Had a travel agent comment on the questionable condition of restrooms on Amtrak coaches during travel. She recommended getting a roomette to avoid that aspect of coach travel. In your experience, are coach restrooms kept clean and sanitary during travel on the LD trains?
Depends on when you board the long distance train. If you board at the beginning the trains trip they are naturally pretty clean but they do deteriorate as time goes by. I try to minimize the number of trips I have to make to the restrooms and the length of time I spend there.
Honestly, its similiar to any restrooms at a public event or at most airports. Some are better than others but most are great.
Your agent was speaking knowledgeably. A few years ago I took the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle. My accommodation had a private toilet/shower. In terms of cleanliness and smell it was on the borderline of being unacceptable. In all other aspects, however, the accommodations were OK. I hear that that the new CEO has started to stress better treatment of first-class passengers and that the first train to have undergone these improvements – in accommodations, food, employee manners, and cleanliness – is the EB.
Just remember not to go diving in after you drop your cell phone in the***ter!! Nobody wants to sit next to the guy with blue hands.
Actually that started under Gunn. I rode the Empire Builder from end to end last August and had a full Bedroom. This was just after the heavily advertised refurb and before Gunn got the boot. The shops did a great job with the refurb, I can’t imagine how riding in a new car would be much different. The staff was going the extra distance to make you feel relaxed and pampered. And the food in the Dining Car could easily rival the best restaurants.
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. [:)]
All I know is the greyhound bathrooms and after 10 hours with 50 people it is not where you want to be.
I rode the Empire Builder in August-September 2005 and sat in the lower deck section for disabled passengers. This was just after the EB coaches were refurbished. I had access to two restrooms, one for handicapped and one regular. Both were very clean and were kept that way for the entire time I was on the train. Admittedly, my portion of the EB route was short, but I was nevertheless impressed.
Please dont let the members of the BUSH administration know about this,they will cut Amtrak funding
The jacket is hanging on the door of the shower/toilet closet. This may give you an idea of how tight a squeeze it is.
Since we’re talking about the Empire Builder this is the view towards the windows of the bedroom, somewhere in North Dakota:
Looking west at Minot. Crew working at the diamonds of the CPR and BNSF.
The sign at left says “Soo Tower”.
They are going to cut Amtrak funding and that’s the bottom line! I have been under an incorrect assumption in that I thought that the major carriers do not have a “stake” in Amtrak, surprise (to me at least) they are supposed to and could care less if Amtrak is there or not. Needless to say some of the majors will be helping to kill Amtrak off, to free UP(HINT,HINT) track space for their own trains! In these parts one does NOT[B)][
][censored][]want to use the facilities in the “Empire service” trains, and 63-64, which are always dirty![:(!]
There are problems at times with the bathrooms in the coaches on longer distance trains. They aren’t a whole lot worse, however, than the bathrooms on long range airplanes (in my experience) and a lot better than on busses, except for a few services.
The problems arise, my friends, because there aren’t enough on-board attendants to go in and clean the place up after everyone, and because, bluntly, there is a very high percentage of the population which are just plain slobs.
From my moderate experience - several round trips on the Coast Starlight Emeryville-Portland and end to end trips on the California Zephyr and Empire Builder last May, I have found that the restrooms are clean at the beginning of the trip and less clean with maybe some going out of service at the end of a 2 1/2 day run. My strategy has been to use the less convenient restrooms, downstairs or further from the lounge cars on the theory they get less use. They are less likely to be occuped when you get there too.
They want Amtrak gone and there is very very little hope for a 180 reversal of this.[:(]
[(-D] [(-D] [(-D] [(-D]
check out my posting on a stinky situation on the Silver Star
which I just wrote up yesterday.