When I ride a train, it's usually the Illini. I'm usually on for two or three hours. I am almost always alone and grading papers or getting a talk ready. Since the Illini has three college-town stops, plus Chicago, I always see other people grading papers and getting talks ready. I see people doing various kinds of paperwork. I drive over from Terre Haute, but in Champaign Urbana there are two or three thousand professors and a few of them are usually on their way to something in Chicago. I try to sit in the cafe for as much of that time as I can. The one time they had a second cafe on for axles and had it open, I sat in it. There are always other people doing the same thing, often two to a table. Sometimes we talk about how nice it is to be able to work at a table all the way up to Chicago. I sit at a desk all day. I lean on the desk, not back into my chair. Same in the cafe car. Two or three hours in a low chair at a real table I can lean on and spread out papers on is a big advantage for me -- much more comfortable than trying to work.
I know a few of you really hate low-back seating. I know it's not the best for sitting and lounging (riding the Iowa Pacific Dome from Crawfordsville to Chicago was uncomfortable). I understand no one wants to invest extra money in this. But I am sure there is a market for table seating on shorter trips with lots of people who want to work on the way. For example, I really think Amtrak and Illinois should come to an arrangement to sell table seating on the Illini and Saluki, especially on busy Fridays and Sundays. I suspect that any given full Illini has a couple dozen people who would happily have shelled out an extra five or ten bucks to reserve half a table; Business is a euphemism for first class, but table seating could be called "workspace" and actually be workspace. Since they are hauling the car anyway, most of what they took in would be extra.
I know a few of you really hate low-back seating. I know it's not the best for sitting and lounging (riding the Iowa Pacific Dome from Crawfordsville to Chicago was uncomfortable). I understand no one wants to invest extra money in this. But I am sure there is a market for table seating on shorter trips with lots of people who want to work on the way. For example, I really think Amtrak and Illinois should come to an arrangement to sell table seating on the Illini and Saluki, especially on busy Fridays and Sundays. I suspect that any given full Illini has a couple dozen people who would happily have shelled out an extra five or ten bucks to reserve half a table; Business is a euphemism for first class, but table seating could be called "workspace" and actually be workspace. Since they are hauling the car anyway, most of what they took in would be extra.
