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Instead of building a bunch of busses with a similar design, could Amtrak just charter a bunch of those buses and run them as a sleeper-only thruway coach?
 
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What I find humorous, is that the story is found in the AARP magazine, targeted at its senior citizen readership; but look at the ages of the traveler's depicted in the Cabin company publicity shots. Imagine some senior's crawling into those cubbyholes....
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Here's a "road test" article ..... https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/22/cabin-sleep-pod-bus-review/

How'd you like to occupy berth number "2B" with people preparing their snacks on your ceiling?

That operation could only work on a shorter trip, like its Los Angeles/San Francisco run, which is about 8 hours or so. Any longer, and people would get claustrophobia in those tiny berths, where you can't even sit up on your bed. The "lounge" is too small to accommodate every one on board at one time.

As far as triple-decking on a Viewliner, it would be hard (and hazardous) for people to climb steps into the top bunks. A duplex design, like the old Slumbercoaches could work...
 
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This accommodation is intended for nighttime occupation only. On a train, Amtrak's Roomette design is perhaps the most efficient use of space for two travelers in day or night mode with privacy.
Yeah, it's sort of a much more spartan, less flexible, and just worse, slumbercoach. Why not just go back to the slumbercoach design? This design is fine for an 8 hour night trip, but I can't see it working on any day trip or multi night ride.
 
I wonder if this would be a possible option for a Dodge City to ABQ bus bridge? Connection with a day train Dodge City to Chicago? Just throwing thoughts out there.
 
Just take a bunch of old slumbercoaches and attach them to a bus chassis. It's like a cabin bus but nostalgia-y!
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An 85' long, 10' foot wide Slumbercoach on the highway? I don't think so.....
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Oh, I do think so.
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Jokes aside, I do stand by the idea of bringing back slumber coaches on short overnights and long day runs. And Cabin shows that a very spartan and simple version can work on a bus.
 
Like those Capsule Hotels in Japan [emoji57]
Pictures of the capsule hotels and this new bus both make me short of breath and tingly. I think the bus might be more tolerable, as the pod has both a window and mirror to make it feel larger, but then I look at that ceiling height and nope right out of there.

Claustrophobia aside, I think this is a neat idea. I'd love to be able to leave for an adventure after work, arrive rested in the morning, and then sleep while traveling home. I prefer red-eye flights for the same reason. (Sadly, it's hard to find a true red-eye nowadays.)
 
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. I prefer red-eye flights for the same reason. (Sadly, it's hard to find a true red-eye nowadays.)
Due to the time zones, "red-eye" flights are only popular in the US, when flying from the west to the east. Back in the propeller era, there were many going west also, but the jet age speeds put an end to that. Perhaps the last bastion of Red Eyes was the former Eastern Air Lines...they ran multistop, mail-carrying flights around the clock in all directions in their service area.

I flew a Northwest Orient B-707 overnite local from JFK to Seattle, back in around 1968 or so...it carried a lot of mail, and stopped in Detroit, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis enroute....
 
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I generally only fly red eyes flights back from the west coast if I can help it. I like having that extra day. And night flying isn't that bad.
 
There are other "sleeper bus" designs out there....

This one is geared more to charter's for group travel, with much less privacy than the Cabin design, and with seemingly less room in its berth's, but perhaps better for longer trips involving both day and night travel...

https://www.venturebustours.com/equipment/v-i-p-luxury-sleeper.html

Be sure to click on the last photo and then scroll thru all the photo's....
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This also brings up something about AARP that has bothered me for a while. They have courses to improve your driving (a good idea, of course), but they also highlight driving and flying as the only transportation options (with maybe something like the Rocky Mountaineer mentioned as a vacation idea).

They don't highlight trains as a routine travel option, and I wonder why.

They also concentrate on all sorts of other issues (health care particularly) but don't address much of this country's lack of transportation options if you don't have a car or don't want to (or can't) drive as you get older, which is a basic issue for older people. They just seem to assume everyone will drive til they can't, then too bad, just stay home.
 
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The only thing I can think of, regarding the AARP, is perhaps they don't think Amtrak is 'reliable' enough to promote it as a travel option...

I don't agree with that, especially since retiree's typically are not under time pressure's, but just a guess....
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I generally only fly red eyes flights back from the west coast if I can help it. I like having that extra day. And night flying isn't that bad.
With jet speeds in the mix, I'm trying to figure out what sorts of WB routes would be long enough for an overnight. I know TPAC routes sort-of end up working for that. The main problem is that, particularly as you get further north, if you're going WB you're bumping through enough timezones that (for example) LHR-LAX is timetabled at 11:00-11:30 but you blow through eight timezones in the process. Paris and Rome are a bit more (11:30-11:50 PAR-LAX, 13:05 FCO-LAX) but knock out another timezone. Rome-LAX is 12:05 (further north) but knocks out 10 timezones (arguably making an SVO-LAX flight on SU the longest two hours of your life :p)

Edit: This is also part of how I left HKG one evening and got into IAD in time to catch the Meteor on the way home...even with a long enough layover at LHR to pop down to Paddington Station, out to Reading, and back.

Edit 2: I think LAX-SYD/BNE only really ends up being long enough because it also crosses the equator (whereas a lot of the Europe-US routes end up being polar-ish).
 
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I generally only fly red eyes flights back from the west coast if I can help it. I like having that extra day. And night flying isn't that bad.
With jet speeds in the mix, I'm trying to figure out what sorts of WB routes would be long enough for an overnight. I know TPAC routes sort-of end up working for that. The main problem is that, particularly as you get further north, if you're going WB you're bumping through enough timezones that (for example) LHR-LAX is timetabled at 11:00-11:30 but you blow through eight timezones in the process. Paris and Rome are a bit more (11:30-11:50 PAR-LAX, 13:05 FCO-LAX) but knock out another timezone. Rome-LAX is 12:05 (further north) but knocks out 10 timezones (arguably making an SVO-LAX flight on SU the longest two hours of your life :p)
Hawaiian Airlines runs an interesting flight - leaves Las Vegas at 1:55am, arrives in Honolulu at 5am. It's blocked at six hours so it might be enough time to get a decent nap and look okay for work.
 
All kinds of random stuff pops up on my video suggestions on YouTube and today I watched a video made by a couple in California. Apparently, there's a newly launched bus company that is a hotel on wheels. In the video it looks a bit like a tour bus, but in reality I think it's probably a bit taller. On the bottom is a lounge and upstairs are beds in enclosed areas that resemble bunk beds. You can't quite sit up fully in the pod area, but the couple beds sound comfortable enough. They are stacked two high, running down both sides of the bus. I'm not quite sure how many are on each side, but at a guess I'd say 10 per side.

Right now, they travel only between LA and SF. Would you try something like this? Could you see something like this replacing traditional long distance bus travel?
 
Edit 2: I think LAX-SYD/BNE only really ends up being long enough because it also crosses the equator (whereas a lot of the Europe-US routes end up being polar-ish).
My Sister, 75, who "goes down under" annually for 30-45 days (my Niece with her two kids and husband live near Sydney "and they're not coming back") has shared with me that Westward is "the longest night" and, in Business Class and with the flights leaving LAX/SFO about 10P local and arriving SYD at 6A local, it would be just that.

Returning, with the "two shortest days and nights" is "a different story".

As for me,  77, I've concluded "it's just too much" considering that ten days is as long as I'm ever away and "houseguesting" is something I have long since given up.
 
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