pi314
Train Attendant
Amtrak has a huge opportunity here. The choices they make now will define the brand for decades. Do they want to cheap out or do they want to grab the brass ring?
Amtrak can't compete with other modes of overland transportation for convenience (cars) or destination selection, frequency, and speed (airlines), but it can compete very well in the area of comfort and relaxation and nostalgic ambiance. Bring back the things that made train travel awesome and fun! Be less concerned with tightening up rules and restrictions like every other unimaginative insufferable business and industry and focus on actually making it enjoyable. Do that and they won't be able to order enough cars to handle the demand.
The new long distance trains should do everything to maximize the comfort, calm, luxury, and overall adventure experience, even for people traveling on the lowest fares. That means wide comfortable seats with generous pitch, plenty of modern amenities for the tech-expectant traveler (outlets, reliable wifi, etc.), and attractive food options instead of cutting corners and making coach passengers feel like steerage. In my younger days I could do it (I remember sitting in the outdoor vestibule on an oversold Montrealer train in the winter), but now that I'm older it's a sleeper car or don't go at all.
The current coaches aren't awful, but to cut corners at this juncture and make them less comfortable would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Also the sleepers could be vastly improved if a little out-of-the-box imagination was sprinkled in - not exactly Amtrak's strong suit.
Amtrak can't compete with other modes of overland transportation for convenience (cars) or destination selection, frequency, and speed (airlines), but it can compete very well in the area of comfort and relaxation and nostalgic ambiance. Bring back the things that made train travel awesome and fun! Be less concerned with tightening up rules and restrictions like every other unimaginative insufferable business and industry and focus on actually making it enjoyable. Do that and they won't be able to order enough cars to handle the demand.
The new long distance trains should do everything to maximize the comfort, calm, luxury, and overall adventure experience, even for people traveling on the lowest fares. That means wide comfortable seats with generous pitch, plenty of modern amenities for the tech-expectant traveler (outlets, reliable wifi, etc.), and attractive food options instead of cutting corners and making coach passengers feel like steerage. In my younger days I could do it (I remember sitting in the outdoor vestibule on an oversold Montrealer train in the winter), but now that I'm older it's a sleeper car or don't go at all.
The current coaches aren't awful, but to cut corners at this juncture and make them less comfortable would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Also the sleepers could be vastly improved if a little out-of-the-box imagination was sprinkled in - not exactly Amtrak's strong suit.
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