Coast Starlight "Business Class"

[TinCan782]

A thread has started on Train Orders about this topic. IIRC, this subject has been brought up before.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3768872,3768872#msg-3768872

 

[CHamilton]

Yes, it's been in the works for some time. It's good to see that it's finally happening. It will be interesting to see how successful it is.

 

[Train2104]

The one thing that's confusing me is that it's starting on June 22 (i.e. a little over a week from now) and the space hasn't been opened for sale yet. So where will the customers come from for the first few weeks?

 

[Steve4031]

Did they actually put new seats in? I could go for it if I paid a premium and had two seats to myself.

 

[Acela150]

Let's walk before we can run... The OP of the topic over there has a history of hit and miss info.

 

[afigg]

The one thing that's confusing me is that it's starting on June 22 (i.e. a little over a week from now) and the space hasn't been opened for sale yet. So where will the customers come from for the first few weeks?

People who are buying tickets on shorter notice. We will see if BC is added as an option to the CS reservations in the next several days. Amtrak modified the cars to put in BC seats, so the trial period for the new BC service is probably at least a couple of years.

 

[Anderson]

This also wouldn't be the first time Amtrak had tweaked a service offering at relatively short notice. The Silver Star bit was done weeks in advance, but that was likely to avoid a passenger mutiny of some sort more than anything.

 

[TylerP42]

Aw, they took away the arcade cars? I've always wanted to see one in person...

 

[Bob Dylan]

Aw, they took away the arcade cars? I've always wanted to see one in person...

You didn't miss much! The games were old,were in poor shape and it sort of looked like a low budget arcade from the 70s!!!

 

[afigg]

This also wouldn't be the first time Amtrak had tweaked a service offering at relatively short notice. The Silver Star bit was done weeks in advance, but that was likely to avoid a passenger mutiny of some sort more than anything.

What is happening with the diner cars on the Silver Star is a service change/downgrade. BC on the Coast Starlight is a new service and it appears that Amtrak is doing close to a "soft" open with a public announcement probably being made this week. With only 12 BC seats, won't take that much demand to fill the seats.

Still, with 2 daytime city/metro region pairs on the route - LA to San Jose/Bay Area and Seattle to Portland - offering the opportunity to turn seats over 2 or even 3 times on 1 trip, I think the BC seats will prove to be a solid source of additional revenue with minimal additional cost to provide it,

 

[Blackwolf]

I'm all over this. With several trips to and from Sacramento and the Bay Area to work with a tattoo artist in San Francisco, this gives me the prime opportunity to check this BC option out first hand. I'll report what I find, if I can get a ticket!

 

[seat38a]

I'm all over this. With several trips to and from Sacramento and the Bay Area to work with a tattoo artist in San Francisco, this gives me the prime opportunity to check this BC option out first hand. I'll report what I find, if I can get a ticket!

It would make sense to add a BC option. It would make the blend with the corridor service more appealing since both the Surfliner and Cascades offers it but CS does not and where a sleeper is overkill for short distances.

 

[TiBike]

It would make the blend with the corridor service more appealing since both the Surfliner and Cascades offers it but CS does not and where a sleeper is overkill for short distances.

That's a great point. I use the CS between Salinas and LA, and this would be a very attractive option. The CS can and should be doing double duty as a corridor train -- it runs nearly the length of the Capitol Corridor too (all except the one train to/from Auburn). To bring it up to the same level as the corridor trains, though, it needs to handle roll on bikes, at all the stations.

 

[fairviewroad]

Aw, they took away the arcade cars? I've always wanted to see one in person...

You didn't miss much! The games were old,were in poor shape and it sort of looked like a low budget arcade from the 70s!!!

Actually, if it truly looked like a low-budget arcade from the 70's, that would have been hugely popular. There's a lot of demand

for retro arcade games like Pong, Space Invaders or Pac-Man.

IMO the CS arcade looked like a low budget arcade from the 90's. Old enough to be dingy and dumpy, but not old enough to be cool.

 

[seat38a]

It would make the blend with the corridor service more appealing since both the Surfliner and Cascades offers it but CS does not and where a sleeper is overkill for short distances.

That's a great point. I use the CS between Salinas and LA, and this would be a very attractive option. The CS can and should be doing double duty as a corridor train -- it runs nearly the length of the Capitol Corridor too (all except the one train to/from Auburn). To bring it up to the same level as the corridor trains, though, it needs to handle roll on bikes, at all the stations.

That would be a nice option. Maybe they can swap one of the Superliner / Baggage Combo coaches on the Surfliner and use the lower level for bikes. Having to box your bike for the baggage car just makes it not worth it.

 

[TiBike]

That would be a nice option. Maybe they can swap one of the Superliner / Baggage Combo coaches on the Surfliner and use the lower level for bikes. Having to box your bike for the baggage car just makes it not worth it.

The Viewliner II baggage cars will have bike racks for roll on service. That's half the battle. The other half is being able to bring/retrieve your bike at non-baggage stations. That's fixable if there's the will to fix it. You're right, just having one car with corridor-grade equipment would solve it.

 

[Braniff747SP]

That memo said nothing of the hard product -- is it just a standard coach seat with more stuff included in the fare? If so, the only worthwhile one is the WiFi -- but if it's like the other Amtrak Connect set-ups, the folks in the upper level of the car will have access too...

 

[seat38a]

That memo said nothing of the hard product -- is it just a standard coach seat with more stuff included in the fare? If so, the only worthwhile one is the WiFi -- but if it's like the other Amtrak Connect set-ups, the folks in the upper level of the car will have access too...

Not unless they are handing out WiFi passwords. They do this in the PPC.

DSC00154 by Brian H, on Flickr

But they are going to have to change it around often especially if it gets posted.