Suggestions for improving Chicago's Union station

[Steve4031]

I inclduded these suggestions in an earlier post, but I think they were lost in the shuffle. So here are my suggestions for CUS.

I think this process could be improved if they started a seat assignment process for the 7 or 8 long distance trains out of Chicago that was started inside the station on the day of departure. . Most of the stress of using Union station revolves around getting seats together for families, and for some people getting window seats.

If you have traveled on these trains, you know that the consist does not very by much on a day to day basis. We also know that Amtrak groups passengers by destination in the various coaches on a train. I believe that the follwoing procedure could work.

A kiosk, or check-in desk could be set up for each Long distance train, or may two long distance trains at the same time. 3 or 4 could be located in the main waiting room with the woooden benches, and 3 or 4 could be located in the new waiting room by the north and south concourse. The Amtrak employee working in the Kiosk would have a diagram of the train, with a seating chart for each coach on the train. When a passenger checks in with this employee by showing their ticket, they would be assigned a seat, or groups of seats in the appropriate car. People who arrived early would hae the best selection of seats, those who arrived late, get what is left. These Kiosks could open about 10 in the morning for West Coast trains, and maybe about 1 ior 2 in the afternoon for the evening trains.

What this would accomplish is giving the passengers who wanted seats together or window seats a means to getting what they desire in a stress free way. For example, If I was going out on 5, I could have breakfast a my favorite restaurrant near the station, walkover with my ticket, get my boarding pass, and then go have lunch or kill time for a few hours before 5 departs. At about 1:20, I return to the station with my boarding pass. I don't have to stand in line to jockey for a seat, and I won't feel the urge to push others offf the edgeof the platform in my rush to get to the coach door where an overworked attendant is assigning seats.

What do you think?

 

[PRR 60]

Warning: rant is imminent!

The coach seating assignment system on Amtrak long distance trains is a total mess. I applaud you for recognizing that there must be a better way, but your proposal assumes that Amtrak cannot by pried from mid-twentieth century thinking.

The problem with having a kiosk open early for picking seats is that some people would show up hours early to just to grab the choice seats, and the poor slobs who shows up 45 minutes before departure will be out of luck. He or she may have booked 10 months in advance, paid top dollar, but then find themselves stuck with scattered seats at the ends of the cars because the best seats had already been grabbed by a bunch of rail sale riders paying $1.50 who thought it was fun to spend the afternoon at the train station.

It should not be necessary to arrive at a station hours ahead of departure just to ensure a decent seat. And people boarding enroute should have a shot at a good seat too. So, let’s try something really radical and pre-assign seats with the reservation (what a remarkable idea). The consist of the long distance trains is reasonably fixed well ahead of time (if not, how do they know how many seats to sell). The technology is commonplace. The computer maintains the seating inventory. You pick a seat. It is removed from the seats available. Some seats could be blocked for day of departure assignment. Elite frequent traveler members could get access to some blocked seats. There are loads of good things that you can do pre-assigning seats.

You would simply call up; make your reservation, and pick your seats over the phone. Your ticket would show your car and seat. Head to the station, find your car, go to your seat. Sit down. Somehow the airlines figured out how to do this 25 years ago (at least). Go to any airline website. You can book on-line, see the aircraft seatmap, pick your seat, and your done. Window; aisle; forward; aft; sunny side; shady side: you pick it, you got it. No hassle at all. The only time Amtrak tried advance seat assignment was with Acela First Class and after a few months they gave up. Just too difficult, I suppose. What is this, 1955?

Convenience is one of the advantages of train travel, and Amtrak should find a way to at least move into the 1980’s. We’ll leave the 21st century for another time.

End of rant.

 

[Steve4031]

That would be great. However, when I was talking to the Amtrak representative who took my complaint, she said the computers did not have that capability. Your suggestion would be my first choice, because that is the way they do it in Europe. I was just trying to work around the issue of Amtrak's computers not having this capability.

 

[AlanB]

That would be great. However, when I was talking to the Amtrak representative who took my complaint, she said the computers did not have that capability.  Your suggestion would be my first choice, because that is the way they do it in Europe.  I was just trying to work around the issue of Amtrak's computers not having this capability.

Steve,

As a computer consultant, I can tell you that typically any computer can be asked to do anything. It may not be in the program right now, but if they could do seat assignments for the Acela's, then they can do it for any train. She probably just doesn't know better, so therefore as far as she's concerned the computer doesn't do it.

But trust me, the computer can be made to do it. The question is, does Amtrak want to do it?

While PRR60 has a point that the airlines have been doing it for years, there is a big difference between an airplane that files from one city to another with no stops vs. Amtrak which might make 15 stops between those same two cities. That's not to say that Amtrak can't do it, the problem lies when you want to overbook the train hedging that you will have a couple of no shows. With seat assignments made in advance, you can't overbook ever.

With regard to the Acela expirement, it wasn't supposed to be just first class. That's where they started, but it was eventually supposed to extend to business class. The conductors were supposed to get a hand held ticket scanner. Then they would scan your ticket and punch in your seat. That info would be transmitted to the central booking computer, so that ticket sales could be geared to how many seats were left further up the line.

That way if I were riding from DC to Philly, the computer would then know that my seat could be sold north of Philly. If I were a no-show, then the computer could sell my seat at the very next stop. Due to expense, conductor's hating the scanners, passengers being used to sitting anywhere they pleased, and what was the typical Amtrak way of doing things half-cocked, that project died. Therefore seat assignments died along with it.

The bottom line here though is that Amtrak could book seats at the time of the ticket sale, if they wished to do so.

 

[PRR 60]

This has struck a nerve, so lets begin rant #2.

Well, maybe Amtrak is correct. Maybe their computer system is not capable of providing seat assignments. So here is my suggestion. They should very carefully disconnect the computer, pack the components into crates, and ship the whole works to the Smithsonian for an exhibit on primitive electronic computation equipment. Then, they should get out of the mindset that only Amtrak knows how to provide services for Amtrak, and contract with one of the commercial computer reservations systems suppliers to provide this service. Everyone else seems to be able to do this simple function. Why not Amtrak?

Oh, poor Amtrak doesn’t have the money? Well, they would probably spend LESS money using a contractor than they do now trying to make their Model T of a CRS keep working. But a contractor wouldn’t know how we work? Good. Maybe some new thinking is overdue. Yes, but we want to keep this function in house: it’s the way we have always done it. Why? Do you really think that small airlines like JetBlue or AirTran have in-house CRS? Last time I checked, both MAKE MONEY and are known for GOOD SERVICE!

Amtrak can find a million and one excuses for why it can’t do things. Innovation is difficult in that type of culture. For the last 32 years, Amtrak has operated like the PRR reincarnated. The PRR is dead and buried. Let the railroad people run the trains, but lets have some real travel professionals run the business.

End of rant #2.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Not only could a computer be able to assign exact seats at the time of reservation, that in fact that was done before computers and before Amtrak. Certain trains in the pre-Amtrak(and pre-computer) days did have exact seat assignments made at time of reservation. They were able to handle that by paper work, so surely they could handle it by computer. Only the better trains,(usually the streamliners) had seat reservations.

But that is not a problem.....the number of trains which had genuine reserved seats was still probably greater than the TOTAL number of trains operating today.

One might wonder,....how did they deal with all the stops? It was something like this....the larger stations covered for the smaller stations. A ticket agent at a small station would wire to the designated large station, where a "block" of seats was held back for the smaller stations. For example,to impose yesterday's technology--or lack of same--on today's trains look at today's timetable, the westbound Capitol Limitied, page 26. A station agent at, say Alliance, OH, might wire back to Pittsburgh and see if Pittsburgh had any seats left in its block for somebody boarding in Alliance.

 

[PRR 60]

That's not to say that Amtrak can't do it, the problem lies when you want to overbook the train hedging that you will have a couple of no shows.  With seat assignments made in advance, you can't overbook ever.

Airlines do it all the time. They simply block some seats from advance assignment, then sell over that block with the dreaded “seats at check-in” notation on the reservation. When you check-in, you either get a seat, or you don’t.

This happened to my wife and me on a trip to London. No seats with the reservation, and when we checked in, instead of being given real boarding passes, we got passes marked “Seatmap Full”. Oh oh. I know what that means. No seats.

The gate agent confirmed my suspicions, but offered to rebook us one day later (both ways) AND provide a $650 credit each if we did not get on the flight. Now, I was rooting for not getting on. Alas, seats did open up, and good ones too: a pair, window (me) and aisle (wife), Row 6 at a bulkhead with loads of legroom. Seats normally reserved for the elite frequent fliers. All’s well that ends well.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Come to think of it, that was the way small towns were served with pullman(sleeper) reservations in the pre-computer days as well. So, if you lived in a larger city you could go up to the ticket agent and secure exact sleeper or coach space(on those trains which had reserved sears) on the spot, manually, usually. That larger town had its space blocked off.

If you lived in a small town, they would wire to nearest large ciity (and keep wiring to others if necessary) to find space for you, sleeper as well as specific coach space, i.e. car 5, seat 20.

 

[Steve4031]

Where there is a will, there is a way. I beleive advance seat assignment would work well on Amtrak. They do have a fiinite set of long distance trains, and therefore a finite set of seats. It would a much less complex process than the reservation process in Europe.