We'll agree with Alan, the only benifit is that it's quieter, and the chairs are plush.
Our first trip out wan on the City of New Orleans, which boards after lunch. THe coffee seems to have been loft over from the Crescent (which boards at 0700).
It is small, we have complained to Amtrak Customer relations each time we use it. Of course, they apologize, but most are "unaware" of how much a dissappointment it is to travelers. If you're coming down from NYC PHL or DC, or CHI, then you're in for a terrible dissappointment.
Take advantage of the Magnolia Room and be glad it is there. There is no way to justify staffing the room and/or improving the amenities based on the variance in ridership between New Orleans and the other major cities that have a more up to date lounge. There are plenty of larger cities in the system that do not have first class lounges - Los Angeles being the largest. Amtrak does not own the New Orleans station and I think they do provide a service to the Sleeping Car passengers that is better than sitting in the hard plastic chairs in the general lobby.
I do whole heartedly agree with you Haolerider that we need to be grateful for what we do have in the Magnolia room. It is, at least IMHO, better than being outside in the main station. I also concur that there are plenty of other major cities with greater ridership than NOL, which have no lounge to speak of.
But I do have to respectfully disagree with the idea that Amtrak can't justify making some additional improvements to the Magnolia Room. Consider Miami, which saw 80,348 passengers last year, more than 70,000 less than NOL saw with 154,532 boardings/alightings. Miami, while still unattended, has more chairs, as well as a selection of refreshments and snacks. The overall room size is probably comparable, but the atmosphere is better in Miami IMHO.
Additionally while I've not been in either the Metro lounge in Raleigh or Minneapolis-St. Paul so I can't speak to what's in there, they both do rate as "Metropolitan Lounges", not as a "room." And both serve comparable passenger loads to NOL, although still slightly less, at 141,291 for Raleigh and 147,791 for MSP.
And then we come to the brand new Metro Lounge in St. Louis. Granted STL sees almost double the passenger load or NOL at 271,997. But then STL only sees one LD train the Texas Eagle, unlike NOL's three, and therefore the odds are that a much higher majority of the passengers using the station cannot use the lounge.
Now again, I'm not suggesting that Amtrak need run out and install the equivalent of say Boston's Club Acela in New Orleans. But if Amtrak can justify doing better in Miami with its much lower passenger load, then they ought to be able to make a few improvements to the Magnolia Room with its much higher passenger load. Still in the final analysis, something is better than nothing. If it comes down to a choice of the Magnolia room or not, then please lets keep the room.
