Originally Posted by ewoo

I was on the Wolverine a few days ago. It was late evening, and the train was not very crowded.

The cafe car was empty except for one of the tables that was occupied by two conductors. I ordered a coffee and a snack and then sat down at one of the tables and opened my laptop.

The employee running the cafe car came by and said to me, "Sorry, you can't use computers here." She then pointed to a sign. The sign said absolutely nothing about computers. It said that the cafe car was reserved for customers who had purchased food on board (or something to that effect). I pointed out that I *had* purchased food, from her, just moments earlier. She said, "Sorry, those are the rules." So I closed my computer but continued to sit there until I finished my food and drink.

To preempt comments, I will say that I know we live in a world with inconsiderate people who need to be reminded about the basic rules of civility from time to time. If there had been others in the cafe car, if the tables had been "in demand," I would not have set up my computer. In fact, I probably wouldn't have sat down at all, given that I was a single person and the table could accommodate four passengers.

But given that the only people who appeared to be using the cafe car at the moment were Amtrak employees, I thought I was being reasonable and the employee was being unreasonable.

Thoughts?