UMD Amtrak Customers,
Please note that effective March 2, 2024, all Northeast Corridor (NEC) trains are transitioning to fixed forward and backward seating – including all Northeast Regional service and select routes on the East Coast including the Carolinian, Empire Services, Vermonter and Virginia Services.
These routes will now feature fixed seating in business and coach with approximately half of the seats facing forward in the direction of travel and the other seats facing backward.
There will be no impact to the current booking process for Amtrak tickets and no difference in the way Amtrak seat assignments are handled.
This new seating arrangement provides customers with more daily departures by reducing maintenance time required between trips. Fixed seating already exists on several routes throughout Amtrak’s National Network.
Customers traveling in Business Class will be able to see the direction in which their seat faces when viewing or changing their seat on Amtrak.com or the Amtrak app. Choosing forward facing seats is subject to availability.
By doing this Amtrak will be able to add four additional Northeast Regional weekday round trips and two additional Northeast Regional weekend round trips between Washington, D.C., and New York City. This is a 16% increase in the number of frequencies/departures. The seating arrangement will also benefit customers traveling north between Boston and New York City due to a faster train turnaround time. Amtrak estimates approximately that 25,000-30,000 additional monthly Amtrak riders in the Northeast Corridor will be served with these new frequencies.
Related information: