jcresq

I rode the Carolinian this morning from PHL to WAS in business class. There were several rows blocked off with signs saying Reserved for Parties of 2. The result was...these rows were unoccupied while the rest of us were jammed together. I ride this route regularly (though probably not on the Carolinian). Is this something new, is it unique to the Carolinian? What gives?

wxguy

On the Acela crews will often put "Reserved for parties of 3 or more" on the four-seaters. Your choice if you wish to ignore or remove.

fairviewroad

Probably reserved for people boarding in WAS or later for travel further down the line. A party of two that is spending 8+ hours on the train will understandably want to sit together, and if all the sets of two seats are taken up by single travelers, then the party of 2 has to split up. It's clear why crew members might like to watch out for the interests of their longer-distance passengers rather than someone who is using the train for a short corridor hop.

And if you think having to "share" a seat on an Amtrak train (in BC, no less) equates to being "jammed together" I might suggest you try flying this segment on a US Airways Dash 8 next time.

All that said, I understand your frustration as it doesn't seem right to have to make space for people who aren't there. But I do think it makes travel more pleasant for more people in the long run, no pun intended.

radiowell

The Carolinian BC can get jampacked quite often. Once I boarded northbound at Durham, NC (a few stops from the starting point, Charlotte) and literally had to grab the last open seat in BC! I'm sure that they heard complaints from pax more than once.

Truthfully, I wish that the conductors would do this more often (Pac Surfliner also reserves the 4 seaters with the sign 3 or more pax and enforced!) but within reason. They should have the manifest, so they could avoid having empty seats and not blanketly apply the rules, one would hope.

Ah, the good old turboprop PHL-BWI. I know, I have done it. (Not sure if they have it on the PHL-DCA route).

fairviewroad

On US Airways, PHL-DCA is mostly CRJ-200's but depending on the time of day or the day of the week, you might end up in a Dash 8, A319, E170 or E175. Definitely a grab bag.