Cafe Cars on the NEC

What snack for business class travellers? You'd are lucky enough to get a free drink. The only time I see business class being of any value is during rush hour or peak periods, as the coach seating often fills up with its normally booked load through Amtrak reservations and then "extras" who are on a monthly pass and not accounted for by train # in the arrow system. So coach section could be easily sold out and at standing room only, but Amtrak's reservation system forgot about the montly passholders that could be on the NEC trains - they have a pass to use certain trains and don't have to pre-register etc.

acela 2036 wrote:Has anyone noticed that Amtrak has decided to move the cafe car again? This time I found it on the 3rd car of the train. What on earth gives them the idea to keep moving them?

Consist anomalies happen. I have never seen it as the 3rd car before and it was probably put there for some logical reason. It's not like Amtrak puts the cafe in any random spot on each train, and even if they did, I don't see how that's too much of a problem unless you're disabled or if the Cafe car is a Cafe/Business car (which it obviously isn't) and you're a regular business class traveler expecting the car to be in the same place each time.

x-press wrote:Also, they used to announce where the business class car was on the train (first car, last car) . . . haven't heard that in years.

You haven't taken a NER north from Washington in a while. It's true though, Washington is the only place they announce it AFAIK unless they do it at Boston sometimes.

x-press wrote:Also, they used to announce where the business class car was on the train (first car, last car) . . . haven't heard that in years.

You haven't taken a NER north from Washington in a while. It's true though, Washington is the only place they announce it AFAIK unless they do it at Boston sometimes.[/quote]
They do it in Boston, almost a lot of stations down the line, Providence, Kingston, etc..

acela 2036 wrote:

x-press wrote:Also, they used to announce where the business class car was on the train (first car, last car) . . . haven't heard that in years.

You haven't taken a NER north from Washington in a while. It's true though, Washington is the only place they announce it AFAIK unless they do it at Boston sometimes.

They do it in Boston, almost a lot of stations down the line, Providence, Kingston, etc..[/quote]
Well I certainly haven't heard it in Connecticut or anywhere else yet.

Boarding at BWI in late July, it was announced two trains in a row (I had and hour to kill until "my" train).

They announce it in Old Saybrook, CT.

They announce it in Newark,Metropark and Trenton. I have taken the NER from all three and all three times it was announced.

It must be something new they announce now that they are "Northeast Regionals" because I certainly don't remember them doing it at all. In fact, the last time I was up there, I took 93 down from Washington from Bridgeport, and the conductor didn't make a single announcement until New York.

Murjax, I and, I assumed, everyone else, were talking about announcements made in the station just before train arrival, not about on-board announcements.

lil update, maybe it was just one or 2 trains i saw, because I rode the train yesterday and the cafe car was the 4th

From my NEC trip in July:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuHcAV4ArWg

This was train 171 from Boston en route to WAS making nearly all station stops. It was TEN cars long with a single AEM-7, and had TWO cafe cars (4th and 7th car) and two business class cars (the second was ahead of the second cafe, I think the first was adjacent to the motor).

realtype wrote:From my NEC trip in July:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuHcAV4ArWg

This was train 171 from Boston en route to WAS making nearly all station stops. It was TEN cars long with a single AEM-7, and had TWO cafe cars (4th and 7th car) and two business class cars (the second was ahead of the second cafe, I think the first was adjacent to the motor).

I think Amtrak just put a BC Class Car (which are almost totally identicle to the coach cars) in the consist because there were no extra cars avalible.

lirr415-Peter

lirr415 wrote:

realtype wrote:From my NEC trip in July:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuHcAV4ArWg

This was train 171 from Boston en route to WAS making nearly all station stops. It was TEN cars long with a single AEM-7, and had TWO cafe cars (4th and 7th car) and two business class cars (the second was ahead of the second cafe, I think the first was adjacent to the motor).

I think Amtrak just put a BC Class Car (which are almost totally identicle to the coach cars) in the consist because there were no extra cars avalible.

lirr415-Peter

Yeah, same with having the second Cafe car unless of course both Cafe cars were working which is odd since usually when there are two in a consist one is used just as seats.

The Northeast Regional trains that I saw Monday were consistent. The cafe was the fourth car on trains 141, 84, and 95.
Train 43 Pennsylvanian had the cafe car behind the motor, since it's half business class and half cafe, and would be on the hind end of the train after the direction reversal in Philadelphia.

Kaback9 wrote:

lirr415 wrote:

I think Amtrak just put a BC Class Car (which are almost totally identicle to the coach cars) in the consist because there were no extra cars avalible.

lirr415-Peter

Yeah, same with having the second Cafe car unless of course both Cafe cars were working which is odd since usually when there are two in a consist one is used just as seats.

Yeah, the second cafe (which is where I boarded) wasn't staffed, but there were passengers riding in there, working on laptops and what not.