11(7) Consist short sleeping car?

[roadman3313]

I was on 11(7) in the Family Bedroom. Our car attendent said we lucked out as there was only 1. I looked at the consist and indeed there is only 1 regular sleeper plus the TransDorm. Is it normal just to have an 1130 sleeper. Both the Sleeper Car and TransDorm have SCA's so I assume the train is normally staffed as if there were two regular sleepers. There are several revenue passengers assigned in the TransDorm. There are 3 coach cars bringing up the rear.

The PPC has plenty of open space and the dining car was much more open at meals. Is this a case of fleet management based on lower sales for this trip or maybe a BO sleeping car? Either way it is nice and quiet (though probably not a good day for business). The train just looks short.

I booked the trip a few hours before departure. Roomettes were at the low bucket. Bedrooms were at the 2nd highest with 2 rooms left. Family Bedroom was somewhere in the middle with one room. Coach seats were at the 2nd highest bucket. At least with fewer people we have been arriving early to most of our stops!

 

[the_traveler]

Normally 11/14 have at least 2 sleepers, Maybe the sleeper was bad ordered, as there is normally not an extra SCA just for the transdorm.

 

[neroden]

This is the low season for most Amtrak trains, including the Coast Starlight; February is the weakest of all the months. (Exceptions, I am told, include the Florida trains.) Anyway, for this train, the ridership starts rising as March continues.

I've ridden the Coast Starlight in mid-February, apparently the weakest time of year. The PPC -- replaced with a Sightseer lounge -- was fairly empty, with 5-10 people. The "regular" lounge was pretty crowded still; I can't imagine how crowded the coaches are in the summer, because they were quite busy even at the weakest time of the year.

It's possible that the sleeper was bad-ordered, or Amtrak may be deliberately be pulling cars out for extra maintenance during the low season (just as they do less maintenance at Thanksgiving).

 

[roadman3313]

Sounds about right. It seems a sleeper was left in Seattle for one reason or another. The toilets in the remaining sleeper have been having issues and are OOS now. We are using the toilet/shower combo on the upper level of the TransDorm car instead. Smaller load so no real issues.