Passenger Trains > LD Business Class Cars

What has the experience been with LD Business Class cars? I believe that the Coast Starlight's four Superliner business class cars were supposed to get some sort of special treatment.....?????......

But what about other LD trains. What LD trains have business class and is the "experience" (e.g. amenities, interior décor etc.) different than the regular coach cars in the consist? Often times it was just like getting another Amfleet II or Superliner coach but having "business class" marked on the ticket. To me that's just a marketing gimmick, regardless if one got priority boarding etc. Do the prices in your business class ticket include meals? THe Amfleet half business and half café cars with the 2-1 leather seating are certainly different than the coach seating offered on LD coach, so I'd consider that an upgrade............

What say you?

On the Cardinal and Boston Lake Shore, you get two and one seating standard on most Midwestern state sponsored trains. On the Crescent, it's just a standard Amfleet II LD coach. No different than buying a coach ticket other than being less crowded.

On the Pennsylvanian, business class is actually a downgrade. You get one of those full 60 seat Northeast Regional Cars with no legrests or footrests whereas in coach you get a Amfleet II car WITH legrests and footrests.

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Coast Starlight business class has standard coach as I recall but requires BC ticket. You get two bottles of water, admittance to the Pacific Parlour Car for wine/cheese tasting only, and can wait in the Metropolitan Lounge at LAX or PDX. Comfy.

On NEC trains 66/67 it is 3 and 1 seating - as it is part of the cafe car; similar to 448/449

stash Wrote:
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> Coast Starlight business class has standard coach
> as I recall but requires BC ticket. You get two
> bottles of water, admittance to the Pacific
> Parlour Car for wine/cheese tasting only, and can
> wait in the Metropolitan Lounge at LAX or PDX.
> Comfy.

As I recall from riding the Coast Starlight BC, there also was a credit for a meal in the dining car - $6 if I recall. It was a pleasant ride in BC; I would use it again.

On the Crescent you have basically a private car from Atlanta to New Orleans and return and each passenger gets to use the whole seat so you can stretch out. Attendent told use no one will be assigned that seat next to you its yours.
Last year my wife and I were the only passengers from Slidel La to Meridian when only one other older lady got on until we got off in Greenville.

On the Carolinian, business class is usually Amfleet II whereas the other coaches are Amfleet I. On the Palmetto, business class is Amfleet II but you'd probably be riding in Amfleet II anyway unless you were a "short". Generally 89/90 have an Amfleet I for shorts.

Every Carolinian and Palmetto I have seen has had Amfleet I business class cars, not Amfleet II. On the Carolinian, all cars are usually A1s. On the Palmetto, like the Pennsylvanian, BC is a downgrade compared to Coach, which is mostly A2s.

Wurli1938 Wrote:
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> On NEC trains 66/67 it is 3 and 1 seating - as it
> is part of the cafe car; similar to 448/449

I was on 66 about a year ago in BC and it was the 'standard' NEC 60 seat BC car... The part cafe part 2-1 seating cars that were on 66/67 were replaced a couple of years ago by the full BC cars. That was probably due to crowding in the 15 seat BC section. The times I've ridden 66/67 in the past 2 years, the BC had maybe 20-25 passengers (week nights M-Th), so everyone had no problem getting a seat to themselves.

More interestingly, in my opinion, is the 'space' given to each seat, depending on what train business class you are in. A few of weeks ago, I decided to take a tape measure with me on a couple of trips that covered NEC BC (60 seat), Empire Service to Buffalo BC (15 seat half-cafe car), Lakeshore Ltd regular coach (the BOS-CHI BC car is a 15 seat half-cafe car) and the Vermonter, which also still has a 15 seat 2-1 BC/cafe car (which frequently sells out some portions of the route)

Taking the tape measure confirmed what I thought about the spacing. On the 60 seat NEC BC cars, the distance from the front of the seat cushion to the rear of the seat in front is 20", has a 'regular' coach double wide seat, and has a foot rest. On the 15 seat half-cafe cars, the distance to the seat in front is only 18" with foot rest! Even more amazingly, the width of the single seats are 20" and the double seats, 19"! But, the double seats have a 2 drink holder 'partition'/arm rest between seats that's about 6" wide. And for those expecting to get a window seat and sleep leaning on the wall, the 'gap' to the wall on the single seat side is about 1-2" wider than that on the double-seat side, which, is wider than that on 'regular' NEC business class. In other words, bring a couple of inflatable pillows to stuff between the wall and seat. Unfortunately, I didn't take seat-wall measurements on any of the trains.

For those traveling BC on the Lakeshore Ltd (448 ALB-BOS leg, I don't yet know about ALB-CHI, but will ride CHI-SPG in 3 weeks) or the the Vermonter, the cafe/BC car is an open cafe, with other passengers using the tables, and usually has one table taken by the conductors. On the Cardinal, the BC/cafe car is between the sleepers and the cafe/dinette car and the cafe section of the car is closed, giving access only to BC and sleeper passengers that want to use a full booth.

More amazing, is that cushion-front to seat-back space given to 'regular' Amfleet II LD coach passengers (tr 448/48) is an very roomy 22" and includes both a leg rest and foot rest! In terms of 'personal space', coach is more roomy than business class! But...the restrooms in coach get much more traffic than the single restroom in the cafe/bc car. So, at least when taking the Lakeshore or Cardinal and considering riding in business class, weigh carefully the extra personal space in coach vs more 'intimate' space in the 2-1/cafe car and less-busy restroom.

I'll be on the Coast Starlight in a couple weeks, too, and I'll have to take a quick measurement of the BC seating there, too.

In short, the old maxim 'let the buyer beware' applies to business class, as what you get depends on what train you're on. But...business class ALSO gets an extra 25% AGR 'Tier' points, too! Sometimes the extra tier points can make the difference in 'making it' to AGR select/select plus/select executive level.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/17 11:26 by BRAtkinson.

BRAtkinson Wrote:
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> I was on 66 about a year ago in BC and it was the
> 'standard' NEC 60 seat BC car... The part cafe
> part 2-1 seating cars that were on 66/67 were
> replaced a couple of years ago by the full BC
> cars. That was probably due to crowding in the 15
> seat BC section. The times I've ridden 66/67 in
> the past 2 years, the BC had maybe 20-25
> passengers (week nights M-Th), so everyone had no
> problem getting a seat to themselves.
The 2x1 cafe/BC car was back on 67 when I rode it earlier this year. I know the leather seats are popular, but I actually prefer the 60 seat car on the overnight, as the light and noise from the cafe makes it considerably harder to sleep than in the full length BC, especially since as you say there are rarely enough people to make you have someone next to you.

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The return of the 2x1 seat cafe/BC car is amazing. Among the reasons I considered for the regular NEC 60 seater replacing the 2x1 cars perhaps 3 years ago was it gave the train 'swapability' with any regular NEC regional train, especially nowadays since the BC is always in the rear of the train. Maybe the bean counters at Amtrak decided it was better to sell out the 15 seats, some at higher prices, and make it a revenue cafe thus eliminating one car from the consist was a better option. Of course, now that I'm accustomed to having a full seat double-wide seat to myself at night, I'll have to get re-acclimated to sleeping in the 2-1 seats.