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I've noticed on the Heartland Flyer that the coach seats seemed to be setup 1/2 one way and 1/2 the other. It typically isn't full so everyone sits in the right facing seats.

My wife and kids lost the train bug the time we rode the SWC RT from Hutchinson to Chicago. On the return leg, the conductor woke us up literally as we were pulling into the station. Whole time he kept telling us to hurry. Wife got off train with her pajamas stuffed into her pants, kids...

I used to take this train at least once a year, and really loved it. The diner was excellent, good crews, and well run. Was considering it for a trip in a few weeks, and RT would have been $1400 FTW - CHI. No lounge, microwave dinners, ick. Hopefully something will change, but not holding...

Feel your pain. Was considering a trip on the Texas Eagle RT Fort Worth to Chicago in 2 - 3 months, wanted to travel over a weekend but flexible as to which weekend. Lots of sold out sleeper space, and the trip I was able to put together would have cost $1500. For which, no observation car...

Re the volume issue... time for another plug for gaffer's tape. Gaffers tape plus paper napkins make a great ad hoc volume control. Gaffer's tape - the tape that keeps Amtrak habitable...

I'd love to see Amtrak retain some surge capacity of older equipment that could be pulled into service with new routes, seasonal expansion (think Christmas and Thanksgiving, sporting events, etc), much as the legacy railroads used to do in the pre-amtrak years. Older equipment that is fully...

Thank you for bringing this up. Reminds me of my last Flex meal...

I'm just bummed that the Desert Wind / Pioneer isn't on the list...

One other suggestion... Gaffer's tape! Always bring Gaffer's tape! Can tape up wires if the outlets are loose, seal air vents or rattling doors, fix luggage, make shoes... possibilities are endless.

I wonder if maybe there is room here for some second tier type of long distance train, which would be more focused on coach service, perhaps simplified dining options and economy sleepers for a route like this? I do agree with other's comments above about the Pioneer and Desert Wind, both of...

The train station is a hotel, that's why there's a pool. Amtrak still stops at part of the station, but the majority was redeveloped a number of years ago.

My vote is to increase capacity and reduce some fares particularly for sleepers. If you can sell out 3 sleepers at 80 - 90% of the per room revenue that you'd get from only selling out two sleepers at current rates, I think revenue comes out ahead. I'd also like to see the diners run more...

Really? Last I heard UP was asking for millions of dollars to enhance capacity of the line to facilitate daily service. Great news if true, but I'm doubting it...

I would like to hope that they would choose to bring back real dining service in LD trains; I would even go so far as to hope at some point they would try to expand services to provide service to coach passengers and fully utilize the dining cars rather than treat them as a solely sleeper...

Well, the Sunset has been such a stunning success, no doubt management is so happy to emulate it nationally. (insert sarcastic nod here...)

My personal thought, everytime I have ridden Amtrak in the past few years, they don't use the whole car to it's potential for seating, leaving at least four booths vacant for paperwork, conductors, etc. Plus the opportunity to do Carry-out meals, as Cresent-Zephyr says. The fixed cost is the...

If Amtrak management holds to the idea of making most LD trains three days a week, I suspect we'll be seeing lots of "Sunset Limited" trains that are hard to plan on, have extravagant overhead relative to passenger loads, and result in railroads later on asking for major payments to resume daily...

If you wanted to be a bit paranoid, you probably could purchase a residential 1" pleated filter in a smaller size, and use gaffer's tape to attach over the inlet grill on the ceiling. I read somewhere they change air filters on the trains on a regular basis, but suspect they use polyglass...

Please, do tell! It would be interesting to hear what precautions they're using on the train, how the crew morale is holding up, etc. This whole experience has been one for the record books.

I was just messing around looking at Fort Worth / Chicago fares; it appears that most fares are at second bucket, a few at low bucket in sleepers. No discounts lower than that. Surprisingly some sell outs on family rooms and bedrooms on some dates. Personally, I don't think I'd want to chance...