No Lake Shore Business Class 2020?

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 17, 2019
Messages
1,691
The Amtrak website appears to show that no business class seats are available on the Lake Shore beginning in the latter part of February 2020. At least that is how it appears based on my spot check of a number of dates February through May of 2020 (I didn't check any later dates).

Does anyone know what is going on?
 
I don't know. Maybe it was too successful (it's always full) and Amtrak management decided they had to remove it before they showed too much profit. Can't have the long-distance trains showing a profit, y'know. /s
What they really needed to do is add a full Dinette to adequately provide Cafe food service to 5-6 Coaches worth of passengers. The half Cafe is really not adequate for that.
 
Judging from when I rode in 48/49 sleepers (getting ALL meals in the cafe since boxed dog food) and 448/449 BC and coach in the past couple of years, it's been hit or miss on occupancy rate in business class. The ONLY time I saw 15 or 16 of the 18 seats occupied was during holiday periods. Other times, it was usually less than 1/2 full. On 49 leaving Toledo a few months ago, I think I counted 3 passengers when I went to the cafe.

So I'm guessing it's a lack of patronage that has driven the decision to drop the BC section. But...at the same time, I suspect Amtrak is considering the food-less coach passengers on 48/49 between NYP and ALB. If I were to make a wild guess, it would be that a full cafe car will be added to the NYP section and cutoff at ALB to be replaced by the BOS section full cafe car when the trains are put together, given current switching routine at ALB - NY section dual mode locos cut off, entire BOS section, locos and all, added at front of train. Process reversed eastbound. Having the NYP cafe car removed with the locos at ALB makes sense and solves the 'no food' problem. However, how many NY section passengers will 'like' being tossed from the cafe at ALB?

And, for what it's worth, thinking that perhaps they simply switched the BC/cafe car to the NYP section I checked BC availability ALB-CHI. NOPE. THAT would make sense to run the BC/cafe car NYP-CHI and remove the cafe from BOS at ALB.

In the end, ditching the BC section and making the car a full cafe will allow the crew to take 2-3 full booths for their 'stuff' and nobody will scream. Or, maybe they'll take out a couple booths from the full cafe cars and put in bike racks. Again, nobody will scream as there would still be 10 booths wide open, minus 2 or 3 for the crew.

Oh, and by the way...legroom in an Amfleet II LD coach is 22" from front of seat cushion to rear of fully upright seat ahead. In combo BC/Cafe cars, the legroom is only 18". Yes, I personally measured them! Other than the free beverages and an improved sense of 'privacy' in BC, I consider the Amfleet II coach seating more comfortable and 'open' when I can get the whole seat to myself.
 
Last edited:
BC has been full between Albany and Boston, which is where it usually made sense. Some route restructuring is called for... which I have suggested before, so I won't go into it now.
 
A friend advised me that business class now appears to be available on the Lake Shore (Boston - Chicago) in March, April and I think May of 2020 but it does not show up after that. Prior to just a few days ago, business class was not an option March through May. No announcement from Amtrak about this.
 
The dining car wasn't serving for half of the trip to Albany anyway. The cafe has come from Boston as long as I can recall except during the stub/cross platform operational periods
 
A friend advised me that business class now appears to be available on the Lake Shore (Boston - Chicago) in March, April and I think May of 2020 but it does not show up after that. Prior to just a few days ago, business class was not an option March through May. No announcement from Amtrak about this.

I wouldn't expect one either. Communication seems not to be one of Amtrak's fortes.
 
The dining car wasn't serving for half of the trip to Albany anyway. The cafe has come from Boston as long as I can recall except during the stub/cross platform operational periods

A few years back the dinner was serving snack food to the coach passenger between NYP and Albany. I was travel coach to Utica, and was grab a steak for dinner. We had a line of passenger stand in the between the tables waiting to buy stuff.

Back in the day of course...
 
A friend advised me that business class now appears to be available on the Lake Shore (Boston - Chicago) in March, April and I think May of 2020 but it does not show up after that. Prior to just a few days ago, business class was not an option March through May. No announcement from Amtrak about this.
Thanks for posting this. My friends and I have travel planned on the LSL that I booked back in September in coach. Business class wasn't offered then. After seeing your post I was able to upgrade our seats to business class. I'll have to wait until next week when my BoA points post to upgrade the return trip because I paid for all five of us with points, so I'll have to do the upgrade with points also.
 
Back
Top