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The Lake Shore Limited has gotten better in service and its offerings, especially since it has the Viewliner II Diner, the Amfleet Cafe/Business Class car, and even Viewliner II Sleepers for a nice upgrade (as opposed to the Viewliner I's, which have not aged well at all). I actually enjoy...

Superliner Cross Country Cafe Car, Superliner Coach, Superliner Coach. In the changeover to make this a DAILY through train with the Capitol Limited, Amtrak needed to have a spare sleeper and coach in San Antonio for Thursday's departure north. They forgot to position this. Henceforth, it...

Amtrak does NOT keep enough spare equipment around at LD terminals. Largely just: - Miami (Hialeah) - base for the Viewliners - New York Penn - Chicago - base for the Superliners - LA Limited at Seattle and Washington DC now. Nothing at PDX ever. And typically nothing at EMY or NOL.

I used to take the Coast Starlight pretty regularly in 2004 to 2005 (from LA to the Bay Area or vice versa). Instead of booking coach, I found it was cheaper (or at least more economical) to book sleeper - when adding in the meals, rail fare, Pacific Parlor Car access, workspace in roomette...

My reservations (plural) have been unaffected to date on the Capitol Limited. But I also chose to book the lowest sleeping car number, which is the sleeper next to the diner. Typically if Amtrak takes a sleeper car off they re-arrange those in the higher car number. If the Capitol's consist was...

At one time, the clearance even at the border was "quick enough" to allow the Adirondack to get fully into Montreal before doing a same day connection to the eastbound Ocean or Chaleur to the Maritimes - at 6:30 pm or so. That was a GREAT connection that could have been to have made. If running...

Amtrak has never been good at 1) Keeping a waiting list for sleeping car passengers once sleeper space is sold out (it's been done in the past but sporadically at best) 2) matching sleeping car demand with sleeping car supply. Although they have 75 Viewliner sleepers in the East - between...

I totally agree with zephyr17's response (except for maybe the last paragraph - to each there own on that one, but I get the author's point!). Being proactive - within reason - to adjust travel plans works well. I've not had to do this often, thankfully, but when I did have a recent mis-connect...

It did seem that the majority of ridership were between 16 and under 65 (in a bucket I would call non-retired folks.....but still a good amount over 65+, so noted. However, sleeping car space still seemed a bit more dominant than what I also would have expected; and the historical routes were...

The whole cross-border "mess" (for the most part) could be a lot smoother if the agencies worked closer together and with better operating rules in place. - At one time, I was told a daily manifest of some sort (and realizing last minute bookings can be made) was forwarded to the border patrol...

Amfleets have served Amtrak well. The jury is out on how the new Venture cars (ordered by the Midwest and California states). So far, more negative reviews on these cars than positive. Not speaking for mechanical, but some simple upgrades would serve the Amfleets well - bigger windows, USB...

Crescent has sleepers on the rear. But I'd definitely stand on the platform that's in line with the station because if you are the only one boarding or de-boarding, it's likely that the conductor and engineer will coordinate to stop the sleeper right near you. The Western Long Hauls (Superliner...

The food offered and served by personnel at the Moynihan Metropolitan Lounge (no longer the Acela Lounge) is all under contract and outsourced. This is the model going in at Philly, Boston, Washington DC, and Chicago. The pandemic kinda threw things in a bit of tail spin at some of the other...

Maybe I am not looking at this right, but I was handicapped with a mobility issue for nearly 5 years. Yes, I was lucky to overcome it. From wheelchair to cane to the best that I can do on my two feet now, but still limited. I realize my situation is different from what others may have to endure...

Lake Shore Limited: - Boston Viewliner - is a Viewliner I - NY Viewliner right behind the Sleeper Lounge (aka VIewliner Diner II) - is a Viewliner I (the 4911 or 4811 car) - NY Viewliner at the far end - is a Viewliner II (the 4912 or 4812 car). Been that way since September 2021. I am a...

My opinion, for what it is worth: California Zephyr works either way, but if doing a "circle trip" - I'd go WEST on CA Zephyr or Southwest Chief, then NORTH on Coast Starlight, and then EAST on Portland section of the Builder! Coast Starlight - prefer northbound as you get the Ocean running in...

I remember coming West in 2001 or so on a business trip for few weeks and I rode the Pacific Surfliner cars for the first time (LA to San Diego), then Coast Starlight up to the Pacific Northwest to eventually travel to Vancouver, BC. Got a taste of the Talgo train set - still in its "Las Vegas"...

It’s a couple of minutes here and a few minutes there, but overall, for a train in 2021 it should be a quicker running train (not longer - but that's a whole other debate!). UGH! The westbound - they could have actually tightened the schedule up between NYP and Albany. Seems to always have a...

The Empire Builder and California Zephyr were largely cancelled to get a “reset” of its equipment AND crew. Not saying that COVID is also not playing a role - there’s less crew available but that’s a bit more complicated. Amtrak’s not been re-staffing its extra board as much as it could. The...

Then why is Amtrak STILL not running their full set of Acela Express train sets and even some complimentary Regionals that were taken off the NEC pre-COVID? Some Regionals on the NEC and some Acelas on the NEC are filling up, but we are still not back to a pre-COVID NEC train schedule...