Smokers-There is hope!

[Guest]

I think your $1000 will be replaced by those non-smokers who want to travel on Amtrak. Give yourself a break and try to stop the habit.....I did it cold-turkey immediately after my wife died of lung cancer. You can do it!

 

[AmtrakWPK]

And you'll save enough money from not having to buy smokes that you can get a free train trip a year from it, at least. Not to mention how your health will improve, and reduce your medical bills, and you can start actually tasting your food again, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.....

 

[Viewliner]

I agree, that's the absolute truth, I know its one of the most difficult things to do, but also the most sensible. It's money that can be spent on more rides on the train, or whatever else you want. I can understand one being upset, because of restrictions, but in this case its for the health and comfort of others...a majority of passengers...nonsmokers. I enjoy being able to have a lounge that I can sit in and smell nothing other than what I order, or nothing, whatever the case may be, much like having a Full Amfleet I Lounge with all booths going home on New Years Eve/day. I'd love to see the Amfleet II's converted to all booths, a la Amfleet I Lounges. I enjoyed last year having an unrefurbished lounge without the smoke...it was easier finding a table and a comfortable atmosphere. It used to be I'd hate getting the original lounges, because back when I started using Amtrak in 1999, it was all open, and you could smell the smoke, even when it wasn't a designated time to do so.

The bottom line is the end, more people benefit, and less have to suffer now. I respect you for trying to make an effort, though I may not agree with you...it's what our ideals as a nation are all about. However, like the others, I encourage you to quit, and enjoy what we all are now...the clean air, and our health.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

It's ironic - in new construction, I think CO (Carbon Monoxide) detectors are more and more being required to be installed. If you had one installed in your lungs, it would go off every single time you smoked a cigarette. CO bonds to the blood cells that ordinarily pick up the oxygen from your lungs and deliver it throughout your body. Each CO molecule that binds with a blood cell "captures" that blood cell for an extended period of time and prevents that blood cell from helping to oxygenate the rest of your body. You are breathing just fine but you are also suffocating because that oxygen can't get to your body. Get enough CO in you and you die. Get just some CO and it reduces the effeciency of everything your body does, including think. For many thousands of people, "Cancer Cures Smoking" is a valid catchphrase. If you are a pilot in an unpressurized airplane, and you have smoked recently, it increases the effective cabin altitude and gives you hypoxia at a lower altitude than it would a non-smoker. Your judgment and coordination fall away much faster per thousand feet of altitude than for a non-smoker. If I were a railroad, I would prohibit smoking by the crew completely, but most especially for any crews at high altitudes, like Donner Pass. For ALL smokers, the CO - poisoning is an immediate and rarely considered side effect. And of course there's the usually-denied addiction to nicotine which itself is both an extremely potent alkaloid poison, and very, very addictive. The strangth and tenacity of that monkey on your back is testimony to the strength of the addiction

 

[savetheCZ]

I wonder on a consistent basis why it is that smokers think it's thier god given right to force others to breathe their rank habit. Smoking is a choice however I am not given a choice when I have to walk through a cloud entering any building. I can't choose not to breathe when I'm forced to stand near some smoker while waiting for a local train most often I'm forced to move elsewhere. Both of my folks smoked when I was a kid and as a result I have severe chronic asthma caused by my exposure. I have never been a smoker. Way to go Amtrak! I for one would also like to see the tobacco subsidies (both farmer subsidies and healthcare costs) to more fully funding Amtrak.

 

[Fed Up smoker]

If smoking is that bad then why not just make it illegal? As for Amtrak since they banned smoking on all the trains I just don't bother to use Amtrak anymore but drive instead. I guess they can do without my business.

 

[444 Marlin]

TexaBit started a very good thread on this topic, and I would like to add my two cents worth, I agree with him totally. We took Amtrak for the first time ever, June 29, 2005 out of Okla Cit. The Hearland Flyer. They stopped at the disginated stops to let the smokers, smoke. Now it ain`t a big deal, cause they have to stop anyhow to let passengers off and take on new passengers, so it AIN`T NO BIG DEAL. No, I dont smoke, but the wife does.

However from Ft. Worth on, it was a different story. There was one particular drunk that bothered everybody. You seen the type before, doesn`t want to drink along. Always trying to get someone to take a drink, especially the women. Then there was another drunk that had made a pass at a 14 year old girl, and the conductor didnt kick him off, like I felt he should have. But instead keeped an eye on him.

So what I`m trying to say is, the drunks or worse than the smokers. Besides that, they had a smokers car on the train, next to the engine, but no one was allowed to use it except for the employees. h34r:

So I say let them bring back the smoker cars for the smokers. Whats the big deal.

444 Marlin

 

[battalion51]

The big deal is the cars weren't designed to contain the smoke very well, it requires two seperate ventilation systems to do the job right, the Superliners only had one. It's also an issue of making sure each train had one, if it didn't you were in a pretty sticky situation. Finally the cleaning costs on the air filters and components was very high. I think the current works pretty well except for the chain smokers.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

You don't get cancer from secondhand alcohol breath. If they misbehave, kick them off the train. Plus, all the materials in a "smoking car" are going to soak up that stench and that tar, and that in turn causes premature failure of electronics and electrical equipment, and so forth, not to mention how it scuzzes up upholstery fabric, carpeting, and so forth, and makes it stink.. I'm not kidding about that, either. I worked in two-way radio repair for quite awhile, and you could tell by the equipment itself which owners smoked. If you washed a smoker's radio equipment down with 409, you got rivers of brown goo from it. And that's just from the stuff that was exhaled by the smoker. After seeing that it amazes me that people don't die even quicker from it than they do. That stuff attached itself as sticky brown coatings to the electronics components inside and accelerated failures.

If you smoke, stop. If you don't smoke, don't start. Don't try to find schemes to get the rest of us to put up with it.

 

[Midland Valley]

I noticed that on the Eagle both ways the car I was in had a smoking lounge where usually the lower seating is. If they have it fixed for direct exhaust to the outside so the smoke doesn't enter the rest of the car, I'd say let them use it. It is sad though that when you go outside to stretch your legs to see so many very young people smoking. I understand those who started before evrything we know today, but the kids?

 

[Trogdor]

For what it's worth, as of this morning Amtrak is down to five Superliner smoking coach cars (the rest have been converted to coach-baggage cars). Four of them were out of service for various reasons (and it's possible that one or two of them were out of service to be converted to baggage cars). While I don't know the official timeline, I'd wager a guess that they'll all be gone by year's end.

Smoking cars ain't coming back, folks.

 

[Guest_Amtrak OBS Employee]

For what it's worth,
Smoking cars ain't coming back, folks.

Ditto.........We also need to move on and get over this folks! Amtrak's decision to go non smoking is an old one! All regular travelers should be well aware of this by now! And it is the passenger's responsibility to read the literature included within their ticket jacket or the train info within the schedule, etc.

Smokers, either travel with us and refrain from your habit and respect Amtrak's decision here (i e sneaking puffs onboard)! Or simply utilize another form of transportation such as your own automobile. Then you can smoke at your heart's content! Do so on the train, and when you are caught you will be removed! That can mess up your trip! Plain and simple here folks! Have a good day. OBS... B)

 

[battalion51]

I think my friend Jimmy said it best to my friend John, "John you fire off those magnums, you have one for me too."