On Sunday, 18 September 2016 17:43:15 UTC+2, houn...@yahoo.co.uk  wrote:
> On 17.09.16 22:21, John Levine wrote:
> > In article <7bdc1b3b-2a38-46fe-b8cb-ba92c86166ba@googlegroups.com>,
> >   wrote:
> >> Around 1940, Pullman advertised berths for as slow as $2.65.
> >> However, that didn't include the higher first class rail fare,
> >> which was about $2.60 more.  There was also 10% Federal Tax.
> >> So, a Pullman berth cost about $6 back then.  With a rough
> >> inflation factor of 15, that comes to $90 in today's dollars,
> >> not something that cheap.
> >
> > From where to where?  If it's New York to Chicago, that's a steal.
> >
> >> In the 1940s, the section sleeper, though extremely common,
> >> was falling out of favor; if a roomette was available, single
> >> travelers preferred that.  Upper berths were very unpopular.
> >> Pullman began to push the "single occupancy section" which
> >> was a lower berth with no one in the upper.
> >
> > Upper and lower berths are gone in the US, but they still exist on the
> > Canadian between Toronto and Vancouver.  They are somewhat cheaper
> > than the private cabins.
>
> They still have them all over continental Europe as well as in the 
> former Soviet Union, Mongolia and China.

The "section" has never been a feature of sleeper travel in Europe.  The
normal options are seats, couchette or sleeper berth in a compartment (which
come in 1, 2 and 3 person varieties).  While the couchette fills the gap
between full sleeper and seats 
in the way a "section" does, the actual accommodation is quite different.  Mr
Seat61 has a pretty good description of the options at [1], though the night
train is increasingly rare in western Europe.

[1] http://www.seat61.com/sleepers.htm

Robin

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