How so? The only significant differences I can think of are the location of the toilet, and the bed folding into the wall Murphy style.
Lower priced Sleeper for single travelers
- Thread starter TheCrescent
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Well, as one who has traveled many thousands of miles in both Amtrak and VIA roomettes, I also much prefer VIA's traditional roomette for three primary reasons:
1. The bed is MUCH better. It is wider and roomier at the head. It has a real mattress. I find it much easier to sleep on VIA's roomette berth and my sleep is more restful. It is also at exactly the same level as the window, so I can look out at night without propping myself up or craning my neck. The "Murphy" style bed with the release lever is much easier to handle myself, rather than the pull and push at the same time and watch your fingers abominable Amtrak mechanism.
2. The solid door makes me able to completely darken the room for night viewing. That is impossible now on Amtrak since they have gotten rid of the old "blackout" style curtains and replaced them with much thinner ones, especially on the Superliner I refurbs with the nuclear dawn aisle lighting.
3. Actual opaque, traditional railroad pull-down window blind. When I know there is going to be a late night stop with a lot of light, such as a late zero dark thirty arrival in Winnipeg, I pull it down and the room remains completely dark and my sleep is not disturbed. As opposed to, say, Sacramento, where the brilliant platform lights flooding in through the thin curtains always wakes me up.
I don't care about the in room "combolet" toilet. At night, I mostly go down to washroom at the other end of the car to answer nature's call anyway like I do on Amtrak, so that is pretty much a wash for me.
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Mailliw
OBS Chief
Here's a really interesting design from a trio of Nordic universities. The dual module design is innovative, but it's the interior layout as a whole that intrigued me. Basically it's a capsule hotel style setup like Nightjet's new couchette cars, but with double units and most importantly for the North American market an ensuite accessible compartment. Be advised this a pdf file, I'm not sure how to just screenshot the floor plan.
"ADLNE project newsletter"
"ADLNE project newsletter"
crescent-zephyr
Engineer
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“This sample railcar contains 30 beds in single and dual-berth compartments.”
The viewliner I also has 30 beds, so this design does not add capacity.
ehbowen
Engineer
It's intriguing, but if I were in a position to "pull the trigger" on economy overnight service I'd opt for a modified Slumbercoach floor plan as suggested in my post up-thread. I could change my mind if someone were to build a prototype and it proved to be comfortable, practical, and popular with passengers.
crescent-zephyr
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Something I just noticed on this slumbercoach diagram - https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_pullman/id/3736
It says "upper double" and "lower double" - were these duplexed bedrooms? I didn't realize those existed, I thought the only duplex rooms were the singles.
It says "upper double" and "lower double" - were these duplexed bedrooms? I didn't realize those existed, I thought the only duplex rooms were the singles.
crescent-zephyr
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So taking out the H room... an all-roomettee Viewliner could probably hold 20 roomettes for a total of 40 beds.
Taking out the doubles, an all-single Slumbercoach could probably hold 36 rooms for a total of 36 beds.
I personally feel like the Amtrak Roomette is the ideal design that lets them sell the roomette for 1 or 2 people. It's not like the duplex rooms double the capacity of the car.
If it was easy for Amtrak to have different types of rolling stock, I suppose each train could have 1 Viewliner with H room, 2 bedrooms, and 18 duplexed solo rooms (vs. the 12 roomettes currently.) OR..... 6 roomettes on 1 side and 9 duplexed solo rooms on the other side?
Interesting ideas.
Taking out the doubles, an all-single Slumbercoach could probably hold 36 rooms for a total of 36 beds.
I personally feel like the Amtrak Roomette is the ideal design that lets them sell the roomette for 1 or 2 people. It's not like the duplex rooms double the capacity of the car.
If it was easy for Amtrak to have different types of rolling stock, I suppose each train could have 1 Viewliner with H room, 2 bedrooms, and 18 duplexed solo rooms (vs. the 12 roomettes currently.) OR..... 6 roomettes on 1 side and 9 duplexed solo rooms on the other side?
Interesting ideas.
Now that is an interesting design that I don't recall ever seeing before...perhaps just a concept? To my knowledge, no Slumbercoach ever has any beds cross-wise in a car...if it did, it would be sort of like a Pullman Duplex Single Room design, which were only in full Pullman cars with other Pullman types, not in a Slumbercoach.
chickpea
Train Attendant
Having spent many hours on European trains that share space with strangers, I still like it as a budget option. (The way 'youth' hostels vs hotels work?) But of course these days, with a pandemic still romping through the globe, that isn't ideal. I *really* want to try a sleeper up here in Canada, having only ridden VIA coach... but haven't the $$ or time yet.
