Pre-assigned seating and check in on Cascades

[Karl1459]

There have been several threads recently with questions about assigned seating on Cascades.

Having taken a short jaunt (PDX to TAC, train 516) on Friday 17, I can authoritativley state that seats were assigned at check in on that train.

The train was nearly full, so this practice may be only for full trains. The conductors had a rather novel and efficient way of doing it... They had printed a full list of car#-seat#s on lable paper, and simply stuck the seat assignment on a standard boarding pass (with traditional handwritten destination code). En-route they appeard to have a plan to re-assign seats as they became vacant (my seat had a different color boarding pass added before I detrained).

They also did not open all doors at all stops. I presume this was a consideration in seat assignment.

 

[zephyr17]

They do check-in at the major stations, SEA, PDX, VAC for all Cascades trains.

 

[fairviewroad]

They do check-in at the major stations, SEA, PDX, VAC for all Cascades trains.

In PDX the practice seems standard for n/b departures but not as standard for s/b departures, which typically

have a much smaller passenger load.

The "label" system has been around for awhile. When you say "boarding pass" do you mean "seat check"?

Because with e-ticketing many people won't have a paper "boarding pass" and certainly don't want to have a

label stuck to the screen of their smartphone. :giggle:

 

[Snowplow]

They do check-in at the major stations, SEA, PDX, VAC for all Cascades trains.

In PDX the practice seems standard for n/b departures but not as standard for s/b departures, which typically

have a much smaller passenger load.

The "label" system has been around for awhile. When you say "boarding pass" do you mean "seat check"?

Because with e-ticketing many people won't have a paper "boarding pass" and certainly don't want to have a

label stuck to the screen of their smartphone. :giggle:

I have never been on Amtrak trains where you have to "check-in" first.... how do you know that you have to check-in?

 

[Karl1459]

Yes I mean the "seat check"... Amtrak personal ARE calling them "boarding passes". As to being around for a while... just shows I dont travel enough (lol).

At PDX and SEA there are podiums which have signs "Cascade Check In", "Coast Starlight Coach Check In", etc. LAX also has a "Coast Starlight Coach Check In". Sleeper check in is handled in the Metro lounge (PDX) and as of last Dec the TRAX lounge (LAX).

 

[zephyr17]

They set up a podium that is labeled "Coach Check-in"/"Business Class Check-in" or something similar. It's usually pretty obvious. The check-in is never at the ticket counter, but usually at or near the train gates. It only takes place at larger stations, although not all of those.

 

[battalion51]

It seems like for the most part stations that have passengers in a queue are stations where there is a crew change/servicing occurring. I would imagine because of the amount of activity at these stations they want the hand off to happen between inbound and outbound crew as well as passengers de-training to happen before the new passengers flood out on to the platform.

 

[guest]

It would make a world of difference if someone could hire a 14-year-old to create a simple program to assign seats at the time tickets are purchased...no muss, no fuss...no conductors playing "Barney Badass" either...