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I will not travel by train on a long trip unless I have a private room with a door and walls. There are many Amtrak sleeping car passengers like me. Railroads offered sleeping quarters separated by curtains. That ended by the 1950s. If adding these non-walled seats is in addition to private...

Is one reason that long distance dining cars lose money the relatively low volume of business in them? With only two sleeping cars on many long distance trains, that’s a huge amount of overhead for just a few meals. If that’s the case, then what I and others have proposed- expansions of...

That may work for some, but I want complete privacy and particularly no noise from people talking on their phones. I would buy only a totally private room with walls and a door.

Agreed. After being yelled at for approaching the cafe car counter from the coach side (when I was in a sleeping car), yelled at for starting to sit down at a cafe car table (when most tables were occupied by crew), etc., I just bring my own food on board. It would be nice to be able to use a...

Amtrak should have pre-recorded announcements on its long-distance trains. Airlines do, and they’re more pleasant-sounding than an Amtrak crew member announcing, “Clean up the bathrooms!”, for example.

I believe that there will still be an attendant.

If I understand correctly, Amtrak’s new Airo trains (what a bad choice of names for a railroad) will have cafe cars that will include self-service options. Hallelujah!

Given how high sleeping car fares are, Amtrak had better be making a profit on sleeping car rooms. If not, why in the world is it good public policy to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize a handful of people who could fly for less?

My member card also says that it expires 2/28/2023- I thought that it would be valid throughout 2023 since I qualified in 2022. But it doesn’t say that. And Amtrak gave me one less day than it gave to you!

The US and Canada should synchronize regulations that apply to passenger cars and locomotives and enable Amtrak and Via and other passenger railroads in both countries to order equipment together. Surely that could save money.

It’s complicated but Amtrak has done plenty of financings with private sector finance companies before in connection with equipment acquisitions. What I propose is nothing new for Amtrak.

If the revenues from adding a car to a train exceed the cost of acquiring and operating the car, which should be the case for sleeping cars, then Amtrak shouldn’t need government funding to do so; it should be able to borrow the money from a lender (a bank, a speciality finance company, etc.) to...

Amtrak should offer a pre-departure drink (or a drink upon departure) to sleeping car passengers. Airlines usually give pre-departure drinks in first class, but on Amtrak, you have to wait until the cafe car opens to buy one, and you have to wait until dinner is served to get a complimentary...

I am wondering the same. I am also curious how many people make Select or Select Plus without taking the Acela Express.

I tried to send praise for the terrific SCA on the Crescent to Amtrak. There is an “employee praise” part of the Amtrak website and so I filled out the form to send praise to Amtrak. The website doesn’t work. :(

That trip sounds terrible. Smelly lounge car? No thanks.

The crew members on the Crescent were griping about those as I was standing next to the vestibule, waiting to get off. But they remained perfectly nice to me. EDITED TO ADD: they mentioned “the freight railroads” and paid sick days.

If Amtrak made it easier to sleep in sleeping car rooms, I’d take Amtrak more. 1. Thicker, more comfortable mattresses. Maybe that can’t be done; if so, having a memory foam top for each bed would help. It’s hard to sleep on a hard mattress because every vibration of the train can be felt. 2...

Yes, plenty do. But plenty don’t. That’s how it has been for my entire career.

Agreed. If Amtrak corporate culture and bad passengers “made” Amtrak employees be nasty (and I’ve dealt with very nasty service on Amtrak), then there wouldn’t be any nice employees at all. I just took the Crescent again and the sleeping car attendant was absolutely wonderful. She smiled the...