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Comment by splonk | Hacker News Reader

Very pleasant travelogue. I enjoy long distance train travel when I have the time for it, and I think is a pretty helpful post for those considering it.

> Also, economy does not include meals in the dining car and gets you no access to the observation car.

I'm pretty sure observation cars are open to all passengers, regardless of ticket status. Certainly nobody's ever asked me for a ticket when going into one.

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Things have changed over the last few years on both fronts, and it depends on the line, especially east vs. west and Viewliner vs. Superliner.

That doesn't make sense -- the lower deck of the observation car is the cafe, which is the main (effectively only) place to get food, coffee, etc. when you're in coach, since the dining car is reservation only and you're behind everyone in a room.

The observation car is open to all passengers, no exceptions. The Dining Car is still sleeper-car only, although they seem to want to change it back to taking paid seating from coach/business some time this year.

Thanks! I added a note to the blog post, saying that I might be wrong here.

I've seen people being turned around. Not sure if that's what usually happens or if I misinterpreted the situation.

Interesting, I stand corrected. I've been on several Amtrak lines across the country in the past couple years, but things have been changing pretty quickly, and I haven't taken that particular line.

Hope you enjoyed your Malort.

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