Sunset Limited

[harl222000]

http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/ink/AmtrakInk-031309.pdf

RPI 2009 To Target

Improvement Opportunities

"The 2009 RPI initiative is in full swing as a crosssection

of departments and individuals are engaged in

delivering route-level improvements to a number of corridor

and long-distance services. In Chicago, Seattle and

LosAngeles, representatives from Marketing and

Product Management, Strategic Partnerships, Labor

Relations,Transportation,Mechanical and Engineering

are evaluating route performance and targeting opportunities

for improvement."

Sunset Limited

"The Sunset Limited is one of a number of routes that is

buoying overall long-distance ridership and revenue totals.

Ridership and revenue are both around 20 percent higher

than the prior fiscal year.

Product Management Director Jack Rich and a team of

65, which includes department heads, on-site managers,

key employees and union officials fromWashington,D.C.,

New Orleans and LosAngeles, established an initial

punch list of more than 200 potential areas for change and

improvement.And, while Rich said his team will likely

focus on typical improvement areas like on-time performance

or higher CSI scores, he envisions that the process

"will put everything on the plate, with no prejudice."

Among the items for consideration are ensuring that

the proper amount of equipment and staffing is maintained;

implementing aggressive "green and clean"

initiatives; establishing marketing initiatives to target city

pairs; and launching station enhancements to increase patron

awareness and use.

"We need to re-engineer every aspect of this train.That means redirecting

everything —from food to

scheduling to marketing — so that it's more customer-oriented,"

said Rich. "We're conducting a total examination

of the existing model to better match customer expectations,

maximize revenue opportunities and get the most

out of this service."

Rich added that, "The recent significant improvement

in on-time performance for the Sunset Limited has provided

an opportunity to create momentum, as

performance indicators move in a positive direction on

this route.We have an opportunity to be the Petri dish for

unique innovations"

 

[henryj]

http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/ink/AmtrakInk-031309.pdf
RPI 2009 To Target

Improvement Opportunities

Sunset Limited

Product Management Director Jack Rich and a team of

65, which includes department heads, on-site managers,

key employees and union officials fromWashington,D.C.,

New Orleans and LosAngeles, established an initial

punch list of more than 200 potential areas for change and

improvement.And, while Rich said his team will likely

focus on typical improvement areas like on-time performance

or higher CSI scores, he envisions that the process

"will put everything on the plate, with no prejudice."

Among the items for consideration are ensuring that

the proper amount of equipment and staffing is maintained;

implementing aggressive "green and clean"

initiatives; establishing marketing initiatives to target city

pairs; and launching station enhancements to increase patron

awareness and use.

"We need to re-engineer every aspect of this train.That means redirecting

everything —from food to

scheduling to marketing — so that it's more customer-oriented,"

said Rich. "We're conducting a total examination

of the existing model to better match customer expectations,

maximize revenue opportunities and get the most

out of this service."

Rich added that, "The recent significant improvement

in on-time performance for the Sunset Limited has provided

an opportunity to create momentum, as

performance indicators move in a positive direction on

this route.We have an opportunity to be the Petri dish for

unique innovations"

This would be great news except it comes from Amtrak management and sounds to me like a lot of typical management speak and boiler plate. I can give them a quick "punch list" that they can start on right now. Things like a user friendly schedule, better times into Maricopa, San Antonio and Houston. A airport like shuttle connection to Phoenix. Daily service. Bring back the equipment that they stole to put on other trains. Restore the connection to Florida from New Orleans. And that just for starters. I hope they really plan to fix this fine train, but I am not holding my breath. Lets hope they don't plan to serve that "Petri Dish" in the diner.

Who is Jack Rich? How do you contact him? Will they be holding town hall like meetings along the route to get input from the riding public? There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

 

[henryj]

Here is our punch list:

SUNSET LIMITED SERVICE

ACTION PLAN FOR 2009-2010

IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE AMTRAK’S 2009 ROUTE PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE WE HAVE LISTED SOME OF THE IMPROVEMENTS WE THINK ARE NEEDED TO IMPROVE THE SUNSET LIMITED’S LEVEL OF SERVICE

PHASE I

These are suggested improvements that can be implemented in a short time frame with great benefit to the Sunset Limited’s service and minimal effort and expense on the part of Amtrak.

RESTORE SERVICE BETWEEN NEW ORLEANS AND ORLANDO

This requires no additional equipment as the necessary train set currently sits in New Orleans for three days with crew before returning west. Much of the traffic east of San Antonio and Houston was for destinations in Florida, primarily Orlando. Either restore the Sunset’s transcontinental status or implement a separate connecting train from New Orleans to Florida destinations.

SHUTTLE SERVICE BETWEEN PHOENIX AND MARICOPA

Contract for an airport type shuttle to service the Phoenix area connecting with the Sunset Limited at Maricopa. A shuttle service could make pickups and drops from multiple locations within the Phoenix area similar to what airport shuttle services do and provide a convenient, reliable, economical and guaranteed connection.

DAILY SERVICE

This is a necessity if this train is to survive and provide the kind of service expected of it by the communities it serves. There are currently four train sets assigned to the Sunset’s three times a week service. It only takes five sets to run it daily between Los Angeles and New Orleans and two more to run it all the way to Orlando.

SCHEDULE IMPROVEMENTS

Remove the padding added during the Union Pacific’s major construction project west of El Paso.

Restore the pre-Katrina timings with some adjustments.

Westbound: Earlier departure from New Orleans so as to reach San Antonio before Midnight. Early morning arrival in Los Angeles.

Eastbound: Late evening departure from Los Angeles with early morning arrival in Maricopa, Tucson and improved timing into San Antonio and Houston.

The goal here is to better serve the major metropolitan areas with more reasonable timings. San Antonio, Houston and Phoenix are suffering the most from the current schedule. San Antonio in particular is a major tourist draw attracting over 25 million visitors a year. Both Houston and Phoenix have populations exceeding 4-5 million.

Add additional stops in Texas to better serve the communities through which the train operates and offer boarding to and from suburban locations. Uvalde, Hondo, Seguin, Schulenburg and Rosenburg for instance. Proper studies could be done and facilities added to accomplish this. The idea is to get more communities involved and interested in rail service. Communities have little interest in a train that just blow through each day with stopping.

Better Time Keeping by the Host Railroads. With the winding down of UPRR’s major construction projects and the drop in freight traffic this should be easy to accomplish.

PHASE II

These represent easily doable projects, but ones that will take more investment of time and money on the part of Amtrak.

REFURBISHMENT OF EQUIPMENT

Why not develop a theme for the lounge and diner cars as was done with the Coast Starlight. Some possible themes, New Orleans French Quarter, Western or West Texas, El Paso & San Antonio possible Spanish theme, Orlando theme parks, Florida sun and beaches, etc.

ADDITIONAL CAPACITY

Add additional equipment to the rotation during the busy periods. Daily service will automatically more than double capacity. Adding additional cars during peak periods will boost ridership and availability.

ADDITIONAL THRU-WAY BUS CONNECTIONS

Add bus connections to expand market area and bring in more passengers.

Galveston - Houston

Austin - Houston

Corpus Christi – San Antonio

Baton Rouge – New Orleans

Albuquerque – El Paso

BETTER PROMOTION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE SUNSET

With daily service and more equipment it should be productive to implement more dynamic promotion for the train including travel magazines, TV adds, news releases and promotions as stations are rehabilitated.

PHASE III

These are long term projects that are necessary for the continued long term viability of rail service along this route.

New Station in Beaumont, Texas. Funds for this are included in the current stimulus package. Currently the station location is just a concrete slab.

Restore the track west of Phoenix and reroute through Phoenix. Work with AZDOT and UPRR to put the tracks west of Phoenix back in service and restore the tracks through Phoenix to passenger train speeds.

Replace Houston station with multi use intermodal facility. Houston Metro already has plans for a new intermodal facility to replace the existing small passenger station. New facility would include trains, buses and light rail connections.

New railroad bridge over Mobile Bay. Interstate 10 currently crosses directly accross Mobile Bay. The CSX tracks make a long detour north from Mobile and around the bay. A railroad bridge parallel to I10 would greatly shorten this route and speed up both freight and passenger service.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

I'm delighted to hear that they are going to work on Sunset's OTP, Especially since the arrival and departure times for such places as Pensacola, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Orlando are currently running several YEARS late.

 

[ourlouisiana]

Management has surely missed the boat coming to restore transcontinental service here. Now that UP has ceased it's constant delays, the eastbound #2 has been ahead of schedule most days arriving in Lafayette !!!!

There are many other issues mentioned that need to be addressed, but the Sunset, like the Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, and California Zephyr needs to be one of Amtrak's premier trains, not a cast off.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Why does everyone talk about the non-daily service like Amtrak recently discontinued it? The Sunset hasn't been daily since the Espee bullied the ICC into letting them make it try weekly in the 60s with the AutoMat cars and coach-only consist.

 

[jis]

Why does everyone talk about the non-daily service like Amtrak recently discontinued it? The Sunset hasn't been daily since the Espee bullied the ICC into letting them make it try weekly in the 60s with the AutoMat cars and coach-only consist.

This has indeed puzzled me too. I guess it is easier to blame the bad big government run Amtrak for all ills

 

[henryj]

Why does everyone talk about the non-daily service like Amtrak recently discontinued it? The Sunset hasn't been daily since the Espee bullied the ICC into letting them make it try weekly in the 60s with the AutoMat cars and coach-only consist.

This has indeed puzzled me too. I guess it is easier to blame the bad big government run Amtrak for all ills

Because daily service offers the traveling public more options and it adds capacity without adding any new cars to the consist. I don't think anyone on here blamed the "big bad government" or insinuated that Amtrak somehow did away with daily service, most just want improved service. Most of the territory though which the Sunset runs has only the one train three times a week as a rail option. Amtrak only has two trains left that do not run daily, the Sunset and the Cardinal. What amazes me is that no matter what the SP did to the train, people still showed up to ride it and they were never able to discontinue it. Amtrak and the UP in the last few years have again treated this train like a step child that no one cared about, but it is still sold out on many occasions. So there is obviously a 'need' there for the service. Hopefully Amtrak management will fix all the problems with the service, most of which they created and bring back the extra capacity that they, Amtrak, reduced, by transferring equipment to other trains after Katrina.

 

[Guest]

Daily Daily Daily is or should be the number 1 priority. Use single deck coaches if not enough Superliners. Use single deck on the Cardinal, then use

the Cardinal Supereliners for a daily Sunset.

 

[mercedeslove]

Love to see them restore the trip from NOL to Orlando. That would rule.

 

[AlanB]

Daily Daily Daily is or should be the number 1 priority. Use single deck coaches if not enough Superliners. Use single deck on the Cardinal, then usethe Cardinal Supereliners for a daily Sunset.

The Cardinal has been using single level equipment now for several years, so there is no Superliner equipment to be taken from the Cardinal. It's long gone.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Love to see them restore the trip from NOL to Orlando. That would rule.

More than that I would like them to restore it all the way to Miami.

 

[jis]

Daily Daily Daily is or should be the number 1 priority. Use single deck coaches if not enough Superliners. Use single deck on the Cardinal, then usethe Cardinal Supereliners for a daily Sunset.

I agree that daily is the way to go. The problem currently is lack of equipment to some extent. Cardinal has been single level for a while now so there are no Superliners to milk out of that one. In general there is a more severe shortage of single level LD cars at present than of Superliners. That is why the first upcoming car order is going to be for single level LD cars.

 

[Bill631]

I too believe that the Sunset Ltd. should be daily.

But I have one question. If Amtrak splits the Sunset into two trains and decides to restore service between NOLA and Orlando, how might Amtrak possibly schedule it?

If there was a separate train between those two cities, what factors would Amtrak consider in deciding what time the train departs/arrives? It would be great if they scheduled it inorder to make connections with other trains in FL and/or NOLA.

So, would anyone hazard a guess as to what the schedule might be?

Bill

 

[Guest]

Daily Daily Daily is or should be the number 1 priority. Use single deck coaches if not enough Superliners. Use single deck on the Cardinal, then usethe Cardinal Supereliners for a daily Sunset.

The Cardinal has been using single level equipment now for several years, so there is no Superliner equipment to be taken from the Cardinal. It's long gone.

Ahhh, I got my trains mixed up. It's the Capital limited with the Superliners.

Jis, I believe the Capital limited uses 3 trainsets of Superliners. 3 single deck trainset are needed. They could have used the 26 that was rusting away in NO.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

Daily Daily Daily is or should be the number 1 priority. Use single deck coaches if not enough Superliners. Use single deck on the Cardinal, then usethe Cardinal Supereliners for a daily Sunset.

The Cardinal has been using single level equipment now for several years, so there is no Superliner equipment to be taken from the Cardinal. It's long gone.

Ahhh, I got my trains mixed up. It's the Capital limited with the Superliners.

Jis, I believe the Capital limited uses 3 trainsets of Superliners. 3 single deck trainset are needed. They could have used the 26 that was rusting away in NO.

You're gonna take a whole trainset away from the CL just to restore service like that? <_<

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Because daily service offers the traveling public more options and it adds capacity without adding any new cars to the consist. I don't think anyone on here blamed the "big bad government" or insinuated that Amtrak somehow did away with daily service, most just want improved service. Most of the territory though which the Sunset runs has only the one train three times a week as a rail option. Amtrak only has two trains left that do not run daily, the Sunset and the Cardinal. What amazes me is that no matter what the SP did to the train, people still showed up to ride it and they were never able to discontinue it. Amtrak and the UP in the last few years have again treated this train like a step child that no one cared about, but it is still sold out on many occasions. So there is obviously a 'need' there for the service. Hopefully Amtrak management will fix all the problems with the service, most of which they created and bring back the extra capacity that they, Amtrak, reduced, by transferring equipment to other trains after Katrina.

I'm not commenting on the advantages of daily service. I'm commenting on people acting like this is some kind of breaking news that the Sunset runs tri-weekly. Its ran tri-weekly for nearly 40 years now. I want every route served multiple times a day. Its just not possible right now, and historically the Sunset has been a relative poor performer, even in the dark days of the mid 90s where even the CZ and EB ran tri-weekly. If we make the Sunset daily between even JAX and LAX the equipment would have to come off of something else. We don't have spare equipment for LD trains laying around, dude.

If I ran Amtrak and its funding, they'd place an order monday morning for:

Western Long-distance

A) 140 Superliner III 14-5-1-1 sleepers

B) 100 Superliner III 26-1 roomette Slumbercoaches

C) 50 Superliner III dining cars

D) 50 Superliner III Sightseer Lounges

E) 20 Superliner III Diner/Lounge (half diner, half sightseer lounge, for less dense trains)

F) 70 Superliner III coach bags

G) 70 Superliner III Trans/dorm Slumbercoach

H) 280 Superliner III coaches

I) 100 Superliner III Parlor first class lounge cars

Creating 70 new sets, with an average of 1 Trans/dorm Slumbercoach, 1 Slumbercoach, 4 coach cars, coach/bag, lounge, diner, Parlor and 2 sleeping cars.

Eastern Long-distance

A) 100 Viewliner II 10-4-1 sleepers

B) 50 Viewliner II 24-8 Slumbercoach cars

C) 50 Viewliner II baggage cars

D) 50 Viewliner II Dorm/FirstClass Lounge cars

E) 50 Viewliner II Sightseer Lounge cars

F) 50 Viewliner II dining cars,

G) 250 Viewliner II coach cars

Thereby giving Amtrak a total of 50 single-level train sets consisting of baggage, dorm/lounge, 3 sleepers, Slumbercoach, diner, lounge, and 5 coaches.

Short-distance/High Speed

A) 250 bi-level SD coaches

B) 50 bi-level SD cafe cars

C) 60 high-speed "Metroliner II" DMU sets by TALGO for use on the Hiawatha (to MN-STP), Wolverine/Bluewater, and Lincoln/Missouri routes

D) 30 high-speed "Metroliner II" DEMU sets by TALGO for use in "Metroliner Express" service positioned where Acela was and running BOS to NPN.

In five years time:

A) The Horizons would be sold or scrapped.

B) The Amfleets would go to increasing NEC frequencies manifold for lower speed, lower cost service, will ALL trains originating in BOS and going to NPN, CLT, LYH, or Fayettesville, some via the Inland Route, and routed through the various possible routings to maximize coverage.

C) The Acelas would be consigned to Keystone service originating in BOS, with an eye to retirement by 2020.

D) All midwest routes would be operated by bi-level triains.

E) All trains but the Metroliners will have their own names, with a shared name branding- Ex. "Keystone Flyer", "Keystone Sunrise", "Keystone Sunset", or "Merchants Regional"

F) Keystone Corridor will be extended to Pittsburgh, which will be electrified.

In addtion, I'd make the following changes to long-distance:

A) Sunset Limited goes daily.

B) Cardinal goes daily

C) Silver Palm and Silver Champion trains will operate to Florida. One will use the FEC, and another will use the S line.

D) Windy City Flyer, using Amfleet II equipment, will operate over the Broadway for daytime service to Chicago.

E) Broadway Limited will be WCFs overnight equivlent

F) Commodore Vanderbilt will provide dayime service to Chicago over the Water Level Route, AMFII equipment.

G) Erie Limited and Phoebe Snow will provide day and night service respectively to Chicago via the former Erie-Lackawanna route, which will be rebuilt for higher speed.

H) National Limited will be restored via the Capitol Limited's routing to PGH, and then will run through the fastest possible routing to STL.

I) the Niagara Rainbow will provide overnight service to Detroit via Windsor.

J) Overnight service will resume to both Montreal and Toronto.

K) Spirit Of California running overnight LAX to EMY via SAC will return using Tehachapi Pass, as well as a California Limited doing it during the day.

L) Floridian restored.

M) Texas Chief restored

N) Second and third frequencies over Southwest Chief route called Chief and El Capitan respectively, leaving Chicago in the morning, noon, and evening periods.

O) If BNSF will allow it, Southwest Chief will become a premier train and will be renamed Super Chief.

P) North Coast Hiawatha restored.

Q) North Star restored.

R) SAS-SEA train.

S) 12-hour offset second frequency on Coast Starlight route.

T) City of New Orleans will be renamed Panama Limited and maintain schedule. A train that will run to Memphis during the day and arrive in NOL early in the morning will get the name City of New Orleans

U) Crescent will be renamed "Crescent Limited" and rerouted to more closely follow its old Southern route.

V) A train to be named Southerner will replace the Crescent on its current routing.

W) Gulf Breeze will be restored BHM-MOB.

X) Gulf Wind will be intended to connect with Sunset Limited and will run from NOL to MIA

Y) Gulf Coast Limited will provide a second frequency NOL-MIA with a twelve hour offset.

Lastly,

Desert Wind and Pioneer will be restored- but as seperate operating trains, providing three frequencies to Denver and two to Salt Lake City, daily. A fourth train, the Denver Zephyr will run seasonally to provide a 4th frequency to Denver

But the money isn't there for it.

Daily Daily Daily is or should be the number 1 priority. Use single deck coaches if not enough Superliners. Use single deck on the Cardinal, then usethe Cardinal Supereliners for a daily Sunset.

The Cardinal has been using single level equipment now for several years, so there is no Superliner equipment to be taken from the Cardinal. It's long gone.

Ahhh, I got my trains mixed up. It's the Capital limited with the Superliners.

Jis, I believe the Capital limited uses 3 trainsets of Superliners. 3 single deck trainset are needed. They could have used the 26 that was rusting away in NO.

Dude, you have no idea what you are talking about. Those things are short distance sets. The limitations for LD service are diners, baggages and sleepers. Amfleets or Horizons can (and have been in the past) configured for long-distance service. Coach cars are not the problem.

Also, they aren't rusting- they are made of Stainless Steel, which doesn't rust.

 

[ourlouisiana]

We LOVE your idea !!!

Since Amtrak is going to get so much money from the stimulus package, maybe they'll do that.

OK, now that our happy pills are wearing off..... but it is still a good idea. Any other country our size would have done it, mass transit for the peoples.

 

[Neil_M]

D) 30 high-speed "Metroliner II" DEMU sets by TALGO for use in "Metroliner Express" service positioned where Acela was and running BOS to NPN.

So why bother with diesel traction when most of that route is electrified anyway?

Given that route would seem to be the most revenue heavy then why bother carrying on using "high speed" trains when Boston to Washington is the route to utilise your best trains on?

Your spending plan seems overall to be more of the same (and a odd obsession with 'slumbercoaches') and several steps backward.

That's the trouble with getting foamers running railroads!

 

[Guest]

Green, the Sunset has been around for over 100 years. Can the CZ and EB say that?

The Sunset limited will be around long after the CZ and EB have crumble to dust....

 

[henryj]

D) 30 high-speed "Metroliner II" DEMU sets by TALGO for use in "Metroliner Express" service positioned where Acela was and running BOS to NPN.

So why bother with diesel traction when most of that route is electrified anyway?

Given that route would seem to be the most revenue heavy then why bother carrying on using "high speed" trains when Boston to Washington is the route to utilise your best trains on?

Your spending plan seems overall to be more of the same (and a odd obsession with 'slumbercoaches') and several steps backward.

That's the trouble with getting foamers running railroads!

I agree 'dude', if only we could get some common sense on here it would be so refreshing.......dude. dude dude dude dude. What is a green mained lion anyway, dude.

 

[Ispolkom]

Your spending plan seems overall to be more of the same (and a odd obsession with 'slumbercoaches') and several steps backward.That's the trouble with getting foamers running railroads!

Call me a foamer, but I always liked the slumbercoaches, as an inexpensive way for a solo traveler to get a sleeper, much better than couchettes or open sections. Okay, I'll admit that it was odd to sit facing the toilet, but I think they worked well on routes I rode like Boston to Washington, or Washington to Atlanta. I can't imagine them on a longer route, but for single level trains east of the Mississippi I thought they were a pretty good option, even if we did call them "coffin cars."

I'll admit that the idea of a double-decker Superliner slumbercoach is a bit terrifying, though.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

you don't like sleeping with your head near the commode but you do it in a viewliner roomette so whats the problem?

 

[Green Maned Lion]

So why bother with diesel traction when most of that route is electrified anyway? Given that route would seem to be the most revenue heavy then why bother carrying on using "high speed" trains when Boston to Washington is the route to utilise your best trains on?

Your vast knowledge of American travel patterns must lead you to this conclusion. Can I see your back up research?

The reason for them being dual-mode MUs is not just to allow them to run from Washington to Richmond (A big city, and arguably part of the BosWash) and on to NPN, but to give them flexibility to operate throughout the system. They do not become useless if there is catenary failure. They can be rerouted over the inland route- instead of sitting idle useless like the Acela sets did when the bridgework went on last summer. They can continue in a power outage. They can transverse off the system and provide high speed service on the Corridor without requiring travelers to transfer or wait for an engine change.

I'm not foaming. I'm being practical. If I was being a foamer, I'd be arguing against high-speed service. I personally have no use for it.

Your spending plan seems overall to be more of the same (and a odd obsession with 'slumbercoaches') and several steps backward.That's the trouble with getting foamers running railroads!

In europe, you call the concept a "couchette". I'm referring to budget sleeping car accommodations. In Europe, where people have less privacy issues than in the US, the couchette works. Here, people want their privacy. Therefore, the low-cost sleeping car accommodations should be private. I call them Slumbercoaches so that people grasp my idea, not because I am talking about ancient Budd cars.

Green, the Sunset has been around for over 100 years. Can the CZ and EB say that?The Sunset limited will be around long after the CZ and EB have crumble to dust....

Puh-lease. Don't insult the Sunset Limited in its glory with that statement. The train running between NOL and LAX is not the Sunset Limited. It is just a train bearing that name running on the Sunset Route. I could argue that the EB is older, since service via GN commenced prior to the Sunset Route's completion, under the name Orient Limited.

The Broadway Limited was a much more special train than the Sunset ever was. Its gone. The train deserving of that name died in 1968. Trains going by that name died in 1995. Overnight service on that route ended in 2004.

And people accuse me of foaming!

I agree 'dude', if only we could get some common sense on here it would be so refreshing.......dude. dude dude dude dude. What is a green mained lion anyway, dude.

I'm using a lot of common sense. I'd like you to give me an example- just one- where I'm not.

I'll admit that the idea of a double-decker Superliner slumbercoach is a bit terrifying, though.

If you consider the room count, you'd notice its not that kind of slumbercoach. It would actually be a de-amenitied Superliner with 20 roomettes on the upper floor, 6 roomettes on the lower floor (taking the family room), and one handicapped room. I'd kill the car attendant concept, make the beds easier to operate, and charge less money for the room, and also not include meals. A classic Slumbercoach configuration in a Superliner is beyond my mechanical comprehension.

 

[AlanB]

you don't like sleeping with your head near the commode but you do it in a viewliner roomette so whats the problem?

Unless you are completely remaking the bed, then you don't sleep with your head next to the commode in a Viewliner roomette. You're feet are next to the commode. The bed is actually tapered so that it's wider on the side farthest from the commode for your upper body, and narrow for your feet at the end by the commode.