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Changes to Auto Train


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#1 howardj

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Posted 15 March 2014 - 10:30 AM

The following email arrived yesterday morning....... Dear Auto Train Passenger, In an effort to be good stewards of the federal funding received to operate our Amtrak service, a number of steps are being taken to eliminate losses in our Food and Beverage department over the next five years. Some of the changes being made to accomplish this include the discontinuation of select amenities offered on Auto Train. Effective March 14, 2014, the Sleeping car lounge will be removed from Auto Train and replaced with an additional Coach car to allow greater seating capacity for our passengers. Additionally, complimentary wine served with dinner will be discontinued as well as the on-board wine and cheese tastings for Sleeping car passengers. Passengers will continue to receive all regular meals in the dining car at no additional charge, and passengers may purchase cheese and cracker trays and other snacks, as well as liquor, wine and beer, in the Lounge car. While it is never easy to tell you, our valued customers, that we are eliminating some of the amenities, these changes are necessary in order to reduce costs, increase revenues and preserve passenger rail service across our country. If you have any questions or comments about these changes, feel free to contact me using the “contact us” link on the Amtrak.com home page. Thank you for traveling with Amtrak. We appreciate your patronage. Sincerely, Mark Murphy General Manager, Long -Distance Services I really don't know what to say about this. We bought and paid for our sleeping car accommodations a full 11 months before the travel date. The price for the sleeping car portion was $ 893 !! Would like to hear what the moderators think about this.

#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 15 March 2014 - 12:27 PM

Howard, I hear you. We who pay more for the sleepers don't want to lose the amenities we had over what is offered to coach passengers. The loss of complimentary wine at dinner doesn't bother me because I am fine with soft drinks. And the "welcome to the train" wine and cheese tasting -- ditto. When it was offered I only partook of the cheese and crackers. At least you still are getting a bed, until Amtrak decides that washing the linens costs them too much money. :) The addition of another coach in place of the sleeper section's lounge car must indicate a large demand for coach seats. The loss of the first class lounge car will be felt as you will now have to go back to the coach section of the train to use their lounge car. Until now they kept the sleeper and coach sections virtually separate. It is going to create a very long walk on a train where a number of passengers are not as agile as they once were. On the other hand one positive is that some will have a shorter walk to the sleeping section's diner because they no longer will have the lounge to walk through. I could probably learn to deal with these negatives if they were to add some positives in their place. Now that Amtrak has proven that they can place passengers' vehicles in such a way as to offer priority unloading for a price, then they should offer this amenity to sleeper passengers at either a reduced cost or for free. Priority unloading should also be a perk for the higher Amtrak Guest Rewards tiers.


Kevin Korell


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#3 howardj

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Posted 15 March 2014 - 03:06 PM

Kevin, I agree with everything you said. We do take advantage of the priority unloading for $50 since they started to offer it. I would be very happy to get a reduction in the cost of that as a trade off for what they took away. We have been very fortunate in booking in either the 40 or 41 car. Maybe it has just been luck but we have found that the 41 lead directly into the lounge and on to the diner and the 40 went directly into the diner. This was important for my wife because she hates having to walk thru any part of the train. With all of the associated cost to using the autotrain perhaps it's time to re-examine a car transport service and flying down. I just feel taken advantage of.

#4 KevinKorell

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Posted 15 March 2014 - 04:06 PM

The 40 and 41 cars are the deluxe sleepers which have all bedrooms on the upper level. Downside is that in 40 you get the people walking by from the 42 and 44 cars, and likewise in 41 you get the 43 and 45 people. As you said 40 and 41 get the shortest walk to the diner. But now it's a hike to the train's only lounge car, and remember the extra coach they added that you have to walk through as well to get there.


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#5 howardj

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Posted 16 March 2014 - 11:56 AM

You're 100% correct about the traffic going to the diner from the other cars, but I think that will be better than the traffic going back and forth to the lounge and then again going thru for dinner and bkfst. We'll see when we go north in a couple of weeks. I'll file a report after that trip.

#6 AlanB

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Posted 19 March 2014 - 07:54 AM

It's interesting that they're totally cutting the sleeper lounge, as during busier periods that lounge functions as overflow seating for the dining car. And in fact the cars were rebuilt to provide that function. I also wonder if they plan to leave the remaining lounge in its current place or move that into the middle essentially providing a buffer between coach & the sleepers. Additionally, if they leave it where it is, will they stop using it for overflow seating? With only 1 lounge car, they really need it to be 100% lounge car. This also puts a much greater strain on the dining car now and makes me wonder how they plan to get everyone through during the meal periods. One of the other things that I'm hearing will grow out of this is a change in the meals for sleeper car pax. Until now sleeper pax got a better quality meal than did coach pax. For example, coach might get a TBone, while sleeper pax got Filet Mignon medallions. So if what I'm hearing is correct, then they would be able to send sleeping car pax to the coach diners to compensate for the loss of that overflow seating in the lounge. Returning to the lounge itself, Amtrak has been stymied for years by the amount of hotel power that can be carried through the 480 cables. The Auto Train is maxing out that capacity. This has prevented Amtrak from expanding the train's overall capacity to carry more people. So cutting this lounge car not only cuts a non-revenue car and the associated employees saving Amtrak money; but it now allows them to add that coach car and increase revenues. So while it is unfortunate for us riders, I do understand the dollars & cents issues.
Alan,

Take care and take trains!

#7 amtrakwolverine

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Posted 20 March 2014 - 04:24 AM

Amtrak might have to invest in some hep booster cars. Maybe convert some of the express boxcars into hep generator cars.

#8 howardj

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Posted 20 March 2014 - 09:13 AM

I'll report details when we go North in a couple of weeks. As I said earlier we do everything possible to be in the 40 or 41 sleeper car because my wife has a very difficult time walking between more cars to get to the diner. We really wont miss the lounge. As I reported from our December trip South there were unsupervised children racing back and forth thru the cars to get the lounge snacks making it difficult for people to get thru and quite disruptive for us. This is sounding like a version of the Peter Principal...... Amtrak had a very good thing going, made a bunch of $$$, etc. So over the last 5 years that we've been using it in both directions the staff is less professional, less proficient, less trained, etc. So first they get an extra $365,000 in annual revenue with no increase in costs for priority unloading. Now, no wine with dinner, no sleeping car lounge, and talk of sending people to a non sleeping car diner for overflow. How to spoil a good thing!! So this trip north will tell us a lot. We've already booked and paid for our trip South next December but that can easily be canceled if the greed of Amtrak makes what was a pleasant experience less so.

#9 Badger71

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Posted 21 March 2014 - 08:43 PM

My wife and I took the auto train south in Oct. It was our first trip. In a sleepette. We enjoyed the experience. Have two trips booked. One north on April 30. One south in October. Read with dismay about the cutbacks. The lounge car was an important part of our experience. I have emailed Amtrak about our views. We will be reconsidering the two booked trips. Very strong probability we will cancel We suggest others email Amtrak as well




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