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 botheri

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.