Reservation status for certain trains

[brazzman]

Is it possible to find out the the seat reservations/ticket sales in coach for specific trains on specific dates? In other words; the Wolverine #351 from Ann Arbor > Chicago 7/16/12 ETD 7:48A. And; the SWC #3 from Chicago > LA 7/16/12 ETD 3P. Can I monitor these reservations up to the time of departure? Or at least the day before?

 

[AlanB]

No, there is no real way to know how many seat were sold on your train. The best you can do is to pretend to do a test booking for 8 people. If there are fewer than 8 seats left for sale on the train, it will show as sold out. You can then cut down the number to find out exactly how many are left.

But if there are 8 or more seats left, then you'll have no idea how close to sold out the train might be.

If you live near a station and make friends with the agent, they could tell you how things are doing. But that's about the only way to find out just where things stand, unless fewer than 8 seats are left. By the way, the same trick works with sleepers too!