Preferences regarding the "Quiet Car"

[Kat Delta]

Next week, my husband and I are travelling to New York City on the Vermonter (Coach) for the first time - staying a few nights and returning the way we came. The amenities listed on our tickets include a "Quiet Car" and we are intrigued. We'll be on the train about 8 hours, so we plan to settle in with our books and maybe even catch a nice catnap, if possible. Thought I'd reach out to this helpful community for your overall recommendations. Is the car actually quiet? Where is it located along the car order? Does it tend to be more or less crowded than other cars?

 

[Steve4031]

It’s usually pretty quiet. A cellphone conversation will get shushed by other passengers and the crew. A conversation that’s too loud will get a similar reaction. Its usually at one end of the train.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Being on one end of the train helps to reduce foot traffic so that helps with the noise as well. I've certainly been in quiet cars on Amtrak and also in Europe where cell phone calls were still made, and small children were pretty loud, etc. so it's not a guarantee that it will actually be quiet - but you have better chances.

 

[John Santos]

If you want to have a call or discussion, you can always move to the vestibule or to a regular coach or diner or cafe or lounge (depending on what's available on a particular train.) This is only really an issue on a packed holiday train, in which case, politeness dictates hold your calls to your destination or (if there are any) getting off at a "smoking" stop, but be sure to make it quick and don't leave the platform! (One of the nicest features of train travel is you aren't stuck in your seat and can move around.)

 

[Rasputin]

My wife and I tried the quiet car on our first Acela trip a few years ago between Boston and DC. I assume it must vary from one crew to another but on that trip it was strictly enforced. Passengers were told to speak only at a whisper level and there was certainly no cell phone use. My wife went to another car when she needed to use her phone.

We found the restrictions in the quiet car to be a bit too confining and we have never used it since. We now always travel in a non-quiet car and it works out just fine. We prefer to be able to have a normal conversation between ourselves and sometimes with other passengers. Some passengers do use cell phones but we have never found the use to be annoying or objectionable.

I suggest that you might want to travel one way in a quiet car and the other way in a regular car and see which one you prefer. Hope you have a nice trip.

 

[Cal]

you can always move to the vestibule

In my experience crews do not like passengers being in the vestibule at all on single-level trains due to safety reasons.

 

[MARC Rider]

In my experience crews do not like passengers being in the vestibule at all on single-level trains due to safety reasons.

I don't know. On the Northeast Regionals, they're always making announcements not to hang out in the vestibule, but when I've gone into one to make a phone call, I've never been bothered by the conductors.

 

[zephyr17]

I don't know. On the Northeast Regionals, they're always making announcements not to hang out in the vestibule, but when I've gone into one to make a phone call, I've never been bothered by the conductors.

Ha! On the Cascades the conductors frequently announce that passengers should use the vestibule to make phone calls.

Amtrak's legendary consistency at work.

 

[Cal]

Ha! On the Cascades the conductors frequently announce that passengers should use the vestibule to make phone calls.

Amtrak's legendary consistency at work.

I haven’t been on an amfleet or a horizon in a long time, but am I correct to say that there’s no door between the vestibule and the gangway, but on the horizons there are? If so, that could be the reason. Or perhaps because PNW crews didn’t historically use many horizons, they just continued their practice of not caring about the vestibule versus the NEC which only uses single level.