Penn Station NYC to Niagara Falls Canada on Jul-2-10

[Nathanael]

The restrooms (two of them in our car) were absolutely DISGUSTING by about 2 hours into the trip. I know that Amtrak canât prevent people from being outright pigs, but it would be helpful if staff could routinely do a check of the toilet facilities and do some cleaning up, if required. Even my husband was complaining about people urinating all over the seats, seat lids and floors.

BTW ~ as a result of the filty conditions caused by inconsiderate slobs on this train, my husband emphatically announced that he will NEVER do an overnight trip unless we are in a bedroom with a private toilet, as we have had for our two overnight trips thus far. No Roomettes for us.

Bathrooms in coach can get pretty nasty. God forbid it is crowded and there is a problem with the equipment.

In the sleeping cars, I have always found the bathrooms to be pretty clean. Maybe they get less use, or maybe the sleeping car passengers tend to be more sanitary.

Less use, first and foremost. A Superliner sleeper has 4 bathrooms serving 15 rooms (max 31 people, often less if people get roomettes single-occupancy), so less than 8 people per bathroom. A Superliner coach has 5 bathrooms serving max 74 people, so less than 15 people per bathroom. An Amfleet coach has 2 bathrooms serving 30 people, so less than 15 people per bathroom. The "new Viewliners" will have 2 bathrooms serving max 21 people, so less than 11 people per bathroom.
The difference between the number of people per bathroom is substantial. If you assume 75% occupancy, the Amfleet coach will still have nearly 12 people per bathroom, while the "new Viewliner" will have only 8.

In short, when Amtrak orders new long-distance coaches, it needs to increase the number of bathrooms. 3 bathrooms per Amfleet coach would help tremendously.

 

[jis]

In short, when Amtrak orders new long-distance coaches, it needs to increase the number of bathrooms. 3 bathrooms per Amfleet coach would help tremendously.

But PRIIA 305-003/Amtrak 964 Technical Specification clearly states that the requirement is 2 toilet facilities per car with at least one ADA compliant one.

Frankly, the way that the toilets are currently arranged in Amfleets, just for the taking of a little bit of floor baggage space, one could accommodate two of the toilet modules that will be used in Viewliner Sleepers on one side of the car, and have the ADA facility opposite those. This could be done without impinging on the seating area at all. To account for the baggage space lost, they could put a floor rack in the floor baggage space this increasing its capacity by a factor of at least two.

I guess it is time to shoot off a message to NARP and see if they'd chase this one.

 

[AlanB]

Warning, this is a 3 year old topic!