Short Report on My Wolverine Trip (Chi to Det)

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ohmark

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Actually, Chicago to Dearborn. First thanks to all who posted to my earlier questions about this service. Thanks for all the help. Well, I ended up taking #352 in business class from Chicago Union Station to Dearborn on Thursday, 2/3/05. Generally enjoyed the trip, except for the club (business) car seating. Half the car was the dinette section with small booths and the snack bar. The other half was 2x2 seating. Much to my surprise the seat pitch (leg room) was small enough to make it relatively uncomfortable for me; I'm about 5' 11". Because of the seat pitch, it was impossible to comfortably use the foot rest. As I walked through the rest of the train, I couldn't help but notice that all of the coach seats had seat pitches about 30 to 50% greater than business. In other words, to turn the transportation industry on its head, the passengers who purchased the lower fare, got the greatest amount of room. (I used Southwest Airlines for the outbound portion; their seat pitch in coach seemed about 20% greater than the business class on the train.)

I like the other aspects of business class: the seats seemed newer, the car cleaner. The dinette attendant indeed passed out coupons good for $4.50 on whatever. The beer and wine choice was fine (half bottle of decent wine was $10). Interestingly, certain soft drinks were comped, others not. For example, want a Pepsi?--it's free;want a small bottled water?-- it's not. As to the schedule, except for a medical emergency which caused a passenger to be taken away in an ambulance in Michigan City, Indiana, the train was on time. Overall, I enjoyed the experience, and would consider the train again, but not with the inadequate seat pitch in business. The seat pitch might be okay for a short commuter run; not for a regional train.
 
"Business Class" is hit or miss in the Midwest right now. Amtrak is rebuilding the cars used for that service into a 2+1 configuration with extra legroom, but only a small number have been completed thus far.
 
I agree that the 2x2 seating in the business class cars can be uncomfortable for a trip of that length. Fortunately the past 5 or 6 times that I've made that trip (usually on trains 351 and 354), the business class section has had the updated 2x1 seating. The seats in these updated cars are much more comfortable than those used in the 2x2 configuration. They're larger, and have more padding. There is also quite a bit more legroom.

Since I had received 2x1 seating in business class so often lately, I was hoping that most of the cars used for Michigan business class service had been updated. Let's hope that my luck continues, as I'll be travelling to Chicago again in a couple of weeks.

Mr. Ohmark, I hope that you'll again use Amtrak for your Chicago/Michigan travel. Hopefully next time you'll get the updated seating. It's definately worth the price of the upgrade.
 
My humble opinion here, since Business Class doesn't seem to sell out that often, why not wait til you get on board, see what kind of equipment they have and go from there. This way if it's an upgraded car you'll get the benefits of business class you want, and if its not you wont be flushing money down the tube.
 
battalion51 said:
My humble opinion here, since Business Class doesn't seem to sell out that often, why not wait til you get on board, see what kind of equipment they have and go from there. This way if it's an upgraded car you'll get the benefits of business class you want, and if its not you wont be flushing money down the tube.
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In fact it was sold out on a number of dates I looked at.
 
ohmark said:
battalion51 said:
My humble opinion here, since Business Class doesn't seem to sell out that often, why not wait til you get on board, see what kind of equipment they have and go from there. This way if it's an upgraded car you'll get the benefits of business class you want, and if its not you wont be flushing money down the tube.
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In fact it was sold out on a number of dates I looked at.
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I'm not sure just why, but the Michigan services do seem to sell out the Business Class sections quite often.

Here on the east cost, that doesn't happen as much.
 
Well bust my legs and call me Shorty. Whatever marketing they're doing in the Midwest to sell out Business Class should be translated here in the East.
 
One reason is probably the fact that, for $9, you get half that in cafe car food, plus unlimited soft drinks, plus the chance of a better seat.
 
Just to make my original point clear. It was almost shocking to me to see how small the seat pitch was in business. Considerably smaller than the Southwest Airlines coach class I had just flown. When the person in front reclined her seat just slightly, it banged into my knees. Then, to compound the irritation, when I walked through coach, I realized those seats had probably 50% greater seat pitch. Why would any business provide less comfort to those who paid more?

So, the problem is that the Michigan service customers do not mind paying more for business; but it is a crapshoot as to whether one will have to travel in discomfort or not, depending on which car shows up.

Neverthless, otherwise I enjoyed the train and am thinking about a more ambitious trip for my wife and I; maybe the Southwest Chief to ABQ at some point. But for Chicago, the frustration remains. Am I the first to complain here about the grossly inadequate seat pitch in business?
 
This is the first I've heard of such a problem, but I do feel ya. I myself am between 6'1" and 6'6" (depending on which convienence store I'm leaving), and have found airline travel to be fairly uncomfortable with the small seat pitch. I do believe Amtrak is making an effort to correct the problem with the refurb program, but like anything else in this company it is dependant on proper funding from Congress.
 
The reason "coach" had more legroom than "business class" is probably due to equipment shortages. Sometimes, they'll use a long-distance coach instead of a corridor coach if there aren't enough standard coaches to go around (remember, Florida stole a bunch of the Midwest's Horizon cars for some school special). When that happens, it's possible that the Business Class car, if in the old configuration, will have less legroom than coach class.

Complain to Amtrak and see if they'll either refund your accommodation charge, or give you a voucher good for future travel.
 
If you were in that situation, crunched business vs nice-space coach, and had paid for biz class, wouldn't you be able to get the conductor to allow you to take a coach seat if you wanted to, assuming they were available? Go get your biz soft drink and then take a comfortable seat. Take along your tape measure and show him/her the problem.
 
AmtrakWPK said:
If you were in that situation, crunched business vs nice-space coach, and had paid for biz class, wouldn't you be able to get the conductor to allow you to take a coach seat if you wanted to, assuming they were available? Go get your biz soft drink and then take a comfortable seat. Take along your tape measure and show him/her the problem.
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Assuming that the a coach seat is empty, just take your seat check from the overhead and move it to your new seat. The conductor will never know.

Even if he did know, I doubt that he'd argue with you, unless the train was sold out. Even then, he could always put the coach pax into the BC seat.
 
As to the conductor, when he first came around collecting tickets, I mentioned the situation to him. He said he would see what he could find and get back to me (and my wife). He never did. I, about 1 hour into the trip, walked through the coach cars, and sat in one of the seats, to see whether there was as much space as it seemed, or whether it was an illusion. It was not an illusion. But, as luck would have it, the conductor walked by just at this moment, and gave me a look as in "What do you think you're doing" In a fairly unpleasant way, he suggested I get back to my seat, which I did. As to the comment about why the coach cars might have had more space, I'm not so much concerned about that as I am about Amtrak providing clearly inadequate seat pitch in business class (far less than airline coach) in trains that have about a 5 hour duration. This is not a communter train. It's not right, and it will discourage folks from taking the train. Pay more (or about the same) than the plane for a trip that takes 5 times longer with much less comfort is not a winning proposition.

Please understand, as to some of your suggestions, this was my first train trip since I took the Santa Fe "El Capitan" and "Chief", about 50 years ago as a little boy. (I shuddered as I typed the number "50"). So I wasn't real familiar with the does and dont's of today's Amtrak.

Here's something interesting that happened since my earlier posts. On Friday, 2/4 I e-mailed Amtrak as to the business class seat pitch problem. Much to my surprise, I received a phone call today (Sunday) from Amtrak customer service telling me they were very interested in speaking to me about the problem, and asking me to call them on Monday. I'll do that, and follow up on this board. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.
 

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