Those who haven’t taken the train it’s worth clarifying that coach class on Amtrak is the amount of space that you would have in a first class plane ticket. Except that you also have a dining car and an observation car and a snack bar that you can walk over to. You can bring a vast amount of things and spread out in the observation car. There were people with multiple monitors and even a teapot going in the observation car lol! Both times that I had a pass I took multiple 24 hour trips. I can say that the pass experience makes you pretty invincible when it comes to sleeping.
However, on my last leg home, they put me next to a big guy who was taking up a ton of space, had a TV on a stand, excess pillows, etc., etc. He clearly didn’t want me next to him. I usually spend the whole day in the observation car anyway. But then my plan was to go to sleep there in the observation car at night. I waited until the crew changed and thought I had let enough time go by but as I lay down, I heard the voice of a new conductor asking where was I going and why wasn’t I in my seat? The nice thing is that she was fairly understanding and she gave me a new seat right inside the door. It was unoccupied so I was able to once again sleep on two seats. That means with two rail pass experiences I have only ever had to sleep next to somebody else once.
