting the line to get into the Holland Tunnel, I have nightmares of idiots rushing the gates in NYP and WAS, but that's one dangerous situation when the people really aren't idiots.
At the very least, Business Class on the Regional and Quiet Cars on all trains should offer assigned seats for a fee.
It's madness. The Holland Tunnel stress is much less than gate-rushing.
i totally agree! every time I travel with my family short or long distance the stress of finding seats together ruins the trip. Recently I found paper tickets from a family trip in 1966 on the PA railroad and Sante Fe and believe it or not, we had seat assignments....imagine that, two railroads and long distance travel with seat assignments!
On Saturday I took the Texas Eagle from Taylor, TX, which is about 25 miles southeast of my home in Georgetown, TX to Fort Worth to attend a concert. I stayed over night and caught the train home yesterday afternoon.
When I got on the train at Taylor, the car attendant told me that I was assigned to Seat #19. That was a first for me, so I asked her if Amtrak is assigning seats for coach travelers. "No", she said, "I thought that you would like a window seat, so I blocked one for you." She also recommended seats for the other three passengers who boarded at Taylor. Finding a desirable seat probably would not have been a problem, since the train appeared to have a load factor, at least in the coaches, of between 30 and 40 per cent. On the way home from Fort Worth, passengers were invited to board the train when it arrived in the FW station, which was approximately a half hour ahead of schedule, and pick whatever seat they desired. The load factor coming home was even less than the load factor going to Fort Worth, so finding a desirable seat was no problem.
Ironically, I find the coach seats on Superliner equipped trains to be more comfortable than the seats in a roomette. That might not be the case if I was seated next to a porker or someone who was a stranger to a shower, but I think that I am going to try a coach seat to Chicago when I go there in October. If I pick a light travel date, e.g. Tuesday or Wednesday, which retired people can do, I should be able to get a seat to myself, at least as far at St. Louis. And it will cost me a lot less than a roomette.
Although I did not have a problem getting a desirable seat on the Eagle, I would vote for Amtrak to adopt assigned seats if the process was similar to that found on the airlines, i.e. pick you seat from a seating diagram when you make your reservation, Southwest to the contrary not withstanding. It would avoid the rush at major stations like New York, Washington, Chicago, etc. Oh, by the way, there is no passenger gate rush at Taylor, in part because there is not gate; unless you think five or more people boarding the train is a rush.
I had a nice ride. The train was on time in both directions. It is amazing what the recession has done for the Texas Eagle's schedule performance. It has been on time this summer with the same degree of regularity as it was late last summer.
Going to Fort Worth I had lunch in the redesigned dinner/lounge car. It was decent. Best of all, it was served by a waiter who did not have an attitude problem.
aegrotatioI took my family of four on a few trips on Amtrak and the one major stress point was the lack of assigned seating. The gate-rushing at NY Penn Station and Union Station it wasn't very fun and is downright stressful for keeping a family together. It's obvious to me that people rush the gates to get good seats and for no other reason because Amtrak's trains are all reserved in the Northeast. It would seem to me that having assigned seating would reduce gate-rushing and keep our family together. I would gladly pay an extra fee for assigned seating. Before Acela service was initiated, I was asked to take several surveys by Amtrak and in the comments I stressed the importance of reserved trains, which did go into effect on all Northeast trains to my great relief. Today, however, I would be much more inclined to take my kids if we could have assigned seating, too.In case you haven't seen the Acela it has an unused electronic assigned seating system installed on it.
I took my family of four on a few trips on Amtrak and the one major stress point was the lack of assigned seating. The gate-rushing at NY Penn Station and Union Station it wasn't very fun and is downright stressful for keeping a family together. It's obvious to me that people rush the gates to get good seats and for no other reason because Amtrak's trains are all reserved in the Northeast.
It would seem to me that having assigned seating would reduce gate-rushing and keep our family together. I would gladly pay an extra fee for assigned seating.
Before Acela service was initiated, I was asked to take several surveys by Amtrak and in the comments I stressed the importance of reserved trains, which did go into effect on all Northeast trains to my great relief. Today, however, I would be much more inclined to take my kids if we could have assigned seating, too.
In case you haven't seen the Acela it has an unused electronic assigned seating system installed on it.
Your problem is understandable but it is a matter of money and manpower. Having worked a little around the IT section of an airline; seat assignment takes a lot of memory and the present AMTRAK system may not have the capability of doing seat assignment. Part of the ARRA ( stimulus money ) is designated to upgrade the ARROW system. When that is done maybe there will be the seat assignment capability but does anyone know for sure?
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