The Chinese Sleeping Cars remind me too much of County Jail Holding cell beds (The Nicer Jails of Course[|)]
Thanks, the cars were based on BR mark III stock, pretty obvious in these photos.
Railfans are not realistic. They think that since they like to ride the train everyone does, and if Amtrak would just add the car it would be used. That is not the case today. The Washington sleeper was not dropped because of the retirement of the heritage sleepers. (Although that may have been a contributing cause.) They were dropped because they weren’t being used. I rode it once when I was the only passenger in the car. The attendant told me that there were nights when he had no passengers. He told me that the car would be coming off soon and it did. As others have noted people today want to sleep in their own beds and have meals with their own families. I can get an early morning flight from Portland, ME to Chicago that with the time zone change gets me into Chicago by 9:00 AM. Yeah, it takes me awhile to get into town but what’s that compared to the hassles of having to get on a bus in Portland and change to the LSL in Boston (hopefully the Boston sleeper isn’t bad ordered) and spend 5 1/2 hours traveling to Albany then spend an hour sitting there and then (if you are on time) another 14 to 15 hours on the train to Chicago. And, sleeping on the train is neither comfortable or restful as a recent experience on the Lake Shore proved to me. Even eating can be a hassle, although my recent trip was a bit better in service than previuosly, the food wasn’t. Going through all of this is not worth avoiding the cab ride to O’Hare and the security check points. I’m still home hours before the train would get me there. And if your destination is in the suburbs all bets are off.
Having done a lot of business travel myself in the past, I’ve often thought that there could be a business-oriented sleeper market - but only one way, not round trip. For early-morning meetings, I often found myself flying out the night before and spending the night in a hotel near the meeting site, then flying home again in the afternoon/evening. So for that one night when I’m not in my own bed anyways, a sleeper service would be attractive - if it was good, comfortable, reliable service, and cheaper than the combined hotel and one-way flight. But even then there’s still a problem if I’m relying on driving myself to/from the station/airport in my own car. So, maybe we’ll see a return to overnight business-oriented sleepers once we switch from personal autos to an Uber/self-driving car fleet model, and divert as much air traffic as possible to electrified ground transport to reduce carbon emissions… but until then…
But your thinking would apply right now to the NE Corridor for Boston/Providence - Baltimore/Washington. Going via overnight sleeper and returning via Acela.
Which is essentailliy how I commuted between Boston and NY 1957-1967. Going via the Owl and returning on the Merchants or a Benkers from GCT-New Haven across-the-platform Patriot when I missed the Merchants.
If there was a good conert at Lincoln Center, then the Owl botoh ways. But I was single.
It applies only if there’s no early morning flight or Acela that would get you down to Baltimore/Washington in time for an early morning meeting. In other words, in situations where you pretty much have to spend a night in a hotel even if you fly. Maybe that’s uncommon these days, although it does seem to me that many conferences/conventions start pretty early and most attendees arrive in town the night before.