Business Class Offered Aboard Cardinal Effective January 19, 2016
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the_traveler
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You can buy access to the CA in PHL but not the CA in WAS or NYP? Why not? :huh:
Ryan
Court Jester
This should be interesting.
PHL-only is curious.
50/51 being the first east coast WiFi long distance train turned out to be correct. Wonder how well it will work in the godforsaken no-mans-land that it runs through.
PHL-only is curious.
50/51 being the first east coast WiFi long distance train turned out to be correct. Wonder how well it will work in the godforsaken no-mans-land that it runs through.
Ryan
Court Jester
WAS and NYP are both silly crowded much of the time, that makes sense. Also, how do the NYP CA hours line up with 50/51's calling times?
Matches well with 51 during the week. Sunday I don't think the schedule works.
Already had it on the westbound SWC Dec 14-16. The router was supposed to handle 15 users, but when there were 11 on, I could not accomplish anything. In the morning, when there were only 4 users on the router, the service was usable (in cell reception areas, which was well more than half the time). SCA shared how many were on, in response to my comments about usability.
jis
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Maybe what they need to do is find routers that can set up multiple trunk connections on the backend depending on the traffic demand, e.g. upto 10 users per connection, or some such. Such devices are actually available, but naturally cost quite a bit more than setting up a WiFi router on the moral equivalent of a smartphone. 
Has anyone seen a business class car (not Acela) with leather seats? The 2+1 BC/Cafe car seats are great, but I think they are vinyl. Are they prepping a few cars for this service or will it be the existing partial cars?
Yes. 81543 and 81544 both had Acela style seat cushions a year ago, maybe more do now. That said, I doubt they will use such obviously inferior cars to the A-II Coaches to inaugurate BC service on an overnight run.
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Philly Amtrak Fan
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Is the Wi-Fi on the other eastern LD trains going to be only if you pay for it then? I don't see how complementary Wi-Fi is a perk for business class passengers only otherwise.
jis
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They forgot to mention the complementary bonus TQMs for BC travelers starting 24th of Jan.
When I was on the Card in November, we had a substitute cafe car, and it was the kind with 2 x 1 Business Class seats in half of it, instead of tables. They were nice seats, but I did not notice that they were leather, so I suspect they were vinyl. There was wi-fi in that car (unavailable in New River Gorge, of course), but I was led to believe that was only because of the substitution, not a permanent thing. Perhaps it gave them ideas...
WoodyinNYC
Conductor
Not entirely clear. Optimistically, I first read this as "Complementary … unlimited access to The New York Times and Washington Post digital editions." Riders in coach would have to pay extra for that, of course. But I doubt they will have to pay for the basic Wi-Fi. That would be a change of policy, and annoy many riders. Meanwhile "Free Wi-Fi" is a great selling point for the train.
the_traveler
Engineer
I take it that the Wi-Fi is complimentary to all passengers, but access to the papers is free only to BC. Just like it is on any NEC train, where any passenger can use the train's Wi-Fi free of charge.
Not to be overly snarky, but I wonder what the drink policy will be. Unlimited free drinks Northeast style? One free drink midwest style? One free drink eastbound, unlimited free drinks westbound? One free drink west of a point, unlimited east of that point? Unlimited if a NYP or WAS based LSA, one free drink if CHI based?
Does anyone at Amtrak actually realize the wildly differing BC policies?
Does anyone at Amtrak actually realize the wildly differing BC policies?
Ryan
Court Jester
It says "Complimantary wifi". That certainly implies that it's going to be paid on the LD routes. What comes after the "and" is irrelevant.
crescent-zephyr
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Not to mention the fact that Sleeper passengers only get complimentary coffee, juice, and bottled water.
Since Amtrak states there will be leather seats, I would think it has to be the nice cafe/BC car in use on some trains. But that does begs the question, will they also have the cafe now used? I think not. So that leaves us with service similar to the Silver Star- but without tables. I would expect sleeper fares to be lowered accordingly.
jis
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Assuming that the Club Dinette will replace a full Dinette and not be in addition to it.
Thirdrail7
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seat38a
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So I'm guessing the test run of LD Business Class on the Coast Starlight was a success and this is a result of that successful experiment.
I fully expect to see some brickbats flying between Amtrak and IP over "Business Class" on the two trains. Hopefully the two trains will get a "service notice" concerning the fact that the two offerings of the same "class" of service are light-years apart...
...which reminds me, I do need to come up with an excuse to spend a day or two in Chicago so I can take the Hoosier State again. God, that train is nice.
...which reminds me, I do need to come up with an excuse to spend a day or two in Chicago so I can take the Hoosier State again. God, that train is nice.
jis
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There is absolutely no basis for brickbats since AFAIK there was nothing in the various contracts preventing Amtrak from offering a BC service.
What I am curious about is what prevents Indiana and IP calling their BC whatever they like and simply say that the ticket will be for BC but the service provided is enhanced service to the Diamond Class standard or some such?
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