(The following story by Michael M. Grynbaum appeared on the New York Times website on January 13, 2010.)
NEW YORK — The popularity of Amtrak’s Acela Express with the business elite of the Northeast Corridor might as well have earned the train a nickname: Boardroom on Rails.
Now the trains are getting another amenity straight from the corporate suite: leather seats.
Plush, blue, shiny leather seating — “Avatar,” anyone? — will begin appearing in business-class cabins of all Acela Express trains between Boston and Washington by the end of the year, Amtrak announced this week. The chairs resemble those found in the first-class section of airplanes and are expected to have “longer seat life” and cheaper maintenance costs, according to the railroad.
The seats have a cushy appearance, with sturdier headrests and white detailing — a more enticing look, perhaps, than the stiffer gray fabric chairs currently found on the trains. Carpeting and curtains in the rail cars will also be updated to complement the new leather design, which has already appeared in some first-class Acela cabins.
This will be a year of upgrades for the Acela, which started operating between Boston and Washington in 2000. The service has been a boon for Amtrak, carrying about 50 percent of travelers flying or taking the train between Boston and New York, up from 20 percent before its introduction. (A similar jump occurred for the New York-to-Washington corridor.)
As part of a broader refurbishment, Amtrak will add sturdier tray tables to the backs of the new seats, after receiving complaints from customers about noisy and loose trays.
“When the tray would slide forward quickly, it could make a loud noise,” said Clifford Cole, a spokesman for the railroad. “The trays will be enhanced so that once they are in place, they won’t slide forward, which tended to happen on some of the trains and the older models.”
Free wireless Internet service will also make its debut on the Acela in March, with an expansion to Northeast regional trains later in the year. Restrooms and floors will also be renovated, and the cars’ exteriors will get a new coat of paint. The quiet car will get new decals that, the railroad says, will “improve the professionalism of signage and increase awareness of the car’s noise restrictions.”
Customers bought $468 million in Acela tickets in Amtrak’s 2008 fiscal year, 27 percent of the railroad’s revenues, despite a dip in demand from the recession.