Amtrak is a convenient way of shuttling up and down the northeast corridor, with downtown to downtown service. While most trains offer a Business Class service, you should know that not all Amtrak business class services are the same.
Interestingly, Amtrak runs 3 types of Business Class services in the Northeast Corridor:
- Amtrak Acela Express Business Class
- Amtrak’s Northeast Regional 2×2 Business Class
- Amtrak’s Amfleet Dinette 2×1 Business Class
While the Acela Business Class and Northeast Regional Business class do have a bit of extra legroom, the Amfleet Dinette is Amtrak’s little secret – and offered a totally different type of seat.
The Amfleet Dinette is only found on certain train numbers, and the concept is simple: Half of the Cafe car is used as Cafe seating, the other half is 2×1 Business Class seating.
Here, you’ll see the one half – Cafe car seating for use by the entire train.
On the other half, you’ll find Business Class.
Notice that these seats are in a 2×1 layout, halve more legroom, and also have footrests. In addition, the seats recline way more than the average seat, and an included leg rest pops out, nearly mimicking a angled flat business class seat on a major airline.
The under-seat storage is perfect for my Tumi Alpha 2 backpack, and the overheard racks stow my Rimowa suitcase without any issue.
Included with your ticket is complimentary non-alcoholic beverages (which are steps away thanks to this seating being in the Cafe car) and newspaper. Sure, it’s not like an airline service, but for Amtrak, it’s the best of what’s there.
You won’t find these on every Amtrak train, and certainly won’t find them on the pricier Acela Express.
What trains offer this deluxe business class?
- 54/55-56/57 – the Vermonter, serving Washington DC to St. Albans, VT and intermediate stations
- 66/67 – the overnight Northeast Regional, serving Newport News, VA to Boston, MA and intermediate stations
- 42/43/44 – the Pennsylvanian, serving Pittsburgh, PA to New York, NY and intermediate stations
- 89/90 – the Palmetto, serving Savannah, GA to New York, NY and intermediate stations
If you’re looking for more tips like these, check out the complete North American Train Travel Guide.
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Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
Many mornings (read between 630AM and 9AM), the Amfleet Dinette shows up the NE Regional trains out of NY and its considered as coach class. So if you happen to be on those trains its a free perk and go ahead and enjoy yourself (although no free drinks are included). Most folks don’t know this and just walk by assuming it is First Class. Some of us daily commuters live it up!
HI, I have traveled on 89/90 once a month for the last 4 years – in business class (sitting on 89 in business class as I write this) in business class for the last 4 years. In that time (Savannah to Richmond leg) I have not seen this “delux business class”. Maybe there was a change.
Yeah, I believe they changed it. I used to take that train quite frequently and saw the deluxe one a lot. It was worth it to upgrade. Lately, I’ve only seen it about 30% of the time.
I’m almost certain I traveled in an Amfleet car from Chicago to Michigan on the Wolverine. Very similar to what you discribed in this post.
The Maple Leaf and Empire Service trains have it too most of the time. The odd time you’ll get different equipment, but most of the time it’s one of these.
However, worth noting that you don’t really need business class on the Maple Leaf because most of the cars used are of the “Amfleet II” variety, meaning they’re the ones used on overnight trains such as the Lake Shore Limited.