Unisex.Are they unisex on Amfleet, or do they have separate men's and women's facilities?The restrooms are significantly larger than "airline type" restrooms.......
Unisex.Are they unisex on Amfleet, or do they have separate men's and women's facilities?The restrooms are significantly larger than "airline type" restrooms.......
Just checking in here and wanted to tell the folks here that all Amtrak passenger cars are designed to maintain the temperatures between 72 and 74 degrees. There are several types of temperature regulation systems and each car type IE Amfleet I, Amfleet II, Horizon, Superliner I, Superliner II, and Viewliner. In addition to this there have been modifications made to each type of system. Thus it no easy task to have the proper replacement parts or knowledge on hand at all Amtrak locations to handle all HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) problems.Perhaps if Oldtimer2 wanders by this topic he could better explain and detail how the temp is set on the Superliners, since he worked on them for many years.
That explains why I felt like I was dying from heat exhaustion in the sleeper on the CS. Why so HOT, especially in the winter?Just checking in here and wanted to tell the folks here that all Amtrak passenger cars are designed to maintain the temperatures between 72 and 74 degrees.Perhaps if Oldtimer2 wanders by this topic he could better explain and detail how the temp is set on the Superliners, since he worked on them for many years.
Airlines suffer from similar differences in varying designs and maintenance issues and yet I suffer non-fixable temperature problems on airplanes extremely rarely. Maybe once or twice in well over a hundred flights. Meanwhile temperature problems on Amtrak are routine in my experience and are rarely taken seriously by the staff. Most of the time I just get shrugged shoulders and advice to take something off or pile on another blanket.There are several types of temperature regulation systems and each car type IE Amfleet I, Amfleet II, Horizon, Superliner I, Superliner II, and Viewliner. In addition to this there have been modifications made to each type of system. Thus it no easy task to have the proper replacement parts or knowledge on hand at all Amtrak locations to handle all HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) problems.
Airlines suffer from similar differences in varying designs and maintenance issues and yet I suffer non-fixable temperature problems on airplanes extremely rarely. Maybe once or twice in well over a hundred flights. Meanwhile temperature problems on Amtrak are routine in my experience and are rarely taken seriously by the staff. Most of the time I just get shrugged shoulders and advice to take something off or pile on another blanket.There are several types of temperature regulation systems and each car type IE Amfleet I, Amfleet II, Horizon, Superliner I, Superliner II, and Viewliner. In addition to this there have been modifications made to each type of system. Thus it no easy task to have the proper replacement parts or knowledge on hand at all Amtrak locations to handle all HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) problems.
Twenty or thirty minutes of uncomfortable temperatures on the tarmac is nothing like twenty or thirty hours of uncomfortable temperatures on the train. They are in such different categories of annoyance that I'm honestly surprised this forms the crux of your reply. As you said most of the time the aircraft is actively cooled at the gate and is able to easily cool itself once you're in the air. In all the many flights I've taken I can think of only one time this was not the case. On most domestic airlines the temperature can be adjusted by request or by manipulating the air flow vents that actually work. On Amtrak we have temperature knobs and airflow vents that don't seem to control much of anything in my experience. Sometimes I shove stuff in the vent or tape over it. Sometimes I open the door. Sometimes I have no alternative but to bundle up or strip down as the case may be. It would be nice if you could actually control your own temperature or it could be easily adjusted by the staff.daxomni, Have you ever been stuck in an aircraft that has been pushed back from the gate, just so they can say that the departure was on time? or have you ever been trapped, yes trapped, on an aircraft that has had to wait an extended period of time for takeoff or for an empty gate? If so you will find that it is VERY HOT and stuffy.
I can watch movies and reenactments of aircraft crashes while inflight, so I doubt some arbitrary fear is going to play much of a role in my decision making process. Let me know when flying becomes as dangerous as driving. Until then I probably won't be fearing any of my flights.Even though it was 40 years ago I spent 4 years as an FAA certified Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. If you saw the recent "Frontline" on PBS about "penciling" and off-shoring aircraft maintenance you would be as fearful as I am about flying. My new personal motto is " If you fly you can die, use your brain take the train."
Even 46 years ago when I got on a 707 it had an on board air-conditioner keeping it cool in the middle of summer in Delhi airport and there was only an electric generator cart connected to it, not any air-conditioner ducts connect5ing to an HVAC cart.Twenty or thirty minutes of uncomfortable temperatures on the tarmac is nothing like twenty or thirty hours of uncomfortable temperatures on the train. They are in such different categories of annoyance that I'm honestly surprised this forms the crux of your reply. As you said most of the time the aircraft is actively cooled at the gate and is able to easily cool itself once you're in the air. In all the many flights I've taken I can think of only one time this was not the case. On most domestic airlines the temperature can be adjusted by request or by manipulating the air flow vents that actually work. On Amtrak we have temperature knobs and airflow vents that don't seem to control much of anything in my experience. Sometimes I shove stuff in the vent or tape over it. Sometimes I open the door. Sometimes I have no alternative but to bundle up or strip down as the case may be. It would be nice if you could actually control your own temperature or it could be easily adjusted by the staff.daxomni, Have you ever been stuck in an aircraft that has been pushed back from the gate, just so they can say that the departure was on time? or have you ever been trapped, yes trapped, on an aircraft that has had to wait an extended period of time for takeoff or for an empty gate? If so you will find that it is VERY HOT and stuffy.
I suppose the fact that commercial air travel in US has lower per passenger mile fatality and injury than passenger railroad is something that we can ignore to justify feeling paranoid about air travelI can watch movies and reenactments of aircraft crashes while inflight, so I doubt some arbitrary fear is going to play much of a role in my decision making process. Let me know when flying becomes as dangerous as driving. Until then I probably won't be fearing any of my flights.Even though it was 40 years ago I spent 4 years as an FAA certified Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. If you saw the recent "Frontline" on PBS about "penciling" and off-shoring aircraft maintenance you would be as fearful as I am about flying. My new personal motto is " If you fly you can die, use your brain take the train."
I never got a blanket or pillow. EverThey do provide an airline type pillow and blanket. I would try to pack my own for comfort and warmth.
You do get a chair that reclines, slightly.
Meals are menu prices and reservations are issued to sleeper passangers first.
Beverages and snacks are available in the lounge car at menu prices
Each coach has at least one airline type bathroom.
There are no shower facilites available to coach passangers. Lots of deoderant and easy on the perfume please.
Let me jump in here, as when I was in college I worked as ground crew for a major air carrier. The extent of my personal experience is limited to A320s and E190s, but my understanding is that things work about the same way on most modern aircraft.More recently in the middle of summer at Newark I have sat in a 777 parked in the ball-park waiting from clearance from Russia for a window to enter their airspace on a flight to Hong Kong, with the air-conditioner working just fine keeping the interior nice and cool. So I am convinced that this business about requiring an off board HVAC unit to keep the plane cool is a bit of an urban legend. Of course a crew might choose not to run the A/C to save fuel or whatever, but the capability is very much there in modern jets.
That is my understanding as well. Some airports have all this stuff (air, electrical, fuel) built-in to the facilities so you don't always see little carts sitting next to the aircraft. On aircraft with propulsion engines running the air can be cooled just fine but the idling comes at a steep loss to fuel economy. The APU uses less fuel than the main engines but on a really hot day it might not be enough to cool the plane sufficiently on its own and it will still be less efficient than ground power. I believe the relative power of the APU is less of an issue on widebody aircraft.In short, off-board HVACs are routinely used, it's just a matter of cost savings, not necessity.
When I traveled home last year I took EB to TENN and I was in a sleeper car. That smoking things wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I may have been fortunate, but I had attendants who were wonderful (and a wonderful gal attendant on city of new orleans too) and I let them know when I got on that I was a smoker and asked them politely if they could alert me right before we got to each smoking stop. And they did each and every time.Will be anxiously awaiting that report...........and how you handle the smoking part (if you still smoke)......need all the tips we can get. Thanks
Most of the time I'm in a roomette and although there is always a power outlet it only works correctly from the start maybe half of the time. Sometimes you can get a flaky outlet to start working by jostling it or by adjusting the tension on cable or whatever, but sometimes it just won't work no matter what. The staff can flip circuit breakers or something but that won't always fix it either or it will fix it and then it dies again later on. I wish the roomettes had more than one outlet in case one is on the fritz. Meanwhile it seems most of the coach cars have now been outfitted with two plugs for every set of two seats. Oh, and I think you meant bourgeoisie in that context.Oh, relevant to the thread topic--watch out for a complete and utter lack of outlets in coach. If you're a member of the bourgeois and can score a roomette/bedroom on a LD train, you'll have all the power you can want, but if you choose to tough it out in coach, you run a risk of being deprived the quintessential flow of electrons.
This is funny, amazing at how much you can make yourself smoke.When I traveled home last year I took EB to TENN and I was in a sleeper car. That smoking things wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I may have been fortunate, but I had attendants who were wonderful (and a wonderful gal attendant on city of new orleans too) and I let them know when I got on that I was a smoker and asked them politely if they could alert me right before we got to each smoking stop. And they did each and every time.Will be anxiously awaiting that report...........and how you handle the smoking part (if you still smoke)......need all the tips we can get. Thanks
I had cut back while I was here as I couldn't smoke in mom's house since she is on oxygen, so I had already trained my body to scale back the need for a ciggy. There was one stretch that was about 8 hours or so that I started jonesing just a little, but for the most part, there were stops within 2-4-6 hours each stretch. So it wasn't terrible.
Now coach may be a whole different story. I'm just guessing but I dont think the attendants will work quite that hard as I don't think they are bucking for tips as I think is more common in the sleeper cars. So it could be interesting. Usually if you have a detailed "stop" schedule, you can pretty much tell where you can get off to smoke and where you can't. the longer the stop, of course more chance you have to smoke.
One funny quip about smoking and train travel and probably only a smoker will get this but...........
One thing I did learn is that some of the stops are very short, 5 minutes maybe, so if you get to get off and smoke, you have to be quick. I got pretty good at hot boxing two ciggys in 5 minutes, especially when I knew it was gonna be a long stretch to the next smoke stop. And let me tell ya.......... those times, I got high as a kite. ROFL.
I guess I didn't realize that trying to smoke that much that quick would make ya high. LOL, I kept thinking "they are gonna think I'm smoking pot or crack". ROFL.
I still make it to my destinations with no mudslides, no bustitutions, no truck impacts, no train wreaks, no pedestrians hit, no burned out locomotives, no frozen doors, no bad ordered cars, no cancelled trains, and nobody thrown off the train. Considering what we know can happen on Amtrak I'd say I'm one of the lucky ones!You've got to be the unluckiest dude in the world or something.
The staff was either pulling your leg or had no clue what they were talking about. As our resident electrical engineer, now retired from PECO has said more than once, you don't get surges on the train.I remember being a little dismissive when one of SAS' quirky station staff was warning me over and over about the terrible destructive surges that can come through the train's power outlets but on that particular trip I heeded his advice and left my stuff unplugged.
Well, you are certainly one of the luckier ones.I still make it to my destinations with no mudslides, no bustitutions, no truck impacts, no train wreaks, no pedestrians hit, no burned out locomotives, no frozen doors, no bad ordered cars, no cancelled trains, and nobody thrown off the train. Considering what we know can happen on Amtrak I'd say I'm one of the lucky ones!
What kind of impact do you feel when your car strikes a piece of paper? Or a patch of grass that blows across the road?In North Dakota, some moron tried to drive her car (old sedan) across the tracks at a crossing, and got stuck in the snow. The train was stopped for over an hour for that, and the amtrak staff told me that the car was hit by the train. The car was pretty smashed up when we finally saw it, but I know I certainly didn't feel any impact (I was in the upper level of the dining car at the time)
Please think when you post, the crew change was NOT union mandated it is a federal law enforced by the FRA with a loss of the engineer's license if he were to make a willful violation and would not be allowed to work as an engineer. He could also face a fine of several thousand dollars. The operating railroad and the railroad that the engineer worked for could also be fined. I have been a proud union member for over 44 years and have held local and national offices. Even though I am retired I still pay my dues. The breaking of the union's back has been a great contributor to the down falling of the middle class.The long duration spent stuck lead to a Union-mandated crew change, and when the taxi with the replacement crew came, there was much unrest amongst the passengers (as we'd been stuck in a freight yard right outside Chicago for hours, and they had told us that no taxis could reach us & we couldn't detrain), but the "poetic justice" of the taxi getting stuck in the snow placated the masses.
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