Recent content by amtrakp42

Senior discount is only for the coach portion of the sleeper ticket. Does not apply to the room prices. Same is true of Veterans discount.

Almost 2 billion was spent Chicago to Alton and Amtrak says it cut the trip 15 minutes!? But the railroad now has a nice track. There were several passenger trains in the 60s that ran 125 mph when late.

540 car is the dorm car that has no bedrooms just roomettes. But if dorm car is gone then sleeper rooms are needed for on board crew. So if dorm car is not there some sleeper rooms might be canceled for the crew?

Except how would you connect amfleet cars to superliners. You could put them in front of the dorm car that has stairway to baggage car, but then would have to go up and down stairs for Diner and lounge cars?

I've rode all 3 trains many times. Rode Empire Builder and Northern Pacific in the late 50s. My suggestion is to reverse the trip. Empire Builder going west if u are running late Glacier Park maybe during the dark. Going east u are getting to Glacier Park in AM so if ĺate it will be all during...

just call to make reservations and get room number u want. they will tell what is available. I always call to get room 5 or 6 roomette. Altho few times were not available on date I wanted.

Usually lineup happens at lunch time as no reservations are taken for lunch. Breakfast when dinner gets full they will take ur name for list to call when table available. Dinner they come by rooms to make reservations.

Was that 50 years ago that ARROW started!!

Not when there Is a dorm car and and sit down stairs where there is a table. So without dorm car where would they go. I've seen them use unoccupied rooms instead of setting in observation or dinning car. During night they sit in dinner most of the time so it's easier to find them if needed.

But remember there will be very little gain in sleeper availability as the on board crew will take rooms along with the conductors who usually are in the lower level of dorm car except at night when sometimes in the dinner. For the photo or video fans when the dorm car is not next to baggage car...

Call and ask for an even number room in transdorm for oceanside southbound.

Maybe calling customer service and explaining coming from overseas and need to get off one stop early. The phone agent may not have authority to do that.

The bedroom pricing is hard to figure out. I have rode Amtrak every summer for several years, but not this year. In most cases the rooms are at least twice as much as last year. U got roomette from Chi to Sac for $583 last summer. The lowest price I've seen is around 900. I run every day 2 or 3...

I always call agent. When getting a roomette I want to be in upper level and like room 5 or 6. Online automatically assigns room and it can be on lower level. It seems a pain to change it.

Question is where are they going to get the employees to carry this task out?? With 2 in the kitchen below and 3 on the diner floor to serve would not work. A few years ago every diner had 5 on diner floor and 3 in the kitchen and they served coach passengers, but even then could not get to all...