Hytec wins this thread hands down!
Wins, yes. Hands down, maybe not so much.
PaulM had a pretty good list of principles that might have guided development of the new site, which could be considered complementary to
Hytec's scenario of approval for the site.
I agree with both take downs but I'm also curious to hear a thoughtful explanation for why Millennials would think this new site is better than the last. Other than being fat and flat enough for fingertips to tap I don't see the benefit. Additional selections like radio buttons for upper and lower floors could have easily been added to the previous site, so to me that's not much of a draw on its own. Personally, I think the new website is a genuine improvement over the old
mobile site and I believe it would have made a lot more sense to roll this out as a new mobile site instead of a new primary website.
I don't know why it's a Millennial issue that the website got redesigned. In fact based off from what I see around Amtrak, there aren't that many millennials working for Amtrak. But as a "millennial" (although I think of myself as Gen-Y) I'll try and explain for you old fogies.
The new "main" website is the same website as the mobile one. It is what we call "responsive;" meaning that no matter what size your screen is, you'll have (almost) full functionality. If you take your browser window on your computer and make it narrower and narrower you'll see the website "magically" redesign it's self to fit your screen.
The old main site did not work on smaller screens. Depending on your browser it either tried to resize it's self down, breaking links, causing drop-downs to get confused, etc. Or It just wouldn't resize at all, meaning that you have to zoom in and swipe around to find something. Not to mention, that hover-dropdowns just don't work on touch screens. Try this as an example: Grab a microscope, flip your dictionary open to a random page, then try and find a word elsewhere in the dictionary while only looking thru the microscope.
Yes, the old site had a mobile version, but it regularly did not work & had very limited information. It also was a completely different website. In the new "mobile" site, you have all the information the "main" site has, but displayed for a smaller touch screen. As maintenance goes, they only have to change something on the "main" website & because the "main" website is the "mobile" website that change is reflected there.
As to why they couldn't have just made some stuff bigger on the old site. At that point you're going to have to redesign things regardless, making something bigger for touch means that
everything below it on the page
has to be tweaked. At that point your redesigning the whole site already, so it makes sense to make it responsive.
The new site also incorporates a print-design which the old site did not. Now when you print a webpage, it prints a page designed for a printer. That means things are sized down for paper, less color, more contrast, no interactive elements that can be lost (forms are notorious for breaking when printed), etc.
There may also be accessibility features that the new site incorporates that the old one did not. Accessibility is often a big driving factor for government website redesigns.
HTH
Peter