Transitional Sleeper

[Greg Williams]

I will be taking the City of New Orleans and on my return leg I will be in car 5809 room 017. Amtrak told me it is a transitional sleeper. In the first part of my trip I will be in car 5900 room 008. Can somwone tell me what the difference is?

Thanks in advance.

Greg Williams

 

[gswager]

Transitional sleeper is being used by Amtrak employees such as coach attendants, chef, waitress/er, and snack bar attendant. Several rooms, closest to the sleeper car and others, are being reserved as revenue. A curtain in the hallway is off-limit.

 

[NativeSon5859]

The 5900 car on the City is the last car on the train. You'll have to walk through three coaches to get to the Lounge. The Diner comes right after the Lounge.

The Transition Sleeper is right next to the Diner, so that's pretty convenient.

 

[Trogdor]

The difference between a transition sleeper and a regular sleeper is that the former has one end door at high-level height (on the upper level of the car), and the other end door is at standard-level height (roughly halfway between the upper and lower levels). This is so Amtrak can run single-level and bi-level cars on one train. Amtrak rarely uses this feature, however, except to give access to the baggage car en route (so the conductor can sort bags prior to arrival).

Until a couple of years ago, Amtrak used transition sleepers exclusively as crew dormitories. However, to generate additional revenue, Amtrak has started selling eight rooms in the transition sleeper to the public on certain trains. The rooms themselves are no different than other Superliner II sleeping car rooms.

 

[AlanB]

Until a couple of years ago, Amtrak used transition sleepers exclusively as crew dormitories. However, to generate additional revenue, Amtrak has started selling eight rooms in the transition sleeper to the public on certain trains. The rooms themselves are no different than other Superliner II sleeping car rooms.

It should be noted however that the cars were ordered with the idea of selling those 8 rooms to passengers originally. After a very brief test period, that idea was abandoned.

Now however, due in part to lack of equipment and in part to the fact that not selling those rooms is simply lost revenue for Amtrak, they have once again started using the Trans/Dorm as intended on certain trains.

Frankly IMHO, it's time that they start using the revenue rooms on all trains with a Trans/Dorm.

 

[Midland Valley]

Didn't they use to use old pre superliner highlevels for crew dorms?

 

[Trogdor]

Didn't they use to use old pre superliner highlevels for crew dorms?

Yes (until they were retired).

 

[Guest]

I would like to thank everyone for the infomation on the transition sleeper. I haven't taken a long distance rail trip in about ten years. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again.

Greg Williams