Re:43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
by stardenburden on Friday February 03, 2023 @06:51PM
(#34649560)
It still isn't true when I took Amtrak back in August. Maybe it's just that one route, or that the train was sold out?
Re:43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
by lennartkoopmann on Friday February 03, 2023 @06:51PM
(#34649563)
In another thread, someone else pointed out that I could be wrong about the observation car access. I added a note to the post! :)
> economy ... gets you no access to the observation car
This wasn't true back when I did it a bunch of years ago. Is this a recent change? Maybe Covid related to keep the amount of traffic down? (maybe we can start calling these kind of sticky policies "long covid")
Also if you're in coach, you can still reserve a spot in the dining car and pay for your meal (or at least you could). I did that a few times over the course of a trip. Lots of weird characters in coach, for better and for worse. But at least you know why the train is stopped in a crossing to let Amtrak police board, or who the FBI agents are looking for.
FWIW I'd describe taking the train as like a condensed driving trip. If you've got a few days to spare getting to your destination, but not the month required for a full cross country road trip, it's definitely worth doing!