The consist has just recently changed with the Cafe Car in the middle of the consist. There also are new menu items - Entenmanns baikery products, Utz chips and other regional favorites.
The Vermonter indeed does have one, but M-F only. It's rather irritating sometimes, as when the train is just starting to fill up in ESX, the conductors will keep everyone in the same car and won't let you in it. But once one is south of White River, it's usually open.
Amtrak has no set rule about where the First Class car will be. It is where it lands, which in my experience is about 50/50. For example, last night my 4:00 PM departure to Boston had the FC car on the rear, not the front. About a month ago when I was on the 4:00 PM Acela to Boston, the FC car was once again on the rear. The week before that, the 4:00 PM had the FC on the head end.
It's either turn the train or rotate the seats except for the facing seats.
More expensive to turn it, I'd imagine.
They probably do both, what gets done probably depends on the staff avalible to turn the seats and how much congestion there is near the terminal. There are times when it would be physically impossible to take the train out of the station turn it and put it back into the station due to congestion (commuter rush hour) and then there are times when there might not be enough staff to physically rotate every seat on the train, so then removing the train to turn it would be a better choice.
I could be wrong, but I don't think that the seats on Acela can be turned. If they can be, then they certainly are not turned, at least in the first class car. In the FC car, the seats are always in the same pattern. And between the walls at the ends of the cars, the tables, and the odd 2 & 1 pattern, if they did turn the seats then half the seats would then end up without tray tables.
I really don't see why first class would need to turn since most of the seats have a table, no as for business class I'm pretty sure that would turn since its seating more like a regular coach, Since people are more likely to get motion sickness when facing backward, they probably always turn the seats to face forward in BC.
I don't normally visit the BC cars, but it seems to me that there are a fair number of facing seats, so that probably cuts down on the ability to turn those seats. You loose tray tables when you do that, since there are no trays on the backs of opposing seats.
Well the cafe car's location and type can vary depending on the particular train. But all quiet cars usually have the signs hanging from the ceiling.
