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What makes you assume that you will have the compartment to yourself? Do you buy six tickets? The reality is that most people will actually prefer being in the

by usrusr 2y ago

What makes you assume that you will have the compartment to yourself? Do you buy six tickets? The reality is that most people will actually prefer being in the "public space" of an open plan train car with many random strangers over being closed in in the "private space" of a compartment with a small selection of random strangers. Even if they firmly believe the opposite.

JoshTriplett 2y ago
> What makes you assume that you will have the compartment to yourself? Do you buy six tickets? I've ridden in various trains with 2-seat and 4-seat compartments, which were wonderful. Some of them were sold by the compartment rather than by the seat: you always pay for the whole compartment for your party, so that (for instance) a 3-person group still has the compartment to themselves. And yes, in cases where they're sold by the seat rather than by the compartment, I will absolutely buy 1-2 extra seats for that purpose. But even if not, I'd happily take a six-person compartment with a door, and less background noise.
throwaway81523 2y ago
I've found the compartments to be nicer than airline-style seating, even with strangers. A lot of the time though, you do get the compartment to yourself, or share it with just one other person. And of course, if you are travelling with friends or family, they can be in the compartment with you. The empty "hallway" space outside the compartments is also nice. It means you can go out and walk around without bothering other people, not so easy on a airline-style car. If you are agile, in a compartment you can climb up on the luggage racks above the seats and sleep there (I've done that). You need to give some (maybe non-verbal) assurance to the other people in the compartment that you aren't crazy. Again that's easiest when it's just a few people. If the compartment has just 1 or 2 people, it's easy to lie down on the bench seats and sleep. With 3 or 4 people, you can flatten out the seats and everyone can sleep if they don't mind a little bit of squishing. As a college student I was fine with that. Maybe most of us here are too old for that by now. A full compartment is imho certainly not noticeably worse than open plan seating. A non-full compartment is definitely better, if you have a bit of luck and get one. So think of buying an economy airline ticket that automatically comes with a chance of a free first-class upgrade, vs. one without such a chance.
throwaway81523 2y ago
I found even full compartments to be preferable to airline-style seating for various reasons, such as being able to walk around in the "hallway" without bothering other passengers. But also, at least back in the day, you had a fairly good chance of getting a non-full compartment. On a long-distance route you even would find yourself in a compartment with someone interesting and if both of you were up for it, you'd have some time to get to know each other. I'm too old for such things by now, but travelling around on compartment trains as a college student was quite a nice experience. It's disappointing if it's not around any more. Edit: Meh, semi-dup post, the earlier one took a while to show up so I thought it had been lost.

by usrusr 2y ago

JoshTriplett 2y ago

> What makes you assume that you will have the compartment to yourself? Do you buy six tickets? I've ridden in various trains with 2-seat and 4-seat compartments, which were wonderful. Some of them were sold by the compartment rather than by the seat: you always pay for the whole compartment for your party, so that (for instance) a 3-person group still has the compartment to themselves. And yes, in cases where they're sold by the seat rather than by the compartment, I will absolutely buy 1-2 extra seats for that purpose. But even if not, I'd happily take a six-person compartment with a door, and less background noise.

throwaway81523 2y ago

I've found the compartments to be nicer than airline-style seating, even with strangers. A lot of the time though, you do get the compartment to yourself, or share it with just one other person. And of course, if you are travelling with friends or family, they can be in the compartment with you. The empty "hallway" space outside the compartments is also nice. It means you can go out and walk around without bothering other people, not so easy on a airline-style car. If you are agile, in a compartment you can climb up on the luggage racks above the seats and sleep there (I've done that). You need to give some (maybe non-verbal) assurance to the other people in the compartment that you aren't crazy. Again that's easiest when it's just a few people. If the compartment has just 1 or 2 people, it's easy to lie down on the bench seats and sleep. With 3 or 4 people, you can flatten out the seats and everyone can sleep if they don't mind a little bit of squishing. As a college student I was fine with that. Maybe most of us here are too old for that by now. A full compartment is imho certainly not noticeably worse than open plan seating. A non-full compartment is definitely better, if you have a bit of luck and get one. So think of buying an economy airline ticket that automatically comes with a chance of a free first-class upgrade, vs. one without such a chance.

throwaway81523 2y ago

I found even full compartments to be preferable to airline-style seating for various reasons, such as being able to walk around in the "hallway" without bothering other passengers. But also, at least back in the day, you had a fairly good chance of getting a non-full compartment. On a long-distance route you even would find yourself in a compartment with someone interesting and if both of you were up for it, you'd have some time to get to know each other. I'm too old for such things by now, but travelling around on compartment trains as a college student was quite a nice experience. It's disappointing if it's not around any more. Edit: Meh, semi-dup post, the earlier one took a while to show up so I thought it had been lost.