Submitted by SFBXB, Aug 28, 2008 19:16

Indeed, this is also a problem here in California. Those of us commuters who ride Amtrak's Capital Corridor trains from Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area were just informed the "quiet cars" were no longer part of the morning trains. Our trains are each 4 to 5 cars in length. The first three trains, leaving approx. 60 min apart starting at 4:30 am, had a sole car deemed the "quiet car." Apparently, with increased ridership and fewer seats throughout the trains, the chatty folks had to keep their mouths shut if they couldn't find a seat elsewhere and ended up in the quiet car. I never realized it was so difficult for an adult to sit quietly. The single quiet car only has 90 seats. That leaves approx. 350-400 seats in the other three or four cars. Those of us who use the quiet to catch up on sleep are now left to our own devices to use any lawful tactic to silence the loudmouths. We have been instructed to police it ourselves. Ha. Trust me, our conductor was never burdened with the quiet car service. He made only one announcement prior to leaving the originating station and said nothing further unless a passenger was violating the airwaves on the quiet car. And that was so seldom because other passengers would beat him to it and politely inform the violator of the situation before he was aware of it. Only if it the situation escalated was the conductor called in. So the burden of responsibility excuse doesn't apply here. No one understands the rationale behind the rescinded policy. Quiet cars in the afternoon would be impractical. For obvious reasons, morning trains, at least until 8 am should have a quiet car. They've increased fares and taken away a service. I have started a letter writing campaign to reverse this decision. Is quiet that difficult to deal with? Is my comfort any less important than theirs? This article is quite timely. The incessant chatter and noise in our day-to-day existence is too much to handle.

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