PRR 60 said:
I think this signing the ticket routine is one more nit-pick example of Amtrak being at least 10 years behind the technology curve. Like paper seat checks, like hand-issued on-board ticket sales, like no advance seat assignments on Acela or long distance trains, etc., etc., etc.
Since this part veered slightly off the main topic, I wanted to talk about this separately. You're correct PRR60, that in some sense Amtrak does appear to be behind the 8-ball when it comes to some of the technology stuff. Yet the reality is that Amtrak had been working towards achieving some of the goals you've mentioned.
Acela as designed, would have achieved all of the goals that you mention, in fact it still could, given Amtrak's receiving proper funding. Sadly those efforts failed due to four factors, Amtrak mismanagement, crew revolt, passenger revolt, and the ever persistent lack of funding. I'll expand more on this later.
When Acela was first introduced, one could indeed book the seat one preferred right on-line if you were in the First Class car, I did several times myself and loved it. There was a similar car diagram like the airlines use, and one could simply click on the seat one wanted. That same diagram also showed what direction the seats faced and which seats were already sold. Eventually the idea was that this would be expanded to the whole train.
Factors for the demise of this were, the overall failure to implement all the new technology for Acela, crew indifference (they wouldn't force passengers to sit where they were assigned), and passenger revolt. Passengers who were used to sitting where ever they pleased were not happy being told where they had to sit, especially some who found themselves riding backwards.
Paper seat checks were also supposed to have met their end on Acela. Above each seat is an electronic device with each row & seat number on it. The idea was that the conductor would carry a scanning device and scan each ticket. As he/she scanned the ticket a light would light behind the seat number, indicating that that seat was occupied.
The onboard computer would turn off that light once the train reached the station where that passenger was to have disembarked. This system would have also allowed Amtrak to re-sell the seats of no-shows at stations further up the line.
This failed for a few reasons, but I'll only mention the three biggest. One the devices chosen were rather bulky, since they were brought before PDA's really came into their own, so the conductors were up in arms about having to carry 5 or 6 pounds of equipment down the aisle. Two, management did handle most of tis project properly. Three, and the biggie, the money ran out before the techies could solve all of the software problems.
This system would have also permitted computerized on-board ticket sales, now made irrelevant since thanks to security concerns one can no longer buy tickets on-board an Acela train.
Had this grand plan succeeded, then this technology would have spread elsewhere as time and money permitted. It's my understanding that much of what was developed could still be utilized, if only Amtrak had the money to finish things. I have even heard rumors that a major overhaul is coming to the Amtrak site soon and that one of the changes will be the use of the technology to allow one to actually pick one's bedroom in a sleeper.
