Mailliw
OBS Chief
Weren't dedicated lounges limited to passengers in Pullman sleeping cars on most railroads back in the day? Having supplemental revenue space would be lounge cars more practical, but it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up only on the 2-day routes and the Coast Starlight.
Coach passengers do not want sky lit coach seats. This was a major complaint of the privately run Autotrain, with full domes repurposed as overnight coaches.
So, no it does not mitigate it at all. And yes, there is something to stop use of the sleeper lounge car for coach passengers - it means coach passengers constantly traipsing back and forth through the diner to get to the lounge, and no longer use the diner as a buffer to prevent their trespassing into the sleepers. It will not happen. Even if management supports it, which they will not, OBS will not permit it. OBS have creative ways of using cardboard boxes to block people from where they do not want them to go while they know managment is a habitual absentee landlord and wouldn't have it any other way.
The sightseer lounge can be standing room only through the most scenic mountain ranges on the Starlight, Zephyr and Empire Builder, is a popular feature car, but would have no replacement. Every LD consist with a lounge car and a diner has the diner against the sleepers.
Amtrak clearly wants coach passengers to stay in their seats at all times except when fetching food as in a corridor train, having no concept of long distance train realities. This entire cafe/lounge/diner design is disaster and unacceptable. While reinventing the wheel in their little bubble, they made it a triangle.
No wonder it takes a FOIA request to see the sordid details. I'd be ashamed of it too.