posted
Before starting, I'll just toss out an observation calculated while sitting aboard an airplane on the tarmac for 90 minutes in Atlanta last night: This summer I have been on eight Delta Airlines flights (considering each leg of a connection as an individual flight) and eight Amtrak trains.....again considering connections as separate segments.
My 'average' lateness aboard the Amtrak trains has been 2 hours and 9 minutes at destination. The average lateness aboard Delta has been 1 hour and 36 minutes.
However, when you give each carrier a little 'benefit of the doubt' and remove the single worst performer from consideration, a 7 hour 45 minute late Coast Starlight the end of June and a 3 hour late Delta flight to Asheville, NC last night, Delta's average lateness remains at 1 hour and 13 minutes while Amtrak's average lateness drops to a mere 55 minutes. I've been on several Amtrak trains this summer that arrived right on time or early (Southwest Chief, Cascades Talgo, Texas Eagle), I have not yet been on-time flying with Delta in 2005.
Now the trip report: I boarded Amtrak's eastbound Sunset Limited July 25 in El Paso, TX. The train arrived about 35 minutes late but, thanks to new padding and longer station dwell times, left El Paso on-time 10 minutes later. A healthy number of about 50 other passengers boarded with me.
I was in Roomette 8 of the 2230 sleeper.....the one that would continue to Chicago from San Antonio with the Texas Eagle. A word about that...I enjoyed this sleeper's position at the rear of the train (I believe that the 'Cardinal' and Spokane section of the 'Empire Builder' are the only other Amtrak trains which carry a sleeper on the rear?) as there was virtually NO traffic in the corridor outside my room.....just the infrequent railfan wanting to have a look out the rear door. I'm in my 40's and being three coaches plus the lounge from the diner was not an issue for me.....however, it is something that is a problem for some.....such as the elderly man in the room ahead of me returning to Missouri following hip-replacement surgery in Arizona.
I was using Guest Reward points for this trip and booked it only about 6 weeks (rather than my normal 2-3 months) in advance and realized SOON after departing how long it had been since I had been in any roomette numbered higher than 5. First turnout at track speed and ker-whang-bang. Yep, room 8 is directly above the rear wheel truck and I became intimately acquainted with quite a few rough turnouts during my 46 hour trip. I'd like to blame it on Union Pacific but it's probably my own conditioning from several years of smoother riding center rooms.
The train was remarkably full. The sleeper may have had a couple of vacant roomettes (#10 was not occupied until Texarkana BUT by trip's end it was occupied) but no more. The one Chicago coach was packed full and no one began getting off of it until the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Yes. Lot's of people will for whatever reason.....probably affordability.....spend the night in a coach parked outside the alamodome if they need to get from California or Arizona to Texas or Arkansas.
The 2 coaches which would continue with the Sunset (and why only 2 I cannot fathom) were likewise fairly full......90% or so).
The scenery was pretty darn remote. Desert. Sagebrush. Union Pacific Twin-Stack freights in bunches. Four or five times during the day we would enter a double-track segment where an opposing freight sat waiting for us. We would move to the east end of the double track and stop. The freight would move out and another westbound freight would arrive within five or ten minutes to take it's place. At no time did we pause more than 20 minutes to wait for a freight.....but we did pause frequently. By San Antonio we had managed to lose 2 hours BUT with the padded dwell times number 2 did depart eastward (without our sleeper and a coach) on-time at 1:00am. This part of the trip scratched an itch for me though as it was the longest remaining Amtrak operated segment I had never ridden. The Pecos high bridge and the parallel original railroad grade (with water tower still standing) on the east bank was worth the trip. I'd also like to explore Alpine, TX a little BUT not during July or August.
The next morning I woke to the sound of the new conductors' radio. He was in the hall outside my room and receiving word that #1 would arrive in San Antonio in 10 minutes. It was 7:40am (making #1 just shy of 5 hours late) and the conductor replied that he'd like to go ahead and board the Texas Eagle (which was on track 2) BEFORE the Sunset pulled in on track 1 thus cutting our new passengers off from the train.
All boarded now we watched #1 pull in at 7:55am and we chortled off nearly on-time at about 8:05am. We remained within 20 minutes of the advertised for the entire trip.....including an OT arrival in St. Louis where an additional superliner coach was added to the rear to accomodate a sellout crowd boarding in St. Louis. The attendant brought our tray breakfasts consisting of dry cereal (but with milk), a muffin, a fruit cup, and yogurt. More than enough to satisfy but I would have rather had the hot French Toast. Regular readers will recall that the Texas Eagle dining car crews turn at Austin rather than making the last leg all the way to San Antonio. Saves money. Saves their energy. More importantly, it makes all other meal service better....particularly northbound where the dining car crew has presumably had a full night's sleep rather than just a harried few hours before starting breakfast in San Antonio.......assuming that #21 arrives on-time at 11:45pm.
Our northbound Eagle this day had a single locomotive, a heritage fleet baggage car, the transition superliner sleeper, diner, lounge, 2 coaches originiating in San Antonio, plus a coach and our sleeper through from Los Angeles. I had expected an additional superliner sleeper behind the transitional sleeper but, for whatever reason, it did not run this day. Again, our sleeper was nearly full. Room 7 lost it's occupant at Austin only to be reoccupied by a new passenger boarding minutes later in Taylor. The through coach was still a sardine can. The two San Antonio originating coaches were perhaps 65% full but continued to add passengers throughout the day and were about 90% full when I went to supper north of Dallas. I remembered thinking that Norm Mineta would be amazed at how many Americans were using this 'empty' long-distance train to meet their basic transportation needs and that Norm ought to be aboard. But then, I doubt I would have the stomach to travel with Norm because I believe that deep down he realizes that these trains are packed and that they are essential. However, the facts contradict the official administration policy vis-a-vis Amtrak and Norm must distort (well.......lie outright) in pursuit of the administration's agenda. In short, Norm's got his marching orders.
The meal service was consistently decent. In fact, I have not encountered a single surly dining car steward, waiter, or waitress all summer. The crew aboard the Texas Eagle (including 'Hey, don't forget about me' Tony downstairs in the cafe) was particularly attentive. I feel that David Gunn has had something to do with this in his appeal to his employees to provide good service while the battle over their company's future is waged. On this trip I sampled the pot pie and hamburger for lunches, country-fried steak special and regular steak for dinners, and did have french toast (because that's what I have for breakfast when I'm in the dining car......no other reason besides that!) during our ON-TIME approach to St. Louis. My strongest remembrance is that the vegetables aboard the 'Sunset' were significantly better than those I had earlier in the summer aboard the 'Southwest Chief' and double significantly better than those I had on the 'Coast Starlight'. The 'Eagle' vegtables were better as well but then it's hard to ruin sliced carrots which come out of the can and are heated.....probably in the microwave.
So.........I would give this trip a thumbs up. Actually, I've had pretty succesful trips this summer and believe that Amtrak, while having much room for improvement (I'm currently avoiding Amtrak trains which operate via CSX for instance), is actually a bit stronger than I had believed three months ago. Employee morale is much better than I expected, the equipment is showing some signs of getting the attention it needs (still needs more though!), and the folks making it go seem to welcome the opportunity to try to make it go a little better. It's a start and it certainly beats liquidation.
Couple of personal notes: DWNC1959, I hope you're still on the forum. Let me know if you see this post. I'll go on record as saying after years of doing the coach thing, I much prefer sleeper now.....particularly for travel in the summer. However, I am tight with my Guest Reward points (I use the MBNA card for all of my gasoline purchases and those points are just zooming in this days!) and will usually do a trip such as the one I reported here each time I bank 15,000 points......about twice a year.
FRANK IN SBA - Did you receive your copy of 'Booked on the Morning Train'? If so, whaddaya think?
Respectfully Submitted....
David Pressley
Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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It sounded like a pretty good trip! I'm looking forward to my eastbound trip on the Lakeshore in September. First time I will have gone east in about 10 years.
One note, I believe that Amtrak uses convection ovens in the diner not microwaves. I wonder if the vegetables might have been a different brand than your first trip?
P.S. I too loved "Booked on the Morning Train!"
Posts: 171 | From: Aurora, Illinois | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by jgart56: Thanks for the report David,
One note, I believe that Amtrak uses convection ovens in the diner not microwaves. I wonder if the vegetables might have been a different brand than your first trip?
P.S. I too loved "Booked on the Morning Train!"
Very possible. Earlier trip we were getting a corn/carrot mix where the corn was a little brown...well....on the Starlight the corn was more than a little brown....and on the Sunset and Eagle we were just getting the carrots. I'm not normally a fan of cooked carrots BUT they were much better than the corn had been.
David Pressley
Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
David--- thanks for the trip report. I too noticed the overall good staff this Summer on our long trip ABQ-CHI-SEA-LAX-ELP. In the past 20 years, I travelled Amtrak intermittently, but more often in the past couple of years, and I'd say the service and personnel has improved a great deal. If this is due to Mr. Gunn, then good work. We were in coach from LAX to ELP last month and I only peeked in the sleepers. Had they been restored to any extent? My peek looked like it might have been possible. Like you, we noticed pretty full trains throughout, with only the Coast Starlight having vacancies in sleepers sometimes. I think you had recommended "Booked on the Morning Train". Thanks for that; I'm partway into it and it's a good read.
Oh--- the vegetation out of El Paso would most likely have been mesquite and creosote bush rather than sagebrush, which grows in the high desert of Idaho, Montana, Colorado, E.Oregon... (Ag graduate here) Just don't ask me about botany in NC though....
Posts: 72 | From: USA | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote:Originally posted by chile2: . We were in coach from LAX to ELP last month and I only peeked in the sleepers. Had they been restored to any extent?
OK........I stand corrected on the vegetation in West Texas and appreciate that. We southerners tend to lump everything out west together!
I was in the superliner sleeper 'New Hampshire' which was part of the superliner II order. The interior had not been renovated (I think they are focusing mostly on the superliner I cars for that) but was still in fairly decent condition....although the car name had been removed from the outside.....something I'm not particular happy to see.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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I did, indeed, get my copy of "Booked on the Morning Train" but have not had time to read it yet. I just got back from a trip to Sarasota and Tallahassee. My flights, four in number, on Continental and Continental Express were all on time or early.
Frank in Sunny SBA where Old Spanish Days Fiesta begins tonight.
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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