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Also, on some of the long distance routes, I've actually been assigned a particular seat by the coach attendant as I board - but this seems to be at the preference of the particular train crew and is the exception rather than the norm.</font>
I loathe and despise this practice, as the train crew will randomly assign you a seat without regard to your seating preference (i.e. window or aisle). Since it is random (though certain trains are more likely to offer this (dis)service), one never knows when one may come across it on long distance trains.
Apparently Amtrak agrees with me that this is a customer unfriendly practice; they issued me a voucher equal to the fare I paid between Miami and Wildwood when I was randomly assigned a seat and the staff made no effort to consider my seating preference.
[This message has been edited by Globehopper (edited 09-15-2003).]