Amtrak Superliner Passenger Train Accommodations, including photographs and detailed descriptions of seats, rooms, train cars and services.
The first trip I ever took in an Amtrak train was in the Family Room with my two daughters. If traveling with children, this is the room to get! It is usually priced at only 50% more than the Economy Bedroom. That is quite a bargain when you consider that it is priced less than the Deluxe Bedroom and includes full meals for 4 people!
In the left photo above is my wife, Barbara, stretched out over just part of that long couch talking on a cell phone. In the right photo above are my kids, Jodina and Sherica, sitting across from each other by the window on the other side of the train playing Chinese checkers. Even with my wife stretched out on one side of the room and my kids sitting on the other side of the room, there is still plenty of room for me in the middle of that long couch in the Family Room!
Above you can see the beds folded up against the wall and ceiling of the Family Room. The lower couch opens into a double bed while two more beds fold down from above. The long bed is a single bed and the one to the right in the photo is a childs bed.
One of the great things about this accomodation is that it stretches the entire width of the train and gives you windows on BOTH sides of the train. Thus, you will never miss a view regardless of which side of the train it is on!
The sofa stretches the entire width of the room, which you can imagine is pretty long considering that this room is the entire width of the car! The sofa is about 9 feet long! In addition to that, there is another seat that faces the sofa under one of the windows. There is also a small closet located in the room and there are pull out tables under each window on each side of the room.
There is a door to the room that closes for complete privacy. You might be wondering how people can get through the train if this room stretches the entire width of the train car. That is a very common question. The train cars have 2 levels to them. People can only walk the full length of the car and even move from car to car on the upper level of the train. This cannot be done on the bottom level of the train. The reason for this is that the wheels of the train are at about the same level as the rooms on the bottom level of the train and it would not be possible for people to walk through the wheels of the train!
Thus, the bottom level of the train interior is shorter than the top level and there is no passage through to other cars on the bottom level of the train. This leaves room to place one room at each end of the bottom level of every car that stretches the total width of the car. One of those rooms is the "Family Room", the other is the "Special Bedroom" designed for passengers with special mobility requirements.
There is only one Family Bedroom per Sleeping Car and there are usually only 2 or 3 Sleeping Cars per train. Book this room well in advance as they usually fill up pretty quickly, especially for the popular school vacation weeks!
Here is Amtrak's own descrition of the Family Bedroom: "The Family Bedroom occuipies the entire width of the car on the lower level, with private windows on both sides of the room! It's furnished with a long sofa and two child seats during the day, converting to an upper and lower berth for adults and two short child-size berths. Restrooms are located just a few steps away.
DIMENSIONS: 5'2" X 9'5" (1.5M X 2.9M)
2 ADULT BERTHS: 6'2" X 2' (1.9M X 61CM)
2 CHILD BERTHS: 4'9" X 2' (1.5M X 61CM)
Capacity for 2 to 3 suitcases."
