Amtrak recently announced a refresh of their coach and business class cars, a process that would take several months to complete.
Thanks to Matt Donelly, there’s some first pictures of the new refreshes, and they’re pretty impressive.
Here is the coach class interior:
82725, one of the first Amfleet I Coach Class cars with new interior.
Here’s the new business class interior:
81534, one of the first Amfleet I Business Class cars with new interior.
Both cars feature refreshed leather seating – however it’s worth noting that this refreshed seating is in the old cars themselves. So it’s sort of a “band aid” fix to their tired cars, but it’s certainly better than nothing.
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.
Amazing what we settle for these days…
I suggest you checkout the parlor cars for first class daytime travel on the New Haven, particularly the ‘Merchants Limited” and “Yankee Clipper” between Boston-New York (in 4.15 hour time!)
The postwar, Pullman-built parlors had large, individual swivel seats and a bar that dispensed cocktails with all the garnishments; not just beer and wine.
Apparently, we have yet to learn from history how very profitable the bar cars were on the New Haven.
The last attempt to emulate the New Haven were the first class Metroliners, and later the first class Amfleet, both car types long gone. Acela first class between WAS-NYC-BOS is all that remains, typically not available during weekday rush hour times, as only one-half of a car is first class. Go figure…