exmontrealer

Hi - I'm a longtime member here who writes about travel.

Doing a story about Amtrak's refurbished cars, which they previewed for media today.

If you've been aboard a train that included a refreshed car, and you can talk on the record, thanks for messaging me.

All the best,
Michael

ambyr

I rode in one on Tuesday. Can't say I have much to say about it, though. It was a train car. The fabric was different from the old train cars. Otherwise, from this rider's perspective, there was no difference.

jackal

I was in one on the inaugural Roanoke-to-DC service last month. My impressions are here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amtr...t28998269.html

Exiled in Express

I was pleasantly surprised by the refreshed cars on holiday Keystone trips. Much more comfortable, not sure how much of this is improvement rather than simply not being 20 year old seats. In addition to comfort, appearance also jumped considerably. The seats no longer look like someone shot and skinned my grandfather's couch for the covers.

davesam12

This fall I did the SW Chief - Chicago to LA and connecting to the Surfliner south to San Diego. My bedroom compartment on the Superliner car was clean, but in real need of a "refresh". Some surfaces were very worn and tattered looking.

Now, the Business Class car on the Surfliner to SD looked brand new. Seats, carpet, etc. Totally "refreshed". I have been on the Surfliner annually many times over the years, for business and leisure so really noticed the "refresh".

seat38a

Surfliner is paid for by the State of California so gets much more love than the SW Chief which is at the mercy of what the Federal Government gives it.

bitburgr

I’m on a refreshed NEC car right now(too probably too late for the OP). While the new leather seating surfaces are comfortable and look great, they literally did nothing to fix any problems. Still have broken tray tables and broken seat reclines. Some of the seat back pockets still look ratty. Interesting that they only went half way with this.

AlanB

Alas, I'm not really surprised at all. It is actually more the norm for Amtrak to do that; no doubt at least in part driven by the ever constant battle for funding from the Fed.

As an example, several years ago Amtrak refurbished almost the entire Superliner ! sleeper fleet. Except that some cars got more in the way of cosmetic refurbishment than did other cars. The first cars through the program didn't get as much work done as the latter cars going through the program. Even worse is the fact that everything Amtrak did was strictly cosmetic. That which we the passenger see.

Yet everything that helps to keep us comfortable is still original and prone to failure. Which is to say that they didn't update the electrical systems in the cars, didn't update the AC/heating systems in the cars, didn't update the vacuum system that allows the toilets to flush; and so on.