As a child and teenager, I frequently traveled with my mother between our home in San Jose, and San Francisco (aka “The City”). So I became quite familiar with (& came to love) the SP Commute service.

Once we were about to board the northbound (commute portion) Del Monte at San Jose. Seeing the fancy chair car, we asked if we might ride it. Apparently we looked like we would not disturb the Monterey passengers too much, and the Conductor said we could! That short trip turned out to be my only experience of pre-Amtrak long-distance service, at least in the US. (Had quite a bit of experience in Europe, but that is another story or two!)