When Andy Hartwig boarded an Amtrak train for a seven-hour ride with his wife and infant son last February, he was expecting a smooth trip — or as smooth as a trip can be with a 1-year-old.
But soon after getting on the train, he noticed a problem: There was nowhere to change his baby’s diaper. All he found in the bathroom was a small shelf intended for a purse or backpack.
“It was a surprise,” Hartwig said. “It’s either change them in your seat, where nobody wants to be smelling that and dealing with that, or try to cram a little person on this tiny little shelf that really isn’t made for somebody to be laying down on.”
Dan Goodspeed and Alexandra Tarasova, who travel on Amtrak often with their 17-month-old daughter, have resorted to using the bathroom floor. On one trip, Goodspeed didn’t realize there was a puddle on the floor until after he knelt down.
“We regularly had to change her on the floor of the cramped bathrooms, which besides being unsanitary, was often logistically difficult because of the space,” he wrote in an email.
Amtrak does not have an official policy surrounding diaper changes, though many of its trains are equipped with changing areas. Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams said in an email that the company’s fleet of more than 1,100 passenger cars includes 1,200 restrooms in total.
But access is uneven. Changing tables are available on the Northeast Regional and Acela trains running between Boston and New York, for example, but not on the Downeaster train, which connects Boston and Maine.
All new train cars entering service, including on the Downeaster, will be equipped with changing tables in accessible bathrooms, Abrams said.
The MBTA’s Commuter Rail, which has several lines where trips can take well over an hour, does not have designated areas for diaper changes on any of its trains, according to Commuter Rail operator Keolis.
“I was on the Commuter Rail with a 3-year-old and a not yet 2-year-old trying to figure out how to deal with diapers,” said Massachusetts state Sen. Becca Rausch, a longtime advocate for increased access to changing tables in the commonwealth. “Any parent or caregiver can certainly tell you how difficult it is to make those things happen in a moving vehicle.”
Rausch introduced a bill in 2019 requiring public buildings and spaces of public accommodation in Massachusetts to have changing tables. She has continued to refile the bill in subsequent years, and is hopeful it will pass this term.
She is unsure of whether the legislation’s language would apply to public transportation. Rausch said clarity on the issue would require further legal analysis.
At the federal level, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch introduced the Babv Changing on Board Act last year, which would “require every Amtrak train to be outfitted with baby changing stations in all accessible restrooms and to post adequate signage indicating their availability.” The measure has bipartisan backing in both chambers but hasn’t been put up for a vote.
