Living in Vancouver, Washington, the Amtrak Cascades trains provide a great way to head north to Seattle. It’s a trip I find myself making about once a year on average. While I usually pay a slight premium to upgrade to the Business Class service, on a trip this weekend I rode Coach. Here’s a summary of the differences… some of these you can find out from Amtrak, but some you learn from experience:
- Business Class seats are a tad wider and have a bit more legroom (they’re configured as 2-and-1 in a row whereas coach is 2-and-2).
- Business Class riders get a voucher worth $3 in the Bistro Car.
- There are (usually) newspapers available in Business Class.
- Coach seating is much like a stampede. If you board at one of the major stations (Portland, Seattle), there will be an announcement for Coach seating assignments, at which point everyone in the station runs to form a line to get a seat number. If you board at one of the intermediate stations, the Conductor will point you towards a car, which may or may not actually have enough open seats for the people that just boarded, and everyone figures it out amongst themselves. If you avoid Southwest Airlines because of their lack of assigned seats, Coach seating on the Cascades will likely bother you as well.
- The Coach cars are generally louder, since folks with kids usually don’t make the Business Class upgrade.
Enjoy your trip on the Amtrak Cascades regardless of your seating situation – but take these things into consideration when being asked about an upgrade.
