ummm.....toilets on long-distance train cars

[AlanB]

A person with a wheel chair who under stands how things work, could request that at a stop they be allowed to transfer from coach or a sleeper to the SSL until the next stop where they would transfer back to their assigned car. Hence the need for the accessible restroom.

In practice this doesn't happen too often, since one could be stuck in the lounge car for hours in some instances before the train reached the next stop. But the idea is that this is an option, and it is an option that under ADA rules must be offered and available.

Isn't it more likely to be that the Superliner is basically one design but built in different variants, and it was easier to fit the same bathrooms on other Superliner cars than specially design another one that wasn't accessible (think of the costs of design work, of different parts etc).

Absolutely not. As noted by OBS, the Superliner I's don't have an accessible restroom. Additionally the Superliner sleepers don't have an accessible bathroom, only an accessible sleeping compartment that has an accessible toilet within the room.

 

[June the Coach Rider]

As you can see in the diagram, the Superliner Sightseer Lounge (SSL) does have an accessible restroom on the lower level. The dining car doesn't.

Whoever designed and/or signed off on an accessible toilet on the lower level that can only be accessed by navigating a set of winding, narrow stairs is a genius!

Or did they just mean accessible as in available and not accessible as in design?

Umm are you guys forgetting there are seats and sleeper rooms on the lower level in Superliners? A person who requires access to an accessible restroom would probably be in a wheelchair, and as such, not expected to be on the upper level, so the question of negotiating narrow winding stairs does not arise. The location of accessible toilet on Superliner cars is perfect for the purpose it serves.

People that need the "accessible" restroom, do not have to be in wheelchairs, there are disabled people, like myself that are mobility impaired that can walk, we can do stairs, it is the up and down from the seating position that requires the accessibility of the restroom. So the steriotype of "people needing the accessible restroom probably are in a wheelchair" is not even close.

June,

You are quite correct and I wasn't trying to stereotype anything, just provide an example of why it was done. Nonetheless, my apologies.

Alan, I am sorry if you thought I was referencing you, I should have quoted in the first post what I was refering to. I have quoted it here. I appreciate the apology though. I understand that some people assume that just because you have no outward signs of a mobility disability that you are not.

 

[AlanB]

Are some of the downstairs lounge accessible bathrooms ever really blocked off? Doesn't make sense.

Yes, many times the LSA working the cafe car will lock it and pretend that it's out of order, just so they don't have to clean it.

 

[MiRider]

I'm going to assume that June is referencing my post, I don't feel like quoting all of that again.

I'm far from unsympathetic, being that I have a daughter who is an above the knee amputee who is still learning how to get around without falling.

You'd never know it if you saw her so I'm well aware of unseen disabilites

In all of my train trips, I've only seen that SSL restroom open twice and one of those times, it would have been convenient to use it but it was jammed full of stuff and a garbage box.

I sure wouldn't tell my daughter to make her way down there just to find it closed or full of junk.

They also tend to put one of those big cardboard garbage boxes in the regular accessible bathrooms for some reason but you can still move around it.

Those stairs are bad whether you have mobility issues or not.

Better to use the restrooms in your car where you can be assured that there will be one available, that way your stair adventure won't be in vain.

Potties for everyone!

 

[one-trip-only]

Re: a restroom on the SSL: you know, I'm thinking that yeah, I'm a newbie, but.....this is the kind of thing that should be basic and available and advertised as such (barring unforeseen mechanical breakdowns, which can happen in any mode of travel I realize). But the way y'all are talking, this particular "amenity" is frequently unavailable due to.....staff laziness?

I know I'm a spoiled American, but still.....one useable toilet, in a long-distance car capable of servicing what? Fifty or more customers? And I'm paying big bucks (for me) for sleeper-car "first-class" accomodations, and the toilet in the SSL may or may not be available? (I realize I have other toilet options, walking to my room/car). Still.....

It seems I am both ahead of the curve (using Amtrak) and behind it (Amtrak needs to provide the amenities appropriate to what they're charging). I haven't been on here (researching Amtrak) long enough to understand the reasoning.....

But I worked for the USPS for 32 years, so I guess I need to extrapolate the ridiculous staffing and reasoning I saw all those years to the Amtrak model of business.

It's Congress, isn't it? I understand now, thinking about how the gov't messes with my former line of work.

But still - bathrooms - they should be basic. It should be a given that a toilet should be available to patrons on any long-distance SSL car (I think, anyway.....)

 

[Ryan]

There are rarely that many people in that particular car, and it's no big deal at all to walk the couple dozen feet into the next car and use the restrooms there.

It really isn't the big deal that you're making it out to be...

 

[jsreeves]

There are rarely that many people in that particular car, and it's no big deal at all to walk the couple dozen feet into the next car and use the restrooms there.
It really isn't the big deal that you're making it out to be...

Kind of ironic seeing as he started his initial post with the words "No biggie".

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

It's not that big of a problem. With the food bar beside, it's not all bad.

 

[rrdude]

Are some of the downstairs lounge accessible bathrooms ever really blocked off? Doesn't make sense.

Sometimes on long trips the retention tanks may be full or there may not be anough water for flushing or washing hands, so to avoid passengers entering an uncomfortable situation, it may be the best thing under the circumstances to lock the affected restromms as long as there are still alternative restrooms available elsewhere on the train.

It may also be that if attendants discover that a restroom is dirty and needs to be cleaned, but they don't immediately have time or other things have higher priority, that they temporarily lock that restroom until they have time to attend to it. Again this is for the passenger's comfort as they don't want to find a dirty restroom.

Like I did on the Silver Star coming north a few weeks ago,............ YUCK! I was gonna post photo, but it was even too gross for me to look at again.