Shrinking Seats On Amtrak Trains A One Way Ticket To Discomfort, Schumer Says
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer isn't sitting still for a plan being tossed around by Amtrak to shrink the size of some of their seats.
Outgoing Amtrak co-chief executive Wick Moorman said last week that the company was looking at creating the "economy" seating that would add more rows of seats in an effort to make more money.
"Amtrak is taking an idea right out of the airlines' playbook," New York's senior senator said during a Sunday press conference.
Schumer thinks the nation's rail service is going down the wrong track by talking about making seats smaller to boost capacity.
"That is a literal pain in the neck for travellers," he said.
As WCBS 880's Mike Sugerman reports, it's not actually the neck that would be pained. The proposed economy seating would shrink the current 39 inch seats by an inch or two.
Of course, it's been done before.
"Beginning to shrink seat sizes is a slippery slope to making Amtrak travel as uncomfortable as airline travel," Schumer said.
Amtrak says it is just a study, but shrinking seats could help shrink its $200 million deficit.
Schumer said the government should invest in Amtrak every year so the company doesn't have to consider proposals that hurt the consumer.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
