Pager and cell phone free

Amtrak offers a ride on the peace train

Passengers riding in Amtrak's quiet cars can read the paper without the distraction of cell phones, pagers and noisy laptop computer programs

In this story: More quiet cars en route RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Skip Loescher
CNN Newsource

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The intrusive beep-beep-beep of a pager. The wearying insistence of a ringing cell phone.

They're commonplace sounds these days, and especially in a confined space, they can be pretty irksome.

"I've been on trains before where half a dozen people have cell phones," one traveler says, "and it can get very annoying after a while."

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Would you prefer to ride in a quiet car? Yes -- It would be nice to travel in peace! No -- The usual noise on trains doesn't bother me View Results

Amtrak has heard their complaints, and is offering some auditory relief by designating quiet cars -- one per train -- on some of its morning and afternoon runs. On these trains, pager, cell phones and loud computer programs are strictly forbidden in a select car.

More quiet cars en route

Even those who can't give up using their pagers or cell phones for a few hours don't seem to mind having a space for people who can, conductor Robert Lane said.

"When you ask them, 'Would you please turn your cell phone off?' there's no problem. That's the answer you get," he said.

Quiet cars are limited primarily to the Northeast corridor, but that may change soon.

"If enough people in Chicago, Albuquerque, wherever we run trains, say, 'This cell phone stuff is getting too much, can we have a quiet car?', we'll look at giving that to them," Amtrak spokeswoman Karen Dunn said.

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Amtrak

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